Dear Bob - Justin of the Moodies here.
My friend Chris sent me your piece below.
Thank you so much for your kind thoughts - they are clearly from the heart - as was the album in 1967/68 when we made it. (and thanks to Dave too!) It was a magic time for us all.
I'm forever grateful to the US FM Radio jocks who spread the word in the land of my heroes. Music set us free, and of course, life without it is unimaginable...
Love your writing - and I do wish you well.
Yours
Justin
P.s. Check out Bettye LaVette's version of 'Nights In White Satin'. I was 19 when I wrote it, but 64 when I heard it for the first time - through Bettye!
____________________________________
DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED
You must own this album.
So you know "Nights In White Satin" and "Tuesday Afternoon"... Imagine a whole suite built around them, imagine extended versions, imagine rock music with the dreamy, take you away and let your mind drift feeling of the best classical music.
Performed with the London Festival Orchestra, which didn't really exist, which was really a congregation of studio musicians, "Days Of Future Passed" is the children's concert you wish your parents took you to.
Did your 'rents do that? Take you to classical shows on Sunday afternoons? Dress you up in a jacket and tie so you could fidget away, yet find passages that entranced you?
Maybe that was a relic of the sixties.
But this is my classical music. Soaring, meaningful, touching my heart.
As for "Tuesday Afternoon," ironically it's got the same feel as that other Tuesday song, "Ruby Tuesday." Well, not exactly. But both are midweek... Not the relaxation of the weekend or the intensity of the school or work day, but an afternoon after your work is done when you're lying on your bed reading "Cat's Cradle" in your own private cocoon.
"Tuesday Afternoon" is better than all the material of half the acts in the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame. And it's not a one hit wonder. It's got movements, it's got feel, it's got beautiful vocals... Imagine if those "Idol" and "Voice" winners could actually write. Then again, the Moodies never oversang. They gave it just enough.
As for "Nights In White Satin"... It's majestic, it's heartfelt, it's like an afternoon in New England staring out the window at the cold grey winter.
Absolutely terrific.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/nSRrKK
____________________________________
ON THE THRESHOLD OF A DREAM
It had a gatefold cover. And a white lyric booklet. You weren't buying product, but art. More than a statement, Moody Blues albums were a religion, the latest edition of the Talmud delivered to your stereo.
"Lovely To See You" is one of those tracks you love to play first thing in the morning. Did you ever do that? Cue up an album on the stereo, crank it and jump in the shower? Let it continue to play as you dressed and ate breakfast? Yup, once upon a time, we didn't start our day with Starbucks, certainly not talk radio or "The Today Show," but music.
And what's great about "Lovely To See You," about this whole album, all of the Moodies' work, it saw no need to be HIP! That's the most important thing today. You don't want to appear normal, you need attitude, you need to stand out. And it's all external, as opposed to internal. Ergo the focus on fashion, ergo the stardom of Kim Kardashian. There were no Kardashians or Hiltons in the sixties. We wouldn't have it. Depth was key. What did you have to say!
"Send Me No Wine"... It's more country than Taylor Swift's new music. You see the classic rock artists were not narrowly focused, they had tons of influences and evidenced them. The breadth of material on the hit parade was positively staggering.
"Never Comes The Day"... I love this subtle, quiet stuff. Today music is an assault. Then again, with the success of Mumford and the Lumineers maybe that era is changing. Everything back then wasn't made for radio, certainly not Top Forty radio, with its fast-talking jocks and upbeat music with a ton of beats per minute. Do kids today know that not all music has to be fast, irrelevant and in your face?
"Lazy Day"... Listen to that sound!
Instead of checking with the gatekeepers what kind of music to make, the Moodies got deeper into their oeuvre. Read the "Billboard" hits of 1969 and you'll find none that sound like the stuff on "On The Threshold Of A Dream"... But that didn't mean it was unsuccessful, financially or critically. You built your own audience, which supported you. That's what's happening again today, except the music makers keep complaining that radio won't spin their records and I won't write about them. You don't need help from gatekeepers, but your fans. It's a one to one connection.
"Are You Sitting Comfortably"... Listen to that acoustic guitar! That vocal! That mellotron! That flute!
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/pLvRzO
____________________________________
TO OUR CHILDREN'S CHILDREN'S CHILDREN
How many albums did this band have before I got into them?
I mean I loved "Days Of Future Passed," but I didn't get back into them until "A Question Of Balance," and there were three records in between!
"Legend Of A Mind" got me into "In Search Of The Lost Chord." And I loved the dreaminess of "On The Threshold Of A Dream," but there was a third one too?
I got into "To Our Children's Children's Children" last, but I distinctly remember lying in my bed, staring at the ceiling, stoned on the dope of yore, which was anything but one hit, with this album in my mind. It was "Candle Of Life"...
"Something you can't hide
Says you're lonely"
This is why I loved music. It spoke to me. Someone alienated, who didn't feel he fit into the mainstream. Who wasn't on the football team and didn't care, who didn't need to be the most popular kid in school to have an identity.
Oh, we all wanted to be popular. But sometime in the late sixties, there was a bifurcation. It started in 1967, with the advent of FM underground radio, and blossomed in 1968. There was a schism. The old power hierarchy didn't apply. Suddenly, the kids with long hair, who didn't play sports but played records, took power from the usual suspects.
