Category: Music

Not Ready to Make Nice

From the Dixie Chicks (clicking link will take you to their website and play song).

I made my bed and I sleep like a baby
With no regrets and I don’t mind sayin’
It’s a sad sad story when a mother will teach her
Daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger
And how in the world can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they’d write me a letter
Sayin’ that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over

I’m not ready to make nice
I’m not ready to back down
I’m still mad as hell and
I don’t have time to go round and round and round
It’s too late to make it right
I probably wouldn’t if I could
‘Cause I’m mad as hell
Can’t bring myself to do what it is you think I should

Mostly Mozart’s Money

Mozart wasn’t poor; he just wasn’t much of a money manager. That is the suggestion of scholars who scoured Austrian archives for an exhibition that opened yesterday at the Musikverein in Vienna, The Associated Press reported. At a time when successful professionals were living comfortably on 450 florins a year, Mozart was earning about 10,000 florins — at least $42,000 in today’s terms, a sum that would have put him in the top 5 percent of wage earners in late-18th-century Vienna. “Mozart made a lot of money,” said Otto Biba, director of the Archive of the Friends of Music in Vienna. For centuries, nevertheless, Mozart has been portrayed as poor, and letters on display at the exhibition, devoted to his later years in Vienna, show that he repeatedly borrowed money from friends to pay for travel and social obligations; whatever wealth he had was long gone by the time he died at 35 in 1791. Although unable to buttress their suspicions, some experts believe that gambling debts bit heavily into his income, much of it, Mr. Biba said, derived from teaching piano to aristocrats.

— Arts, Briefly – New York Times

Muddy Waters

… was born on this date in 1915. His real name was McKinley Morganfield.

The following is excerpted from Waters’ obituary written by Robert Palmer in The New York Times, May 1, 1983:

Beginning in the early 1950’s, Mr. Waters made a series of hit records for Chicago’s Chess label that made him the undisputed king of Chicago blues singers. He was the first popular bandleader to assemble and lead a truly electric band, a band that used amplification to make the music more ferociously physical instead of simply making it a little louder.

In 1958, he became the first artist to play electric blues in England, and while many British folk-blues fans recoiled in horror, his visit inspired young musicians like Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Brian Jones, who later named their band the Rolling Stones after Mr. Waters’s early hit “Rollin’ Stone.” Bob Dylan’s mid-1960’s rock hit “Like a Rolling Stone” and the leading rock newspaper Rolling Stone were also named after Mr. Waters’s original song. …

But Muddy Waters was more than a major influence in the pop music world. He was a great singer of American vernacular music, a vocal artist of astonishing power, range, depth, and subtlety. Among musicians and singers, his remarkable sense of timing, his command of inflection and pitch shading, and his vocabulary of vocal sounds and effects, from the purest falsetto to grainy moaning rasps, were all frequent topics of conversation. And he was able to duplicate many of his singing techniques on electric guitar, using a metal slider to make the instrument “speak” in a quivering, voice-like manner.

His blues sounded simple, but it was so deeply rooted in the traditions of the Mississippi Delta that other singers and guitarists found it almost impossible to imitate it convincingly. “My blues looks so simple, so easy to do, but it’s not,” Mr. Waters said in a 1978 interview. “They say my blues is the hardest blues in the world to play.”

God’s birthday

Eric Clapton is 61 today.

(In the late 1960s, one of the most prominent items of graffiti was “Clapton is God.”)

Clapton has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame three times — as a member of the Yardbirds, a member of Cream and as a solo artist. (And he recorded one of his trademark songs — “Layla” — as a member of Derek and the Dominos.)

Pope Nano I

Pope Benedict XVI was given the £139 gizmo by staff at Vatican Radio.

It stores 1,000 tracks and his officials have loaded it with his favourites — mostly religious music, plus pieces by Beethoven, Mozart and Chopin.

The Pope, 78, is a pianist and appreciates good music. He has been spotted around the Vatican using his iPod and distinctive white earphones. A spokesman said: “He is very pleased with the iPod.”

The Sun Online

NewMexiKen is thinking Benedict’s iPod must have a copy of “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pope.”

This is so cool

Did you know iTunes can print jewel case inserts, song listings and album listings of your playlists? With album art? As a collage?

iTunes Jewel Box

A sample jewel box from NewMexiKen’s playlist of recent Billboard Hot 100 number ones. Took about 11 seconds.

In iTunes:
1. Highlight the playlist you want to use.
2. Click on the File drop down menu.
3. Select Print (at the bottom of the drop down).
4. Choose the type of print you want. Voila!

Of course, album artwork is only available if you have added it to the tracks.

It’s Okay, Di Fi, We Like Phantom Planet Too

During Judiciary Committee Mark-up this morning, [Senator] Dianne Feinstein’s cellphone went off while she was giving her statement on comprehensive immigration reform.

Her ringtone? “California,” the theme from “The OC.”

Wonkette

We’ve been on the run
Driving in the sun
Looking out for #1
California here we come
Right back where we started from

Hustlers grab your guns
Your shadow weighs a ton
Driving down the 101
California here we come
Right back where we started from

California!
Here we come!

