tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261187.post3670378157618428945..comments2024-03-28T07:49:58.759-04:00Comments on By Neddie Jingo!: But Someone Picked You From the Bunch/One Glance Was All it TookNeddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17079885040758748553noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261187.post-31879581201630323552009-07-10T14:27:51.283-04:002009-07-10T14:27:51.283-04:00Regarding the plastination: apparently he was inde...Regarding the plastination: apparently he was indeed asking about the idea a few months ago, but <a href="http://www.tmz.com/2009/06/27/michael-jacksons-body-hold-the-plastic/" rel="nofollow">nope</a>.David Harmonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261187.post-80616440582607766452009-07-04T11:52:50.503-04:002009-07-04T11:52:50.503-04:00Really enjoyable analysis of the music, but anothe...Really enjoyable analysis of the music, but another commenter's remark about cherry-picking was right on the money. Back in the good old days they had "I Want You Back" AND they had "Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head" and Raindrops starts out about the the same as Billie Jean.<br /><br />And as the Ramones taught us, there's more to good music than chord changes.Nancyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17867854867723007420noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261187.post-87585267887770729922009-07-02T17:28:51.504-04:002009-07-02T17:28:51.504-04:00Please come back, Bobby. Your music is awesome an...Please come back, Bobby. Your music is awesome and has influenced me greatly in terms of trying much, much harder.<br /><br />I only hear the radio in the car with my partner now and then, but it's always a drum loop, one-note atonal one-note melodies and auto-tune 'singing' with the occassional sampled chorus from an older, better song. Remember in '1984', how the computers wrote the music? It's here - all artifically generated to engender no excitement or emotional response whatsoever.<br /><br />Major labels are dead. The remaining major music chains officially stopped selling physical CD singles in Australia yesterday as they're no longer 'financially viable', since they were selling 300 copies a week of the number one record vs 12,000 downloads.<br /><br />Apple not only killed the Video Star, but also High-Quality Audio and Dynamics. Fuck you, Steve Jobs.HomefrontRadionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261187.post-61316126092862621802009-07-02T09:49:00.113-04:002009-07-02T09:49:00.113-04:00aNY OF you chodes know wheres I can get my garage ...aNY OF you chodes know wheres I can get my garage door fixed?<br /><br />Dude I for one would give my last ii-V for new music that only sucked as hard as Billie Jeen.<br /><br />That shit is like th' baroque period compared to today's Singing Anuses regaling us w/ their brilliance on OwMyBallsTube.<br /><br />Fuck, I have to get back to work SAVING FUCKING MUSIC.<br /><br />AGAIN.<br /><br />Fucking Steve Albini. He's like porridge. Ya hate him but he's good for you.<br /><br />I want the Major Label system back. I want to know that I can GET SOMEWHERE with some cocaine bribes and some quality head.<br /><br />AT this point, preservin' Michael J. will be a process of REMOVING chemicals and quality plastix.Bobby Lightfoothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00671706326620424357noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261187.post-52286719594653725272009-07-02T04:34:05.924-04:002009-07-02T04:34:05.924-04:00Did you know "Billie Jean" was remixed N...<i>Did you know "Billie Jean" was remixed NINETY-ONE TIMES before being declared ready for mastering?</i><br /><br />Ah, but how much time did those remixes require, compared to the 8-12 remixes of a J5 track?<br /><br />And furthermore, how much rehearsal time was required, respectively?<br /><br />Not that I'm defending Billie Jean, mind you, I think it's vastly inferior to the '80s MJ songs I singled out for praise, and which you've decided not to weigh in on, alas.<br /><br />I was pretty sure you'd be one to frown on criticism that relies on the <i>process</i> that results in a particular track, rather on analysis of the listener's ultimate experience, of the sounds one hears when the final work is played.<br /><br />I could be just imagining it after all these years, but I had sort of a vague impression that studio musician and/or arranger virtuosity was one of the elements that Punk was supposed to usurp; why do we not revel, then, in the ascent of the sweatpanted soundboard nerd?<br /><br />OK, yeah, I can see hanging on to a hatred of Steve Albini. But still, in principle, what the heck is going on there?RobotSlavehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09848632559112974545noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261187.post-64967784421722727352009-07-01T18:17:45.026-04:002009-07-01T18:17:45.026-04:00Did you pick up a guitar and start singing this st...