Not only was there a youthquake stealing power from the establishment, our parents and the old men, within the baby boomers there was a cadre of free-thinkers who grabbed all the power and ran with it.
And it was all driven by music. Music was the fuel. The beacon.
"Something there outside
Says we're only
In the hands of time
Falling slowly"
Funny being a teenager. You've got too much time. You're bored. You dig deeper into... You get into trouble.
It's different today. If you're bored today, you're deaf, dumb and blind. There's endless stimulation. Those lost in the past want to save the album format, not realizing the era has changed. We had time to listen to albums, we had nothing but time. And the music spoke to us. Today, if your music is not spectacular, we don't care. Makers may hate it, but unless you've got a string of fantastic songs, we just can't bother.
"Burn slowly the candle of life"
Ain't that how it goes. You're young, you're at loose ends. You don't know who you are, where you're going, you want to hurry up and be an adult. And then when you finally grow up, you want to put on the brakes.
Back in the day, we had our favorite side. And it was the second side of "To Our Children's Children's Children." I got stuck on it, and rarely played side one. Only when I was overly familiar with side two and wanted more did I flip the album.
"Candle Of Life" is the third song on side two.
The opener is "Gypsy." It's dark and meaningful, almost Doors-like in its intro.
Even better is the follow-up, "Eternity Road."
"Traveling eternity road
What will you find there"
It's so weird how things have flip-flopped. That was the number one quest in the sixties and seventies, finding yourself. Now the number one goal is making money. Then again, there was a huge middle class, education was relatively cheap, we could afford to ask the larger questions of life, as did our favorite musicians.
"Sun Is Still Shining," the fourth cut on side two, was written by Mike Pinder. Yes, everybody in the Moody Blues wrote! How different from today, when NOBODY in the band can write a damn song. So they rely on professional songwriters, and what is absent is the vision, the heart of the individual. That's why our music meant so much to us. It came straight from the writers to us. They wrote it, played it and sometimes even produced it. They didn't want to dilute it. It was absolutely crucial to get it exactly right.
"Sun Is Still Shining" is far from the Top Forty, yet it's incredibly hooky!
And when I finally got to the first side, I found "Eyes Of A Child" and "I Never Thought I'd Live To Be A Hundred."
"Eyes Of A Child" you occasionally hear on the radio, it's well-known, but "I Never Thought I'd Live To Be A Hundred" and its reprise, "I Never Thought I'd Live To Be A Million," are the apotheosis of the ethos of the Moody Blues. Today they'd call this music too precious, but it didn't sound that way at all to us way back when. It was just honest. And real. Artifice was anathema in what is now known as classic rock.
And that's what the Moody Blues are.
And maybe the fact that there was never another band that sounded like them, and it was about their albums more than their singles, that history has been rewritten by the hipsters, who believe if you weren't loud and aggressive, and if you knew how to play your instruments, you were mainstream and disposable. But nothing could be further from the truth.
The Moody Blues' music is forever.
Too bad Jann Wenner and the nitwits at the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame don't know it yet.
But this music is timeless.
Sometime in the future, when we're all dead and gone, some teenager will find this and become enamored of it, the word will spread, because when you've got talent and speak truth, you leave your mark, your creations live forever, just waiting for a new discovery.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/vcnfTz
____________________________________
"Nights In White Satin" is on Bettye LaVette's album "Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook."
I don't know why it's not on Spotify. Probably ignorance. Another label lost in the past thinking if they employ scarcity, they'll make more money, when truly it only leads to obscurity.
But through the magic of YouTube, you can hear Ms. LaVette's version of "Nights In White Satin" here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjjlR51vWiE
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Saturday 16 February 2013
Friday 15 February 2013
Rhinofy-In Search Of The Lost Chord
Now when I was at college, we had something called "Winter Term," a four and a half week stretch wherein we took only one course, intensively and...
Skied all afternoon and smoked dope all night.
I stumbled into my freshman winter term course, "Political Campaigning," wherein you ran your candidate all the way to the election, managing the trials and tribulations, the twists and turns of a Presidential campaign.
Unfortunately, my team represented the Republican candidate, which was akin to running a Communist in the twenty first century. You see in 1971, everybody in college was a Democrat, we literally could point out the Republicans on campus. Our guy was a nonstarter. So I decided to drum up some action by claiming the other party's candidate had fathered an illegitimate child. This just sank our guy further.
I love this stuff.
But little did I know this was what was commonly referred to as a "gut" course. It became clear upon the first meeting, when I noticed all the athletes in attendance. Who sat in the back and never said a word, if they bothered to come to class at all. And three books were assigned, which we didn't have to read.
And I ended up with a lot of free time for the aforementioned skiing and dope smoking.
I skied the first nine days of the term in a row. I beat that record after a four day cold in the middle of the month. That's why I went to Middlebury College, to ski!
I did not go to smoke dope.
But that January I smoked plenty.
In Dave McCormick's room.
Now you've got to understand, January in Vermont is damn cold. And you wear the same jeans when it's in the single digits as you do in the summertime. So other than walking to class and meals, you stayed inside. And truly bonded with your brethren, truly made friends.
And you know how college is... You know nobody and nothing and you make friends and you find out months later that they're nothing like you and you ditch them for new people and are embarrassed when you run into the old ones for the next four years, at least at a college like Middlebury, where there were only 1600 students. We'd be walking down the path and discover an interesting bird, or something startling on the sidewalk in order to avoid eye contact with someone we used to talk to all the time but now wanted nothing to do with.
