Where's the Heart?

I just finished reading a thought-provoking post by Larry Lootsteen on musicologist Alan Cross's website. Mr. Lootsteen says that we are seeing the passing of an era in music, noting the death of iconic artist Prince and many other legends, and asking the question "(Are these) transitional times or the end of an era?"

Lootsteen figures (and so do I) that it is people around age fifty who see this most clearly. We are the ones who grew up with world superstars like Elvis, The Beatles, Stones, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, Eagles, U2, and several other immensely popular, successful, and most importantly, inspirational artists.

Important musicians of that era have lost a lot of their relevance today, often due to mortality and the decades of separation from their peak... and in many cases, the over-saturation on "classic rock radio". What's new and shiny will obviously grab the attention of younger music fans, who could be up to thirty or more years old! 

As artists like Lemmy, Bowie, Chris Squire, and Glenn Frey shuffle off this mortal coil, we lose a bit more of a connection to that era. Sure, their music lives on, but again, their relevance diminishes as the glut of new "big shiny tunes" overpower our senses, and some of us (not me) forget their importance. 

Dep Leppard's pure sugar of the mid-80's was glossy and

successful, but not nearly as fun and fiery as their earlier work

Lootsteen laments that there are few, if any, music artists today who really inspire us, make us think and feel something, and make a lasting difference in the world. Okay, I'll admit I'm not exactly on top of things in the scene like I used to be.... I mean, from my teens into my 30's or so, I sought out music and music world news on a weekly basis. Not any more. If I hear about something new from Kanye or Stone Roses (neither of whom I care about), it's accidental.... in the daily news or on a random entertainment site. 

But today, can I even name a hugely popular artist whose name is on everyone's lips and who has something truly creative and inspiratonal to say? I mean, Bieber isn't even known for his music any more, just his wacky personal life shenanigans. Beyonce, Rihanna.... lots of money there, but are they good for anything besides the dance clubs? As Larry Lootsteen points out in his article, "pop (music) rarely grabs you by the jugular". I completely agree. 

Pop has traditionally been - with exceptions, of course, formulaic, same-sounding (same producers and songwriters handling so many of the artists), and geared toward high sales numbers. And as the album format becomes less and less important to consumers of pop, the focus, right from the start, is on hit singles... repeat, singles. Because most fans of pop want to simply download their fave song by so-and-so onto their phone, and that's the extent of it. And once they're tired of that song, it's either bumped down their playlist or simply deleted. It's disposable. 

I grew up during the 70's, hearing the tale end of Monkees and Beatles fandom, but also saw artists like Van Halen, Fleetwood Mac, Queen, and Journey rise to prominence on the world stage. Album-oriented bands, record producers, and radio stations thrived in this heyday of the long-play record. The 80's was probably the last decade where I remember a variety of stars who made a big impact on the planet, inspiring young musicians and fans alike. Prince was among them, as were Madonna, Michael Jackson, U2, and Springsteen. Heavy rock was a force to be reckoned with, too. We had Def Leppard at their peak, Metallica rising fast, Guns'n'Roses tearing it up, and Rush and Yes leading prog-rock out of the 70's and into the punchier and radio-hits-oriented 80's. 

Talkin' 'bout my generation....

I tell you, Metallica and Guns'n'Roses grabbed me "by the jugular" with more than a few of their songs. And it's not entirely a matter of playing heavy or not. It's the spirit and soul and guts of the songwriter(s), the singer and the instrumentalists. U2 music from the 80's continues to move me, and early G'n'R still gets me all charged up. 

The album format allowed the listener to become more invested in his or her purchase, appreciating the radio hits, but then moving past those into the "deep cuts", where one can read more into the artist's thoughts and feelings. An album is (or was) like a book or meal to be savoured and appreciated, whereas a single is usually little more than a quick fix until the next one comes along. There is rarely a glimpse into the artist's mind, heart, and soul in a three or four minute song. 

Sometimes a big talent can achieve this on the mere single... I think of Adele, who certainly won the hearts of listeners everywhere with Rolling in the Deep. Then again, her albums have been described as emotional journeys, stories that flow from song to song. I'm not enough of a fan to have heard a full Adele album, but I can believe those opinions based on the depth of the individual songs that I have heard. Rolling in the Deep and Skyfall are two that I know well and consider among the best of the last decade or two. 

I am also fond of First Aid Kit, a sort of pop-folk duo. The first song I heard by them - a stunner - was a cover of America, originally by Simon and Garfunkel. Okay, so an old classic hooked me in there, but then FAK showed me what they were capable of, and that was Emmylou, a beautiful and touching song that transcended country music cliches as it spoke to the genre very intimately.