<i>Did you pick up a guitar and start singing this stuff because it's so much more real to you than "How Much is that Doggie in the Window"? Or were you, you know, forbidden by your social class from trying to emulate it? Can a White Man Sing the Blues? I don't have a pat answer for that, but some mighty fine music has come out of it.</i><br /><br />This brings up the whole notion of 'authenticity' in and 'being real' in music, which is something I struggle with to understand.<br /><br />Can the race or social status of the songwriter / performer really be used as any measure of authenticity?<br /><br />All songs are written, refined, rehearsed and performed. All of these steps are artificial processes. Cole Porter went through these exact same steps as Muddy Waters, just in nicer surroundings. Where does the notion of 'Real' come into it, especially when a performer is singing a song for the 100th time? Are the emotions still genuine, or is what we're seeing simply a performer going through the act of re-evoking said emotions in a way that convinces the listener it's genuine?<br /><br />I grew up living in State Housing, as low on the totem pole as you can go in this country. There's no authenticity in poverty and hardship, just a hell of a lot of shit that's continually dumped on you as you try not to be dragged under it. I'm still ashamed of my upbringing.<br /><br />Trying to romanticize that life experience with some kind of aura of nobility can only be done from a higher status position and it always carries a overwhelming stench of patronisation: "Oh, the poor boy can play guitar. How wonderful that he could overcome such hardship".<br /><br />Then when you have musicians not only idolising this romantic myth of poverty and oppression, but actively trying to emulate it, it brings up an overwhelming sense of despair that they just don't understand the reality.<br /><br />You end up with stuff <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiVD19w4izY" rel="nofollow">like this</a>, Brown University students believing the myth and pissing on my life experience from a position of privilege.<br /><br />Ironically, their music would be considered more 'authentic' than mine.<br /><br />To quote a better writer than me, "Nothing Is Real". (To which, I'll naturally respond 'and nothing to get hungabout' before you do).Homefront Radionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261187.post-30238580300378079692009-07-01T10:00:12.383-04:002009-07-01T10:00:12.383-04:00and also, "I Want You Back" is more of a...and also, "I Want You Back" is more of a <i>dance</i> single than "Billie Jean", and as such, it can't afford to screw around with a long intro - people will walk off the dance floor.cleekhttp://ok-cleek.com/blogsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261187.post-65206019622361668152009-06-30T20:31:05.389-04:002009-06-30T20:31:05.389-04:00Well, I don't know jackshit about garage door ...Well, I don't know jackshit about garage door repair, but I can spot an excellent deconstruction of the way a Motown hit works.<br /><br />Thanks, as always.Cleveland Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12514937281212775227noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261187.post-56315605679334268392009-06-30T10:38:37.223-04:002009-06-30T10:38:37.223-04:00I have to agree with the Viscount on this, since I...I have to agree with the Viscount on this, since I've always found "Billie Jean" oddly compelling -- and not due to the video. (Though I remember the days when MTV showed it every 10 minutes.) I'm not even sure why; it's just insidious.<br /><br />At the same time, I can't deny the overselling, overexposure, overproducing, and general crappiness of MTV and post-MTV pop. As it happened, I too was turning away from new pop at that time and moving backward, exploring "old" stuff. Buying LPs at rummage sales and raiding my parents' records. Discovering Sinatra and, of course, the old standards.<br /><br />It's funny that the comments here mention a couple of my all-time favorite records -- like many of my faves they were recorded before I was born. Nat Cole's "Stardust." The Flamingos' ethereal "I Only Have Eyes For You."<br /><br />Though I keep an eye on some of the new stuff coming out, and enjoy a bit of it, none of it touches me like the records mentioned above. And none of it <i>swings</i>, if that's a valid word in a conversation re rock, in a way that tells me there are real people behind the records -- folks with something to say, and dying to say it.<br /><br />So here I am, in 2009, much more inclined to listen to, say, the spectacular jazz harmonies of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boswell_sisters" rel="nofollow">Boswell Sisters</a> (recorded circa 1933-35) than anything recorded in the past 25 years.Kevin WOlfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03092445616252796353noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261187.post-60746661597458609612009-06-29T23:12:59.293-04:002009-06-29T23:12:59.293-04:00Sometimes unchanging can be effective. Consider a...Sometimes unchanging can be effective. Consider another Motown classic of the early 1970s - "Papa Was A Rolling Stone." For 6 minutes, there's just one unvarying "tick-a tick-a tick-a tick-a" drum pattern. There's also one of the most minimalist bass lines ever recorded, with more rests than notes. And it works! If I had been the producer on that session, I would have botched everything by asking the drummer and bass player to change it up once in a while. That single was a work of courage, in my opinion.J. D.https://www.blogger.com/profile/10264929967212745091noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261187.post-30003208980029408242009-06-29T19:46:16.272-04:002009-06-29T19:46:16.272-04:00I'm so with you guys on "Don't Stop T...I'm so with you guys on "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough." <br /><br />I was just watching the video and man! Enough already! lol<br /><br />It should be plastinated.blue girlhttp://bluegirlredstate.typepad.