And my new friend, Denis, he had a whole different set of friends from me. And every night they congregated in Dave McCormick's room on the second floor of Hepburn Hall, where we listened to the Allman Brothers' "Idlewild South," Derek and the Dominos' "Layla" and...the Moody Blues' "In Search Of The Lost Chord"...and smoked dope all night.
Now I'd become a huge Moody Blues fan. But I only had the orchestral "Days Of Future Passed," which I listened to on my Norelco compact cassette player on the drive to college in the fall, even my father could handle the mellifluous sound emanating from the tiny speaker, and "A Question Of Balance," which had just been released and contained the Moody Blues' breakthrough single, "Question." But there were three albums in between those two, and despite getting almost no airplay when first released, they're the heart of the Moody Blues' catalog, they're what the band's reputation is built upon. And if you don't know them, you're in for a treat.
Now I subsequently bought "On The Threshold Of A Dream," which is lush and contains the exquisite Ray Thomas ballad "Dear Diary," which was so personal, you thought you were the only person to ever hear it.
And Dave occasionally played "To Our Children's Children's Children," which puts a smile on my face every time I hear it.
But "In Search Of The Lost Chord" is the apotheosis, the Moody Blues' highest point. An aural journey akin to nothing else that soothes and satisfies. And every track is a winner, but the one we played while we watched the drips of the zilch drop into the bucket of water in the dark, is "Legend Of A Mind"...
You know...
"Timothy Leary's dead
No, no, no, he's outside looking in"
Sounds hackneyed and dated, I know. But that's the intro. "Legend Of Mind" goes on for six plus minutes, getting faster and slowing down, bending notes, ascending and descending, it's like a drug trip, one so good you become firmly convinced all drugs should be legalized.
And speaking of drugs... Dave's father came up for parents' weekend and asked him...DO YOU SMOKE DOPE?
And Dave said...ALL THE TIME!
And then Dave's father laughed and slapped Dave on the back and said...I KNEW I COULD TRUST YOU!
Dave's father thought Dave was making a joke...but the truth was, Dave smoked dope EVERY DAY! We all did!
As for the zilch...
You twisted up a plastic laundry bag, hung it on a wire hanger from the light fixture in the ceiling and then lit it. The plastic globules would drip down into the water bucket you placed below the zilch with a zippy and then zappy sound, you could watch it for hours.
Now don't get the wrong impression... After a week-long vacation at the beginning of February, Middlebury College returned to its traditional semester system, wherein you took four courses and everybody studied all the time. But for these four and a half weeks...we truly expanded our minds.
DEPARTURE
A pure intro. Forty five seconds long. It's blast-off, it removes you from the world you were living in and jets you into...OUTER SPACE!
RIDE MY SEE-SAW
All these years later, this is the song that remains, that gets airplay, the most famous track from "In Search Of The Lost Chord," if not the best. With harmonies, a stinging guitar, and truly great verses:
"Left school with a first class pass
Started work but as second class"
Unlike in the U.S., there was a rigid class system in the U.K. Now there's more upward mobility in the U.K. than there is in the U.S!
"My world is spinning around
Everything is lost that I found
People run, come ride with me
Let's find another place that's free"
That's why you went to college in the seventies. To expand your mind. Nobody was on a job track, except for those who were pre-med. College taught me nothing so much as we're all on our own, and there's more truth in the grooves of a record than there is in the words emanating from the mouth of a professor.
"DR. LIVINGSTONE, I PRESUME"
I know, it sounds hokey! But it's not that way at all...
And the key line has more truth than anything in the books we were reading for class...
"We're all looking for someone..."
Right?
HOUSE OF FOUR DOORS (PART 1)
This is why we loved our albums. Because stuff like this was never made for the radio, but just for you at home, listening. There was no second-guessing of gatekeepers, this was the music the musicians wanted to make, and we loved it and them.
Want to make a statement? Something cohesive, that will enthrall the listener? Then be my guest, make an album.
But you probably have nothing to say, and you're probably not skilled enough to make a long player anyway, never mind having a voice as good as anyone in the Moody Blues.
You start with talent.
Then you make the record.
Today you make the record first. Your talent is social-networking, marketing.
HOUSE OF FOUR DOORS (PART 2)
A reprise, after "Legend Of A Mind." When this came on you felt like you came back from an acid trip, you were glad to be on terra firma, in recognizable company.
VOICES IN THE SKY
Very light. But don't forget, this was the second side. A new beginning. The Internet didn't kill the album, the CD did. Vinyl records were short with two sides, two stories, two bites at the apple. CDs were just endless drivel, almost impenetrable.
THE BEST WAY TO TRAVEL
"And you can fly
High as a kite if you want to
Faster than light if you want to
Speeding through the universe
Thinking is the best way to travel"
Ain't that the truth. It used to be about thinking, money was just a means of exchange, it wasn't the end all and be all. You were supposed to set your mind free, challenge convention. And artists were the leaders, not the followers. Not Beck tying in with Lincoln, but lone wolves doing it their own way with no corporate involvement, hell, even the record company couldn't tell acts what to do.
"The Best Way To Travel" sounds like nothing else on the album. Almost psychedelic. Hearing it today STILL makes me smile!
VISIONS OF PARADISE
A deep cut in the middle of the second side. Truly sounds like stumbling into paradise!
