What Songs Look Like: Binoculars

Julia Nunes: Binoculars

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Last week, I discussed plagiarism, and touched upon the increasingly complicated issues that confront the music industry in the Internet age. The fact that so many contributors to this fine blog have lost their file hosting ability is a result of the tension that exists between copyright and fair use, between the desire of bloggers to expose readers to good music and the right of artists and labels to control distribution of that music. My guess is that most of the musicians whose songs get posted here would not care, if they even knew, and some would probably be happy for the promotion, but there is no way for me to conveniently ask. So, instead of there being some reasonable standard that allows bloggers and critics to post songs, say, for a limited time, or at a low bit rate, we simply post and wait to see whether we get shut down.

When I briefly worked at a record label in the 1980’s, the concern was cassette taping, but that was a hiccup compared to the devastating effect of the web, and Napster and similar services, that have seriously changed the way that music is distributed. You can pretty much find a free download of any song you want, if you look hard enough, and I understand that for most acts, the money comes from performing and merchandise, not the actual music itself. Although the days of small bands getting major label contracts seem long over, it is now possible for a musician to get his or her songs out to the public without a record label at all.

My subject this week is an example of this DIY approach. Julia Nunes is a talented singer/songwriter who became “YouTube famous” by making videos of herself singing, initially covers and then original songs, usually playing the ukelele. The quality of her music and the wit and charm of her videos, set her apart from most independent artists uploading to YouTube, and as a result, her following became pretty incredible.

Remarkably, Nunes’ popularity began while she was a student at Skidmore College. This video, for the song “Binoculars,” about a stalker, puts a spin on Nunes’ path to fame—she asked her fans to send in video of them singing her song, and she edited the footage and added more of herself, in her dorm room, as well as clips of her friends dancing in her room. My son, who seems to get into this blog every other week, was a year behind Nunes at Skidmore, and they met and became friendly. He got himself invited to the shoot through a mutual friend, and he is the tall skinny guy, wearing a blue t-shirt and black Mets cap, in the group dance scenes. (And not to leave my daughter, a talented singer in her own right, out of this post, I’m pretty sure that she started playing the ukelele at least in part because of Nunes).

Nunes’ Internet fame has made it possible for her to release a number of albums, all on her own label, open for major acts, including Ben Folds and Ben Kweller, play at Bonnaroo, and perform on Conan, as well as maintain an active touring schedule. She also continues to upload her charming videos to YouTube and recently recorded a cover of fun.’s “Some Nights” with the band Walk off the Earth. She is a great example of how musicians can succeed in the current market without the backing of a major—or even indie—label with persistence, ingenuity and talent.

What Songs Look Like: Universal Mind Control

Common : Universal Mind Control

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No one can dispute the various nuances and colors of music, and I've heard plenty of pieces that qualify as “sound paintings.” Coloring is a function of the music's tone, and the relationship of notes to each other. A “chromatic” music scale literally means that it's colorful.

At the same time, the visualization of a song requires focus, concentration and attention to detail. How many of you find hip-hop or rap music to be a little distracting? Over the years, I've tried to be more open-minded and accepting of all genres of music. If you can stay on course and follow the statement of a song like “Universal Mind Control,” then you can develop a heightened sense of visual perspective. As you listen, twirl the telephoto of your own senses. I've learned to appreciate this kind of music by viewing it both in telescopic detail, as well as with a wide-angle perspective. Universal mind control should be a personal goal anytime we listen to music. It's a result of being mindful and fully aware of what we are hearing and seeing.

As Common sings, “This is that new shit, keep 'em standing in line ... That universal mind control, now move yo' behind.” As you view this sensory video, go ahead and “trance to melodic technotronic.” That'll help you get it. Bop, diggy, bop, d-dang, d-dang, dang.

What Songs Look Like: Sledgehammer

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As a reader here, I’m sure you have noticed that the volume of posts has been way down lately. That is because the recording industry recently cracked down on file hosting services, and now many of the posters here, including myself, are without file hosts. We would be happy to hear from anyone who can offer suggestions or help. Feel free to respond either in the comments or by a private message to the e-mail address on the sidebar, and thank you. Meanwhile, this week’s theme offers a temporary solution.