It’s the birthday

… of author Tom Wolfe. He’s 76.

“I can’t read him because he’s such a bad writer,” Irving said of Wolfe. When Solomon added that “Bonfire of the Vanities” author Wolfe is “having a war” with Updike and Mailer, Irving dismissed the notion out of hand: “I don’t think it’s a war because you can’t have a war between a pawn and a king, can you?”

Irving described Wolfe’s novels as “yak” and “journalistic hyperbole described as fiction … He’s a journalist … he can’t create a character. He can’t create a situation.”

Salon Books

… of author John Irving. He’s 64.

Reached through his publisher, Wolfe responded in writing. “Why does he sputter and foam so?” he asked about Irving. “Because he, like Updike and Mailer, has panicked. All three have seen the handwriting on the wall, and it reads: ‘A Man in Full.'”

If the literary trio don’t embrace “full-blooded realism,” Wolfe warns, “then their reputations are finished.” He also offers Irving some additional literary advice: “Irving needs to get up off his bottom and leave that farm in Vermont or wherever it is he stays and start living again. It wouldn’t be that hard. All he’d have to do is get out and take a deep breath and talk to people and see things and rediscover the fabulous and wonderfully bizarre country around him: America.”

Salon Books

… of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Lou Reed. He’s 64.

The influence of the Velvet Underground on rock greatly exceeds their sales figures and chart numbers. They are one of the most important rock and roll bands of all time, laying the groundwork in the Sixties for many tangents rock music would take in ensuing decades. Yet just two of their four original studio albums ever even made Billboard’s Top 200, and that pair – The Velvet Underground and Nico (#171) and White Light/White Heat (#199) – only barely did so. If ever a band was “ahead of its time,” it was the Velvet Underground. Brian Eno, cofounder of Roxy Music and producer of U2 and others, put it best when he said that although the Velvet Underground didn’t sell many albums, everyone who bought one went on to form a band. The New York Dolls, Patti Smith, the Sex Pistols, Talking Heads, U2, R.E.M., Roxy Music and Sonic Youth have all cited the Velvet Underground as a major influence. (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum)

… of Jon Bon Jovi. New Jersey’s second most famous rock-and-roller is 44.

Santa Fe as seen by the Cowboy Junkies

The Cowboy Junkies played in Santa Fe Monday and NewMexiKen somehow didn’t find out until today. Rats! (They’re in Tempe tonight, Boulder Friday, Crested Butte Saturday and Telluride Sunday.)

The band, which has a lot of music online, has a tour diary. They had this to say about The City Different:

Margo Timmins in Santa FeSanta Fe is a very nice town in which to spend a day-off. Especially in mid-February when the temperature is in the upper 50’s, the sky is cloudless and the air is so darn clean. Although the environment is spectacular, the town has become a bit of a parody of itself, which seems to be inevitable these days. As soon as a town establishes a distinct identity it doesn’t take long for commercial interests to move in and start capitalizing. As a result every second store in Santa Fe sells, Indian-ware, silver and turquoise and every other store sells South West “art” or furnishings. It looks like most of these stores are locally owned and run, which is a good thing, but it’s all a bit much. But as I said, it’s a great place for a quick visit; lots of good food, good coffee, good beer, good weather, beautiful scenery and a very welcoming citizenry.

That’s Margo Timmins with the flowers.

iPod generation

The U.S. snowboarding team’s pinstriped uniforms are already wired for the machines, with a nifty iPod-size pocket, speakers in the hood and a control panel on the left sleeve that allows the athletes to select songs.
…

That’s where iPod scores big. Its small size and digital technology facilitate listening in extreme situations – such as being upside down, in the middle of a 1080 toe grab, during a once-in-a-lifetime Olympic routine.

Baltimore Sun

Blogging to iTunes

iTunes started at the top of the alphabet (unintentionally on my part) this morning.

‘Ama’ama, Israel Kamakawiwo’le
‘S Wonderful, Ella Fitzgerald
‘Til, The Angels
‘Til I Gain Control Again, Rodney Crowell
‘Til Tomorrow, Marvin Gaye
“40,” U2
“Heroes,” David Bowie
“Minute” Waltz, Chopin
“Moonlight Sonata,” Beethoven
“Pathétique Sonata,” Beethoven
(‘Til) I Kissed You, The Everly Brothers
(Da Le) Yalleo, Santana

(Punctuation marks come first, then numbers and then A-B etc. in the computer alphabet.)

Harold Arlen

… was born Hyman Arluck in Buffalo, New York, on this date in 1905.

A short list from the more than 400 tunes written by Harold Arlen:

  • Ac-cent-tchu-ate The Positive
  • Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea
  • Come Rain Or Come Shine
  • Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead
  • Hooray For Love
  • It’s Only A Paper Moon
  • I’ve Got the World on A String
  • One For My Baby
  • Over The Rainbow
  • Stormy Weather
  • That Old Black Magic

Arlen worked with many lyricists through the years, most notably Ira Gershwin, Yip Harburg, Johnny Mercer and even Truman Capote. Harburg, for example, wrote the lyrics for the Wizard of Oz songs. Though it’s the lyrics we most remember, it’s the melody that makes a song memorable. That was Arlen.

Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly (Fond of Each Other)

There’s many a strange impulse out on the plains of West Texas
There’s many a young boy who feels things he don’t comprehend
Well, the small town don’t like it when somebody falls between sexes
No, the small town don’t like it when a cowboy has feelings for men.

Now I believe to my soul that inside every man there’s the feminine
And inside every lady there’s a deep manly voice loud and clear
Well the cowboy may brag about things that he does with his women
But the ones that brag loudest are the ones who are most likely queer.

Sung by Willie Nelson; written (in 1981) by Ned Sublette. Recording released today; available at iTunes.

Rhapsody in Blue

George Gershwin’s phenomenal blending of jazz and classical music, premiered at Aeolian Hall, in New York, on this date 82 years ago. Gershwin wrote it in three weeks, reportedly improvising some of the piano parts during the premiere.

You can hear an acoustical recording by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra made on June 10, 1924, by clicking here [RealPlayer]. That’s the composer, Mr. Gershwin, at the piano.

Rhapsody in Blue was one of NPR’s 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century. You can listen to the NPR report here [RealPlayer].

Just in time for Valentine’s Day (in one week)

Apple® today unveiled a new 1GB iPod® nano for just $149, offering the same features as the 2GB and 4GB iPod nano models and holding up to 240 songs or 15,000 photos. The new 1GB iPod nano’s ultra-portable design is thinner than a #2 pencil and features Apple’s patent pending Click Wheel and the same gorgeous color screen as the other iPod nano models. In addition, Apple announced that the iPod shuffle is now more affordable than ever with the 512MB and 1GB models priced at $69 and $99 respectively.

— Apple

What he said

But there are two cities in America where there simply should not be a band imported to play at a quintessential American event, which is how the NFL packages the Super Bowl: Nashville and Detroit.

A whole lot of folks here were upset over the Stones being picked to play when Detroit has an unparalleled and historic stable of artists across the music spectrum. The two things associated with Detroit are cars and music, yet the NFL favored a European band, meaning the league passed on all of Motown, not to mention locals such as Madonna, Anita Baker, Eminem and Kid Rock.

The great Smokey Robinson performed across the street from Ford Field on Friday night, so chances are he was available. And if Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder can do pregame and the national anthem, then why not reward them with the honor of doing the big show? Seeing Aretha perform in Detroit is, for some of us, the equivalent of seeing Frank Sinatra perform in New York or Michael Jordan perform in Chicago.

It makes me wonder if some artists, particularly in the R&B tradition, are being forced to pay for Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction from a couple of years ago.

Michael WIlbon

Mozart

In an essay that goes on to discuss nuances in some of Mozart’s music, Terry Teachout has this succinct description of the composer’s life and work:

One might easily put together an anthology of heartfelt tributes to Mozart’s music, were it not that the result would be so repetitious. Suffice it to quote Aaron Copland, writing in 1956 on the occasion of the Mozart bicentenary:

[W]e can pore over him, dissect him, marvel or carp at him. But in the end there remains something that will not be seized. That is why, each time a Mozart work begins . . . we composers listen with a certain awe and wonder, not unmixed with despair. The wonder we share with everyone; the despair comes from the realization that only this one man at this one moment in musical history could have created works that seem so effortless and so close to perfection.

Some part of Copland’s wonder, of course, must have stemmed from the fact that its object was a child prodigy without formal education who wrote his first symphony at the age of nine and his last one a mere 23 years later, not long before his early death. All prodigies are by definition interesting, but in Mozart’s case the interest is heightened by the fact that he not only died young but left behind an oeuvre so extensive and all-encompassing that it might as well have been the work of a fully mature composer who died at sixty, or even eighty.

In addition, though, there is the still greater puzzle of the apparent incongruity between Mozart’s music and his personality. Forget the foul-mouthed idiot savant of Peter Shaffer’s movie Amadeus (1984); the real Mozart is elusive enough without benefit of caricature. “It is impossible,” wrote the great English musicologist Sir Donald Francis Tovey, “to exaggerate the depth and power of Mozart’s thought.” Yet Karoline Pichler, who knew him socially, described a man “in whose personal intercourse there was absolutely no other sign of unusual power of intellect and almost no trace of intellectual culture, nor of any scholarly or other higher interests.” His surviving letters paint a similarly inexplicable portrait of a likable, lively-minded lightweight.

The gap between man and artist is so vast, in fact, that one half-wonders why some ragtag band of ardent pseudo-scholars has not come along to claim that the music of “the man from Salzburg” was really written by a more cultivated and better situated contemporary.

The 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth is Friday, January 27.

Update on iTunes

Last week NewMexiKen posted that I was holding off on installing the update to iTunes (6.0.2) because it installed software that collected information about the music you were listening to without informing you. They’ve changed it, so that now you are given a choice:

The iTunes MiniStore allows you to discover new music and videos right from your iTunes Library. As you select items in your Library, information about that item is sent to Apple and the MiniStore will send you related songs or videos. Apple does not keep any information related to the contents of your music Library.

Would you like to turn on the MiniStore now?