Following are two musical acts captured in rehearsal for a televised performance. Both acts feature dance steps in their musical performances. Your mission, should you choose it, is to compare and contrast rehearsal styles, with a focus on choreography, the dynamic among musicians, and so forth.
First, Dame Shirley Bassey, seen rehearsing and in interview on some German tv show:
Next, REM with Kate Pierson, rehearsing “Shiny Happy People” for their appearance on Saturday Night Live…after the jump!
This is not quite a Last Man Standing topic, but it may verge on one. In the glamorous, hedonistic world of rock ‘n roll it’s rare that fans actually consider a favorite artist’s sobriety a plus. Steve Earle‘s sobriety recently came up in discussion, and he seems to be one artist that even longtime fans would agree has benefitted—artistically speaking—from cleaning up his life. I mean, hardcore Earle fans would agree that his talents have at least been maintained through sobriety if not deepened, right?
Leaving the obvious personal health benefits of any rock artists’ sobriety aside, which artists come to mind as having grown artistically, at least initially, by getting his or her life together?
Considering that I’ve been a fan of The Band since my uncle turned me onto them when I was a little boy, I was surprised to learn during our Artists Who Have Dabbled in Production for Other Artists thread that Robbie Robertson produced the debut album by someone named Hirth Martinez. I’ve tracked down a lot of Band-related albums, including that Neil Diamond exercise in pomposity, Beautiful Noise, but I’d never heard of this Martinez cat. Thanks to Townsman BigSteve, I’m now enjoying Martinez’ first two albums, the 1975 Robertson-produced Hirth From Earth and Big Bright Street, a 1977 album produced by Band engineer/arranger John Simon.
I’m still trying to get my head around who Martinez is. What little information I find on him on the Web starts with split reports of him having been “discovered” by either Robertson or Bob Dylan. Most likely he existed before either of those well-know musicians threw their support behind him, but you know how this stuff goes. As I told BigSteve after my initial spins of these albums, I thought his music sounded like “Van Dyke Parks if he didn’t suck, or Ry Cooder if he had half a voice.” I later saw that Parks had played on at least one of his albums.
As I said in the Mystery Date piece, the song I chose, “Be Everything” was not as characteristic of most of the songs on Hirth From Earth. I simply liked it and thought it had its own ephemeral feel. However, the album does have an unusual span of influences. Producer Robertson and engineer/arranger Simon are strongly in evidence here, on “Comin’ Round the Moon.” Garth Hudson also plays on these albums along with a cast of top-flight session players.
[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/05_Comin_Round_the_Moon.mp3|titles=Hirth Martinez, “Comin’ Round the Moon”]
Across the two albums BigSteve turned me onto, Martinez has about as many short songs as Guided By Voices. From second album, here’s one that’s caught my ear, “Cold and Silver Moment”…after the jump!Continue reading »
In a recent interview with Terry Gross of NPR’s Fresh Air, songwriter Rodney Crowell inadvertantly touched on a subject that we in the Halls of Rock can no longer ignore: The Mellencamp Conundrum. Crowell was telling a story of his young, aspiring songwriter self meeting with legendary Amercan songwriter Guy Clark. The sage passed along the following words of wisdom to the young man the ropes:
You can be an artist or you can be a star. You can be an artist who becomes a star, but I don’t know if you can do it the other way around.
Just hours before I heard that interview Rock Town Hall was bursting at the seams with the need to finally examine the plight of John Mellencamp. The Mellencamp Conundrum is named for the artist, who has spent more of his career trying to live down his youthful, “overnight” success as heartland pop-rock sensation John(ny) Cougar than possibly any pop sensation in the history of rock ‘n roll who has ever attempted to “do it the other way around,” as Guy Clark warned young songwriter Rodney Crowell against attempting.
Today’s Mystery Date was suggested by a Townsman who may or may not choose to help me coax your opinions on this song. Thanks to our Mystery Shadchen!
Let’s review the ground rules here. The Mystery Date song is not necessarily something I believe to be good. So feel free to rip it or praise it. Rather the song is something of interest due to the artist, influences, time period… Your job is to decipher as much as you can about the artist without research. Who do you think it is? Or, Who do you think it sounds like? When do you think it was recorded? Etc…
If you know who it is, don’t spoil it for the rest. Anyone who knows it can play the “mockcarr option.” (And I’ve got a hunch that some of you know this one.) This option is for those of you who just can’t hold your tongue and must let everyone know just how in-the-know you are by calling it. So if you know who it is and want everyone else to know that you know, email Mr. Moderator at mrmoderator [at] rocktownhall [dot] com. If correct we will post how brilliant you are in the Comments section.
The real test of strength though is to guess as close as possible without knowing. Ready, steady, go!
[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Mystery-Date-021011.mp3|titles=Mystery Date 021011]
My gamer son told me this was coming: Guitar Hero is no more. I don’t know if this is really one more sign that rock ‘n roll is out of vogue or if they simply lost out to Rock Band, which my son says is much better. Let us take a moment of silence to honor a hero’s defeat and appreciate this quote from CNN.com’s report:
As rock struggled against rap music, video games like “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band” were credited with creating a new appreciation for rock ‘n’ roll among the millennial generation born in the ’90s who didn’t know much about Aerosmith, Pat Benatar and other musicians of the ’70s and ’80s.
Thanks to Townsman plugdin2 for passing along this story.
