Tag: Music

Creem Magazine Documentary

In 1973, the commune experiment ended and Creem relocated into a proper office in Birmingham, one of Detroit’s toniest suburbs. Still, the city’s scrappy, underdog spirit remained a crucial element of the magazine’s aesthetic. “I don’t think it could have existed anywhere else,” Alice Cooper said in a phone interview. “In New York it would have been more sophisticated; in L.A. it would have been a lot slicker. Detroit was the perfect place for it, because it was somewhere between a teen magazine and Mad magazine and a hard rock magazine.”

The Wild Story of Creem, Once ‘America’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll Magazine’
A new documentary traces the rise and fall of the irreverent, boundary-smashing music publication where Lester Bangs did some of his most famous work.
Mike Rubin
NYTIMES

Oral History: How The Go-Go’s Perfected Pop-Punk : NPR

BC: Jane and I lived in a punk rock apartment building in Hollywood called the Canterbury. It was like the Chelsea hotel in New York, that kind of thing. I loved all the different clubs in L.A.: you’d go to the Whisky, drive down to the Starwood, see a band there, go downtown to Chinatown to Madame Wong’s, see someone there, go to an afterparty in Hollywood, play music there — it was a really lively, creative time in Los Angeles.

AB: I was at their first show at the Masque. They played with my drummer, Terry Graham. Everybody was really impressed. Even though they were just starting to play, you could tell they had songwriting ability: They had a song about living at the Canterbury, and fighting off the roaches, and they had “Robert Hilburn,” [an unflattering portrait of the L.A. Times pop critic]. People remembered their clever lyrics, that they had cool melodies. They had something special even at that first show.

How The Go-Go’s Perfected Pop-Punk
Hilary Hughes
NPR

Fall On Me – REM

“Fall on Me” is a song by the American alternative rock band R.E.M. from their fourth album Lifes Rich Pageant (1986). It was the first of two singles released from that LP. It peaked at number 94 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was one of the band’s early compositions about environmentalism, discussing acid rain. It also transitioned from their murky lyrics and jangling guitar of their first three albums to a more accessible sound influenced by producer Don Gehman.

Wikipedia

There’s a problem, feathers, iron
Bargain buildings, weights and pulleys
Feathers hit the ground before the weight can leave the air
Buy the sky and sell the sky and tell the sky and tell the sky
Don’t fall on me (what is it up in the air for?) (it’s gonna fall)
Fall on me (if it’s there for long) (it’s gonna fall)
Fall on me (it’s over, it’s over me) (it’s gonna fall)
There’s the progress we have found (when the rain)
A way to talk around the problem (when the children reign)
Building towered foresight (keep your conscience in the dark)
Isn’t anything at all (melt the statues in the park)
Buy the sky and sell the sky and bleed the sky and tell the sky
Don’t fall on me (what is it up in the air for?) (it’s gonna fall)
Fall on me (if it’s there for long) (it’s gonna fall)
Fall on me (it’s over, it’s over me) (it’s gonna fall)
Don’t fall on me
Well, I could keep it above
But then it wouldn’t be sky anymore
So if I send it to you, you’ve got to promise to keep it whole
Buy the sky and sell the sky and lift your arms up to the sky
And ask the sky and ask the sky
Don’t fall on me (what is it up in the air for?) (it’s gonna fall)
Fall on me (if it’s there for long) (it’s gonna fall)
Fall on me (it’s over, it’s over me) (it’s gonna fall)
Don’t fall on me (what is it up in the air for?) (it’s gonna fall)
Fall on me (if it’s there for long) (it’s gonna fall)
Fall on me (it’s over, it’s over me) (it’s gonna fall)
Fall on me, don’t fall on me (what is it up in the air for?) (it’s gonna fall)
Fall on me (if it’s there for long) (it’s gonna fall)
Fall on me (it’s over, it’s over me) (it’s gonna fall)
Fall on me, don’t fall on me

 

People Get Ready – Curtis Mayfield

People get ready, there’s a train comin’
You don’t need no baggage, you just get on board
All you need is faith to hear the diesels hummin’
You don’t need no ticket you just thank the lord

People get ready, there’s a train to Jordan
Picking up passengers coast to coast
Faith is the key, open the doors and board them
There’s hope for all among those loved the most
There ain’t no room for the hopeless sinner whom would hurt all mankind
Just to save his own
Have pity on those whose chances grow thinner
For there is no hiding place against the kingdoms throne

People get ready there’s a train comin’
You don’t need no baggage, just get on board
All you need is faith to hear the diesels hummin’
You don’t need no ticket, just thank the lord.