This week, Star Maker Machine invites you the reader to watch some videos with us, and read our thoughts. Music and visuals have been connected since the rise of MTV, but the connection goes back much further than that. The history of opera takes us back more than 300 years, but again, the connection is still older, probably going back to ancient times. Dances and rituals both combined music and visuals, and they are two of mankind’s oldest activities. We need as a species to express ourselves musically, and we also seem to need to know what those songs look like. When properly wedded, both the song and the visual become something greater than either one by itself.

Having said all of that, I would like to start our exploration in the 1980s. The art of the music video flowered in the 80s because of MTV. Nowadays, it’s hard to remember that those letters originally stood for Music Television. MTV hit the airwaves in 1981, and almost immediately began to change the sound of popular music. The programmers there could be musically adventurous as long as a video was visually striking, and that made it possible for new wave to gain broad acceptance. Thomas Dolby is one example of an artist whose music most people would probably never have heard otherwise.

The first video ever played on MTV was Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles. But I didn’t get my MTV until around 1985 or so. I don’t remember the first video I saw, but the first to make a big impression on me was Sledgehammer, in 1986. Today, a video like this would use digital effects, and the motions would be smooth. But digital technology wasn’t an option back then, so the video relied on an ingenious mixture of live action footage and animation. Everything moves in a jerky fashion, but Peter Gabriel and his crew use this to their advantage. The song is a plea for love, but the video reveals a layer of nervousness that really adds to the overall effect. The images are imaginative and memorable. The ice head and fruitface are the two that I see in my head whenever I think of this song.

Musical Transformations: Let the Good Time Roll

Jimi Hendrix: Come On (Let the Good Times Roll)

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Most popular songs are built on the same formula: the I, IV, V  structure. This, of course refers to the  commonly used chord progression of most popular music (as in  A=I, D=IV and E=V – counting up the scale from the “root/starting” note). For the most part, “they’re all the same”. What’s amazing is the fact that – despite the prevalence of the I-IV-V format – they don’t all sound the same.

The realm of the “mashup” (which I raised a month ago) seems to fit our current topic: a new song based on two or more pre-existing ones. But we’ll steer clear of that genre here. Likewise, as per our guidance, we steer clear of covers, wherein the musician(s) re-interpret the I-IV-V format of some previous troubadour – of which there are many that come to mind.

As J. David said earlier this week, it’s often times hard to separate influence from outright theft. And as  Joe Ross pointed out and as I noted recently in reference to Weird Al basing some of his work on others’, there are those who creatively take from others.

Then, there’s the collection of songs that aren’t necessarily deliberately borrowed, but, rather, include source material that is so much a part of the whole rock/pop genre that it’s hard to credit any specific artist with the original conceit: the two are so far apart.

Last week I based my selection about our related “Musical Quotes” on a rather flimsy two words: New York, New York. Moving up the scale this week, I present a song that would appear to be built on a few more words: we’re going for 8. Who knows who came up with the phrase “Let the good times roll”? Who knows who added “Come on baby” to the mix? A 1950s duo called Shirley and Lee are credited with a song that includes these 8 words back in ’56. Numerous others have used bits and pieces of it. However, it seems to me that none can claim to have transformed it the way Jimi did on Electric Ladyland. You tell me, is it the same stuff?

Musical Transformations: The Battle of Kookamonga

Homer and Jethro : The Battle of Kookamonga

Homer and Jethro (with June Carter) : Baby, It’s Cold Outside

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As soon I heard about this week’s theme, one musical act immediately came to mind … namely, Homer and Jethro. The country music duo, popular in the 40s-60s, specialized in musical transformations with their comedic and satirical parodies of popular songs. Guitarist Henry "Homer" Haynes and mandolinist Kenneth "Jethro" Burns were both born near Knoxville, Tn. in 1920. They met each other at a radio station audition when they were 16 years old and first called themselves “Junior” and “Dude” (pronounced "Dude-ee"). When the WNOX program director forgot their nicknames during a 1936 broadcast, they became Homer and Jethro. While their schtick was hillbilly, they were actually excellent musicians comfortable with jazz, country and pop.

