Category: Music

So Who Buys Albums Anyway?

Top six albums this week:

  1. Justin Timberlake, “FutureSex/LoveSounds”
  2. John Mayer, “Continuum”
  3. Beyoncé, “B’Day”
  4. Bob Seger, “Face the Promise”
  5. Bob Dylan, “Modern Times”
  6. Lionel Richie, “Coming Home”

Ages of the six 25, 28, 25, 61, 65, 57.

Bus Fumes

“‘I’ve played ACL more times than anyone, I think,’ Willie Nelson told us on his tour bus, which sure smelled good.”

— Rolling Stone : The 10 Best Shows at Austin City Limits 2006

“Willie Nelson and four others were issued misdemeanor citations for possession of narcotic mushrooms and marijuana after a traffic stop Monday morning on a Louisiana highway, state police said. … ‘When the door was opened and the trooper began to speak to the driver, he smelled the strong odor of marijuana,’ the news release said.”

— CNN.com.

But maybe they weren’t smoking it. Maybe it’s just part of the Willie Nelson Biodiesel.

Which got NewMexiKen thinking. According to data from the Drug Enforcement Administration, 98% of all the marijuana plants seized by law enforcement in the U.S. are wild hemp, not cultivated cannabis. That’s a lot of bio-mass. Let’s be creative here. Suppose we used the confiscated plants to power mass transit. Then we’d have free fuel, plus ridership would increase dramatically on those “smelly” buses.

Peaking Too Soon

Two articles from The New York Times about artists who made it early.

First, If Mozart Had Had Better Health Care; it begins:

Poor Mozart, who died at 35, must have inherited at least the potential for longevity from his parental gene pool.

His father, Leopold Mozart, died at 67, a ripe old age in an era when rampant illnesses claimed the majority of European children in infancy. Sadly, Mozart’s indomitable mother, Anna Maria, died at 58 while in Paris, having contracted viral infections and a severe fever during an arduous trip with her rambunctious, opportunity-seeking 22-year-old son. Mozart’s sister, Nannerl, who had also been a musical prodigy, died in 1829 in Salzburg at the impressive age of 78, having well outlived her husband, an officious Austrian prefect and two-time widower with five children, who resented their stepmother.

Mozart’s death in 1791 was probably caused by streptococcal infection, renal failure, terminal bronchial pneumonia and a matrix of other illnesses, some dating from his childhood, when the Mozart family spent years touring Europe to show off the boy genius and, to a lesser extent, his sister.

Imagine how different music history would have been had Mozart lived to Nannerl’s age.

Then, Some Good News Arrives at Last for a Bad News Bear; the article begins:

In the original “Bad News Bears,” the actor Jackie Earle Haley made a memorable entrance riding a motorbike across a Little League baseball diamond, disrupting the opening day ceremonies. Personifying Bicentennial-era rebel cool, Mr. Haley achieved stardom at the age of 15.

As with so many young actors, though, it has been a long and difficult road ever since for Mr. Haley.

I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry

Hiram Williams was born on this date 83 years ago. We know him as Hank.

Hank Williams’s legend has long overtaken the rather frail and painfully introverted man who spawned it. Almost singlehandedly, Williams set the agenda for contemporary country songcraft, but his appeal rests as much in the myth that even now surrounds his short life. His is the standard by which success is measured in country music on every level, even self-destruction.

— Country Music Hall of Fame

And the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where Williams is also and inductee, says:

The words and music of Hank Williams echo across the decades with a timelessness that transcends genre. He brought country music into the modern era, and his influence spilled over into the folk and rock arenas as well. Artists ranging from Gram Parsons and John Fogerty (who recorded an entire album of Williams’ songs after leaving Creedence Clearwater Revival) to the Georgia Satellites and Uncle Tupelo have adapted elements of Williams’ persona, especially the aura of emotional forthrightness and bruised idealism communicated in his songs. Some of Williams’ more upbeat country and blues-flavored numbers, on the other hand, anticipated the playful abandon of rockabilly.