Adam Ant – NPR Interview

In his 1980s heyday, Adam Ant was never short on style or quirk, and he reinvented himself constantly. You may remember the performer behind “Goody Two Shoes” and “Stand and Deliver” appearing in bold makeup and swashbuckling pirate gear; the military-style jacket he sometimes wore made an impression on no less a cultural icon than Michael Jackson.

After 17 Years, Adam Ant Transforms Again

Goodnight Irene – Ron Lane, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Joe Cocker, Jeff Beck, Ron Wood & All – Final Song – ARMS Concert

Ronnie Lane & All Members – Good Night Irene and Bill Graham’s Closing Speech. The Tour For A.R.M.S. (Action into Research for Multiple Sclerosis) USA, 1983.

 

The ARMS Charity Concerts were a series of charitable rock concerts in support of Action into Research for Multiple Sclerosis in 1983. The first (and initially planned to be the only) event took place at the Royal Albert Hall on September 20, 1983, with subsequent dates occurring in the United States, with slightly different lineups of musicians.

Royal Albert Hall ARMS Concert
The idea for hosting the concert was envisaged by Ronnie Lane, ex-bassist for Small Faces and Faces, himself a casualty of multiple sclerosis. The concert was billed as The Ronnie Lane Appeal for ARMS and featured a star-studded line-up of British musicians, including Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Steve Winwood, Andy Fairweather Low, Bill Wyman, Kenney Jones, Charlie Watts and Ray Cooper. The concert was particularly notable in the fact that it was the first occasion on which Clapton, Beck and Page, each a former lead guitarist for The Yardbirds, had performed together on stage.

wikipedia

War Pigs – Black Sabbath, lyrics

War Pigs
Gen’rals gathered in their masses,
Just like witches at black masses
Evil minds that plot destruction,
Sorcerer of death’s construction
In the fields the bodies burning,
As the war machine keeps turning
Death and hatred to mankind,
Poisoning their brainwashed minds
Oh Lord yeah

Politicians hide themselves away
They only started the war
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave that role for the poor, yeah

Time will tell on their power minds,
Making war just for fun
Treating people just like pawns in chess,
Wait ’till their judgement day comes, yeah

Now in darkness world stops turning,
Ashes where the bodies burning
No more War Pigs have the power,
Hand of God has struck the hour
Day of judgement, God is calling
On their knees the war pigs crawling,
Begging mercies for their sins
Satan, laughing, spreads his wings
Oh Lord yeah

(Overheard this song coming from a delivery truck when I was walking around downtown Denver on Sunday, July 5, 2020. The guy wasn’t playing it especially loud but the town was unusually quiet. The song served to underline this, as opposed to adding to the usual urban cacophony. Happily, I’m a Black Sabbath fan. I think this is the first time I’ve read these lyrics in a while.)

Missed Shows are Always the Greatest Shows

I was thinking about going to see the Throwing Muses once but didn’t because I didn’t want to drive from Fort Collins to Boulder. A year after the fact I talked to a guy who did go and he said it was the best show he’d ever been to.

I once worked with a guy who had the chance to see Nirvana but didn’t because he was going to catch them when they came around in the summer and then Cobain committed suicide.

I once took the day off from work to go see the Screaming Trees. (I was working nights.) Go to the venue and they had cancelled. I guess they could be hit or miss but supposedly when they were *on* they were amazing.

In March the Voice ran a cover story titled “Why We Hate the Subways,” and everyone had their own tales. Me, I’d been mugged on trains a few times, twice at knifepoint, coming home from Manhattan shows alone at night. But the worst was in May, when I was stuck on a broken-down E train for an hour en route to the Port Authority Bus Terminal to meet a girl I was cross-eyed crushed-out on. She had tickets to see the Grateful Dead five hours north that night, at Cornell University’s Barton Hall. When I finally arrived, the girl and the bus—the last Ithaca run of the day—were gone. I was more upset about missing the girl. But in time, via magnetic tape, Barton Hall 5/8/77 would enter Dead lore as arguably the single greatest show the band ever played. Fucking subway.

Hermes, Will. Love Goes to Buildings on Fire
Amazon

Music Business Economics

We recently had a fun post about Hollywood accounting, about how the movie industry makes sure even big hit movies “lose money” on paper. So how about the recording industry? Well, they’re pretty famous for doing something quite similar. Reader Jay pointed out in the comments an article from The Root that goes through who gets paid what for music sales, and the basic answer is not the musician. That report suggests that for every $1,000 sold, the average musician gets $23.40.

RIAA Accounting: Why Even Major Label Musicians Rarely Make Money From Album Sales

Mike Masnick
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100712/23482610186.shtml

Recoup