Most of the parodies were written by Burns. Their version of “Baby It's Cold Outside” (with June Carter) became a hit. Frank Loesser, composer of the song, permitted them to parody the tune with one condition -- the label had to read, “With apologies to Frank Loesser.” That got them onto WLS Chicago in 1950, a tour with bandleader Spike Jones, and several successful albums. In 1959, Homer and Jethro won a Grammy for “The Battle of Kookamonga,” a parody of Johnny Horton’ big hit “The Battle of New Orleans.” While Homer and Jethro passed away in 1971 and 1989, respectively, they did get inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001. Check out the many H&J audio files at this link. When it comes to musical transformations, these guys were spot on with their time. However, singing a politically incorrect song like “Let Me Go Blubber” could get you clobbered in this day and age.

Musical Transformations: Boogie With Stu

Led Zeppelin: Boogie With Stu

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This week’s theme made me think about plagiarism. I’m not an expert on intellectual property, although I am professionally involved in matters concerning trade secrets and confidential information. As a music fan, I know that the issue of plagiarism has always been a concern. Mozart was not the first who was accused of it, and a popular Broadway show and movie explored that. George Harrison was found liable by a court for “subconsciously” copying another song. Sampling has raised concerns about stealing, and it is only getting harder to figure out what can and can’t be done now that pretty much all music is now available in easily manipulated electronic form.

In any event, it is hard to listen to almost any song and not recognize influences from other songs. It is clear that you can’t simply take a song, in total, and put your name on it, at least without getting permission (a “cover”). After that, it is all a matter of degree, and whether you get accused of plagiarism.

Led Zeppelin is one of the great rock bands. Their influence and popularity cannot be denied, and I love them. I saw them at Madison Square Garden in 1977, and it was an incredible show, even if critics say it was far from their best tour, and they actually messed up “Stairway to Heaven” (if I recall, Bonham came in early). They have also been accused of plagiarism many times. Of course, using classic blues riffs has always happened, but Zeppelin went a bit too far, too often. Google it, if you are interested, and you will find a great deal of discussion on this topic.

“Boogie With Stu” was a jam recorded in 1971 featuring Led Zeppelin augmented by Ian Stewart, a piano player best known for his work with another pretty famous band, the Rolling Stones. It is very obviously a version, of sorts, of Ritchie Valens’ “Ooh, My Head.” The band didn’t try to hide their “influence,” to be charitable, even including “ooh, my head,” in the lyrics. It also may be that they were just goofing around in the studio and never expected to release the song, but when they decided to add it to “Physical Graffiti, the writing credit was "Page/Plant/Jones/Bonham/Ian Stewart/Mrs. Valens.” This was, apparently, an attempt to give Valens’ mother a credit and some royalties.

That was not enough for Valens’ publishing company, which sued for copyright infringement, and an out-of-court settlement was reached.

The irony is that Valens’ song itself appears to “borrow” heavily from Little Richard’s earlier song, “Ooh! My Soul.” And was Robert Plant aware of this, when he mentioned, in “Boogie With Stu,” “tutti-frutti,” the title of another Little Richard song?

Musical Quotes: Tripe Face Boogie

Little Feat: Tripe Face Boogie

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I spent a good part of this week searching and think about a song – any song – that fit the defined topic “brief passages from other songs”. I must have listened to 100s of songs and racked (or is that wracked?) my brain – feeling mostly that my efforts were in vain, although lots of possibilities came to mind.

Before the week ends, here is a link to a song that includes a rather weak link to a “passage from another song”.

Once again, it is a creative commons/freely downloadable song from archive.org from a band I continue to flog: Little Feat doing Tripe Face Boogie. The lyrical association that I stretch to match the topic are four simple words  “New York, New York”: while Little Feat mention several other cities, the only one they repeat is NY, NY. They may or may not have had any intention to reference the  Liza Minelli/Frank Sinatra version, but it seems to me that the thread exists – however weak.

