Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs No. XXIII

Santa has already done most of the world, saving California the best for last, but I still have two more chocolates left in my Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs. Since John Lennon died 30 years ago this December. & 39 christmases (christmi?) ago he & Yoko put a billboard in Times Square in the middle of a violent war declaring "War is over! if you want it" advertising this Christmas single from the Plastic Ono Band. This may be a slightly sentimental point, but we ended a war this year (mostly), & that was because we wanted to end it bad enough to elect a president who is against stupid wars. So, Happy Christmas (if you want it).

Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs No. XI

We've already had Sir Paul's evil but catchy Christmas song in our advent calendar, here's Ringo Starr's wholesome attempt to make a few copyrights over the holidays. Well, "attempt" is a strong word, as he barely bothered fully writing a song. But's it's still endearingly Ringo:

Dear Yoko, John will never ever ever ever let you go

Or so he said in this beautiful late song of his. Mr Lennon was shot thirty years ago today. Here's a neat video of him practicing "Dear Yoko" in 1980.

Yoko's short and simple piece in the New York Times today ended:

They say teenagers laugh at the drop of a hat. Nowadays I see many teenagers sad and angry with each other. John and I were hardly teenagers. But my memory of us is that we were a couple who laughed.

Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs No. II

Second installment of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs. Three of the four Beatles managed to use their talents for good throughout the 70's, be it caveman movies or songs with the lyrics "I was the Walrus but now I'm John." Sir Paul however used his talents to combine synthesizers with obnoxious catchy melodies in a transparent attempt to get a cashcow Christmas hit.

10th & 18th Best Selling Singles Worldwide of All Time: Baccara & Goombay Dance Band

Mr Mary, Miss Wernicky & I were going thru listening to the songs listed as best-selling singles worldwide of all time. It is a surprising list filled with gems & startling bizarre forgotten sensations. The first is Elton John's Princess Diana song, the second is Bing Crosby's White Christmas, but could you possibly have predicted this song as the 10th best selling song ever, above any Beatles or Michael Jackson song:

It seemed Baccara rode a short-lived wave of trendiness until, as the Wikipedia puts it, "by 1981 the duo's distinctive blend of disco, pop and Spanish folk music was no longer fashionable". How soon the pedals fall from the flower! Here's another gem from the list, Goombay Dance Band coming in at 18, still five above 'Billy Jean:

Movie Review: Star Trek

I feel like I don't have the clearance to write about Star Trek, like you have to actually know something or everything about the history of the franchise to evaluate the new version. But as an uninitiated, I have a few complaints. I should start by saying that this movie seemed to have real soul, a soul of its own, which is rare for the re-hashing of an old brand. But what was with turning James Kirk into James Dean? All of his recklessness always being rewarded & vindicated was irritating. But also an out-of-date dumb American trope which didn't work in this context. Is that what we want the morals of our movies to be, that if you're destined to be the captain of the Enterprise, you can swagger, cheat, & punch your way to the top deck, then absolve yourself by saving the day? Won't somebody think of the children!

So if Kirk seemed like a Bush-ian frat boy, it was unfair to put the whiny young Spok next to old Leonard Nimoy's gravitas. Nimoy, these days, is also a photographer specializing in large women (pictured to the left.) And my third & final complaint is that I wish, even when action sequences are completely artificial, that they could at least hold the camera still for a few seconds to get some grounding. Like when Kirk & Sulu are fighting off those goons &
Sulu is doing some nifty sword-play, the camera was shaking all over & the editor chopped it up into a complete mess. Even in the new Star Wars they let us see some light saber duels with some actual correography. Here ends my rant. It's a pretty good movie & the visuals are often beautiful. I even got the feeling they could make some pretty good sequels.

Here's the classic William Shatner recording of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds":

	William Shatner - Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds

And "Star Trekkin'" by The Firm:

	Firm - Star Trekkin

Special Report: My Sweet Lord He's So Fine

In 1970, before the Beatles broke up, George Harrison wrote the song "My Sweet Lord" for Billy Preston, the keyboardist who played on "Get Back" & organ on Let It Be. Could this be the first time in your sad life you have heard the name Billy Preston? He's one of those beautiful figures who pops up all thru-out the history of music. I heard he smoked nargileh with C.P.E. Bach & played harmonium in the original production of The Threepenny Opera. The amazing video of him performing the song "My Sweet Lord" at the Concert for George Harrison (his memorial service) in 2002 has been taken off of the youtubes, but here is an older video:

If you don't know this story, it's quite interesting. Harrison released his version as a single in November 1970 & then on his first solo album. In March 1971, royalty payments to Harrison were frozen after the girly rock-pop group the Chiffon's sued him for copyright infringement - the song is very similar to a song they released in 1963 called "He's so fine."