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261187.post-8171647379586160742009-06-29T19:25:13.450-04:002009-06-29T19:25:13.450-04:00If Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough followed...If <em>Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough</em> followed its own advice, it would have clocked in at just under 15 seconds...The Viscount LaCartehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12206171681005442662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261187.post-41132215333082459562009-06-29T18:53:29.313-04:002009-06-29T18:53:29.313-04:00Ouch!! Call me unsophisticated....
But..oh my! ...Ouch!! Call me unsophisticated....<br /><br />But..oh my! Homefront radio is soooooo right....... Scary! (And I had given MJ the benefit of the doubt...til now....)<br /><br />cavil? my word of the day! <br /><br />Thanks Neddie, I also always learn a lot from you!! (I was wondering about your employment status... bummer!)giggleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13173558660571799919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261187.post-91790762211057366832009-06-29T18:12:56.838-04:002009-06-29T18:12:56.838-04:00Yes, because garage-door opener repair was precise...Yes, because garage-door opener repair was <i>precisely</i> the topic we were so passionately discussing...Neddiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17079885040758748553noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261187.post-21567106746167514882009-06-29T18:09:57.501-04:002009-06-29T18:09:57.501-04:00Great information! Keep it up! I also write arti...Great information! Keep it up! I also write articles about <a href="http://garagedoorrepairhelp.com/?p=1/" rel="nofollow">Garage Door Repair</a> and I write for a site called <a href="http://garagedoorrepairhelp.com/" rel="nofollow">Garage Door Repair Help</a><br /><br />I would love to do a blogroll link exchange with you since we have a lot of the same kind of content. Please just visit my site and leave me a comment if you want to do the exchange.Greghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04382621044019277259noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261187.post-80437086495859242332009-06-29T17:28:06.209-04:002009-06-29T17:28:06.209-04:00Mike, that Nat King Cole version of "Stardust...Mike, that Nat King Cole version of "Stardust" made me cry a little bit, for a time when "sophistication" wasn't a dirty word.<br /><br /><i>Sorry if I'm too verbose, at work with a lot of time on my hands today.</i><br /><br />At least you're at work, man. At least you're at work.<br /><br /><i>I've labelled this as 'Smithsonian Fauxways'. As a lover of the real thing, what's your opinion on rich white college kids pretending they're box car riders? Or are they just assuming it was good enough for Dylan?</i><br /><br />Your label made me larff. This argument goes back to at least 1952, when Harry Smith's <i>Anthology of American Folk</i> acquainted a generation completely cut off from knowledge of the 1920s hillbilly and race records by the Great Depression and WWII. Did you pick up a guitar and start singing this stuff because it's so much more <i>real</i> to you than "How Much is that Doggie in the Window"? Or were you, you know, <i>forbidden</i> by your social class from trying to emulate it? Can a White Man Sing the Blues? I don't have a pat answer for that, but some mighty fine music has come out of it.<br /><br />RobotSlave: My argument really isn't that the J5 were lots better than the later MJ; I was trying to make a more general point about the records of the 60s in comparison to those of the 80s -- the attitude of performer (and especially producer) toward the audience, and how technology, particularly video, affected that attitude.<br /><br />IMHO, "Can't Stop till You Get Enough" is a textbook example of the overproduction you can get when you've got more new toys than you know what to do with. Did you know "Billie Jean" was remixed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billie_Jean#Recording" rel="nofollow">NINETY-ONE TIMES</a> before being declared ready for mastering? That's some serious Wretched Excess right there.Neddiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17079885040758748553noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261187.post-28148589857511349262009-06-29T17:27:19.811-04:002009-06-29T17:27:19.811-04:00Good job on his deconstruction of "I Want You...Good job on his deconstruction of "I Want You Back" though in the end I like the song because it sounds good and makes me feel good, and I like "Billie Jean" for the same reasons. The fact that the intro to "BJ" is sparse and doesn't build to the vocal on paper may "read" well but that intro sounds and feels great to me. Not sure that the song was arranged that way deliberately for the sake of the video, but I wouldn't dismiss it out of hand either. If that's the case it still works on it's own merits to my ears.