70's Rush music inspired me to pick up a guitar, to practise

daily, to be creative in all aspects of life, and most importantly,

to be an individual

Now and then I check out some younger artists out there just to see what all the fuss is about. I am nearly always unimpressed. As writer Lootsteen indicated, I feel songwriters today don't grasp what made songs of the "past" great and memorable. Will there ever be another Dark Side of the Moon or Thriller? Albums that stood the test of time in so many ways. 

Rock music, often at its best, used to be fired by anger... anger at parents, authority, the world. I immediately think of The Who. Guns'n'Roses. Or Dead Kennedys. And speaking of the Kennedys, punk rock was, if not the most musically fulfilling, a fiery statement of defiance against everything that was wrong with the world. Rap/hip-hop also used to provide political and social commentary, and it was the anger and frustration that fed those artists' inventive and creative processes. What passes for rock, punk, and rap today is pretty weak-kneed in comparison. These musical styles, too, have become rather disposable. Not very inspirational and rarely memorable.

I still buy CDs on occasion, but I hear little new stuff that really grabs me and compels me to pick up an album. So much new music out there, but where are the true winners, stuff that'll get me pumped, will hit me where I feel it? Feel angry, elated, sad, whatever. Make me feel something. Skrillex and Ed Sheeran, even as polar opposites, lack that special something. Yeah, Skrillex will appeal to the electro fans who just want a psychotically noisy backdrop for their cool parties. But any lasting impact on the EDM scene or anything beyond that? And Ed Sheeran may make teen girls swoon to his warm and fuzzy tunes, but where's the passion and inventiveness?

So... back to Mr. Lootsteen's question: "(Are these) transitional times or the end of an era?" 

The answer is a toughie. Is this a period of flux, in which a lot of average and weak (and some bad) music must occur - and maybe die, in order for something more interesting to rise from the ashes? Or are we doomed to a future of Beyonce and Kanye clones, their uninspired toons force-fed to us via internet radio and TV and web ads? Is that the best we'll get?

Thankfully, if you are devoted enough to music you love, you can dig deep into your chosen genres and find the undiscovered gems, old and new. That's sort of the route I'm going with, dabbling in a bit of the new, but mostly searching out music of decades past that I've yet to experience. Because music is about experience, not just insipid wallpaper. 

Diverging Beatles

It was on this day back in 1971 that all four members of The Beatles had solo singles in the UK charts. The band had seen the signs of splintering since the late 60's, but the boys hung on as long as they could. Infighting was only a portion of the problem; the lads from Liverpool had matured musically and very individually, so that they each had their own vision of their musical goals and ambitions. So it was logical that the Beatles would create their own music away from each other. 

Peace out, yo...

McCartney's single at the time was Another Day, bearing his signature light rock sound with his unique pop sensibility. It's a fun little ditty, but like a lot of Macca's music, it's forgettable... at least for me. But the song did see great success on the charts worldwide. 

Mr. Lennon, on the other hand, continued with his politically-driven agenda, laying down a more rocking track, Power to the People. Definitely relevant at that time of great social change, when the hippies and others who questioned and defied authority, the song has some kickin' saxophone, a thumping bassline, and a chorus chant written just perfectly for activist rallies. Right on!

Harrison, dubbed "the quiet one" of the band, charted with one of my favourite post-Beatles songs by any Beatle, My Sweet Lord. George, oft bossed around early on within the confines of the mop-tops, stretched out further and further as the band progressed and experimented. His openness to new philosophies and music led to the use of the sitar and other Indian instruments in his later Beatle compositions. Of course, it was George who wrote some of my favourite Beatle tunes: Taxman, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Something, and Here Comes the Sun. 

On My Sweet Lord, Harrison sings of ethereal love and peace, God, and his new buddy Hari Krishna. You'd think that might be a bit much for most of us in the western world, but the wonderfully layered vocals, mid-tempo acoustic strumming, and melodic slide guitar gave the song commercial appeal for radio DJs and the general public. And the song's message seemed to resonate with listeners. A winner!

Who's the hipster on the kit?

And last but not least, lovable ol' Ringo popped out a successful ditty called It Don't Come Easy. I've never paid Starr much credit for his non-drumming contributions to the Beatles since the songs he sang seemed aimed at the Sesame Street crowd.... you know, silly boppy singalongs like Yellow Submarine and Octopus's Garden (which he wrote as well). So I never bothered following his post-Beatle career. Old buddy George Harrison helped Ringo pen It Don't Come Easy, and I must admit that it's a fine song. Sort of an extension of the Beatles sound but with a little something extra, updating to the 70's vibe. 

