The Oscars: Candle in the Wind

Randy Reer/Drakytown: Candle in the Wind
[download free from SoundCloud]

You have to dig beyond the first few pages of Google links to find any reference to “candle in the wind” that isn’t related to Elton John. The juxtaposition of those particular words may not have been his originally, either; however, it is the title of T. H. White’s fourth book from The Once and Future King series that was published between 1939 and 1958.

One source notes that Elton John’s writing partner, Bernie Taupin, took his inspiration for the lyrics from the short life of Janis Joplin. He is quoted as saying that the song could be about any “.. actor, actress, musician … who died young … It’s a beauty frozen in time.”  When he was criticized for re-writing the lyrics in 1997 for Princess Diana’s funeral, he apparently remarked, “it would serve you much better to get up in the morning, look in the mirror, and say, 'I wonder what I can do today to really make a difference.' “ The fact is that all of our lives resemble a burning candle.

The version here is one of many renditions you can locate at SoundCloud, and I chose it because it is a cover by someone I’ve never heard of that is freely downloadable – partly in light of the fact that, while we honor actors, actresses and such this week, it is also their “guardian” (in the form of the MPAA and associates) that has made the work of SMM bloggers that much harder – to no one’s real benefit.

Having said I had never heard of the musician of my choice this week, what I do know is that there appears to be a “group” called Drakytown and that Randy Reer – from Leverkusen, Germany, may be the vocalist. A decent if not top of the line performance, but – hey … it’s free. And, the lyrics are altered as well.

As we wrap up our week of Presidents, the somewhat murky relationship between MM and JFK might be relevant. Marilyn Monroe never got an Oscar, but "Some Like It Hot" was nominated for several and she did get a Golden Globe Award for best actress.

Presidents, Rulers and Leaders: Get Outta Here Hitler

Cinemechanica: Get Outta Here Hitler 
[purchase]

The theme isn’t limited to presidents, so I figured, what better time to post this song? It is an instrumental, and listening to it, I hear no obvious connection to Hitler, who was, of course, known as the Führer, which means “leader” in German. And what better sentiment could be expressed about the leader of Nazi Germany, whose insane policies resulted in the death of millions, but “Get Outta Here”? I never tire of quoting Indiana Jones, who said, in The Last Crusade, “Nazis. I hate those guys.”

I know little about Cinemechanica, except that they are from Athens, Georgia, and sound very different from most other bands that I’m familiar with that call that city home. Their allmusic.com page has no bio (actually, they have two separate pages, one for each album, which indicates to me that no one is paying attention). Their Facebook page has a recent entry that indicates that the band is finishing up a new album, though. And their myspace page (yes, myspace) has some links to get merch, listen to songs, buy music, etc.

I’ve seen their music classified as “post-rock,” a genre that definitely is one of those, “I know it when I hear it” kind of things, and “math rock,” which is also a strange genre, and confuses me, because I like the song, but don’t really like math.

“Get Outta Here Hitler,” is, as I said, an instrumental featuring loud, abrasive guitars and busy drumming at the start, then moves into a complex, less abrasive section with ringing guitars in an odd meter (aha--math rock!), before returning to the crunch of the opening section. I originally downloaded the song because the title amused me, but it turns out to be a pretty good song. And not one that Hitler would have liked.

Presidents, Rulers & Leaders: Her Majesty

 

Jon Albrink: Her Majesty
[Purchase]

The Beatles Complete on Ukulele project, spearheaded by Roger Greenawalt, aimed to offer up the entire Beatles collection for free. The main caveat: there had to be a ukulele in the music. For the first few years (there are currently in excess of 180 songs in the collection), you could download each and every song in the collection. Not so any more. I haven’t been able to find out the reason for the change: the collection is still available for listening online (http://beatlescompleteonukulele.com and/or http://thebeatlescompleteonukulele.com), but they are now charging to download the songs.

The Beatles included Her Majesty  on Abbey Road. As with all the other downloadable copies of these songs, the downloadable ukulele version includes informative inline notes – both about the ukulele version and about the original. For this song, these notes claim that “… the song was originally placed between Mean Mr Mustard and Polyethelene Pam… “ but McCartney asked to have it removed and destroyed. However, EMI policy was that no Beatles recordings should be destroyed and the song eventually ended up as the close to the album (in spite of the song “The End”, which should have been the end of the album.) I assume "her majesty" is Queen Elizabeth?