And, however weak, I wanted once again to contribute something before this week (weak!) expires.

Musical Quotes: The Serpent's Tooth

Miles Davis Sextet 1953 : The Serpent's Tooth (Take 1)

Miles Davis Sextet 1953 : The Serpent's Tooth (Take 2)

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What’s jazz music without an occasional quotation? And during the bebop era, we hear a lot of them. Cut in 1953, “The Serpent’s Tooth” is especially fun and gives us a two-fer from the Miles Davis Sextet. At 1:21 into the song, trumpet-player Davis quotes “Heart and Soul.” Not too much later, at 3:04, tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins offers a direct challenge to Charlie Parker, with a quote from Irving Berlin's "Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)". It seems to be an amusing little commentary that the jazz musicians are having. A second take of the song is also included here for a comparison.

Recorded at New York City’s WOR Studios on January 30, 1953, the rest of the band included Charlie Parker (tenor sax), Walter Bishop Jr. (piano), Percy Heath (bass), and Philly Joe Jones (drums). Miles Davis passed away in 1991, but he left a long legacy of classic jazz that emphasized his lyrical, introspective, and intimate style.

Musical Quotations: Don't Go Messin' With My Heart

Mantronix: Don't Go Messin' With My Heart
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Whether musical or otherwise, quotations tend to be used for a reason.  Perhaps the artist or writer wishes to prove a point, or to allude to another work in order to stir or inspire specific feelings in the listener or reader, feelings they know to be entwined with well-recognised and culturally significant artifacts.  To an extent, quotations - especially musical ones - can be seen not just as winks toward a knowing, post-modern audience, but also as subliminal attempts to link a new work with an established and celebrated precursor and, in doing so, attempt the quick elevation of said newer work to a higher level of recognition and acceptance.

Or, they could just be entirely arbitrary and as mad as a bag of cats.

By the time The Incredible Sound Machine was released, Curtis Mantronik had long since given up the experimental beats and angular, Kraftwerk-inspired sounds that had marked him out as one of Hip-Hop's early pioneers, moving instead toward the pop market and the burgeoning New Jack Swing movement.  Still, this lead-off single was remarkable for two things: the hook-filled and joyous chorus, and, most importantly, the bizarre and inexplicable use of the whistled theme to the Andy Griffith Show, which pops up appropos of entirely nothing at around the half way mark.  Eccentric? Perhaps.  Random?  Oh, yes.  But strangely it works, and the song was a hit around the world.

Musical Quotations: I Wanna Be A Lifeguard

Blotto: I Wanna Be A Lifeguard

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As August wanes, I offer a great summer song, which quotes from another great summer song (or two). “I Wanna Be A Lifeguard” is a brilliant piece of summer fluff. Released in 1980, it has the sound of classic ‘60s surf music, and it quotes, liberally, from the Surfari’s legendary “Wipeout,” whose drum riff inspired millions of drummers, and instantly makes you think of surfing, the beach and simpler, more innocent times. And yet, the song has a certain amount of pathos—it is about a guy, selling shoes, who dreams about working as a lifeguard and spending his days at the beach checking out girls, instead of being a loser attending to stinky feet. And, because it is Blotto, the song is hysterical—my favorite line is: 

Summer blondes revealing tanlines

I'll make more moves than Allied Van Lines

Blotto was a solid bar band with some good schtick who briefly made it “big” before reverting to cult status, disappearing, then reforming to take advantage of said cult status. From the Albany, NY area, they honed their craft in the Capitol District, particularly in Saratoga Springs (where, about 3 decades later, my son would go to college. I suspect he would have been a big fan.) What distinguished the band from other, similar bands was its sense of humor. For example, parodying The Ramones, each member of Blotto was billed with Blotto as a last name and a false first name. 