Hank Williams died in the back seat of his Cadillac. He was found and declared dead on New Year’s Day 1953. He was 29.

Sounding Off

NewMexiKen is reading Mark Katz’s Capturing Sound: How Technology Has Changed Music. It’s a well-regarded book that I am finding interesting, though actually I was looking more for a history of the early recorded music business. Katz’s interest is mostly from the musicologist point of view.

Still, some interesting stuff.

One of the most basic manipulations is splicing, in which passages recorded at different times are joined together. The Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever” (1967) provides a famous example. The Beatles did over two dozen takes of the song, none of which completely satisfied John Lennon. But he did like the first half of Take 7 and the second half of Take 26. So he asked George Martin, their producer, to put the two together. Unfortunately, they were in different keys and tempos. The two takes, however, were related in such a way that when one was sped up and the other slowed down so that the tempos matched, the pitches also matched. Thus the two takes could be joined, the splice occurring at about 0:59 on the word going in “Let me take you down ’cause I’m going to Strawberry Fields.” Although the splice is nearly undetectable, the slightly altered speed of Lennon’s voice helps give the song its distinctively dreamlike quality.

Another passage notes the impact of the Depression and free radio on the phonograph business:

“In 1927, 104 million discs and 987,000 machines were sold; by 1932, the numbers had plummeted to 6 million and 40,000.”

Maybe our present day music industry should quit its whining.

Listening Post

Beyoncé’s album B’Day is number one this week, relegating Bob Dylan to number three after one week at the top. Audioslave’s Revelations is second. Albums have a tendency these days, like movies, to get a big push when they are released, then settle into their run, however long it might be. Both the Beyoncé and Audioslave album were released just last week, as Dylan’s was the week before it became number one.

Justin Timberlake’s SexyBack is in its third week as the number one track. His album is expected to be number one next week.

An article in today’s New York Times suggests Mr. Dylan’s lyrics are derivative.

Perhaps you’ve never heard of Henry Timrod, sometimes known as the poet laureate of the Confederacy.

But maybe you’ve heard his words, if you’re one of the 320,000 people so far who have bought Bob Dylan’s latest album, “Modern Times,” which made its debut last week at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart.

It seems that many of the lyrics on that album, Mr. Dylan’s first No. 1 album in 30 years (down to No. 3 this week), bear some strong echoes to the poems of Timrod, a Charleston native who wrote poems about the Civil War and died in 1867 at the age of 39.

It seems to me that all lyrics are derivative. All writing, in fact, is derivative. If it weren’t for the Bible, Shakespeare would have been short many a phrase. Some disagree:

That’s exactly what bothers Chris Dineen, a middle school Spanish teacher and casual fan of Mr. Dylan’s in Albuquerque. “It seems kind of duplicitous,” he said. “Even casual fans know that Dylan has a history of doing this and it’s part of what makes him great, but this is different. This is one poet who’s used over and over and over again.”

Mr. Dineen said he would have been happy if Mr. Dylan had just given Timrod credit for the lines. “Maybe it’s the teacher in me. If I found out that he had done this in a research paper, he’d be in big trouble.”

Things Have Changed

NewMexiKen thought this was curious, though it makes sense once you think about it.

In the early decades of the 20th century when recorded music first became available, it was considered unusual or strange for a person to listen to music during the day or while alone.

Previously, of course, music was a social event requiring performers and an audience. For the first time in human existence, recorded music made it possible for an individual to hear music while alone without playing it his or herself.

It was another 50 years before the transistor radio, Walkman and iPod made it possible for listening to become a truly private experience.

(Commercial music recording began in 1889. Victor’s recordings of Enrico Caruso in 1902 are considered the first musically satisfactory recordings.)

September 13

… is the birthday:

… of Milton S. Hershey, born on this date in 1857. Hershey, who only completed the fourth grade, developed a formula for milk chocolate that made what had been a luxury product into the first nationally marketed candy.