This version, by Jon Albrink, includes additional lyrics and it sure sounds like he is having a good time. He does the guitar and vocals (http://www.jonalbrink.com/) while John Benthal plays the uke in this 2011 recording. Depending on your browser, the linked file may well show you the "liner notes" I reference above.

Presidents, Rulers and Leaders: Hail to the Chief / The President

Unknown Artist: Hail to the Chief

Unknown Artist: The President

How cool is it to have your very own anthem? That’s what the U.S. President has with “Hail to the Chief” a fanfare typically played by a military band before his appearance and after four “ruffles and flourishes” played on drums and bugles, respectively. In true military fashion, there are U.S. Department of Defense directives that afford official status to “Hail to the Chief.” Having worked for the U.S. Marine Corps, I’m quite confident that there’s probably also a voluminous manual of policies and procedures that apply to the protocol and decorum of a Presidential speech and the performance of “Hail to the Chief.”

Songwriter James Sanderson (1769 – 1841) is credited with setting to music, in about 1812, the verses of Sir Walter Scott’s “The Lady of the Lake.” Although the song is rarely sung today, Scott’s poem starts off with:

Hail to the chief, who in triumph advances,
Honour'd and blest be the evergreen pine!
Long may the tree in his banner that glances,
Flourish the shelter and grace of our line.

A self-taught English violinist and conductor of the Surrey Theatre in London, Sanderson wrote many songs for theatrical productions during the 1790s and early 1800s. The song's association with the President first occurred in 1815, when it was played (under the name "Wreaths for the Chieftain") to honor both George Washington and the end of the War of 1812.

On a lighter note, I also found a children’s song about Washington and Lincoln. I like little ditties that help kids (and even us older folks) remember little facts about various things. After listening to “The President,” you probably won’t forget that Lincoln was our 16th President. Or that:

The President … is in charge of the nation
Let's all … have a celebration
Let's remember … Washington and Lincoln
Without them, our country would be sinkin'!

There may be other songs out there that help us recall little known factoids and trivia about our Presidents, or perhaps even a rap song that just helps one remember the order of them. If it hasn’t been written yet, maybe someone ought to?

Presidents, Rulers and Leaders: WhiteHouse Blues

Charlie Poole: White House Blues

[It's a free file]

[See note at bottom]

As of last month, Barack Obama is once again the 44^th President of the United States. Though they may serve more than one term, they each get counted only once in this accounting. And while our remit this week doesn’t specifically limit us to the US of A, this week’s theme stems from the American observance of what used to be celebrated as Geo Washington’s birthday on February 22.

William McKinley, a civil war vet, had been elected to his second term in 1900, but was cut down in his second term, leaving the job to Teddy Roosevelt. Ranked as a middling POTUS, McKinley rated high enough to be immortalized in song in my selection this week.

Charlie Poole and his brother-in-law Posey Rorer were the backbone to a band from North Carolina that went on to make their name recording under the Columbia Records label in the 1920s. The song “White House Blues” deals rather irreverently with the McKinley era – or the end of it:

    Roosevelt in the White House drinking out of a silver cup
    McKinley in the graveyard, he'll never wake up
    He's gone a long, long time

The recording here is getting on to 100 years old (it IS from the last century), but is of remarkably decent quality all things considered: a few scratches on the disc, but still a pleasant listen. Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers in their various incarnations garnered acclaim for the well-known song “Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down” (David Bromberg., among later others)

A tip of the hat both to archive.org, where you can find a collection of Poole’s songs, and to openmusicarchive.org, which is hosting the original of the file linked above.

Note: Darius and I communicate regularly, but not to the extent that we aim to select the same song: at least, you've got two different versions of the same song.

Presidents, Rulers and Leaders: McKinley’s Blues

[purchase used on vinyl only]

I knew immediately what song I wanted to post for this week‘s theme. McKinley‘s Blues is a bluegrass classic, notably recorded by Flatt and Scruggs. It is also known as McKinley‘s Gone and White House Blues. But the version heard here is the only one I was willing to consider, and it is not strictly bluegrass, despite the impressive line up of musicians. Norman Blake is the headliner and singer, but Vassar Clements, Sam Bush, and Jethro Burns are all big names. Tut Taylor is not as well known as he once was, but he more than holds his own here on dobro. The ringer is bass player Dave Holland. In 1975, when this song was recorded, and to this day, Dave Holland is known as a jazz musician, and frequently associated with avant garde works at that. But what you have here is seven great musicians stretching out, going beyond the boundaries others have perceived for them. This album came out before the first David Grisman Quintet album, so it can be regarded as the first album in the genre we now call newgrass. In addition to Dave Holland’s presence and work here, listen to especially Vassar Clements’ fiddle lines on this song to hear the then unheard-of meeting of bluegrass and jazz.