	The Chiffons - He';s So Fine
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

I recommend the live version, which has a lot more energy, available at iTunes here.

In the court case Bright Tunes Music v. Harrisongs Music, it was decided that George "unintentionally copied" the earlier song, & relinquished the royalties. This story raises the specter of the greatest fear to any songwriter, accidentally plagiarizing. One of my first music composition teachers told me how he had once written a saxophone quartet, & a friend pointed out after the premier that it had the same melody as a popular television theme song. What a nightmare! Because when a good tune comes to you, sometimes it feels like it sort of came from everywhere & nowhere. Paul McCartney described hearing the song "Yesterday" in a dream, & thinking it was a song he must have heard somewhere. I've also been told the story of a high school musical with music written by a student, how the catchy song at the finale was an unintentional rip-off of John Denver's "Country Roads"; & when that was realized, there was quite a fallout. The story is also a lesson about the artificiality of copyrights. "My Sweet Lord" is not the same song as "He's So Fine". The bridge is quite different, & the tone & subject matter couldn't be more different.

There are several nice twists in the My Sweet Lord / He's So Fine saga. First, is that George Harrison eventually bought the rights to "He's So Fine". The second is that the Chiffons recorded a version of "My Sweet Lord", which is better than their recording of their original:

	The Chiffons - My Sweet Lord
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Since this little essay is about how different a song can be, & really come from different places, I want you to hear several other fabulous versions of  "My Sweet Lord". First is a sparse reggae version by The Rudies:

	The Rudies - My Sweet Lord
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Jim Nabors, an actor from the Andy Griffith show, sang this inspirational version from his album "Songs of Inspiration":

	Jim Nabors - My Sweet Lord
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

He definitely gets to the soul of that song - altho perhaps he's missing the point by leaving out the 'hare krishna's. To each his own my sweet lords. I saw on wikipedia that Jim Nabors is from Sylacauga, Alabama, a small town I've traveled to to sing Sacred Harp!

Leave Greta Garbo ALONE! & be a movie star on your own!

You may wonder what I'm listening to on this cool evening. I can't get enough of the Anne Murray album "Together" (1975). Luckily for the blogosphere, she performed the song "Everything Old is New Again" on the muppet show, so you can watch it right now:

I also stumbled upon a few tracks from this Peter Frampton & the Bee Gees - Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band album. Fixing a hole? Getting better? Yes.

	Bee Gees & Peter Frampton - Fixing A Hole
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

	Bee Gees & Peter Frampton - Getting Better
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Oh! I know why I've heard "Everything Old is New Again". It's in my favorite creepy Bob Fosse movie, All that Jazz:

Mix Tape was lost! Vol. 10: The Beatles

Ukuleles All Across This Series of Tubes

Naturally, I'm not the only one to have covered Beatles Songs on the Ukulele on YouTube, & some of these people are spectacularly more virtuosic musicians than I could want never to aspire to be.

This man (Jake Shimabukuro), for instance, a wet-dream for sixteen-year-old ukulele groupies, I've been told, can fill stadiums with his ukulelism:



There are countless others to include here - searching for "beatles ukulele" gets 610 hits - my post not even making the first tier. I was impressed by my 25-hundred views until I saw Shimabukuro's 1.9 Million.
I like this man's "Dear Prudence", very deadpan & soulful, altho I doubt I would come out & play with him:



Note the mispelling [sic] of "ukelele".
And getting a motherloving load of these wankers!

On this island, as you will have begun to notice, no one ever speaks plainly. Whether it's Cockney rhyming codes or the crosswords in the newspapers--all English, spoken or written, is looked down on as no more than a string of text cleverly encrypted. Nothing beyond.

-Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day (2006), pg. 224

What else are American Artists up to? Spencer Tunick has been getting hundreds of people to stand naked in precise formation. This was at the opera house in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne:

Television Music Videos: Three for May 24th.