“Lifeguard” was only one of their amusing songs. I also like “(We Are) The Nowtones,” a spoof of lounge bands, “She's Got a Big Boyfriend,” about the risks of attraction to a girl with, yes, a really big boyfriend, and “The B Side,” which explains, hilariously, why some songs make it, and some don’t.

Blotto’s humor, and the way they poked fun at themselves, prefigured the satire of “This is Spinal Tap,” the definitive affectionate skewering of rock music. The line from the movie where Michael McKean and Harry Shearer explain that there is a fine line between “stupid and clever” clearly describes Blotto, and this song, perfectly. And it is definitely on the “clever” side of the line.

Fun fact—Unlike most bands in 1980, and certainly unlike most bands in those days on independent labels, there was a music video for “Lifeguard,” shot by SUNY Albany students. It was played on MTV’s very first day, and was a bit of an early hit for the band and the station. Unfortunately, despite the MTV exposure, and a song that featured Buck Dharma of Blue Oyster Cult, they never were signed by a major label and disbanded in 1984, before reuniting in the 2000s.

The song that is quoted, throughout the song, is “Wipeout,” one of the great surf rock songs, originally released by The Surfaris in 1963. It has been covered many, many times, and its iconic drum riff will, I believe, be recognizable forever. There is, also, in “Lifeguard,” a Beach Boys quote, from “Fun, Fun, Fun,” which also fits the song, and the humor that made Blotto special.

Going The Distance: You Had Time

Ani Difranco: You Had Time
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Physical distance isn't always the most difficult to traverse.  Sometimes the greatest distance lies in the gulf between two people in the front of a car, traveling from one place to another but going nowhere.  And as space warps, so do time and meaning - two people speak but neither hears the other, time has been spent on nothing at all.  Some things are just doomed from the start.  This is the way some worlds end: with a smile, a shrug and the devastating sting of someone trying not to do too much damage but knowing they will fail.

Going the Distance: I Can See For Miles

The Who: I Can See for Miles

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In the absence of other input and in a continuing effort to ascertain the file hosting limits (this being yet another renamed file) … one more 60’s song without much comment. There are 3 groups from the 60s that still resonate for me: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Who. Sure … I’ll listen to lots of others (even Herman’s Hermits), but these 3 maintain their staying power over the years.

Going the Distance: 4 Miles

Pee Shy: 4 Miles

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 It's been so long since I've posted here that I sort of forget how to do it, so forgive me. But I've seen that there's been infrequent posts lately and thought I'd see if I can help with a post or two in the interim. I've posted songs from this album before. It's a great little album by a Tampa, Florida based band started by two ladies who were spoken-word artists who decided to start a band with their clarinet and accordion and brought along a bass player and a drummer for the ride. They use guitar and other more conventional rock instruments as well, but the addition of the clarinet and accordion adds something different to the mix.

Who Let All The Monkeys Out is their debut album and came out in 1996, though they only ever made two albums as a band. Like their unconventional name and instruments, the subject of their songs is often quite different from the normal love song as well. "4 Miles" is one of the more conventional songs, though still not ordinary. I love the sound of it.

Going the Distance: Moonlight Mile

Rolling Stones: Midnight Mile

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The “Moonlight Mile” will likely conjure up different memories for each of us, for me it harks back to my first years living on my own. Granted, I purchased my first Stones LPs several years earlier: on a family trip to Greece (where albums were more available for purchase, I had scored Between the Buttons and Aftermath – must have been about ’69). I have been a Stones aficionado ever since. The two words [Moonlight Mile] evoke a night-time mood (in this case, a bit ethereal) and distance (would that I could run a mile in the 5.55 minutes it takes to play this song!)

So what is a Moonlight Mile? Here, we’ve got a piece from 1971’s Sticky Fingers. There’s acoustic guitar that builds into a slightly heavier electric atmosphere, but in this case, with lots of other orchestration: extensive use of strings, and a dreamy style that evokes later works like Goats Head Soup (Angie?) and at the same time presages in style what is coming next in Exile on Main Street. We’ve got Mick Taylor (before he quit! the Stones) doing some really nice slide guitar work. The piano playing in the back is amazing. Serendipitously, Bill Janovitz (a recent post of mine) comments on this beautiful piano work by Jim Price among the other positive critique he offers at Allmusic.com . Apparently Mick Jagger plays a lot of the acoustic guitar here.