In seeking out a purchase link, I was upset to discover that this great album is out of print. It is not currently available at all on CD, and Amazon has only used copies on vinyl to sell. The entire album is well worth having. I dare to hope that this post can help this album become available on disc, or at least mp3.

Presidents, Rulers and Leaders: William Howard Taft

The Two Man Gentlemen Band: William Howard Taft
[purchase]

I take credit or blame for suggesting this theme for Presidents’ Day, an attempt to consolidate holidays honoring Presidents Washington and Lincoln into a generic Monday holiday recognizing all of the nation’s presidents, whether brilliant, like George and Abe, competent, mediocre, criminal or incompetent. In true American fashion, we celebrate this holiday with sales, and it has now morphed into “Presidents’ Week.”

I had tons of ideas for president songs, but the first few that I came up with were by bands that I have already posted about, so instead, I decided to post this ditty about William Howard Taft, a one term Republican president from the early 20th Century. Taft is generally ranked in the middle echelon of chief executives, paling in comparison to his predecessor and former mentor turned rival, Theodore Roosevelt.

Taft’s legacy is mixed. He was responsible for some reasonably positive developments during his one term, but wasn’t as aggressively progressive as Roosevelt would have liked, and Teddy decided to challenge Taft for the nomination, but failed. Instead, he mounted a third party campaign under the Progressive Party banner (usually called the “Bull Moose” Party). This split the Republican vote, allowing Democrat Woodrow Wilson to win the election. Yes, at one point, Republicans fought over who was more progressive. Really, you can look it up.

President Taft is generally remembered for two things—being fat and becoming Chief Justice of the Supreme Court less than a decade after leaving the White House. Of course, most people who think about Taft know about his weight issue; fewer, I suspect, know about his tenure as the most powerful jurist in the country. It is rare that a former president takes on a significant official role after his term is over. Other than John Quincy Adams, who served in the House of Representatives after being president, Taft is the only one I can think of. There has been talk about Bill Clinton getting a seat on the Supreme Court, but I suspect that he likes his current gig running the Clinton Global Initiative, giving speeches and making money. I have to assume that if Hillary decides to run, Bill will want to be able to use his considerable political talents to get the family back into the White House.

The song (I know, this is a music blog, not a history or politics blog), released in 2007, is a funny retro swing piece featuring the banjo (it does seem hard to find a song these days that doesn’t have a banjo) that focuses mostly on Taft’s weight. The song continues the urban legend that Taft got stuck in a bathtub in the White House, which is probably not true. He did have a supersized bathtub installed; there is no evidence of his ever getting stuck in it.

Taft got a little bump in publicity recently when the Washington Nationals announced that a 12 foot mascot version of the 27th President will be joining mascot versions of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Taft’s nemesis, Teddy Roosevelt, during the fourth inning race. Roosevelt lost more than 500 times before finally winning during the playoffs last season. Taft’s selection is probably related to the fact that he was the first president to throw out a first pitch, in 1910, and may expand his public profile to a new generation of baseball fans. The Two Man Gentlemen Band put out a new album in 2012 and are currently on tour.

Heart: Heart of Gold

Neil Young: Heart of  Gold via YouTube [above]
[purchase mp3 at Amazon]

I held back until the last minute before our new theme comes online because I thought for sure some other SMM poster would surely hit on this: it has the weekly theme in the title and it is a classic.

Heart of Gold is the only one of Neil Young's many songs to reach the #1 spot on the US charts. First released on his 1972 "Harvest" album, he generally plays it on an acoustic guitar with harmonica accompaniment in addition to his vocals (as in the recording here.)

The late 60s and early 70s were Young's most productive years: member of Buffalo Springfield, solo work, and member of CSN&Y. Albums from this era include the eponymous "Neil Young" (1968), Everybody Knows This is Nowhere (1969), After the Gold Rush (1970) and Harvest (1972). The previous list does not reference his "side career" with CSN&Y during the same time frame.

This particular video starts off kind of rambling, but in the process, provides a certain insight into the man's personality, and so, while there are other more direct renditions of the song at YouTube, I chose this for the depth of character it imparts.

