ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! Mr. Moderator Summoned To Explain His Hostility Towards Stevie Wonder

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Feb 052008
 

Like most of the rest of you RTH old-timers, I’ve been waiting *years* for our Moderator to explain his feelings about Stevie Wonder. At first, I thought his hostility only focused on Stevie’s sprawling “Songs In the Key Of Life” — we all know of the Moderator’s deep misgivings about real musical *ambition*. But after reading this brief aside about the song “Tuesday Heartbreak,” I’ve finally realized that there may be much that needs explaining — and I feel doing so may result in some much-needed Healing for our Moderator’s soul:

Hrrundi, is “Tuesday Heartbreak” one of those sappy love-songs-to-Jesus-masquerading-as-praise-for-coke-off-a-backing-singer’s-nipples numbers that Stevie’s been known to crank out?

Please, Mod, if only for your own good: share.

HVB

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Use of Music in Politics

 Posted by
Feb 052008
 


I received a link to this video yesterday from John Kerry. (Is anyone else on John Kerry’s mailing list? He bugs the shit out of me. I suppose I should just opt out…) I thought it a brilliant use of a viral video for political marketing where, when it comes to Obama’s vital need of young voters, the medium is much the message.

But it got me thinking about the use of music, specifically contemporary music, in politics. I was moved by the use of Don’t Stop by the Clinton campaign back in the day. I was amused at the misuse and flap over Born in the USA. I’ve heard that Hillary is using American Girl.

Can you think of any others?

Is this Obama video the first use of original music in American politics?

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A Theme for Today

 Posted by
Feb 052008
 

I spell M-…

Last night I was flipping channels, and I came to a screeching halt at the 1978 Paul Mazursky-directed period piece, An Unmarried Woman. Man, I hadn’t seen that movie since it was still considered mainstream cutting edge. Alan Bates’ hair and beard were a show unto themselves, not to mention Jill Clayburgh’s newly liberated nipples!


Anyhow, I got to thinking how representative that movie was of the ’70s age of self-discovery and how so much popular music of that time was geared toward themes of post-hippie culture, middle-class self-discovery by women and men in their late-20s and early-30s: Carol King, James Taylor, all that Psychic Oblivion stuff… What a clear period in terms of cultural themes. My childhood was smack dab in the middle of that period, with my newly divorced Mom “finding” herself a few years later than she would have liked. Better late than never…

Then I got to thinking about other periods of music and popular culture, during which clear themes emerged. I lived through some of these periods, as I’m living through whatever period we’re in today, but I can’t put my finger on what our present cultural theme is, circa 2008. The themes an artist like Beck represented in the ’90s are appearing in the rearview mirror, aren’t they? U2 and The Boss already healed the nation post-9/11. Neil Young‘s attempts at establishing themes during the Dubya era were hampered by lousy music, and now Bush is about to appear in the rearview mirror along with Beck and Alanis Morissette. We may be post-ironic, but’s not like we’re living in the Age of New Sincerity quite yet. So my question is, What music today represents – for you – a theme you think is particularly relevant to our time?

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The Look: France Gall

 Posted by
Feb 042008
 

It’s a simple enough question: Which artist that you first got to strictly on the basis of Look has turned out to have the most musical merit?

My answer is easy enough: around 1996 or ’97, my French-Canadian buddy Rick sent me a cassette of hits by ’60s French pop starlet Francoise Hardy, who at the time was constantly getting namechecked in indie pop circles. I listened a few times, I said “eh,” I moved on. My musical mindset at the time, both in new stuff and older discoveries, was more in tune with the peppy, bouncy and bubblegummy than with Hardy’s more mature and low-key stuff, so after a couple of listens, the cassette migrated towards the bottom of the pile on my desk at my old job as an IT librarian. I’m not sure I listened to the b-side, a hits collection by a contemporary of Hardy’s named France Gall, at all.

So a couple months later, I’m at the Albuquerque Best Buy with my friend Joyce, wandering around the CD section while she’s talking with a salesman about VCRs or something. Now remember, this was a period where Best Buy was trying very aggressively to corner the CD-sales market, complete with TV ads namedropping bands like Fugazi to make it clear how hip they were, so the CD section was both enormous and surprisingly well-stocked, and at popular prices to boot. I’m grazing through the less well-traveled sections — soundtracks, pop vocals and the amorphously-named “world” bin — looking for oddities or misfiled treasures, when I find a Polygram import greatest hits by France Gall. For all I know, this is exactly the same CD that Rick filled side two of that C90 with, but I was at the checkout with the CD in my hand immediately, because…well, how could I not?

Ooo, pretty!

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Carl Newman’s Somewhat Brilliant Past

 Posted by
Feb 042008
 

Hello, Newman

Although Carl Newman‘s musical career has taken off since the formation of The New Pornographers, the band/collective he co-leads with Dan Bejar, Newman’s work with his lesser-known previous band, Zumpano, is a mine of semi-precious gems worth seeking out. Here’s the opening song from their first album, Look What the Rookie Did. Those of you who still wait for that “difficult” leader of The Left Banke to make a comeback should pay particular attention. Inordinate fans of Jimmy Webb, whose song Zumpano covered, should also sit up by the old Victrola and perk up those ears.

Zumpano, “Rosecrans Boulevard”

Here’s another one from the debut that better points to what Newman would excel at a few years later, with the lucious and more dynamic Neko Case taking occasional turns at the mic.

Zumpano, “The Party Rages On”

Beginning to ring a bell or two?

Newman is the other redhead in the above video, a handsome redhead at that, but lacking in Ann-Margaret-like, All-American animal magnetism, wouldn’t you say?

I’ve got most of The New Pornographers’ albums, and each one has a couple of strong songs, including songs sung by Newman and the Bowie-esque Art Rock trimmings provided by Bejar. (Bejar’s own albums, by the way, leading his band Destroyer, have their moments.) His However, the band rarely kicks it out with either of those two at the mic, and Newman’s tempered approach often gets lost in a sea of ELO-isms.
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