<br /><br />I would add that someone who didn't care for "Come Together" might point out on paper that the intro is nothing more than bass, drums and guitar repeating nothing for four bars... but it would be meaningless.<br /><br />For the record, I think the majority of Michael Jackson's material as a solo artist is not that great.The Viscount LaCartehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12206171681005442662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261187.post-25820121506655170872009-06-29T17:01:52.065-04:002009-06-29T17:01:52.065-04:00While I'm sympathetic to the dismissal of pop ...While I'm sympathetic to the dismissal of pop music produced after the advent of the synthesizer (shorter: "disco sucks"), I think you're guilty of some pretty egregious cherry-picking, there, Neddie.<br /><br />I <i>dare</i> you to listen to the entire oeuvre of Le 5 Jackson in one sitting. Go on, I'll sit here with a stopwatch and see how long you last.<br /><br />In the same apples-to-apples, 95%-of-everything-is-crap vein, there are 80s MJ songs that are a lot harder to dismiss than "Billy Jean." <br /><br />Ferinstance, your beloved guitar syncopation is back in "Don't Stop till you get enough", along with an amazing circular string figure, accented with brass. These and the party-noise bridge are all bog-standard Disco tropes, but you'd never notice that in your first 100 listens unless the Dance Lobe of your brain were damaged.<br /><br />And "The Way You Make Me Feel", produced when MTV was at its cultural peak, with the sort of synth foundation that has aged about as well as MJ's face, is still better than, for example, every disco offering ever from the great and holy Stax Records.<br /><br />The filler on those '80s MJ records, though, wow. Those tracks really do make your case, I'vegottasay.RobotSlavehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09848632559112974545noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261187.post-499612154038150082009-06-29T17:01:07.307-04:002009-06-29T17:01:07.307-04:00I got into trouble for writing this on Facebook:
...I got into trouble for writing this on Facebook:<br /><br />So, 50-year-old Michael Jackson moves into your street, except he's not famous. He's just a complete nobody - some random guy, but with the exact same plastic-surgery-horror-show face, squeaky whispered voice and jerky, crotch-grabby mannerisms that apparently makes one beloved to millions.<br /><br />He makes the exact same statements about children being 'innocent' and 'beautiful'. He says he prefers them as friends, even though he's 40 years older than his ideal playmates. He decorates his backyard with toys and games for children to enjoy, and says how sharing a bed with sleeping children is a 'beautiful' thing.<br /><br /><i>He invites your child to stay over.</i>Homefront Radionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261187.post-22701500040757071242009-06-29T16:59:13.261-04:002009-06-29T16:59:13.261-04:00Thanks, Neddie, I sure learn a lot from you.
What...Thanks, Neddie, I sure learn a lot from you.<br /><br />What the composer does with the first few bars of the song being influenced by the medium is very interesting to me. I think you can see this in the shift from standards to songs playing on top 40 AM radio. I love how lots of composers, going all the way back to Stardust, did a very long intro/first verse before getting into the syncopated part of the song that people can dance to (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFyKAUBkdOs" rel="nofollow">Nat King Cole's version</a>).<br /><br />Then you have a song like "I only have eyes for you" (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9ycOkCrNqo" rel="nofollow">Flamingos version</a>) where they blend it in. But really, it's gone from most songs played on the radio by then.<br /><br />I wish I understood this stuff better, I'm going to have to do more reading/listening. <br /><br />I was more bummed to hear about the passing of Sky Saxon of The Seeds, who I never really knew anything about, but I love the song Pushing Too Hard. I have been cracking up over this <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmHTyLBIZ1g" rel="nofollow">Casey Kasem TV show version</a>.<br /><br />Sorry if I'm too verbose, at work with a lot of time on my hands today.Mikehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05938335642375046517noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261187.post-4936595879739287462009-06-29T16:53:20.705-04:002009-06-29T16:53:20.705-04:00A lot of great points here, Neddie.