Heart: May I Take A Giant Step Into Your Heart

1910 Fruitgum Company : May I Take A Giant Step ( Into Your Heart)

[Purchase]

Between their two biggest Top 10 singles, "Simon Says" and "1,2,3 Red Light", bubblegum rockers The 1910 Fruitgum Company released the oddly titled "May I Take a Giant Step (Into Your Heart)". Like the other singles it's based on a children's game. This one is called " Mother, May I" in which kids ask the mother figure whether they can take a certain number of steps towards her.

 May I take a giant step into your heart
May I give you love and sweet affection
May I take a giant step into your heart
So that you will look in my direction

Oddly, women don't know what to make of the line "May I take a giant step into your heart". I got a very strange look from my wife.




The track peaked at only #63 but the band had already earned a supporting act role in The Beach Boys 1968 tour of the Deep South. The 1910 Fruitgum Company had one more hit, the politically incorrect on so many levels "Indian Giver".Today the lead singer, Mark Gutkowski, owns a piano store in New Jersey.

Heart: Heart of Stone

SVT: Heart of Stone
[purchase]

I’ve written about Jorma, so now it is time to write about Jack.

Jack Casady and Jorma Kaukonen have been friends since their teens, playing together in bands in the Washington, D.C. area. When Jorma moved west, he recommended that his new band, the Jefferson Airplane, hire his friend to play bass. Jack had become a prominent bass player in the Washington area, despite his age, and backed up touring artists such as Ray Charles. After joining the Airplane, he became one of the most well respected bass players in rock music, using the bass as more of a melodic, lead instrument.

Jack and Jorma formed Hot Tuna, first as a side project, then as a main band, and have been the two constant members to this day. Casady’s bass playing is remarkable in its virtuosity, yet he never seems to call attention to himself. In addition to playing with the Airplane and Hot Tuna, he has appeared on albums by and/or played with Jimi Hendrix, David Crosby and Warren Zevon, as well as being involved in projects featuring members of the extended Airplane/Starship family and the Grateful Dead.

But in the 1980s, the music world was turning toward “New Wave” music—an uptempo melding of rock and power pop with influence from punk. Jorma formed a band called Vital Parts, which went nowhere, and Jack joined SVT, which was either named after a medical condition or a bass amplifier.

SVT’s first single, “Heart of Stone,” is truly a forgotten classic of the genre. Written by singer Brian Marnell, and featuring great bass playing by Casady, it became a radio hit in the San Francisco area, and crossed over a little into the then burgeoning “college rock” world. It hit my sweet spot, as a college D.J., fan of Casady, and lover of power pop, and I know I played it many times on the radio. I note that this is my third consecutive week posting about power pop songs, so next week, I’ll try to find something a little different, maybe something in 9/8 time about dragons or Vikings. It all depends on the theme…..

I have often speculated on this blog about why some bands or artists make it and others don’t. It appears from my quick research that the band started to disintegrate when they failed to hit it big, and then Marnell, the songwriter, guitarist and singer, died from an overdose (or in a car accident, depending on the source).

Casady tried another New Wave band, Yanks, continued to play in projects with others, and released a solo album in 2009. In the early 1980s, Jorma and Jack restarted Hot Tuna, and they have toured regularly, putting out an album in 2011. They are on tour now and the Hot Tuna website shows dates for shows into November. I saw them a few years ago (for the first time since high school), and they continue to impress, whether playing electric, acoustic or both. Jack’s bass playing is still amazing.

Heart: Heartbreaker

Led Zeppelin: Heartbreaker via YouTube (above)

[purchase]

Valentine's Day = forever love, flowers, chocolate, diamond rings, matters of the heart ... Well, perhaps it depends on your defintion of "the heart". The source of life, the fount of our emotions, our hearts are heavily weighted with much more than simply pumping our blood. Often ... more than they can carry.

Whereas this week's theme aims to take you into (sweet) variations related to the usual Valentine's Day sounds of love, there is another perspective to the heart which doesn't always follow the romantic path. Savants say that to know true love, one needs to endure its negative: could be "Heartbreak". There is sweet (lite-pop style) heartbreak, and then there's heavier heartbreak.

In the '70s, Led Zeppelin came up with a number of songs that I would label as "romantic"- to me, Stairway to Heaven evokes many romantic emotions. In other songs, there's lots of un-requited love in their lyrics (Whole Lotta Love), so ... despite the perception of Led Zeppelin as a rough/rock band, they often touch on love.

From their second album, Zeppelin's "Heartbreaker" is not "sweet". While including our focus word from this week's theme, the song embodies the rougher side of our hearts: we sometimes have to "break to make"- as painful as it is.  To move on, you may need to stop and start again. Catharsis, it's called.

