This is the conclusion of the long series of Songbook posts kicked off by my simple observation that many bands championed as representative of new music , such as Crystal Castles, really arent . While many themes have been touched upon, overall, Songbook posts #36-51 have been about 1) . . . . Continue Reading »
As a book on pop-music, Simon Reynolds’ Retromania: Pop Cultures Addiction to Its Own Past earns a high B, but does not rate among my very favorites, being too beholden to Rock attitudes, and too long-winded for its own good. Some of its detail is welcomeI found Reynolds . . . . Continue Reading »
SMiLE was to be the follow-up to Pet Sounds , but its recording was apparently so arduous for The Beach Boys, the session musicians, and the increasingly unstable Brian Wilson, that he called it off in the Spring of 67. Driblets of the studio material were released over the years, Wilson . . . . Continue Reading »
Do you like Do You Like Worms? ? Lets try an experiment: Id like readers who have not really heard the Beach Boys SMiLE , their ambitious 60s album only recently released in a Brian Wilson-approved form, to listen to two of the most popular songs from it, . . . . Continue Reading »
When I hear the harpsichord in Vivaldi or Bach, if I picture anything, it would be rococo drawing roomsGeorge Washington asking Jane Austen for the pleasure of a dance. When I hear it in pop, perhaps thanks to Peanuts and the great Vince Guaraldi , I picture green lawns and white . . . . Continue Reading »
It was a year ago that I unleashed my first Carls Rock Songbook entry upon the world. Its time to look back and see whats unfolded so far. Maybe another day Ill link all of these, but for now Id call your attention to the SEARCH FIRST THINGS box over on the upper . . . . Continue Reading »
It goes without saying that Fred Siegel should be reading my Rock Songbook, which underlines the middle-class mediocrity of most rock, even as it defends, with respect to music, the low, the high, and even the middle-brow version of the high. He could go to my last post , about the tensions between . . . . Continue Reading »
Musically, my Songbook is grounded upon Martha Bayless theory of American popular music, and my last post gave an account of what I believe Ive learned from her. In the next several posts, Ill be providing some elaborations upon or reactions to her theory. That theory is . . . . Continue Reading »
The Songbook has been a heavily 60s affair so far, with occasional forays into the 70s and 80s. Why the neglect of the 90s and the aughties? Well, I hold that 60s rock set the basic patterns of the ongoing rock sound and attitude; and that while these patterns get some major adjustments in the late . . . . Continue Reading »
Well, Im obviously not talking about a song here, but rather, about a high-school play that no-one not connected to the San Diego area Mt. Carmel High School during the 1980s has any reason to know about. (Nor am I talking about the musical that features hard rock songs.) Ill say more . . . . Continue Reading »