Before we start the show, here in the middle of this clip from the scattered biopic, I'm Not There, is my favorite part - Cate Blanchett & David Cross (i.e. Dr Tobias Füenke) as Bob Dylan & Allen Ginsberg, dancing around a crucifix. Today is Mr Dylan's 67th birthday.



Here are three examples of ways to present a song on television, from three different eras. The first is France's entry in this year's Eurovision Competition, Sébastien Tellier's "Divine". It surely evokes Wes Anderson's influence on the continent.



The second is Leonard Cohen singing the original version of "Hallelujah" on what appears to be live European television. I love this style of standing on a set with leaves blowing on the flower & a young-people-of-the-world chorus on the aqueduct.
(While I'm here, I'd like to register my displeasure that in Rufus Wainwright's famous version, he pronounces the line-endings "do you" & "knew you", as opposed to "do ya", which was written to rhyme with "hallelujah". What was he thinking? I also post Cohen's version partially because I don't think much of the Shrek-watching world - a large demographic of my blog readers - are aware of how strange the original was.)



The third is the Beatles' "All You Need is Love", which was the first-ever international satellite hook-up, & altho I couldn't find the exact numbers, I believe is still one of the largest television audiences. What gets my goat is their chewing of bubble gum, which somewhat undermines the gravity of their message. Discuss.

Song of Dung & Defenestration - Soul Ballad Version #2

No use to beat on the dull-drums
Let's be imagina-tive,
Each day is numbered
No good when slumbered
With only one life to live

-Ira Gershwin, lyrics to the Kurt Weill song "One Life to Live", from Lady in the Dark (1941)


Leighbor is a neighbor who does your labor.

-Pele, from a gmail chat, 3 April 2008.

Madam, I may be President of the United States, but my private life is nobody's damn business.

-21st President Chester A. Arthur

Attention to those of you with infinite patience for my increasingly surreal poetry readings, & home-computer recordings, oozing towards fulfilling a life goal of being included in the next Songs in the Key of Z. This may be the crown-jewel low point - my classic nonsense poem, Song of Dung & Defenestration, has been raped & mutilated, to the tune of my dying Yamaha PSR-500 Synthesizer. Mr Olaf Mary & Mr Epcar-Singer-Songwriter were kind enough to discover the accompaniment style "Soul Ballad #2", which is used to here to great effect. To read the original poem & hear an earlier recording of me chanting it, please visit this page: http://www.itwaslost.org/2007/10/song-of-dung-defenestration.html.
To hear the Soul Ballad #2 Version, listen right here right now!
It is also downloadable at this MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/ssandrigon. Or you can download it here.




And, as a weekend reading suggestion, Justin Davidson of New York Magazine discusses the oeuvre of the New York contemporary ensemble Alarm Will Sound, which includes several of my high-school friends. I can't wait to hear their nit-picky live version of Revolution #9, & the rest of their new 1969 project, which I'm told will include Berio's weird Beatles arrangements.

Music Review: Covering Songs

While everyone else is drunkenly commenting on the new Radiohead album - (which, for anyone not paying attention, is being sold for "what you want to pay", which includes nothing, an economic principle called "tipping", & so far has made a ton of money, because people don't mind giving on average eight dollars to a filthy rich rock band for a mediocre later album) - I was thinking about covering John Denver songs & John Lennon songs.

Several thoughts: First, Julie Taymor gets a bad rap, & her Beatles movie is a lot of fun & looks beautiful. I think of her still as an opera director, & after she's gone mainstream, she's still doing what opera directors do: play us music we've heard ten thousand times, with new singers, & dazzle us with expensive set pieces. Stringing overplayed Beatles songs together into a plot, like she's done with a Disney movie, Kahlo's paintings, Shakespeare, & Stravinsky, allows us to enjoy as fresh, & relive some greatness in what we're otherwise sick of. I also think of her as like Terry Gilliam, managing to push thru the system huge imaginative bizarre projects with large puppets & dense colors, which the critics love to hate. So the movie has some cheezy singing, & is maybe best appreciated by stoned sixteen-year-olds, let's just enjoy what's good about it.