(In this post we continue to push the limits to see if my hosting service is using file names or embedded file info or text in the blog to ID files for deletion!!)

Going The Distance: Miles and Miles of Texas

Dave Alexander : Miles and Miles of Texas

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“Ah haaaa,” as Bob Wills, King of Western Swing, used to say to express his joy and pleasure from the melodic or improvised sounds coming from his sidemen. One’s gotta love that eclectic genre with its elements of pop, jazz, blues and folk. At the same time, the genre maintains a link to its traditional string band roots. Western Swing is both freewheeling and entertaining.

I still remember that day in the early-1970s when an old-time fiddler I knew introduced me (as a young college student) to the music of Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys. Back in the 1940s, that band was very popular, and the musicians in Wills’ band were some of the finest of their era. I first learned the song, “Miles and Miles of Texas” from Asleep at the Wheel, the Western Swing revivalist band that helped re-popularize the genre in the 1970s. Texas guitarist/singer Ray Benson and his band have been swinging ever since, and they never cease to put on a great upbeat live show.

Another contemporary Western Swing band is Dave Alexander and his Big Texas Swing Band. Alexander has also been at it for quite awhile, and he’s garnered such awards as induction into the Texas Western Swing Hall of Fame, as well as both Male Vocalist and Entertainer of the Year Awards from the Academy of Western Artists. He’s performed with some big names in country music, and he often invites former members of the Texas Playboys to join him in his shows. As a former member of the Texas Playboys himself, four-time Grammy nominee Dave Alexander is on a mission to perpetuate the Western Swing sound and to acquaint people with an important and exciting aspect of our American musical heritage.

Going the Distance: Come A Long Way

Michelle Shocked: Come A Long Way

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I’m trying a new file hosting service, so I hope the link stays live.

Music can be escapism. It isn’t always, but I suspect that is why a 50+ professional who has lived his whole life in either New York or New Jersey and has a pretty quiet family life likes to listen to music about people living on the edge, drinking, carousing, ramblin’. I know that I never will ride a motorcycle, get into a bar fight, hitchhike across the desert, or be a rock star. And, honestly, I don’t really have any interest in doing so.

But it is fun to listen to music that is about things that are outside your experience. I remember once reading an article that said that people like roller coasters, or eating spicy food, because it gives the illusion of danger, without real risk. That your body reacts by producing adrenalin and endorphins that give you that edge and pleasure, without having to worry about actually getting beat up or killed.

Which is why, I guess, I have always liked this song, by Michelle Shocked. Her narrator rescues her motorcycle from the repo man and drives it around Los Angeles, referencing a number of local landmarks and noting that she has driven 500 miles, but never left the city.

Shocked is an interesting artist—uncompromising and demanding of creative freedom. Her first few albums were incredible, and the album that this song comes from, Arkansas Traveler, is both brilliant, and controversial. In great part, it is a reworking of traditional folk and country songs, with all-star guests including Levon Helm and Garth Hudson, Hothouse Flowers, Uncle Tupelo (which included her brother), Taj Mahal, Pops Staples, and others, and there are many, many good songs. But Shocked insisted on appearing in blackface on the cover, to highlight her interest in blackface minstrelsy, and her label refused. The album was barely promoted and failed to sell, leading to the end of Shocked’s major label career. I did buy her next album, but have kind of lost track of her, although I know that she has been recording gospel music. She is someone who has simply done what she wanted, and damn the consequences. Another thing that I don’t think I could ever do, even though I respect her for doing it.

I’ve been to L.A. a few times, mostly on business, and recognize some of the places mentioned, but they are really meaningless to me. But there is something about the song, the music and the lyrics, that makes me want to jump on a bike, a hog, a chopper, or whatever the cool people call it, and head out on an adventure. It isn’t going to happen, and that’s OK, too. But it can be fun to live vicariously.