Winter: Winter Kills

Yaz: Winter Kills

[purchase]

I was a true child of the eighties alternative movements, absorbing everything from Depeche Mode and early U2 to the proto-grunge movement on my path towards adulthood. And as with so many generational moments, the canon was clear: though I wouldn't have known to call it British synthpop, Upstairs At Eric's - the debut album from short-lived but highly influential UK duo Yazoo, known as Yaz in the US - was a staple of my earliest collection, as it was for every friend I had, and the snow-white cassette traveled everywhere with me, through jamband and folkphases, until its presence in my life became first anachronistic and then, finally, ironic, right before the tape disintegrated, and its songs became just one more part of the history of us.

There's many, many songs in my collection about winter, truly. Some masquerade as parts of the holiday canon, whether or not they mention Christmas, but most use the still season as both metaphor and setting: of death, and the suffering of stasis which snow and ice bring. And of these, there are easily a hundred or more which better reflect the way I listen now: Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson's Winter Song, for example, or Patty Griffin's Icicles - a terribly underrated deep cut from 2004 album Impossible Dream - or any number of covers of Gordon Lightfoot's Song For A Winter's Night.

Too, most of the Yaz songs which made them famous are bouncy and playful; it's easy to see how, too, when you remember that primary songwriter and synth-player Vince Clarke, who represents one half of the Yaz duo, came from Depeche Mode to Yaz, and would move on to found Erasure just a few years later. But there may be no better song in my archives which better paints us into the quiet desperation of winter the way I experience it today, writing these words in a bubble, in a state where the Governor has outlawed driving, and the drifts cover the doorways like fog and smoke. Listen, as the slow, muted pulse of snowed-in thunder, the tinkling of icicle piano fragments, and the gutsy, soaring vocals of trapped and snowblind contralto Alison Moyet put you in your rightful place - in a world where hubris is anathema to the human condition, and mother nature wins all draws.

Winter: River

[purchase]

This week’s theme gives me the chance to deal with a pet peeve. River is not a Christmas song. It is a winter song. Specifically, it is a transplanted Canadian, living in southern California where winter is unknown, explaining what winter means to her. Christmas, in the song, belongs to this place where “it stays petty green”. It is a place where a romance has gone horribly wrong. Winter, on the other hand, equals childhood, a time in her life before she even thought of romance. That frozen river is a place of innocence for Joni Mitchell. She wants to skate away from that hurting adult she has become.

I live in New Jersey, where winter exists, but our rivers do not freeze over. We think of winter as a harsh season, and it is all to easy to misunderstand the emotions of this classic song. But Canadians are different. Their feelings about winter are perhaps best explained by noting that ice hockey is far more popular there than baseball or basketball. I would argue that River is one of Joni Mitchell’s most Canadian songs for this reason.

In searching for a video for this song, I had thought to find Joni performing it, and I might have found that if I had looked longer. But this fan-made slide show by sherrylynn70 perfectly embodies the combination of the emotions of the song and Americans‘ misunderstanding of them. Some of the Christmas scenes here are too bright, and the winter scenes sometimes have too many people in them. But there are also some starkly beautiful winter images here that fit perfectly.

[purchase]

And while I was at it, I couldn’t resist including this cover, by Herbie Hancock with Corinne Bailey Rae. Of course, this comes from Hancock’s album of Mitchell covers, called River. The album was made with Mitchell’s blessing; she even sings on one track, The Tea Leaf Prophecy. Rae’s performance of River is quite different from Joni’s. Mitchell makes the song a raw wound, while Rae places the turbulent emotions of the text under a sheet of ice. It would be easy to hear the sweetness in Rae’s voice, and say that she misses the emotion of the song altogether, and I believe some critics did say this. But listen to the way Rae turns the opening phrase. All the hurt of text is there, but she is trying to swallow it whole. It almost, but not quite, works, and the result has all of the emotional power the song deserves. This is clearly what Herbie Hancock was after, judging by the musical setting he and his band have created for the song.

I hope you will forgive me for not sharing a third video here. There is a performance of River on YouTube by Herbie Hancock with Joni Mitchell doing the vocals. It has its own beauty. The performance is from 2008, and Mitchell’s voice no longer does what it did when she was younger. The events in the song are now a hurtful memory instead of a fresh wound. The video is worth seeking out for completists, but I think the two versions I have presented here say what I wanted to say.

