Farewell Monkee Peter Tork / Additions to the Record Shelf

Another loss to the music world: the passing of the Monkees' Peter Tork. Despite all the accusations of the Monkees being "phonies!", Tork joined the "manufactured TV show band" as a talented player on bass, guitar, banjo, and piano. He recorded, toured, and acted with the Monkees until late 1968, when he bought out the remaining years on his contract and left the group. Tork led an eclectic life afterward, pursuing musical, TV, and movie projects, and even teaching at schools for a few years. His dopey character on the Monkees' TV show was quite contrary to his true serious and thoughtful nature. When I think of Peter, I am reminded of his wacky vocal contributions on Monkees songs Your Auntie Grizelda and the spoken-word tongue-twister track Peter Persival Patterson's Pet Pig Porky... and his more down-to-earth shared vocals on Words and Shades of Gray. Rest in peace, brother Pete.

Peter Tork, far right... the likable dope of the Monkees' TV show

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On another note, I've found some inexpensive albums on vinyl lately. 

After nearly two months of record shopping withdrawal, I found a few bucks to invest in some new (old) music. First I hit the local thrift shop, Value Village, where I dug through the rapidly vanishing stock of LPs to find two Beethoven Symphonies, No. 5 (duh-duh-duh-DUH) and No. 7. I already have these on CD, but hey, there's something unique about the sound and the listening experience with records. The Fifth Symphony, released in 1960, I believe, is conducted by Otto Klemperer with the Philharmonia Orchestra. The Ninth Symphony, release date unknown, is a 1963 performance led by Rafael Kubelik and played by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. I find that as long as classical music is on a very clean record (meaning few, if any, snaps, crackles, and pops), it plays back with more feel or sensitivity for the hall in which it was recorded. As though the listener is sitting right there at the performance. Both recordings are beauties.

Then yesterday I hit, for the first time, a local indoor flea market. I should have done this sooner! There were only a few record sellers, but boy, they have the goods. Actually, I missed one of them because their tiny inventory was always monopolized by browsing customers... I kept waiting for the area to clear but it never did, and I forgot to go back. But the other two sellers had impressive batches of vinyl goodies. The first guy had a modest set-up with just seven crates, but his records were in fine condition, reasonably priced, and there were many good albums to choose from. But I hesitated to pick up too much at my first stop. I settled on Triumph's hard rock classic Just A Game and Black Noise by Canada's progressive jazz-rock trio FM.

At the other stall, I was a bit overwhelmed with all the crates of records, both clean LPs and more used-looking copies. I saw a lot of things of interest, but decided to go with a few that were actually on my wish list: Steely Dan's 70's gems Katy Lied and The Royal Scam, both very clean and cool albums; and Elton John's number one seller Rock of the Westies, which was recorded in Colorado, USA - actually sort east of the Rockies, isn't it? Having reached the limit of my budget (just under, actually), I walked away without further exploration of the bins. Too tempting to spend too much. This market takes place once a month, I think, so I'll come back for more later. 

Very cool music, and though I haven't listened to all of my flea market purchases, so far everything sounds great... no complaints about record flaws. So for under forty bucks total, I got myself seven records over the past two weeks. Not bad. Except that my audio stand's record  shelf is now nearly packed tight. I'll need to take over other shelves to expand the collection, or maybe get myself a new LP storage unit. Then the real fun begins.

Re-Discovery-ing Star Trek

Now that we have the new - second - season of Star Trek: Discovery on the go, I'm knee-deep (maybe deeper) in all things Trek. Though I was a heavy duty Trekkie as a kid back in the 70's, my interest has been far more casual over the past several decades. Even the spin-off series like The Next Generation and Voyager didn't grab me at the time of their airing. And I was, and still am, kinda "meh" about the reboot movies with Chris Pine in the captain's chair. Barely a slight interest there.  

But what has rekindled my interest in the most influential science-fiction franchise of all time is Star Trek: Discovery. While not entirely mind-blowing, there are some very cool concepts (spore drive), characters (like the star: young lady Michael Burnham with a Vulcan family connection, alien Starfleet Lt. Commander Saru, and Michelle Yeoh in not one, but two roles), and nice callbacks to the original series (like sounds effects on the bridge, and the phaser design).

Main character Michael Burnham in Star Trek: Discovery

The show isn't without its flaws - plot-holes, sometimes overblown action sequences, and definitely those awful rubbery Klingon masks... which muffle the actors' voices in a disconcerting way... they couldn't even be bothered to fix that with overdubs or something? 

But on the whole, Discovery is appealing. In some respects, it harks back to the original series, and that is its drawing card for me. Those opening credits get me every time with the 60's show's musical motifs woven into a new-school yet totally Trek-sounding theme... and the visuals of the ships and tech and organic bits all add up to a fine flavour derived from both old and new ingredients. 