… of Sherwood Anderson, born on this date in 1876 in Camden, Ohio.

[Anderson] is best known for his short stories, “brooding Midwest tales” which reveal “their author’s sympathetic insight into the thwarted lives of ordinary people.” Between World War I and World War II, Anderson helped to break down formulaic approaches to writing, influencing a subsequent generation of writers, most notably Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner. Anderson, who lived in New Orleans for a brief time, befriended Faulkner there in 1924 and encouraged him to write about his home county in Mississippi. (Library of Congress)

… of Bill Monroe, born on this date in 1911. The Father of Bluegrass Music was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1970. In 1993, Monroe was a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, an honor that placed him in the company of Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles and Paul McCartney. Monroe died in 1996.

Monroe is also an inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame:

Musical pioneer Bill Monroe is known as “the father of bluegrass music.” While Monroe would humbly say, “I’m a farmer with a mandolin and a high tenor voice,” he and His Blue Grass Boys essentially created a new musical genre out of the regional stirrings that also led to the birth of such related genres as Western Swing and honky-tonk. From his founding of the original bluegrass band in the Thirties, he refined his craft during six decades of performing. In so doing, he brought a new level of musical sophistication to what had previously been dismissed as “rural music.” Both as ensemble players and as soloists, Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys upped the ante in their chosen genre much the way Duke Ellington’s and Miles Davis’s bands did in jazz. Moreover, the tight, rhythmic drive of Monroe’s string bands helped clear a path for rock and roll in the Fifties. That connection became clear when a reworked song of Monroe’s, “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” became part of rock and roll history as the B side of Elvis Presley’s first single for Sun Records in 1954. Carl Perkins claimed that the first words Presley spoke to him were, “Do you like Bill Monroe?”

… of Mel Torme, born on this date in 1925. The “Velvet Fog” was a wonderful jazz singer, but his greatest legacy is writing “The Christmas Song” — “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…”. Torme died in 1999.

And it’s the anniversary of the inspiration for our most famous song:

As the evening of September 13, 1814, approached, Francis Scott Key, a young lawyer who had come to negotiate the release of an American friend, was detained in Baltimore harbor on board a British vessel. Throughout the night and into the early hours of the next morning, Key watched as the British bombed nearby Fort McHenry with military rockets. As dawn broke, he was amazed to find the Stars and Stripes, tattered but intact, still flying above Fort McHenry.
…

Key’s experience during the bombardment of Fort McHenry inspired him to pen the words to “The Star-Spangled Banner.” He adapted his lyrics to the tune of a popular drinking song, “To Anacreon in Heaven,” and the song soon became the de facto national anthem of the United States of America, though Congress did not officially recognize it as such until 1931.

Library of Congress

Star-spangled Banner
 
 
The Smithsonian Institution, which has the original “star-spangled banner,” has details about the flag.

More here as well.
 
 

iTunes

Cover Flow

As NewMexiKen already noted, the new iTunes 7 is a major upgrade. If you have an iPod or use iTunes to manage your music, don’t hesitate to upload the new version.

Seen above is one of two new browsing interfaces. This is Cover Flow. With it, you can browse your music as if you were thumbing through albums — and if you don’t have the art, iTunes will get it for you.

Much better interface for managing iPods, too.

Update: How To: Back up your music using iTunes 7 from The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW).

It’s Showtime

The iTunes Music Store is down this morning — big changes expected today.

It's Showtime

What will they be? What will they be? Steve Jobs speech later today.

Update: Here are some highlights:

60 million iPods sold through last quarter.

New earbuds. Look the same, sound better.

New iPods: 80GB, $349. More for less. Brighter screen.

New Nanos: Colors, or aluminum case. Battery lasts 24 hours. New 8GB model for $249, same price as 4MB was.

New iShuffle. 1GB $79. Smaller. Aluminum case.

iTunes 7. Separate sections for music, TV, movies. Album art for all your iTunes tracks (if you have an iTunes account). 3.5 million songs of album art. Will now let you move purchased music between authorized computers via iPod. iPod management now within iTunes (not just in Preferences).