Winter: North Dakota

Chris Knight: North Dakota (demo)

[purchase]

Since New England is about to get hit with "Snowmageddon," or whatever they are calling it now, I figure it's time to get back to posting on Star Maker Machine, especially with a timely theme like "winter." As a northerner, winter, cold, and snow is part of my heritage and is in my blood. Sledding, downhill and cross country skiing, snow days, ice skating, curling, snow forts, and even ice fishing were all a part of my upbringing. I have 243 tracks in my mp3 collection that contain either "winter," "cold," or "snow" in their title. So I selected a track to write about that contains none of these words in its title.

Chris Knight is one of the most underrated songwriters in America. In this track he describes the utter bleakness of a US northern plains blizzard while at the same time telling a heart-wrenching story. In the song it is snowing so hard that the narrator can't see the horse stable from his cabin. He returns home during the blizzard and is unable to find his female companion (friend, wife, girlfriend? doesn't matter). It isn't until much later, when the rain washes the snow away, that he finds out what happened to her.

"North Dakota" is from Knight's stellar 2001 album A Pretty Good Guy. The version posted here is an acoustic demo, which to me adds to the starkness of the song. This song was my introduction to Knight, and the first time I heard it I teared up. Knight was born, raised, and still resides in Kentucky, and I have no idea if he spent any time in the North Dakota winter. But that's what great songwriters and storytellers do; they are able to put you in foreign situations and make you feel like you are there. Does anyone else feel the need to throw another log on the fire or put on a sweater and drink hot coco after hearing this song?

Winter: Valley Winter Song

Fountains of Wayne: Valley Winter Song
[purchase]

Last week, in writing about Dough, I compared them to Fountains of Wayne, who are, in my opinion, among the best writers of intelligent pop songs. As a non-musician, the ability to write songs is, to me, a nearly miraculous talent, and the ability to write a perfect pop song makes me genuflect.

“Valley Winter Song” was written by Chris Collingwood, one of the two principal songwriters of Fountains of Wayne, and it is a gentle ballad that he wrote for his wife about the winters in Western Massachusetts, being stuck in the house and suffering from seasonal affective disorder. I do love living in the northeast, but sometimes during the winter I question my sanity. Nevertheless, when the snow is falling down, and you can stay in your house, or go out and cavort in the white powder, or just stay on the couch drinking hot cocoa, it is actually kind of nice.

In the song, Collingwood refers to “our New England town,” and some quick research uncovers that he lives in Northampton, Massachusetts, one of the more interesting and tolerant communities around. It is also the home of Smith College, an amazing place that also happens to be the alma mater of my wife, and where my daughter currently attends college. Since my daughter has been in Northampton, she has been pretty lucky—the weather hasn’t been brutally cold, and the snow has come only in isolated spurts. They did get nailed pretty badly during the northeaster (I’m not a pirate, so I refuse to use “nor’easter”) on Halloween 2011 and lost power for a while. Of course, they are now calling for a pretty bad storm this weekend, so we shall see. It’s all probably a result of climate change, which has resulted in warmer winters and more violent storms in our part of the world. One of the great things about being at college during a storm like that is that you have the infrastructure and resources available to mitigate the hardships, and you are surrounded by friends. And you don’t have to shovel.

Last Sunday, I woke up in New York with a dusting of snow on the ground, which didn’t stop me and my wife from driving the two plus hours up to Northampton for the Silver Chord Bowl, an a cappella concert held on Smith’s campus. It sold out the 2,000 seat hall, and we were on line an hour early to get good seats. Although my musical tastes are pretty varied, I’ve never been a fan of a cappella music—I made it through 4 years at Princeton, which has a long and proud tradition of such music basically avoiding it, except when the singers blocked an archway I needed to get through (I apologize now to my friends who were in any of the singing groups that I callously ignored—I think I have grown a little in the past 35 years).

Of course, the apparently omnipotent gods of harmony singing have had their revenge—my son’s college percussion group performed each parent’s weekend in a long showcase show featuring many, many a cappella groups, and he is now dating an a cappella singer. My daughter is a member of the Smithereens, the fourth oldest women’s group in the country (not the more recently formed and excellent rock band of the same name) who performed in the Silver Chord Bowl, thus explaining why I left my cozy house on a snowy winter day to sit through what turned out to be a very entertaining show. Oh, and it was Super Bowl Sunday, a winter ritual that transcends the game itself (my daughter said that a friend asked why they were playing football at a Beyoncé concert). It is only because I am just that good a father that I would miss the first quarter of the big game (not to mention the commercials) to see her perform. The Smithereens were great, by the way.

