Archive for the ‘Music’ category

Couple of thoughts on music piracy

December 23rd, 2008

Was reading a couple of blog posts on music piracy recently, and the same tired old threads kept coming up. “Music tracks are just advertisements for the artist – they should make their money selling T-shirts and tickets to live shows.”

I’ve contributed this rebuttal, as have others – “what about music that can’t be performed live, or wasn’t intended to be? Beatles’ Sgt Pepper being a prime example, but even most of Revolver couldn’t have been done justice ‘live’”. Rebuttals to that rebuttal inevitably come back with “technology is so great now – anyone can do it. Phish redid the White Album live, etc”. Not trying to be Beatle-centric here, just some points of reference that make most sense to me. Substitute Zappa or Pink Floyd or whatever to suit your taste.

The “sell tshirts and tickets” has always bothered me, but not until today could I put my finger on why. There are two separate reasons, really.

Point one: I don’t need that many tshirts. Really – I like dozens of bands and hundreds of albums – I do NOT need more clothes or trinkets to memorialize them. This adds to clutter/waste, enriches the Chinese companies that manufacture this stuff, and is wasteful (did I mention it’s wasteful?)

Point two: You can *not* replicate the range of experiences people can have with music at a live concert. I don’t enjoy much live music because there’s so much *other* stuff going on around, and usually I can’t afford front row seats for larger shows (Stones, etc.) And for smaller shows, well – I’ve been to a few, and they were enjoyable, but were poor substitutes for the sonic brilliance and subtle textures I get listening to the artist’s CD. Live concerts are just *one* experience – a very short lived one for most people – that you can have with an artist’s music. There’ve been plenty of times I’ve cried at music tracks while riding in the car, or sitting at home being reflective of life, while listening to music from artists that were able to articulate my exact feelings for that moment. I find myself reconnecting with old music on long trips that bring a new perspective to how I used to see certain issues, or help me to reframe my thoughts on old friendships.

In short, the music on an artist’s album can often become the soundtrack for many chapters of your life, for years to come. Marginalizing that power by implying that artist’s music should be given away simply as a marketing tool to attract people to live shows (expecting them to buy shirts to ‘support’ the artist) is narrow-minded, short-sighted, and dare I say insulting to the many bands and artists that strive to achieve something more permanent.

Female Beatles characters

August 12th, 2008

I posted on twitter a bit ago asking for names/titles of female Beatles song characters.  I was driving home last night and started to put together this list and thought it would make a great quiz.  I’ve had a lot of excellent responses so far – too many to twitter about.  Here’s the list so far, with who replied what…

davidjhinson @mgkimsal lovely rita, meter maid

TheProkrammer @mgkimsal Lady Madonna, Elenor Rigby, Mother Mary… that’s off the top of my head.. not counting “The Bird” that’s flown

TheProkrammer @mgkimsal Oh Polyethene Pam

BrianR @mgkimsal rita the lovely meter maid, polythene pam, Martha, Sadie, Lucy, Prudence

bigfleet @mgkimsal Uhh, Michelle?

ramsey @mgkimsal Penny Lane, Dizzy Miss Lizzie, Maggie Mae, Rita

lanerebel Icon_red_lock @mgkimsal Does Martha count even though she was a dog? :)

ramsey @mgkimsal Polythene Pam, Her Majesty

tetriskeyring @mgkimsal Lady Madonna. Rita. Does Penny Lane count? My mom nearly named me Penny Lane. Wish she had. Long Tall Sally, Polythene Pam

_katertot Icon_red_lock @mgkimsal yoko of course

Feel free to add more here too.  Not sure about Yoko, but she did sing in Birthday.  I hadn’t considered “Sally”, and no one yet posted “Anna”.  I tweeted a few more but I won’t post them here yet.  There are a few yet that no one has gotten, but this is a great list so far!

New Ray Davies album – Working Man’s Cafe

March 3rd, 2008

Wow – can’t believe I missed this. Just heard a couple tracks and it’s classic Ray. Can’t speak to the whole album cause I haven’t heard the whole thing yet, but I’ll be picking it up shortly.  Working Man’s Cafe @ Amazon

If somehow you don’t know who Ray Davies is, please have a quick read and perhaps check out his semi-auto-biography (not sure what else to call it!) or have a listen to Ray the Storyteller or even his first solo album. Even faster, have a listen @ last.fm.

Beatles were ‘out of tune’? Say it ain’t so Cliff!

February 2nd, 2008

Cliff Richard has been quoted as saying the Beatles were “out of tune“.  Not sure what’s got up his nose these days or why it’s being reported now, but he particularly singles out the guitar work, and one can assume he’s talking mostly about George Harrison’s playing.  Hunter Davies comes to George’s defense, but it’s not really needed. 

It’s hard to know what Cliff is bitching about because he doesn’t name songs, but certainly some of the early work *was* out of tune.  Not, in my mind, horribly, but you can certainly hear issues when you listen closely, especially on the CDs.  Additionally, the American reissue box set of the early US album remixes are even worse.  Not necessarily out of tune much, but with lots of gratuitous reverb, any problems seem amplified to my ear. 

The only real ‘excuses’ one might have for things being out of tune now and then are 1) I’m not sure anyone back in 1963 or 1964 had any idea that 45 years later people still would be scrutinizing and analyzing their recordings and 2) they often would record early tracks with just a few takes, given their touring and movie schedules.   I’m sure some people will claim there is no out of tuneness, but George Martin himself was on record as having said he was appalled at how bad some of the early stuff was out of tune – singling out “I’ll Be Back” from the Hard Day’s Night CD as being one reason why he decided to keep that whole CD mono instead of stereo – the stereo mix made the tuning problems much more apparent.

But I also have to agree with Hunter Davies’ view that Cliff’s “nose was put out of joint when the Beatles came along”.  Hearing Cliff tout his own record – “sold more records than anyone else ever” and such almost as embarrassing as McCartney trying to defend his own solo career against the Beatles’.  McCartney shouldn’t have to, and neither should Sir Cliff, but I guess everyone living in the Beatles’ shadow – even the Beatles themselves – has to try to highlight their accomplishments.

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Somewhat new Beatles footage discovered …

November 21st, 2007

… at least new to me.  In 1964, when planning a spring/summer tour around the world, Ringo got tonsilitis.  Plans were already made, and surprisingly, their manager decided to go ahead without him.  A replacement drummer, Jimmy Nicol, was brought in and played in Ringo’s place for a handful of shows – I think it was 9.

There is some footage of the four of them playing in Holland in the Beatles Anthology video series, but they are miming, which sort of stinks (apparently miming was a fairly common practice back then). There was a brief snippet of them playing in Hong Kong, Jimmy’s last show before Ringo rejoined in Australia, but there was no sound.

Last night, on Youtube, I found an entire 2 minute video clip which purports to be Beatles + Jimmy playing at a concert in Holland.  It’s certainly him playing, and the sound of the song is different than I’ve ever heard before.  The audio doesn’t quite sync up with the video, though, which brings down the wow factor a bit.  Also, I can swear I’ve seen bits of this video footage of the crowd in other compilations, usually just when people are putting together Beatles crowd scenes.  Diehard fans will know what I’m talking about.

Even so, I do believe it’s a relatively obscure video find.  I know there’s much more to be unearthed in the coming years, and I look forward to seeing cleaned up versions as I grow older.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=dJulGC4eDwU