Another thought: I just bought Mary Alice Amidon's beautiful new solo album, Keys to the Kingdom. The title track, Keys to the Kingdom, is a song I have on a 1929 recording by Washington Phillips, the elusive zither-playing preacher. His flash-in-the-pan field-recording career is supposed to be the earliest example of gospel text set to blues chords & structure, then he disappeared entirely from recorded history. I was thrilled to hear Gillian Welch play an extremely powerful version of this song (it got humongous) at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in Golden Gate Park last weekend; then, we went home & listened to the old recording; then, two days later, Mary Alice sent me her new album in the mail - one of those coincidences where different versions of a song can suddenly appear on different fronts. Washington & Gillian both sing about Daniel & the lion, & "the devil can't do me no harm", but Mary Alice sings about John & Gabriel & "the world can't do me no harm." I guess maybe they don't believe in the devil in Vermont. She says she first heard the version by Lillie Knox from the Alan Lomax Collection. I don't have much of a point, except I'd like to know more about the history of this song, & that both Gillian & Mary Alice know how to sing it. This YouTube Video says it's from The Dame in Lexington:



Also, relatedly, here's David Rawlings singing "Girls just want to have fun", which I'm told he sung two years ago at the Hardly Strictly:

Editorial

Last night, as I was lying awake in my waterbed, I had an extensive series of mock conversations with Terry Gross, a recurring fantasy – I assume a recurring fantasy with much of liberal-artistic America, although I cannot prove it. Despite my attempts to keep this weblog “diary-free”, I have not posted in a while, & have not been inspired to write literary or cinematic reviews; or, as the painting instructor in The Muppets said, “Inspired! but by what?”

The first subject I was discussing with Terry was the wane of fine art. Is popular culture really art’s bane? An editorial in the New York Times was pointing out, that, of course, classical music, repeated heralded as deceased, has more houses & societies than ever, its popularity spans the globe, there are more composers, more money for orchestras & composers, & on & on. One could point out that Bach, an obvious example - who was a semi-obscure Kappelmeister, who wrote out-of-date music in his own style decades into the Rococo, & who was all-but-entirely forgotten for almost seventy-five years after his death – his audience now, including people who are only vaguely aware of his name & can perhaps hum a few of his most ubiquitous tunes, is probably larger than the amount of people alive on Earth in the early eighteenth century.

As for over-saturation of crappy music or overplayed music overwhelming new developments in the Contemporary Classical idiom, I am not so sure this phenomenon is new today. One can blame it on the amount of very dissonant or inaccessible music written in the twentieth century, but those artists loved what they were doing, so can hardly be blamed, & there was enough beautifully tonal & accessible stuff to give balance & attract an audience. True, the world has probably never seen an opera like Carmen so overdone as to exclude interest in the thousands of qualified recent American stage pieces. What bothers me more is the amount of college-educated intellectuals, fluent in literature & art, who have never heard of Copland or David Lang. It’s one thing to denounce John Cage or discuss him into the ground, but to never have let his name enter certain discussions shows a dangerous disregard for the growth of our culture. But obviously it’s not their fault if I was told about different things during my education than they were. The people I’ve been meeting in the mountains have at least a disconnected respect for Gehry, de Kooning, David Lynch; but music affects people differently. Difficult music is much more offensive, much more boring. Obviously, the population of young liberals who would be listening to Steve Reich are craving complicated music; & a lot of artists within “popular” idioms are writing music as deep in quality, & attracting these listeners, not necessarily away from so-called “fine art”, but blurring every boundary. This has all been said before, of course. Philip Glass (being interviewed by Peter Greenaway in the early ’80s) thanked the increased depth of recorded music’s sound for preparing a larger amount of listeners for complicated art music - he mentions the Beatles specifically - & therefore for widening his own marginal popularity. This was not new in the twentieth century, because the distinction between popular forms & classical forms was only as strict as it actually wasn’t in the twentieth century. But let’s face it, all manner of recorded popular musics have thick sounds. If Bob Dylan’s lyrics can serve as a “gateway drug” to appreciating dead white poets, then late Radiohead or Aphex Twin or Bjørk are serving the same purpose without accomplishing it – I mean, they are themselves satisfying the human need to listen to interesting things. Hip-hop, for instance, thru a swift two-decade evolution, quickly re-invented what poetry used to be, an oral manipulation & evolution of language. But it did not bring large inner-city populations (or their larger suburban audiences) to run & buy editions of Virgil. It created its own culture & itself satisfied mankind’s mystic desire to rhyme & think in metaphor; its DJs satisfying our desire to listen to layered music. Meanwhile, Steve Reich, an American hero in fine art, is not properly glorified, his face does not appear on any currency, yet his record sales indicate that he is being appreciated by more ears than he would have had he been a composer of light opera in the nineteenth century.