The Fab Four seemed to remain relatively fab even after they went off on their separate ways. A few of Lennon's songs caught my ear during the 70's, and I did really enjoy some of McCartney's pop and rock, especially the material he did with the Wings (like Live and Let Die, Jet, Band on the Run, Silly Love Songs, and Let 'Em In). I think I heard more of George's post-Beatles music after the 70's, with his 1987 hit album Cloud Nine, and his Traveling Wilburys collaborations. 

TGIF... Put the VHS in the VCR ASAP

If you are of a certain age, then you'll sympathize with the common lament for the near-complete disappearance of the video rental store. My friends and I discuss this now and then, and how we miss the experience of browsing the aisles of shelves showing all of the videotape covers. 

It was in the early 80's when my fellow teenaged buddies and I would pool our funds on a Friday night, some for beer and the rest to go toward the rental of a VCR (not many people owned one in its early days) and a stack of movies on videotape. 

My one pal, John, would always host our late night movie marathons. There were usually five of us in our little group, and maybe occasionally another wannabe would tag along. We were all fans of the sort of movies aimed at teenage boys... Alien, Bladerunner, Apocalypse Now, Escape From New York, Superman, Blazing Saddles and Spaceballs (among other Mel Brooks comedies), Stripes, the later James Bond movies (with Roger Moore), First Blood, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, Terminator, and the Star Wars movies. Just to name a few. A lot of sci-fi and comedies, but rarely horror, since one of the guys had an issue with scary stuff. 

In our smallish city (just a notch or two bigger than a "town"), I believe there was just the one rental store that offered VCRs, too. All I remember was my buddy somehow snagging his mom's credit card so we could get the VCR as well... you know, the store needed that information in case anything happened to the player. 

Anyway, our crew, or at least a couple of us (I was always there to help with the selections) would pick out a handful of movies to get us through the night, and maybe even the following night, Saturday. Our lives kind of revolved around that guy's house... headquarters for most of the parties and low-key gatherings. 

The mid-80's saw me moving away from home and to another city. Here I shacked up with a girlfriend and we set ourselves up with a TV and VCR (plus the very first Nintendo NES game system!). Video rental stores, including the big chain stores, were sprouting up everywhere. Like Jumbo Video and Blockbuster. I'm not sure when Rogers came along, but I did frequent that shop for a long stretch of time, too. And every corner store had a movie rental section. Even better, the tiny convenience shop in the basement of our apartment building offered a selection of the latest video releases. We'd usually venture out to the bigger video spots for more choice, but if we were stuck or bored, we had that little place onsite to satisfy our need for immediate entertainment. 

After several years, the old lady and I found ourselves in some new digs at the other side of town. Here, we had more rental shops to choose from, and we really put that VCR through its paces. I seem to recall seeing the Lethal Weapon and Eddie Murphy movies on VHS as the 80's wound down, then the 90's brought us Terminator 2: Judgement Day and a myriad of other Arnold, Stallone and Van Damme action flicks. Jurassic Park. And Pauly Shore, Sean Astin and Brendan Fraser came out with a wacky comedy that I loved at the time.... Encino Man... which I rented more than a couple of times. 

There was a certain fun vibe about the video stores. The better ones, like Blockbuster, offered free popcorn while you browsed, and even had several phones around the store so you could call home to see if the family or friends would like such and such a film (aww, you don't wanna see Hellraiser?). The process of exploring the store was an adventure. You might see exactly what you want in the New Releases section and get out of there in record time. But you might have a tough go of it, having seen so many movies already, and need to spend a lot more time pouring over the titles. And this is where those weird and unknown videos jump out at you. Hmm, is it about time I actually saw Rawhead Rex?

I think it was in 1995 or '96 when I bought my very first movie. It was actually a trilogy... take a guess.... the Star Wars saga (as we knew it so far, back then): A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi... all on glorious VHS tape in a neat boxed set. This was before the widescreen versions were made available. Hey, there were no flatscreen TVs back then, so what was the point, eh? I loved finally owning my favourite movies of all time. I watched them often. Until the Special Editions came out. Then I had to fork over even more money to George Lucas. Thanks for that! But the newly remastered picture looked amazing, so I wasn't disappointed. 

And that, my friend, was the beginning of my movie collecting. I joined Columbia House for a while, building a small library of favourites, stuff like The Shining, American Werewolf in London, Terminator, some volumes of selected episodes of 60's Star Trek, The Monkees, and Twilight Zone, and even some kids shows, like Flintstones, and H.R. Pufnstuf. I can't remember many of them now, but those were a few favourites. 

I still rented videos on a regular basis, always with an eye toward assessing them as future purchase prospects. Into the 2000's, the video stores phased out VHS tapes and loaded up the shelves with DVDs. The "previously viewed" tapes were put on sale, and that's how I amassed an even bigger movie collection. Not only did I find modern mainstream stuff at low, low prices, but by scouring every shop and sale bin in the city, I tripped upon delightful weird oldies, like a copy of one of my fave classic horrors, The Uninvited (1944).