THE ACTOR
"The curtain rises on the scene
With someone shouting to be free
The play unfolds before my eyes
There stands the actor who is me"
YES! We're all actors in our own play. Musicians didn't talk down to us, rather they guided us, on a trip we could not live without, the richest one in our lives.
THE WORD
A heavy spoken word set-up for...
OM
"And the word is...OM"
Yes, we're meditating, we're in the sweat lodge, we're communing on a higher plane...OM.
For those who didn't live through the sixties, who worship cash as opposed to sensory development, that's pronounced..."Ahh--uuum."
"The rain is on the roof
Hurry high butterfly
As clouds roll past my head
I know why the skies all cry
OM, OM, heaven, OM"
No Ferrari, no kicking to the curb, no us versus them, rather we're all in it together, contemplating this wondrous universe.
Either you know "In Search Of The Lost Chord" or you'll play it now and be both astonished and mesmerized...because it sounds like absolutely nothing else. That's how music was back then, instead of trying to emulate, all our acts were on different paths.
The fact that the Moody Blues are not in the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame is criminal. Especially now that they're letting in anybody, just because they were popular.
The Moody Blues were more than that. They were a beacon. The soundtrack of a generation.
Then again, they were not the only ones.
OM.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/p6HcZ8
Previous Rhinofy playlists: http://www.rhinofy.com/lefsetz
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Skied all afternoon and smoked dope all night.
I stumbled into my freshman winter term course, "Political Campaigning," wherein you ran your candidate all the way to the election, managing the trials and tribulations, the twists and turns of a Presidential campaign.
Unfortunately, my team represented the Republican candidate, which was akin to running a Communist in the twenty first century. You see in 1971, everybody in college was a Democrat, we literally could point out the Republicans on campus. Our guy was a nonstarter. So I decided to drum up some action by claiming the other party's candidate had fathered an illegitimate child. This just sank our guy further.
I love this stuff.
But little did I know this was what was commonly referred to as a "gut" course. It became clear upon the first meeting, when I noticed all the athletes in attendance. Who sat in the back and never said a word, if they bothered to come to class at all. And three books were assigned, which we didn't have to read.
And I ended up with a lot of free time for the aforementioned skiing and dope smoking.
I skied the first nine days of the term in a row. I beat that record after a four day cold in the middle of the month. That's why I went to Middlebury College, to ski!
I did not go to smoke dope.
But that January I smoked plenty.
In Dave McCormick's room.
Now you've got to understand, January in Vermont is damn cold. And you wear the same jeans when it's in the single digits as you do in the summertime. So other than walking to class and meals, you stayed inside. And truly bonded with your brethren, truly made friends.
And you know how college is... You know nobody and nothing and you make friends and you find out months later that they're nothing like you and you ditch them for new people and are embarrassed when you run into the old ones for the next four years, at least at a college like Middlebury, where there were only 1600 students. We'd be walking down the path and discover an interesting bird, or something startling on the sidewalk in order to avoid eye contact with someone we used to talk to all the time but now wanted nothing to do with.
And my new friend, Denis, he had a whole different set of friends from me. And every night they congregated in Dave McCormick's room on the second floor of Hepburn Hall, where we listened to the Allman Brothers' "Idlewild South," Derek and the Dominos' "Layla" and...the Moody Blues' "In Search Of The Lost Chord"...and smoked dope all night.
Now I'd become a huge Moody Blues fan. But I only had the orchestral "Days Of Future Passed," which I listened to on my Norelco compact cassette player on the drive to college in the fall, even my father could handle the mellifluous sound emanating from the tiny speaker, and "A Question Of Balance," which had just been released and contained the Moody Blues' breakthrough single, "Question." But there were three albums in between those two, and despite getting almost no airplay when first released, they're the heart of the Moody Blues' catalog, they're what the band's reputation is built upon. And if you don't know them, you're in for a treat.
Now I subsequently bought "On The Threshold Of A Dream," which is lush and contains the exquisite Ray Thomas ballad "Dear Diary," which was so personal, you thought you were the only person to ever hear it.
And Dave occasionally played "To Our Children's Children's Children," which puts a smile on my face every time I hear it.
But "In Search Of The Lost Chord" is the apotheosis, the Moody Blues' highest point. An aural journey akin to nothing else that soothes and satisfies. And every track is a winner, but the one we played while we watched the drips of the zilch drop into the bucket of water in the dark, is "Legend Of A Mind"...
You know...
"Timothy Leary's dead
No, no, no, he's outside looking in"
Sounds hackneyed and dated, I know. But that's the intro. "Legend Of Mind" goes on for six plus minutes, getting faster and slowing down, bending notes, ascending and descending, it's like a drug trip, one so good you become firmly convinced all drugs should be legalized.
And speaking of drugs... Dave's father came up for parents' weekend and asked him...DO YOU SMOKE DOPE?
And Dave said...ALL THE TIME!
And then Dave's father laughed and slapped Dave on the back and said...I KNEW I COULD TRUST YOU!
Dave's father thought Dave was making a joke...but the truth was, Dave smoked dope EVERY DAY! We all did!
As for the zilch...
You twisted up a plastic laundry bag, hung it on a wire hanger from the light fixture in the ceiling and then lit it. The plastic globules would drip down into the water bucket you placed below the zilch with a zippy and then zappy sound, you could watch it for hours.