CoverFlow is now built into iTunes. Search your music by album covers!

Video resolution increased 4-fold.

And movies now available. DVD-near quality. Surround sound.

And, as Ken has already added to the comments, the last item was iTV, to be released in early 2007. It will be a wireless networking box that will allow you to play your iTunes audio or video files on your home theater. $299.

Elvis 50 Years Ago Tonight

From Peter Guralnick’s excellent Last Train to Memphis:

On September 9 he was scheduled to appear on the premier Ed Sullivan Show of the season. Sullivan, however, was recuperating from an August automobile accident and, as a result, was not going to be able to host the program, which Elvis would perform from the CBS studio in Los Angeles. Elvis sent Sullivan a get-well card and a picture autographed to “Mr. Ed Sullivan” and was thrilled to learn that the show would be guest-hosted by Charles Laughton, star of Mutiny an the Bounty. Steve Allen, who had presented him in his last television appearance, was not even going to challenge Sullivan on the night in question: NBC was simply going to show a movie.

He opened with “Don’t Be Cruel,” strolling out alone from the darkened wings onto a stage spotlighted with silhouettes of guitars and a bass fiddle. He was wearing a loud plaid jacket and an open-necked shirt, but his performance was relatively subdued, as every shoulder shrug, every clearing of his throat and probing of his mouth with his tongue, evoked screams and uncontrolled paroxysms of emotion. Then he announced he was going to sing a brand-new song, “it’s completely different from anything we’ve ever done. This is the title of our brand-new Twentieth Century Fox movie and also my newest RCA Victor escape – er, release.” There was an apologetic shrug in response to the audience’s laughter, and then, after an altogether sincere tribute to the studio, the director, and all the members of the cast, and “with the help of the very wonderful Jordanaires,” he sang “Love Me Tender.” It is a curious moment. Just after beginning the song he takes the guitar off and hands it to an unseen stagehand, and there are those awkward moments when he doesn’t seem to know quite what to do without his prop and shrugs his shoulders or twitchily adjusts his lapels, but the moans which greet the song — of surprise? of shock? of delight? most likely all three — clearly gratify him, and at the end of the song he bows and gestures graciously to the Jordanaires.

When he comes back for the second sequence, the band is shown, with Jordanaire Gordon Stoker at the piano and the other Jordanaires in plaid jackets at least as loud (but nowhere near as cool) as his own. They rock out on Little Richard’s “Ready Teddy,” but when Elvis goes into his dance the camera pulls away and, as reviews in the following days will note, “censors” his movements. It doesn’t matter. The girls scream just when he stands still, and when he does two verses of “Hound Dog” to end the performance, the West Coast studio audience goes crazy, though the New York Journal-American‘s Jack O’Brian, after first taking note of Presley’s “ridiculously tasteless jacket and hairdo (hairdon’t)” and granting that “Elvis added to his gamut (A to B) by crossing his eyes,” pointed out that the New York audience “laughed and hooted.” “Well, what did someone say?” remarked host Charles Laughton, with good humor, at the conclusion of the performance. “Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast?”

The show got a 43.7 Trendex rating (it reached 82.6 percent of the television audience), and in the Colonel’s view, which he shared gleefully with Steve Sholes, really boosted Presley’s stock with an adult audience for the first time.

It was about this time that Elvis began dying his hair from its natural sandy-dark blond to jet black — “Clairol Black Velvet.”

(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay

Otis Redding was born on this date in 1941.

Though his career was relatively brief, cut short by a tragic plane crash, Otis Redding was a singer of such commanding stature that to this day he embodies the essence of soul music in its purist form. His name is synonymous with the term soul, music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of funky, secular testifying. Redding left behind a legacy of recordings made during the four-year period from his first sessions for Stax/Volt Records in 1963 until his death in 1967. Ironically, although he consistently impacted the R&B charts beginning with the Top Ten appearance of “Mr. Pitiful” in 1965, none of his singles fared better than #21 on the pop Top Forty until the posthumous release of “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay.” That landmark song, recorded just four days before Redding’s death, went to #1 and stayed there for four weeks in early 1968.

— Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Redding wrote the song known as Aretha Franklin’s signature hit, “Respect.”

Try a Little Tenderness

Two Country Music Immortals

… were born on this date.

Jimmie Rodgers, considered the “Father of Country Music,” was born in Meridian, Mississippi, on September 8, 1897. He died from TB in 1933. Jimmie Rodgers was the first person inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and among the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

James Charles Rodgers, known professionally as the Singing Brakeman and America’s Blue Yodeler, was the first performer inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He was honored as the Father of Country Music, “the man who started it all.” From many diverse elements—the traditional melodies and folk music of his southern upbringing, early jazz, stage show yodeling, the work chants of railroad section crews and, most importantly, African-American blues—Rodgers evolved a lasting musical style which made him immensely popular in his own time and a major influence on generations of country artists.

Blue Yodel No. 9

Patsy Cline, the most popular female country singer in recording history, was born in Winchester, Virginia, on September 8, 1932. She died in a plane crash in 1963. Patsy Cline is an inductee of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Cline is invariably invoked as a standard for female vocalists, and she has inspired scores of singers including k. d. lang, Loretta Lynn, Linda Ronstadt, Trisha Yearwood, and Wynonna Judd. Her brief career produced the #1 jukebox hit of all time, “Crazy” (written by Willie Nelson) and her unique, crying style and vocal impeccability have established her reputation as the quintessential torch singer.

Crazy

Worthy of your consideration

J.A. Adande on why we lost:

The United States will regain dominance in international basketball about the same time Americans bypass “Talladega Nights” to go see some foreign art-house film. In other words, no time soon.

Louis Menand, with an excellent essay about Bob Dylan:

Still, as an interview subject, Dylan probably ranks a few notches above Elvis, who was one of the all-time worst. The trouble with Elvis was that he had very little to say; he was mainly concerned about sounding polite. Dylan is rarely concerned about sounding polite, and he says things, but he sometimes makes them up.

Peter J. Boyer takes a thoughtful look at the Duke lacrosse scandal (it appears they’re innocent):

At the police station, the three young men offered to take a polygraph test. The police declined the offer, but questioned them extensively about the night of the party and sent them to the hospital to have DNA samples collected. The boys had no legal representation during this visit with police.

And then there’s this retail therapy from Overheard in New York:

Upper-East-Side lady on cell: I know, but I was at a funeral all day…Yeah, it was sad, but I really didn’t know him at all…This saddest thing was seeing his daughters upset. They’re the same ages as–Wow! This shirt is only $19!! You can’t even buy a freaking Frappuccino for $19! I’m getting it in blue.

–Banana Republic, 86th & 3rd

Birthday folks

Seven-time Oscar nominee for best actress, Ingrid Bergman was born on this date in 1915. She won the award three times: Gaslight, Anastasia, Murder on the Orient Express. No, she was not nominated for Casablanca. Ms. Bergman’s last role was as Golda Meir in 1982. She died that same year on her birthday, August 29.

Charlie Parker was born on this date in 1920.

Charlie Parker was one of the most influential improvising soloists in jazz, and a central figure in the development of bop in the 1940s. A legendary figure in his own lifetime, he was idolized by those who worked with him, and he inspired a generation of jazz performers and composers. (PBS – JAZZ A Film By Ken Burns)

Parker died in 1955.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Ruth Jones was born on this date in 1924.

Dinah Washington skirted the boundaries of blues, jazz and popular music, becoming the most popular black female recording artist of the ’50s.

She changed her name from Ruth Jones upon joining jazz vibraphonist Lionel Hampton’s band in 1943. After leaving Hampton in 1946, she began her own recording career, leading to Top 10 R&B hits in “Baby Get Lost” (No. 1, 1949), “Trouble in Mind” (No. 4, 1952), “What a Diff’rence a Day Makes” (No. 4 R&B, No. 8 pop, 1959), and “This Bitter Earth” (No. 1 R&B, No. 24 pop, 1960).