I was still doing the VHS thing, though. I wasn't an early adopter of the DVD format. A good thing, too, since prices of players had dropped significantly by the time I did get one. Plus the rental outlets and used media shops had lots of DVDs for very reasonable prices. 

But the rental store experience was losing its lustre. The atmosphere of fun and adventure was dissipating. The exploration of the store shelves became less user friendly as most of the multitudes of DVDs were arranged with only their spines visible. Way to ruin the quick scan! Now you got a kink in your neck, bending sideways to read the spines, and it was increasingly difficult, and even boring and time-consuming, to read every single one of them. So you'd skim them less thoroughly, missing the potentially good ones. Drag!

Those days of video tapes with their cover art facing outward made it more likely that you'd take a chance on an unknown, and enjoy a happy discovery... a hidden gem!

The internet and its availability of free and rental movies spelled the doom of the video stores. A few years back, when the last of my neighbourhood shops held massive "close-out sales", I cleaned up. I came out of one of those stores one day with over a dozen great films, all at amazingly low prices. So my collection grew, but my access to rentals dwindled even further. 

Right now, I only see the odd movie rental kiosk, but my few transactions with those were never very satisfying. No more stores around here, though I hear about the odd strange throwback located out in the boonies, where country folk can benefit from the old-fashioned mom'n'pop rental shop. 

The only thing that comes even a little close is online streaming movie rentals. I've done it many times, though there are occasionally technical hiccups, The shopping/browsing experience is nothing like looking at physical shelves where you can pick something up and read the synopsis and think about it. I've used Youtube, the Cineplex site, CinemaNow, and even movie studio sites to rent digital flicks. Their prices can be a little high sometimes, but they'll have to do, because I don't want to buy to own everything I watch. 

And sites like Netflix serve a purpose, though even this method can be frustrating. For all the films on Netflix, I can still browse their catalogue for a half hour, then shut it down, infuriated that I could find nothing decent to watch. Either I've already seen them or they are all awful-looking movies. I've contacted Netflix to add more good movies to their site, but I've seen little improvement. 

Now that I've cancelled all TV cable services, I have only the internet to serve me. Well, I still buy favourite movies and TV shows on home video, but so far I haven't found a good substitute for the charm of the traditional rental store. 

And no free popcorn while I'm browsing!

A Fifth of Beethoven

Man, what a cheesy and insulting song that was.... A Fifth of Beethoven... which hit the airwaves and record shelves back at the height of the disco era, in 1976. Ol' Ludwig must have been spinning in his grave when that atrocity was created. I remember hearing it on the local AM radio station, and I think a friend of mine even bought the 45rpm single - which sat briefly at Number 1 on the Billboard Chart. I wasn't very interested. The latest KISS album was probably the focus of my tween-aged attention at the time. 

Fun fact: it was on this day in 1800 that Beethoven's very 1st Symphony in C was performed live. There were no cameras, cell phones, or other recording devices present at the time. 

My ancient cassette tape of

the A Clockwork Orange 

music soundtrack

It wasn't until high school that I got my first dose of Ludwig van Beethoven's music. A friend invited me over to watch the 1972 movie A Clockwork Orange on VHS tape. The film featured a great deal of classical music, most notably the famed Ninth Symphony by Beethoven. This symphony is at least as well-known as the Beethoven's Fifth, if not more, and it's considered one of the greatest compositions in the history of western music. 

I think it was the music of A Clockwork Orange that caught my interest the most. Yes, I loved the weird and perverse dystopian story in the movie, but it was the musical soundtrack that totally won me over. I bought that on cassette tape and played it endlessly for many years. The best bits for me, though, were the dramatic and heavenly choral sections of the symphony. 

My ticket stub from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at

Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto 1985

I bought all of Beethoven's symphonies on tape back during my college years in the mid-80's. That nice little collection got a lot of play, especially during the late hours of the night, when I was hunkered down over schoolwork. That same old friend who first exposed me to Ludwig van and Clockwork Orange invited me to attend a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at Toronto's Roy Thomson Hall. Wow... it was like a religious experience! 

In the mid-90's, I found a beautiful set of all nine symphonies (1963, conducted by the illustrious Herbert von Karajan, famed for his Beethoven work) on compact disc for a knock-out price. I didn't hesitate for a moment to snap that up. Even today, at this very moment, I can look upon that box set (and my little ceramic bust of old Ludwig) on display in my living room. I don't go to my classical CDs much these days, but if I do ever get the itch, it's usually Beethoven I'll slap into the player. 

A real class act.