Now don't get the wrong impression... After a week-long vacation at the beginning of February, Middlebury College returned to its traditional semester system, wherein you took four courses and everybody studied all the time. But for these four and a half weeks...we truly expanded our minds.
DEPARTURE
A pure intro. Forty five seconds long. It's blast-off, it removes you from the world you were living in and jets you into...OUTER SPACE!
RIDE MY SEE-SAW
All these years later, this is the song that remains, that gets airplay, the most famous track from "In Search Of The Lost Chord," if not the best. With harmonies, a stinging guitar, and truly great verses:
"Left school with a first class pass
Started work but as second class"
Unlike in the U.S., there was a rigid class system in the U.K. Now there's more upward mobility in the U.K. than there is in the U.S!
"My world is spinning around
Everything is lost that I found
People run, come ride with me
Let's find another place that's free"
That's why you went to college in the seventies. To expand your mind. Nobody was on a job track, except for those who were pre-med. College taught me nothing so much as we're all on our own, and there's more truth in the grooves of a record than there is in the words emanating from the mouth of a professor.
"DR. LIVINGSTONE, I PRESUME"
I know, it sounds hokey! But it's not that way at all...
And the key line has more truth than anything in the books we were reading for class...
"We're all looking for someone..."
Right?
HOUSE OF FOUR DOORS (PART 1)
This is why we loved our albums. Because stuff like this was never made for the radio, but just for you at home, listening. There was no second-guessing of gatekeepers, this was the music the musicians wanted to make, and we loved it and them.
Want to make a statement? Something cohesive, that will enthrall the listener? Then be my guest, make an album.
But you probably have nothing to say, and you're probably not skilled enough to make a long player anyway, never mind having a voice as good as anyone in the Moody Blues.
You start with talent.
Then you make the record.
Today you make the record first. Your talent is social-networking, marketing.
HOUSE OF FOUR DOORS (PART 2)
A reprise, after "Legend Of A Mind." When this came on you felt like you came back from an acid trip, you were glad to be on terra firma, in recognizable company.
VOICES IN THE SKY
Very light. But don't forget, this was the second side. A new beginning. The Internet didn't kill the album, the CD did. Vinyl records were short with two sides, two stories, two bites at the apple. CDs were just endless drivel, almost impenetrable.
THE BEST WAY TO TRAVEL
"And you can fly
High as a kite if you want to
Faster than light if you want to
Speeding through the universe
Thinking is the best way to travel"
Ain't that the truth. It used to be about thinking, money was just a means of exchange, it wasn't the end all and be all. You were supposed to set your mind free, challenge convention. And artists were the leaders, not the followers. Not Beck tying in with Lincoln, but lone wolves doing it their own way with no corporate involvement, hell, even the record company couldn't tell acts what to do.
"The Best Way To Travel" sounds like nothing else on the album. Almost psychedelic. Hearing it today STILL makes me smile!
VISIONS OF PARADISE
A deep cut in the middle of the second side. Truly sounds like stumbling into paradise!
THE ACTOR
"The curtain rises on the scene
With someone shouting to be free
The play unfolds before my eyes
There stands the actor who is me"
YES! We're all actors in our own play. Musicians didn't talk down to us, rather they guided us, on a trip we could not live without, the richest one in our lives.
THE WORD
A heavy spoken word set-up for...
OM
"And the word is...OM"
Yes, we're meditating, we're in the sweat lodge, we're communing on a higher plane...OM.
For those who didn't live through the sixties, who worship cash as opposed to sensory development, that's pronounced..."Ahh--uuum."
"The rain is on the roof
Hurry high butterfly
As clouds roll past my head
I know why the skies all cry
OM, OM, heaven, OM"
No Ferrari, no kicking to the curb, no us versus them, rather we're all in it together, contemplating this wondrous universe.
Either you know "In Search Of The Lost Chord" or you'll play it now and be both astonished and mesmerized...because it sounds like absolutely nothing else. That's how music was back then, instead of trying to emulate, all our acts were on different paths.
The fact that the Moody Blues are not in the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame is criminal. Especially now that they're letting in anybody, just because they were popular.
The Moody Blues were more than that. They were a beacon. The soundtrack of a generation.
Then again, they were not the only ones.
OM.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/p6HcZ8
Previous Rhinofy playlists: http://www.rhinofy.com/lefsetz
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
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Monday 11 February 2013
What We Learned At The Grammys
EVERYBODY'S HIP
Did you catch LL Cool J imploring viewers to tweet, to participate?
Once upon a time the music industry was clueless as to tech. It specialized in following as opposed to leading. Even more, it tried to keep people in the past, fruitlessly, even suing to try and maintain an old paradigm.
But now even grandmothers have iPhones. We're all on the bleeding edge. We all know about Instagram and Pinterest and soon everyone will know about Snapchat. Interestingly, very few people could name everyone who appeared on last night's telecast. Because in a world of choice, only institutions maintain. Used to be musicians were institutions, look to the Beatles, U2, even Jay-Z! But now, the only thing used by everybody is a computer. So if you think you're gonna reach everybody with your music, you're delusional. Sure, try and grow your niche, but be wary of softening the edges, losing your essence. Kind of like Taylor Swift. She used to be a country superstar, revealing her truth in a time-honored way. Now she's a star, a vehicle specializing in being a tattle-tale. How much momentum is there in that paradigm? We're gonna see!