In 1960, Washington also sang two No. 1 R&B duets with Brook Benton, “Baby (You’ve Got What It Takes)” (No. 5 pop) and “A Rockin’ Good Way” (No. 7 pop).

Washington died in 1963 after mixing alcohol and pills. (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum)

Two-time Oscar nominee for director, William Friedkin is 71 today. He won for The French Connection; he was nominated for The Exorcist.

Oscar nominee Elliott Gould is 68 today. He was nominated for a supporting role in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.

And today is the birthday of Michael Jackson. He’s 48. Jackson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.

Willie Nelson and John Fogerty

NewMexiKen attended the Willie Nelson-John Fogerty concert Saturday on a beautiful, cool (and no rain!) evening at Albuquerque’s Journal Pavilion. It was awesome.

Willie Nelson and Family began a 75-minute set at exactly 7:30 with “Whiskey River.” The crowd, many still milling on the patio with the vendors, scurried in. Among the many songs, nearly all of them part of the pop-country canon, were Willie’s own “Crazy” and “Night Life,” standards like “Blue Skies” and “Georgia on My Mind,” Nelson hits “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,” “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys,” “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground,” and, of course, “On the Road Again.” The band closed with Hank Williams’ “I Saw the Light.”

A highlight was the piano playing of Willie’s sister Bobbie. Another, just seeing how incredibly well Willie plays after all these years, and how well his voice has held up.

Another member of the Family, Willie’s drummer, Paul English, was celebrating 40 years with Willie last night, and so we got “Me and Paul.”

It’s been rough and rocky travelin’,
But I’m finally standin’ upright on the ground.
After takin’ several readings,
I’m surprised to find my mind`s still fairly sound.

I guess Nashville was the roughest,
But I know I said the same about them all.
We received our education
In the cities of the nation, me and Paul.

Almost busted in Laredo,
But for reasons that I’d rather not disclose,
But if you’re stayin’ in a motel there and leave,
Just don’t leave nothin’ in your clothes.

Willie has looked old for some time and he looked every bit of 73 in his baggy jeans last night. A small man, he appears to have become even more compact. He does however, have forearms a man half his age might envy. That’s what all the guitar playing will do. And Willie’s guitar (that incredibly beautiful sounding Martin) — is so worn it has a large hole in it.

Trigger has been played so much, there is a rather sizable hole worn right through the top, one that Willie considers so sentimental, he won’t have it repaired. In addition, Nelson estimates that he has 100 signatures on his Martin including those of Leon Russell, Roger Miller, Kris Kristofferson, Gene Autry, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, lawyers, football coaches, and other friends and associates. When asked why his guitar is named Trigger, Willie explains: “Roy Rogers had a horse named Trigger. I figured this is my horse!” (Harmony Central)

Seeing Willie Nelson is a lot like seeing Mount Rushmore or the Grand Canyon. You can’t quite be a complete American unless you visit these icons. When Willie and Family appear near you, go. Don’t wait too long. As Willie reminded us:

Too many pain pills
Too much pot
Tryin’ to be something that I’m not
I ain’t Superman

Then, after a 20-25 minute intermission, we rocked. Rocked hard for nearly two hours. And I’m thinking the nearby Albuquerque International airport probably called to complain about the noise.

John Fogerty, 61 years old, but looking startlingly younger, seemed like he was having the time of his life, from one side of the stage to another. And how does his voice hold out? He wore out the audience, much of which was on its feet for the entire set. (We all seemed to particularly appreciate Willie Nelson returning for a duet with Fogerty on Hank Williams’ “Jambalaya.”)