Jeff Hanson d...A lot of great points here, Neddie.<br /><br />Jeff Hanson died from falling off a ladder three weeks ago. No-one noticed. Listen to how 'Night' gradually builds - the introduction of the harmonies, and the subtle descending piano around 1:45 or so:<br /><br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bKcGefaLjs<br /><br />Anyway,<br /><br />1983 was the summer of Talking Heads' 'Speaking In Tongues', of XTC's 'English Settlement', of REM's 'Murmur', of the Go-Betweens 'Before Hollywood', of Elvis Costello's 'Imperial Bedroom', let alone the fact that I was *still* trying to figure out Kate Bush's 'The Dreaming', and was still regularly playing The Beatles catalogue.<br /><br />I was a 12 year old with an IQ of 140. I assumed that pop music was always going to be made by intelligent artists for smart and curious listeners. I was hopelessly naive.<br /><br />MJ basically introduced headset-mic-requiring aerobics into popular music. He was My Sister's Thing. I heard her playing that album a lot over the period, but it completely failed to register with me.<br /><br />His much-lauded videos were artistically empty. Kate Bush was making me read up on the life of Houdini, introducing me to Wilhelm Reich and scaring me with tales of Bernard Crippen. David Bowie was namedropping Friedrich Nietzsche, and, as a curious child, I was absorbing and investigating.<br /><br />In later high school, the bullies who beat me up were slack-jawed by the sight of Michael Jackson turning into a Transformer, which I thought was pure children's stuff. I was listening to the Pet Shop Boys sing about Anti-Privatisation and decoding homoerotic subtext in the Smiths.<br /><br />MJ only had that Ugly Culkin Kid to offer in his next video, and expected me to be impressed. Empty vessels i suppose...<br /><br />Back to your point, I've been trying to find musicians to play with, but I seem to keep hitting a roadblock with the concept of trying to actively involve an audience by trying to be tight, concise and hooky. You have to grab their ear.<br /><br />The Beatle's specialise in 4-bar iconic, hooky introductions, and I see no reason to not follow their example.<br /><br />However, there seems to be this overlying Hipster / Pitchfork Culture going around where it's definitely uncool to try and be actively involving to an audience. You're supposed to be celebrated by just existing and if the listener doesn't get it, then they're just not smart enough.<br /><br />Also, for some reason this Pitchfork mentality often seems to involve this kind of naive Americana overlay - where you pick up a banjo and use three chord harmonic structures. I've labelled this as 'Smithsonian Fauxways'. As a lover of the real thing, what's your opinion on rich white college kids pretending they're box car riders? Or are they just assuming it was good enough for Dylan?Homefront Radionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261187.post-9535910948752983732009-06-29T15:58:01.594-04:002009-06-29T15:58:01.594-04:00There are few pieces of pop music purer or finer t...There are few pieces of pop music purer or finer than I Want You Back. <br /><br />What a shame that the modern-day equivalent of that wonderful song seems to be comprised of various elements from the following list:- (a) drum machine preset A1 (b) variations of "Uh Huh"/"Yeah"/"This Is It" (c) samples of reasonably decent pieces of music from yesteryear (d) monotonous raps which barely stay in rhythm with the backing track (e) over-acrobatic female vocalisations.<br /><br />Sorry, but Urban/R&B does nothing for me. Classic Motown, on the other hand...<br /><br />Regards,<br /><br /><br />djpreinchequehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10916708116848883081noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261187.post-86797665206162510952009-06-29T15:56:40.330-04:002009-06-29T15:56:40.330-04:00Great analysis, Jeddie. Sometimes I wish I could ...Great analysis, Jeddie. Sometimes I wish I could *hear* music the way you do. But, all I can do is *feel* it.<br /><br />And I'm happy I got that, at least.<br /><br />My son wholeheartedly agrees with you on Billie Jean and Jackson's music of the 80s.blue girlhttp://bluegirlredstate.typepad.comnoreply@blogger.com