EXCEPT CBS
The fun is in participating. Commenting. Connecting with friends.
But Les Moonves is so interested in his bottom line, he refuses to air the Grammys at the same time in every time zone.
Music gets no respect! The Oscars aren't on tape delay!
Today it's all about live. Just ask Mark Cuban... And he's got more money than Les Moonves, than so many of the media titans. Mark's got that one right. We want to bring everybody together. It's sports, it's music, it's events.
And CBS refuses to realize the Grammys are now an event.
Would you watch the Super Bowl on time delay?
CBS refuses to prepare for the future. Sure, advertising dollars might dip at first if the Grammys are simulcast everywhere, but soon they'd go up, just like for the aforementioned Super Bowl!
What was I supposed to do? Not read the tweets from my east coast brethren while I watched in a later time zone? Miss out on all the snark and fighting? Are you kidding, that's better than the show! Only LL Cool J and the TV actors reading from the Teleprompter weren't in on the joke. That's the fun! Feeling superior to the sell-outs on TV! Who'll do anything for exposure, anything in pursuit of their goal, not realizing the audience, their true bread and butter, will have none of it.
It's all about being a member of the group. And CBS denied our ability to be so.
ED SHEERAN
You want to appear early. And you want to play live, preferably acoustic. Ed was last night's big winner. It's not about the awards, are you kidding me? It's about the appearances!
TAYLOR SWIFT
Tone deaf. In an era where Mumford & Sons and the Lumineers are the new "It Boys," playing acoustic instruments, only dancing if they're truly inspired, Taylor fronted a train-wreck so out of touch with today's ethos it was beyond laughable, it was akin to "Springtime For Hitler." That little girl act, where she gets to live out her fantasies... She's too old for that. But I do give Taylor credit for being more into the show than any attendee. She was grooving to so many of the performances, she's a fan.
ELTON JOHN
Love you Elton, but why do you get three appearances? Two performing, one with Juanes singing "Your Song." Talk about overkill...
Meanwhile, you should have heard Juanes sing the into to Bruce Springsteen's "Hungry Heart" in Spanish Friday night. It was magical. But even though he's the token Latino performing on the show, they won't let Juanes sing in his native language. Hell, I saw Shakira at the initial Latin Grammys and I didn't understand a word, but I got it. Hell, isn't music the universal language?
JACK WHITE
That music doesn't work on TV. Anybody playing loud should know this. Coming out of the speakers of flat panels, which are notoriously lousy, rock music becomes a parody of itself. But no one can turn down the promotional opportunity.
MIRANDA LAMBERT
Takes balls to appear on national television when you're not anorexic. You go girl!
KELLY CLARKSON
I wish there were no Mariah Carey. Then everybody who followed her wouldn't find it necessary to oversing. On one hand, Kelly's performance of Carole King's "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" was subtle and magnificent, but then she went all Ethel Merman on us and ruined it.
JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE
Looked small. He doesn't have a spectacular voice. His new material was far from phenomenal. He would have been better off not appearing. It smacked of a promotional appearance, and yes, the audience can smell it. Meanwhile, enough with the introductory hosannas. He was in a boy band, he's not Paul McCartney!
THE AWARDS
If everybody gets one, they lose their meaning.
Oh yeah, you want to put it on your resume, in your marketing materials, that you're a Grammy winner. But it's kind of like getting a trophy for participating in soccer. Hell, Jon Stewart's got two Grammys, and he can't sing or play a lick!
Want to make Grammys meaningful?
Make less of them.
Forget the rank and file, all the money comes from the TV show anyway.
If you tell me you've won a Grammy, I'm not impressed.
Because too many people get them and I don't trust the people voting.
FRANK OCEAN
The critics' darling. His performance was pretty good, but isn't it funny that the media and the industry don't stop saying how great he is yet the public has yet to buy? Maybe they ultimately will, but I still can't get over revealing his love of a man to sell an album. What's next, revealing your zadie was gassed at Auschwitz so people will buy your book, movie or record? Have some dignity.
GOTYE
I know I said the awards are meaningless, but I liked that the voters got this one right. This song broke on the Internet, was powered by YouTube, radio was last, but it was a slow burn that affected us all...and I don't even like it!
CARLY RAE JEPSEN
Was robbed. She had the song of the year.
Then again, people will be singing "Call Me Maybe" forever, for as long as they're alive, it will remind them of the summer of 2012. That's the power of music, it's a marker, it defines us.
She may never have another, but don't argue with a hit.
"Call Me Maybe" is a stone cold smash.
How do I know?
Everybody knows it. And that's almost impossible these days.
THE PERFORMANCES
Good, bad or otherwise, the Grammy organization deserves huge kudos for remaking their show, changing the focus from the awards to the performances. Oscar ratings keep tanking because the old guard is inured to the past, whereas the Grammys threw out the bathwater, got hip and are positively now. If you don't think last night's show was a reflection of reality, you live in a trailer without Internet access on the fringe of the prairie.
It's about putting on a show.
And to see everybody grovel for airtime is to...get you tweeting at home, laughing at them.
Do you have the balls to not be on the Grammy telecast?
Because music is personal, and this show is anything but.
Music is listened to alone, it saves lives, and if you watched last night's show, you'd never know this. You'd see people dressing up, you'd think music was tied to fashion. You'd see people preening for the camera. You'd see people act like they're better than you. But nowhere was there evidence of music's true power.