Playing an incredible number of different guitars (the antithesis of Willie Nelson in this regard), he covered all of his Creedence Clearwater Revival hits — “Travelin’ Band,” “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” “Green River,” “Lookin’ Out My Back Door,” “Heard It through the Grapevine,” “Born on the Bayou,” “Down on the Corner” (with teen-age son Shane playing that great rhythm guitar opening) — and some of his more recent as well, like “Centerfield,” played with a Louisville Slugger guitar.

Oh, put me in, Coach – I’m ready to play today;
Put me in, Coach – I’m ready to play today;
Look at me, I can be Centerfield.

Fogerty’s even more recent, anti-war song, “Deja Vu” (All Over Again) was warmly received:

Did you hear ’em talkin’ ’bout it on the radio
Did you try to read the writing on the wall
Did that voice inside you say I’ve heard it all before
It’s like Deja Vu all over again

Day by day I hear the voices rising
Started with a whisper like it did before
Day by day we count the dead and dying
Ship the bodies home while the networks all keep score

Fogerty closed with his most famous anthem, “Fortunate Son,” but we didn’t have to work too hard to get him back for a two song encore. And what would the night have been without “Bad Moon Rising” and “Proud Mary”?

Left a good job in the city,
Workin for the man evry night and day,
And I never lost one minute of sleepin,
Worryin bout the way things might have been.

Big wheel keep on turnin,
Proud Mary keep on burnin,
Rollin, rollin, rollin on the river.

And I’m still rollin’ this morning.

Antonio Salieri

… was born on this date in 1750. After his characterization as a villain in Peter Shaffer’s play and film Amadeus, it seems Salieri is making a bit of a comeback. According to a December 2003 article at Guardian Unlimited and other sources, while there was competition between the upstart Mozart and the established artist Salieri in Vienna, there was cooperation, too; that is, what transpired between them was typical office politics.

As the Guardian Unlimited article notes:

…Mozart’s death, as one respected musical journal wrote, was almost certainly caused not by poison but by “arduous work and fast living among ill-chosen company”.

It was only after Mozart’s demise that Salieri began to have any real reason to hate him. Unlike that of any before him, Mozart’s music kept on being performed. Cut down at the peak of his powers – and with the added frisson of whispered rumours that he might have been murdered – he became the first composer whose cult of celebrity actually flourished after his death.

Salieri, however, had outlived his talent. He wrote almost no music for the last two decades of his life. Instead he spent time revising his previous works. He did have an impressive roster of pupils: Beethoven, Schubert, Meyerbeer and Liszt – not to mention Franz Xaver Mozart, his supposed adversary’s young son. But the composer who had once been at the vanguard of new operatic ideas was not necessarily teaching his students to be similarly innovative…

Of Mozart’s death, the story is more complicated:

So how did this respected musician become the rumoured murderer of the great Mozart? Nobody knows for certain. But in his final weeks Mozart is reported to have believed he had been poisoned, and had gone so far as to blame hostile Italian factions at the Viennese court. People put two and two together and pointed the finger at Salieri. And who could resist a story this good? Certainly not his fellow composers. There are mentions of it in Beethoven’s Conversation Books. Weber, Mozart’s father-in-law, had heard it by 1803, and cold-shouldered Salieri ever after. And 20 years later it was still doing the rounds; Rossini joked about it when he met Salieri in 1822.

As the rumour gathered strength, all denials only served to reinforce it. Then, in 1823, Salieri – hospitalised, terminally ill and deranged – is said to have accused himself of poisoning Mozart. In more lucid moments he took it back. But the damage was done. Even if few believed the ramblings of a confused old man, the fact that Salieri had “confessed” to Mozart’s murder gave the rumour some semblance of validity.

Elvis

Rolling Stone put together a 10-song playlist sampler yesterday in light of the 29th anniversary of Elvis’s death.

Elvis Rolling Stone Playlist

That’s All Right
Good Rockin’ Tonight
Mystery Train
Wear My Ring Around Your Neck
A Little Less Conversation
Hound Dog
Kentucky Rain
In the Ghetto
Suspicious Minds
Unchained Melody

Conspicuously missing: An Elvis gospel song.