Though I have little problems here and there along the way, both season one and so far on season two are highly engaging. Smartly imagined if not perfectly executed. You know, intelligent sci-fi on the surface, though a bit iffy now and then underneath the sheen. But it's Star Trek, which has always taken some heat for one thing or another. Discovery grabs up award nominations for visual effects, and that's something. Maybe the writing is uneven, but I can let that slide as long as I'm not getting one weak episode after another. The show just looks so darned good, flawed writing aside. 

Oh, and while I was killing time waiting for season two to arrive, I engaged in finally properly tackling Star Trek: The Next Generation. As I already mentioned, I mostly ignored the show back in the 80's and 90's. I caught the odd bit of an episode here and there, but my purist attitude (Kirk-Spock-McCoy rule!) prevented me from appreciating Next Gen at the time. But today... well, I can say that the early seasons were pretty entertaining. Solid enough scripts, pretty technology and special effects, good Klingon make-up (even if they were a bit lazy about most other alien races, with simply a weird forehead or ear design), fairly smart and fun dialogue (though often a little heavy on the techno-babble), and a likable cast of characters (with just a couple of exceptions... like that Crusher kid). 

I could certainly see the cheesy bits of Next Generation here and there, and that was sometimes fun in the vein of the 60's show, but those last couple of seasons, especially the last one, whew.... the stinkers far outnumbered the good episodes. Oh well, at least I can say I now have that Trek spin-off under my belt. A friend suggested I try Star Trek: Voyager next. I'm taking a little breather after Next Gen, then maybe I'll explore Voyager. I've also been thinking about revisiting random episodes from the original series. I miss the Kirk-Spock days... when I was a kid and teen, I watched and re-watched those oldies over and over again. And I'm happy to say that renewed interest in the 60's show prompted me to collect the little set of Trek miniatures from Running Press. Very affordable on Amazon and they look snazzy in a display case on my computer desk.

Click the image for a better look...

Queen & Pick of the Music Biopics

In the midst of the frenzy surrounding the Queen/Freddie Mercury tribute film Bohemian Rhapsody, I feel the need to revisit some great and notable music biopics of the past. As a long-time music fan, I've kept on top of most of the releases in this movie genre, even exploring beyond rock to include some jazz, country, rap and classical.

I recently watched Bohemian Rhapsody, having put it off for quite a while. My interest in Queen has always been mostly academic. I understood their importance to music, yet precious few of their songs ever truly resonated with me. Even as a kid, I only liked certain Queen songs and albums, and to this day, I still cannot say I've ever been a fan... just more of a casual "enjoyer" of some of their music. When I was young, I was drawn to A Night at the Opera, which I owned and played endlessly, though my favourite songs were not the now-classics like Bohemian Rhapsody. No, instead, I was more impressed with tracks like '39 and You're My Best Friend.

The real Queen, with real teeth

And over all these decades, I've only accumulated a few of Queen's albums, their aforementioned Opera classic, Innuendo (from 1991, Mercury's last appearance), and a very solid greatest hits CD. Long ago, I had A Day at the Races, but it just didn't do it for me, Tie Your Mother Down being the only tune that grabbed me. I also tried out Queen II, but so many years after my prog-rock obsession that I couldn't properly appreciate what they were doing on that album. A miss for me.

Which brings me to the recent Hollywood biopic Bohemian Rhapsody. My feelings about the movie may be contrary to those of the majority of film-goers. I had a problem with it... no, I had problems - plural - with it. While the actor Rami Malek, who played Mercury, probably did a decent job, he simply did not look much like Freddie to me. Maybe when he covered his puffy eyes with sunglasses. But the guy fussed so much with his phony teeth that it was distracting; he was always doing weird things with his mouth that emphasized the fact that those chompers were uncomfortable - and un-real. 

Also, as is often an issue with biopics, the departure from real events into fairy-tale can be aggravating. I don't know, maybe some people can easily suspend disbelief and simply enjoy the slightly trumped-up story, but I found myself watching Bohemian Rhapsody with a very critical eye. Probably because I grew up with Queen all around me in the 70's and 80's, whether I liked it or not... their music and stature grew and grew as I passed through my teen years into my 20's. So I had some knowledge of the band, some of their music, and their place in world and rock history. So the storybook approach to the movie put me off. Again, we see this a lot in music biopics... the fabrication of events as they never happened: the way Freddie and his bandmates, together or apart, magically popped out their song masterpieces on the spot. Hard to believe and hard not to roll the eyes. They also gloss over a lot of Mercury's relationships and later, his battle with AIDs. Not that I wanted to see his descent into the illness and eventual death. In fact, I thought the Wembley Stadium performance was a fitting and classy ending. But the movie lacked a solid storyline and was more a collage of episodes from Mercury's life. 