Music also brings us together. That's the power of electronic music.
But last night was truly about winners and losers. I'm up here, and you're not. Which is no way to be a success in today's era.
OLDSTERS
Good riddance!
It's not your grandfather's Grammys...
You may not like who won, you may not like any of the acts, but thank god Steely Dan didn't win for an album that looked good on paper but barely sold and was eclipsed by so many other productions.
Remember having to listen to all that crap how Dylan's album was one of the best of the year, that it was gonna win a Grammy?
IT WASN'T EVEN NOMINATED!
Just because you say it's so, that doesn't mean it is.
Oldsters need to recalculate. You may own the press, but you don't own the hearts and minds of the public. I've got no idea how the Grammys revolutionized, how they got hip and young, whether it was by accident or was planned, but by gosh, it happened, and we're all better off for it. Because finally we're living in the present. No one bitched about piracy. No one got nostalgic about CDs. It was positively staggering that an organization and a telecast that have been out of date since their inception no longer are.
Congratulations!
Not that the show was any good, but I needed to watch it, so I could tell you what I thought, so you could bitch back at me, so we could all be in it together as opposed to living in our own cubby holes.
Yup, the Grammys suddenly have presence and power. They're finally what everybody said they were.
Then again, music's greatest night?
You know music's greatest night. When that record prevented you from committing suicide. When you first had sex with that song playing in the background. When you were at the club or the arena, arms in the air, exulting in the joy of what was coming from the stage, believing there's no place you'd rather be.
Despite the puffing of shirts, the major labels have never had so little power, and whatever power they do have is dissipating. The action is on the road, on the website du jour, where people pass on what's interesting to them, frequently sans hype.
The audience is in charge.
And that's why we all need to tweet in real time. To exult in our power.
Yes, we rule the music business. You, me and everybody who tunes in the execrable Pandora or makes their own playlists on Spotify. The center cannot hold. The Grammys are about the center. But really, it's about the edges. It's about coming from the outside in. Ergo, the success of the Lumineers, who broke the color barrier at radio, proving you didn't need beats to be on Top Forty.
Everything's changing.
We're all in it together.
I don't know where it's going.
But it's a blast to be on the ride.
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Did you catch LL Cool J imploring viewers to tweet, to participate?
Once upon a time the music industry was clueless as to tech. It specialized in following as opposed to leading. Even more, it tried to keep people in the past, fruitlessly, even suing to try and maintain an old paradigm.
But now even grandmothers have iPhones. We're all on the bleeding edge. We all know about Instagram and Pinterest and soon everyone will know about Snapchat. Interestingly, very few people could name everyone who appeared on last night's telecast. Because in a world of choice, only institutions maintain. Used to be musicians were institutions, look to the Beatles, U2, even Jay-Z! But now, the only thing used by everybody is a computer. So if you think you're gonna reach everybody with your music, you're delusional. Sure, try and grow your niche, but be wary of softening the edges, losing your essence. Kind of like Taylor Swift. She used to be a country superstar, revealing her truth in a time-honored way. Now she's a star, a vehicle specializing in being a tattle-tale. How much momentum is there in that paradigm? We're gonna see!
EXCEPT CBS
The fun is in participating. Commenting. Connecting with friends.
But Les Moonves is so interested in his bottom line, he refuses to air the Grammys at the same time in every time zone.
Music gets no respect! The Oscars aren't on tape delay!
Today it's all about live. Just ask Mark Cuban... And he's got more money than Les Moonves, than so many of the media titans. Mark's got that one right. We want to bring everybody together. It's sports, it's music, it's events.
And CBS refuses to realize the Grammys are now an event.
Would you watch the Super Bowl on time delay?
CBS refuses to prepare for the future. Sure, advertising dollars might dip at first if the Grammys are simulcast everywhere, but soon they'd go up, just like for the aforementioned Super Bowl!
What was I supposed to do? Not read the tweets from my east coast brethren while I watched in a later time zone? Miss out on all the snark and fighting? Are you kidding, that's better than the show! Only LL Cool J and the TV actors reading from the Teleprompter weren't in on the joke. That's the fun! Feeling superior to the sell-outs on TV! Who'll do anything for exposure, anything in pursuit of their goal, not realizing the audience, their true bread and butter, will have none of it.
It's all about being a member of the group. And CBS denied our ability to be so.
ED SHEERAN
You want to appear early. And you want to play live, preferably acoustic. Ed was last night's big winner. It's not about the awards, are you kidding me? It's about the appearances!
TAYLOR SWIFT
Tone deaf. In an era where Mumford & Sons and the Lumineers are the new "It Boys," playing acoustic instruments, only dancing if they're truly inspired, Taylor fronted a train-wreck so out of touch with today's ethos it was beyond laughable, it was akin to "Springtime For Hitler." That little girl act, where she gets to live out her fantasies... She's too old for that. But I do give Taylor credit for being more into the show than any attendee. She was grooving to so many of the performances, she's a fan.
ELTON JOHN
Love you Elton, but why do you get three appearances? Two performing, one with Juanes singing "Your Song." Talk about overkill...
Meanwhile, you should have heard Juanes sing the into to Bruce Springsteen's "Hungry Heart" in Spanish Friday night. It was magical. But even though he's the token Latino performing on the show, they won't let Juanes sing in his native language. Hell, I saw Shakira at the initial Latin Grammys and I didn't understand a word, but I got it. Hell, isn't music the universal language?
