The Big Whatever

Paul Simon

Heard a very cool interview with Paul Simon by Chris Douridas (I know, I know, but it was a cool interview).  It was on Douridas'  KCRW show last Saturday.  It's part of the iTunes Music series he produces, and it will be up on that site in a couple of weeks, along with live music clips.  Simon spoke at length on the origins of some of his songs, and about the writing process, or at least his writing process.  They also played a clip I've never heard before orf Art Garfunkle supposedly recording a PSA or commercial of some kind.  It's hilariously funny; he alludes to "surviving" the breakup.  Simon is "producing" the spot and and prods Artie to plug his (Simon's) upcoming "major college tour."  It's truly a crackup, worth hearing.

To file under "What's Wrong With The Music Business and Why Are There So Many Creeps in Show Business:"  I got a call today to provide music and on-camera musicians for a national commercial for a major auto maker.  It's a $500 buyout-no music clearance, no residuals, no guarantee on the length of the shooting day.  Someone will take this gig; that's the sad part of the story.

So it's not just me...

Big article in Sunday's NYT about radio, or the lack of terrestrial radio opportunities for developing artists.  Nothing mentioned specifically about the "legacy" artists that aren't served by trad radio, though.  Haggard and Jones, Jackson Browne and Michael Brecker are left to fend for themselves.

Pandora  is certainly part of the solution, but not everybody is hip to internet "radio" (need a new term - it's either radio or it's not, y'know?) and the tech of all this is beyond most casual computer users.  I'm betting that a lot of corporate/government networks filter these kind of sites out anyway, based on P2P paranoia.  I have five or six Pandora channels, from Haggard to Hall to Mae to Ian and Sylvia, and beyond.  There are some gaps but this is really a great way to get (low-fi) from your internet connection.  Trouble is, it's not portable, and it takes quite a bit of tweaking to really get it set up to feed you what you really want.  I've got the Jim Hall channel on while I'm posting, but when I shut down for the day, it's goe - it doesn't come on the bus  with me and there's no way to save the stream for future reference.  You can click and buy from iTunes and Amazon, of course.  It's good to keep a notepad or hotkey handy to mark the unfamiliar gems that come along with the old faves.

What's on the radio?

I think there's a a lot of people who don't quite know what music to listen to these days. 

They don't like hip hop-it scares them and they don't understand the odd mix of acetylene energy and molasses languidity.  They don't really like "rock" or more specifically, current KROQ-style rock.  It's too aggressive and vague, and they miss songs that convey a message in the old-school way that Bob Dylan and Neal Young and Curtis Mayfield did (the messages in hip hop go unnoticed; they get lost in the unfamiliar patois).  If they found Weezer and Green Day and They Might Be Giants, they'd like it.  They'd probably like a lot of emo, but they don't find it. 

There is the "let's rock, man" crowd, but thy're pretty much in it for the beer, though they do go to concerts and buy  CDs.  Mostly Lynnard Skinnard, but still...

There's an audience for music that is mystical and swings and can carry both a message and a make you want to dance.  Dylan and Young and CSNY and Mark Knopfler and James Taylor and Paul Simon can still fill large halls, if not stadiums.  Prince and Steely Dan and a few more have their followings, but they're not mainstream.  The thing is, none of this stuff is on the radio, unless you have sattelite radio, and statistically, you probably don't, although you will.  James Blunt and Beck and Jewel and other younguns are around and trying to help where they can, and I haven't even mentioned the "Americana"/"No Depression" gang.  They get about as much airplay as JP Sousa.  You're as likely to hear Wilco or Golden Smog as you are to hear Steve Allen or Vic Damone.  Actually, less...there are more stations playing light jazz and tuxedo-pop vocals than Americana.

I've heard that song before...

Like I was saying, you can't tell where the gov stands partywise.  He says he's a Republican, so he is one.  He certainly behaves like one.  And yet, and yet...Anyway, I'm not the only one who thinks this.  Here's today's LA Times on the same subject.

I dunno. I'm thinking of...

I dunno.  I'm thinking of a new blog here; something that would just be music, art, photography.  No stuff about the kid (sorry, Sarah); no politics.  Not like this.

Some possible threads: Chicago blues. Americana; twang; Knopfler; guitars and gear; Scorcese; John Ford; Woody Allen.  Maybe tech stuff.

Do we need this blog?

You don't know me...

So, Schwarzenegger is all of a sudden for prison reform, against global warming, against cell phone use in cars, for a higher minimum wage, etc. etc.  Could it be that he's really a Democrat?  Nah.  Could it be that he's neutralizing these issues so Angelides can't get traction?  Boy howdy! 

And, of course, the Assembly is only too glad to be seen "getting along" with the gov, so everyone wins.  Everyone except Angelides, who has to go out and prove that there's a difference between him and the other guy.  There is, of course, but it's gonna be a hard sell to the know-nothing voters, who tend to only see what's right in front of them.  Once again, you've got to hand it to the Republican strategists.  And, by the way, I'm glad to have the higher minimum wage, and the pro-environment laws, no matter who is governor, I just kinda wish it was a Democratic governor, not a rich guy out to save the other rich guys' bacon and who finds it expedient to sometimes look like a nice guy.