My gripes aside, though, I thought the movie was okay. 

Now on to some music biographic films that I did like a lot:

Amadeus - the nutty genius Mozart as perfectly portrayed by Tom Hulce; great all-around movie, both lustrous and dark, grim and joyous
The Doors - Val Kilmer killed it as self-destructive rock poet Morrison; a psychedelic cinematic trip of sound and imagery
Daydream Believers: The Monkees Story - not perfection, but a fun, loose telling of their rise from stooge actors to pop fame
Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould - a challenging film, part documentary, part re-enacted episodes from the eccentric piano genius' colourful life
Walk the Line - my intro to "good" country music; actor Phoenix is riveting as the legendary outlaw musician Johnny Cash
Bird - Clint Eastwood's masterful telling of the story of jazz sax master Charlie Parker; star Whitaker plays the role with honesty and depth

The fake band that became real, then was portrayed by a fake

band in the biopic Daydream Believers: The Monkees Story

I've seen plenty more flicks about musicians, some very cool, some average, but here's a quick mention of some good ones I can remember:

It's All Gone Pete Tong
Straight Outta Compton
Ray
The Buddy Holly Story
The Pianist
Shine

... and a bunch I can barely remember now, it's been so long since I've seen them:

Sid and Nancy, Elvis (1979, directed by John Carpenter), La Bamba, Coal Miner's Daughter, Great Balls of Fire

Music vs Real Life

Something a little different today... I've been going through serious record-buying (or just plain music-buying) withdrawal lately. I haven't gotten a thing since early January, when I found some used records at a downtown shop. But real life expenses have gotten in the way of pursuing my music passion for a while now. Even last fall, I had to trim down the spending for a time, just to make sure even a modest Christmas could happen. That worked out fine, but ever since the holiday season, real life expenses (health-related; no, nothing life-threatening, but still very important and urgent) have taken hold of my wallet.

So in lieu of a spending spree rundown, I'll just briefly mention some of the cool musical things I've been able to enjoy in other ways. 

To begin with, I watched a terrifically funny Finnish movie the other night, called Heavy Trip. It's the story of a small-town (in Finland) metal band who after twelve years of practice, finally get a gig. It goes badly, as expected, but then there's a possible much bigger show at a metal festival in Norway. I won't go into particulars here - just see it! - but it's a blast. Probably the best, and funniest, rock music movie I've seen in years. The actors are so natural that you forget they're acting. And in between hilarious bits there is some brutally cool black metal-type music. If you like metal... or rock... or just solid laughs... check out Heavy Trip. 

I also watched the movie trailer for Lords of Chaos, a U.S. flick about black metal... done Riverdale style. That means yuk! It looks super cheesy and lame, even judging by the promo. I'll give that a miss, even when it hits Netflix. 

The other night, when a decent choice of movies eluded me, I instead popped on the headphones and ran my Judas Priest Electric Eye concert video for the second time in a couple of weeks. This was the 1986 Dallas show, when Priest was touring for their Turbo album. At their peak here, the band really tore it up with a blistering performance, both musically and visually. Ol' Rob (well, not so old in this '86 show) provided further proof that he was among the the very best frontmen and showmen in the biz. More costume changes than Lady Gaga, I'd guess. All variations on the leather theme, of course.

Amazing guitar-work, naturally, given the twin-axe attack of KK and Glenn, with the rhythm section holding down a solid foundation to allow the showier players to shine. A monstrous robotic machine was the core of the stage set-up, and some of the band members got to ride on the robot arms and platforms. 

Not the greatest setlist in my opinion, focusing almost entirely on 80's songs (tunes like The Sentinel, Freewheel Burning, and Turbo Lover), but the fire and energy that Priest brought to the stage still made this an excellent, entertaining concert video to watch. Well worth the price of admission. 

Over Christmas-time, I got a couple of rock biographies, actually autobiographies, to be more precise. I read the two books very quickly, as they were both so fun and enlightening. The first was Heavy Duty, by KK Downing, one of the guitar maestros of Judas Priest. A cool book full of fascinating and funny stories, maybe a bit less detailed than I'd hoped, but still well worth a look if you're a fan. 

The other autobio I checked out was Thanks A Lot Mr. Kibblewhite, by that guy... you know, that singer for that British band from way back when.... um, Roger Daltrey of The Who, yeah, that's it. This, too, was a zippy read packed with anecdotes and facts, some of which I already knew and others I didn't. I enjoyed Townshend's book, Who I Am, a few years back, and while Daltry's story corroborated some of Pete's recollections, there were different versions of some of those crazy events of long ago. I guess between the passage of time and mind-altering substances, their memories just aren't spot on nowadays. 

Hopefully, in the coming weeks, I'll have some new physical albums here to talk about. Until then, keep the metal faith! Or just plain rock on...