JACK WHITE
That music doesn't work on TV. Anybody playing loud should know this. Coming out of the speakers of flat panels, which are notoriously lousy, rock music becomes a parody of itself. But no one can turn down the promotional opportunity.
MIRANDA LAMBERT
Takes balls to appear on national television when you're not anorexic. You go girl!
KELLY CLARKSON
I wish there were no Mariah Carey. Then everybody who followed her wouldn't find it necessary to oversing. On one hand, Kelly's performance of Carole King's "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" was subtle and magnificent, but then she went all Ethel Merman on us and ruined it.
JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE
Looked small. He doesn't have a spectacular voice. His new material was far from phenomenal. He would have been better off not appearing. It smacked of a promotional appearance, and yes, the audience can smell it. Meanwhile, enough with the introductory hosannas. He was in a boy band, he's not Paul McCartney!
THE AWARDS
If everybody gets one, they lose their meaning.
Oh yeah, you want to put it on your resume, in your marketing materials, that you're a Grammy winner. But it's kind of like getting a trophy for participating in soccer. Hell, Jon Stewart's got two Grammys, and he can't sing or play a lick!
Want to make Grammys meaningful?
Make less of them.
Forget the rank and file, all the money comes from the TV show anyway.
If you tell me you've won a Grammy, I'm not impressed.
Because too many people get them and I don't trust the people voting.
FRANK OCEAN
The critics' darling. His performance was pretty good, but isn't it funny that the media and the industry don't stop saying how great he is yet the public has yet to buy? Maybe they ultimately will, but I still can't get over revealing his love of a man to sell an album. What's next, revealing your zadie was gassed at Auschwitz so people will buy your book, movie or record? Have some dignity.
GOTYE
I know I said the awards are meaningless, but I liked that the voters got this one right. This song broke on the Internet, was powered by YouTube, radio was last, but it was a slow burn that affected us all...and I don't even like it!
CARLY RAE JEPSEN
Was robbed. She had the song of the year.
Then again, people will be singing "Call Me Maybe" forever, for as long as they're alive, it will remind them of the summer of 2012. That's the power of music, it's a marker, it defines us.
She may never have another, but don't argue with a hit.
"Call Me Maybe" is a stone cold smash.
How do I know?
Everybody knows it. And that's almost impossible these days.
THE PERFORMANCES
Good, bad or otherwise, the Grammy organization deserves huge kudos for remaking their show, changing the focus from the awards to the performances. Oscar ratings keep tanking because the old guard is inured to the past, whereas the Grammys threw out the bathwater, got hip and are positively now. If you don't think last night's show was a reflection of reality, you live in a trailer without Internet access on the fringe of the prairie.
It's about putting on a show.
And to see everybody grovel for airtime is to...get you tweeting at home, laughing at them.
Do you have the balls to not be on the Grammy telecast?
Because music is personal, and this show is anything but.
Music is listened to alone, it saves lives, and if you watched last night's show, you'd never know this. You'd see people dressing up, you'd think music was tied to fashion. You'd see people preening for the camera. You'd see people act like they're better than you. But nowhere was there evidence of music's true power.
Music also brings us together. That's the power of electronic music.
But last night was truly about winners and losers. I'm up here, and you're not. Which is no way to be a success in today's era.
OLDSTERS
Good riddance!
It's not your grandfather's Grammys...
You may not like who won, you may not like any of the acts, but thank god Steely Dan didn't win for an album that looked good on paper but barely sold and was eclipsed by so many other productions.
Remember having to listen to all that crap how Dylan's album was one of the best of the year, that it was gonna win a Grammy?
IT WASN'T EVEN NOMINATED!
Just because you say it's so, that doesn't mean it is.
Oldsters need to recalculate. You may own the press, but you don't own the hearts and minds of the public. I've got no idea how the Grammys revolutionized, how they got hip and young, whether it was by accident or was planned, but by gosh, it happened, and we're all better off for it. Because finally we're living in the present. No one bitched about piracy. No one got nostalgic about CDs. It was positively staggering that an organization and a telecast that have been out of date since their inception no longer are.
Congratulations!
Not that the show was any good, but I needed to watch it, so I could tell you what I thought, so you could bitch back at me, so we could all be in it together as opposed to living in our own cubby holes.
Yup, the Grammys suddenly have presence and power. They're finally what everybody said they were.
Then again, music's greatest night?
You know music's greatest night. When that record prevented you from committing suicide. When you first had sex with that song playing in the background. When you were at the club or the arena, arms in the air, exulting in the joy of what was coming from the stage, believing there's no place you'd rather be.
Despite the puffing of shirts, the major labels have never had so little power, and whatever power they do have is dissipating. The action is on the road, on the website du jour, where people pass on what's interesting to them, frequently sans hype.
The audience is in charge.
And that's why we all need to tweet in real time. To exult in our power.
Yes, we rule the music business. You, me and everybody who tunes in the execrable Pandora or makes their own playlists on Spotify. The center cannot hold. The Grammys are about the center. But really, it's about the edges. It's about coming from the outside in. Ergo, the success of the Lumineers, who broke the color barrier at radio, proving you didn't need beats to be on Top Forty.
Everything's changing.
We're all in it together.
I don't know where it's going.
But it's a blast to be on the ride.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
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