Winter: Song of Winter

[Purchase]

Bob Dylan wrote a poem about her. Blur asked her to sing with them. And Jacques Dutronc married her. But it's taken having a song prominently featured in Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom to clue in the hipsters about the elegant, silky voiced Francoise Hardy. That song, "Tout Les Garcons Et Les Filles", hit the UK Top 40 in 1962 despite the language barrier.

For the album One Nine Seven Zero, Hardy sang "Song of Winter" which takes more credit for a cold spell than any TV weatherman ever has:

I'm the song of winter, I'm the falling snow
Can't you hear me calling you whenever the north wind blows
I'm the cool of evening, I'm the velvet sky
Can't you hear me calling you whenever the breeze passes.

The tune comes from British songwriters Tommy Brown and Micky Jones. After a stint with Spooky Tooth, Jones would form Foreigner whose celebration of frigid women, "Cold As Ice", was a US Top 10 hit in 1977.

Winter: Winter

Rolling Stones: Winter
[Purchase @ Amazon]

“Winter”, from Goat’s Head Soup – the ’73 Rolling Stones release – got this review from Bill Janovitz (one of my favorites): “ Here they were in sunny Jamaica, and the Rolling Stones were writing and recording an entirely convincing and evocative picture of a Northern Hemisphere winter. Perhaps they were so happy to be escaping the season they felt that starting the sessions with "Winter" could transition them out of the old and into the new climate. Though it bemoans many of the negatives of the season [in the] lyrics... "Winter" seems to simultaneously celebrate the season as something inherently beautiful, with other evocations of holiday scenes and wanting to wrap a coat and keep a lover warm…”

Wikipedia says the song was probably a product of Jagger and Taylor, but that Taylor didn’t get much credit for his efforts (seems to be a common thread about his role in the Stones). Apparently, Keith Richards had nothing to do with this oevre.

From my own perspective, Goats Head Soup – and “Winter” in particular – carry poignant memories. I was a high school senior and the year was ’73 (Probably you had to be there to relate, but it was a seminal place and time). Of course, this was following on “Exile on Main Street”. Like the years (’73 is a distant memory), seasons also come and go, but classics songs (like “Winter”) go on and on and ….

Back to Janovitzs’s remarks (and the current condition of Star Maker Machine): winter comes and goes. The wind blows cold, and then warm. Music is at heart a celebration: musicians feel something, and as a result produce music. That’s the idea that has driven Star Maker bloggers so far, too.

Resurrection: Within You / Without You

 

The Beatles/Spottiswoode: Within You Without You

http://thebeatlescompleteonukulele.com/

Resurrection/Reincarnation… Star Marker is too established to fade away so easily- at least for now. Several regulars have noted our recent absence, so we’ll make an attempted come back.  Hence, the current  topic. It seems that the topic is appropriate in that it’s related to our absence since the new year:  the subject of New Years’ resolutions: our wish to remake ourselves each new year.

So … George Harrison’s “Within You Without You”…  A sitar-based/Hindu based  piece that seems to convey the sense of a world beyond the one we normally perceive: that  there may be more to reality than that which humans perceive.

The use of the sitar in itself conveys the appropriate other-worldly atmosphere.

While not directly focused on resurrection, the song calls to mind the fact that there are cultures that see the world in a different light; it raises the idea that our lives may not end with the one we now know/experience.

Death does not have to mean the end. We each possess the potential to “save the world” if we could only see beyond our limited view of our present world.

Resurrection: Come Back

Dough: Come Back
[purchase]

Well, we’re back. And it seems fitting to follow the In Memoriam theme and a short period of dormancy with a Resurrection theme. To be honest, the song I chose isn’t really about resurrection, but the title, “Come Back” fits.

Dough was a band that played around New York in the early 2000’s. They put out a nice, self-titled album filled with catchy, uptempo songs. Think Fountains of Wayne. The reason that I am aware of the band is that they replaced their bass player with Tony Maceli. Tony was the music teacher at my son’s school when he was in 4th-6th grade. He might read this, and I am going to maybe embarrass him by saying that he was a great teacher and a huge influence on my son. My kids have been lucky to have had a number of really good teachers when they were in school and very few, if any, real clunkers. Most were good, but a few really stood out, and Tony was one of those special teachers. He taught them to be confident in their new musical abilities and ran an afterschool jazz band where he taught the youngsters music theory, improvisation and more. He pushed them beyond what you would expect from a public school teacher.

For example, he found my son, who played the flute, at the end of 5th grade, handed him a baritone sax and a book and told him that he was going to be the bari sax player in the jazz band the next year. My son learned the instrument, and was, in fact, the bari sax player in the jazz band the next year. And soloed. I know that his time with Tony gave my son the confidence to pick up the guitar, and drums, and even a little keyboard, and helped to foster his love of music of all kinds. Unfortunately, Tony left our district before my daughter had a chance to study with him, and to my knowledge, he is not teaching in schools anymore, instead living the life of a professional musician in Brooklyn. I see pictures of his gigs on Facebook.

When Tony joined Dough, we went to see the band play, with my kids, a number of times, at venues including Arlene’s Grocery on the Lower East Side, and a teen club in Connecticut. I definitely recommend taking your teenagers to rock clubs on the Lower East Side. Really. With Tony, Dough released an EP that was similarly catchy (with, of course, better bass). Dough was good, they were tight, and with a few breaks, they might have made it. But it didn’t happen for Dough, and as best I can tell they went their separate ways.

I don’t really have much to say about the song, except that it is a very good pop song, which is hard to do, and I think that you will enjoy it. And, it is great to be back.

In Memoriam: Mike Auldridge

[purchase solo works from Mike Auldridge here]

Like most players of the resophonic guitar - popularly called the Dobro, though as with Kleenex and Band-Aid, the term technically refers to a trademarked brand, originally coined by the instrument's inventor in 1928, and now produced exclusively by the Gibson corporation - Mike Auldridge got his start as a guitar player.

And to be honest, if he had remained a guitar player, we'd probably never have heard of him.

But while many who play the instrument treat it as an extension of their other fretwork, or treat it like a kind of overly-expensive slide guitar with high-tech acoustic innards (and play it that way), Auldridge saw something both unique and potent in the potential of the instrument as a lead voice, rather than just a session supplement. After Brother Oswald, who rescued the Dobro from obscurity with his work with Roy Acuff in the '40s and '50s, and after Auldridge's mentor Josh Graves came along and took the thing to another level as a bluegrass mainstay, Auldridge's subsequent pursuit of Dobro mastery, and his prodigious output on it both as a solo musician and as an integral part of the rising newgrass scene, with its fusion of bluegrass with jazz, folk and rock, brought the instrument to a new prominence in and beyond the bluegrass and country worlds.

In this, Auldridge joins a quite small group of musicians and craftspersons who almost single-handedly pushed their chosen instrument into a wholly new level of cultural and musical relevance. To say he made a huge splash as a musician in the last third of the 20th century is therefore both accurate, and a serious understatement of his impact on music.

That Auldridge's path to greatness - for himself, and for the Dobro - was so painstakingly slow is a tribute to his patience and his talent. For such recognition was neither easy nor instantaneous; indeed, although he was born in 1938, and was already playing the instrument by the fifties, Auldridge worked as a graphic designer full-time until well into the seventies, when his work with seminal newgrass group the Seldom Scene - a band which he co-founded in 1971 in the Maryland basement of banjo-player and mathematician Ben Eldridge - became popular enough to support full-time touring and recording.

Later, he would be a featured musician on albums by Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, and Patty Loveless, and found newgrass offshoot Chesapeake with several other Seldom Scene members when it became clear that the collaborative nature of the group would always be subservient to the leadership of John Duffey. He recorded numerous solo cuts and albums designed as instructional showpieces for the instrument, each of which sports great beauty and clarity while demonstrating the potential of the resophonic guitar as a lead instrument and voice. He won a Grammy for his work on The Dobro Sessions, and was named a National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellow in 2012. But although his solo work, as heard above, is quite beautiful, it is his work with The Seldom Scene for which he is best remembered, and as such, it is one of my favorite Seldom Scene songs which I have posted below in his honor today - check it out before we keep going, for both a clear shot at Duffey's camera-hogging approach to performance, and for Aldridge's solo, a wild ride which starts at 2:26, and lasts a full minute.

[purchase the Seldom Scene studio album of the same name]

Although choosing to stay in and around his native Maryland surely had some impact on his ability to spread the gospel of the Dobro, Auldridge famously never moved to Nashville, preferring even in his strongest decades to wait for others to invite him to tour and play on their records. But when he passed away just yesterday, he left a legacy nonetheless: one in which his own songs and sounds stand firm as a testament to greatness, and in which - thanks to his own work, and to his mentorship of other, younger masters of the instrument, such as Jerry Douglas and Rob Ickes - his chosen Dobro has become a core component of contemporary acoustic music, both as a central element of the bluegrass sound, and as a familiar staple in other related genres, from folk to country rock.