Sad Old Gits ‹ The Conclusion (I hope)
Patrick Powell
very much) away from home for three days every week, and so when I get home
and download newsgroups, I often miss some which have come and gone and are
no longer included in the 25 or 50 or whatever it is Outlook Express
downloads every time. I say that because I seem to be reading replies to
replies to replies and donąt know what was originally said.
My first two messages (Sad Old Gits and Sad Old Gits ‹ The Sequel) were
partly tongue-in-cheek in so far as most of us get a little touchy about our
age and feel we can still cut it with the youngies (anyone under 25) and
resent anyone implying anything else, and so my message and its title seem
to have touched a raw nerve. So what the hell. I was teasing. Bugger anyone
with no sense of humour. Everyone, even all those nubile youngies (and how
you interpret Śnubileą depends on your sex and sexual orientation ‹ Iąm
being non-specific as I donąt want yet more criticism) will hit 40, then 50
themselves and will feel just as sensitive about.
As for Walt and Donny-baby, well here in Britain we have the concept of ŚThe
Establishmentą which is largely and ironically made up of former
revolutionaries, non-conformists, non-joiners, radicals etc etc ad nauseam
who have simply grown older and been coralled into The Esablishment. And the
fact is that Wal and Donny are for better or worse now Establishment.
Nothing really wrong with that. They donąt pretend to be otherwise as do
some of those cynical huporcrites in Hollywood who preach greenery and
revolution and go home and sack the Filipino becuase she didnąt clean the
toilet with her tongue. Yes, I am a touch disappointed that Walt and Donny
have taken to selling $66 Steely dan sweatshirts, but I am also a touch
disappointed that after turning 49, I was obliged ‹ had no choice, even ‹ to
turn 50 a year later. And given the same circumstances, who can honestly say
they wouldnąt do similar or the same. So it IS refreshing that there are
some artists who never allow themselves to be yoked into the Establishment
although tye come along about once every two generations. Beethoven was one,
believe it our not. Had scant respect for anyone.
But all along I have said apropos Steely Dan that the music is the thing,
and I have, persoball, stressed music, even though I dig the lyrics. I quite
honestly do not give a flying fcuk whether they sell out, sell in, sell up
or down as long as they continue to produce excellent music which enthuses
me and which stands repeated listening (including 2vN ‹ it bemuses me that
anyone feels that is in any way inferior). Steely Dan are head and shoulders
far above any of their peers. Itąs the teeny-bopper fandom element which I
find discouraging.
I said before and I shall say it again: Walt and Donny should let go a bit
more, dip their toe in the far, far sharkier and mor edangerous waters of
jazz (Dave Douglas anyone?) and Walt should get his act together and produce
another solo effort as excellent as 12 Whacks. There, not I have got it off
my chest.
Steve_2000
Too long between posts. Also saw a killer concert recently and a
review/reaction made it into this post. Read or skip, comments always
welcome-Steve (I guess soon to be 'Steve_2020,' as far as Deja etc).
In article <B60293D0.1D7A%pfgp...@lineone.net>,
I was waiting for a VH1 program to come on the other night and caught
the tail end of a 'Behind The Music' on media creation 'Cher' who is
disarmingly honest and has a no apologies/no illusions about
her 'place' in entertainment.
They wrapped up her profile with some typical Cher-isms, frankly stated
by Herself:"I've been 50 and I've been 40. 40 is better. I've been rich
and I've been broke. Rich is better."
Of course most of us would place Don and Walt in another universe from
Cher artisically...'artistic' doesn't even apply to her. "Showbiz"
does..and it also is the arena in which the Guys work to expose their
music through recordings and concerts, albeit in their own way. And
they are middle-aged men dealing with the huge entertainment corps who
run the labels, media and now more than ever, concert promotion.
So they have the 'charge what the market will bear' merchandising as
does every other artist playing at the amphitheater level.
The only time in the last 5 years I haven't seen $25 logo-ed Beefy Tees
(which cost about $3.00 to make) was at a James Taylor concert. In the
90s JT was an evergreen-out playing Every summer, and even writing a
song about it. He's taking a breather now, but during the 90s you could
count on him every summer, just like Jimmy Buffet.
One summer he had no current album out and simply did not bother to do
the merchandising. In previous years he had offered a T shirt logo-ed
with his name and stating that he was 'singing for' or supporting a
specific children's charity or environmental action lobbyist group. I
thought that whole deal was cool. Don't know if he will be able to pull
it off on his tour next summer, SFX is controlling a lot of tours and
venues now and 'no-merchandising' may not be an option. Taylor can
still put what he wants on the shirts and give his percentage to
charity, though.
Every other concert I've been to for many many years has had standard
merchandising. With recent Napster suit testimony showing how few acts
really make much money at CD sales, it's no surprise that an artist
figures an average concertgoer is gonna spend $30 on merchandise at the
show...and builds it into the tour budget, it's a given. Helps make it
worth going on the road. Faith Hill's management recently told a
reporter the platinum selling crossover country artist only makes 20%
of her annual income from CD sales/royalties...the rest is mainly from
concert tix and merchandising (and in her case, product/advertisement
tie-ins).
I don't begrudge Don and Walt doing what 99.9% of the other arena-draw
level acts do. And on top of that, they always put together one of the
best tourbands on the road to help them bring their great music and
live shows to the fans.
The only show I've seen recently that blew me away with a similar
stellar band performing genius-level music and arrangements was Brian
Wilson's Pet Sounds (and 2 hours of other BB classics) tour this
summer. Un-Freakin-Real.
Fantastic compositions and vocal arrangements-the centerpiece was them
playing/Singing 'Pet Sounds' start to finish...the 1967 album that
apparently kicked the then competitive Beatles in the butt bigtime,
resulting in their own artistic envelope pushing "Sgt. Pepper." And
music was never the same.
Brian is lucky to be alive and able to perform and at all. But he is
getting better with his mental problems...indeed in control of them, as
the years go by. How heartening to hear one of pop's original
innovators and genius's do an absolutely great show. In concert he's
very obviously playing to us 'from a planet much like our own native
Earth.' But it doesn't matter, he's having fun in his own way and the
songs, music and singing are spectacular.
There were several moments when they would just have a single keyboard
playing the changes..and 6 or Brian leading six or seven singers
through his great original vocal arrangement. The genius and beauty of
the music and vocal arrangement was laid out starkly for the listener
to behold (in awe, in my case ... manytimes). Lesser bands might do
this type of a barebones showcase arrangement to a specific song that
leant itself to it, to show you the magic they managed on that
particular song/arrangement (Crosby, Stills and Nash come to mind..not
knocking them, I've just seen em milk things in concert). With Wilson's
songs...there are so many that just sound great with vocals and piano
or vocals and guitar, that it was sort of arbitrary which tunes he gave
that treatment to. More to do with pacing of the show than which songs
would hold up under this type of presentation. They pretty much all
would. But he didn't overuse it, and with 10 musicians was able to
create his finest moments in the recording studio-and he had many.
FWIW, like Steely Dan, everything was performed live at Wilson's
concert-no 'help' from sequenced or sampled instruments..3 multi-
instrumentalists were on hand who made sure things like the subtle
horns on the intro to California Girls or the out front horns
on 'Darlin' etc- and the extended instrumentation on many of his final
big productions from his golden era..were all there, played live.
And I now have a simple 'Brian Wilson Tee' hanging in the closet next
to my aging "Cover of Aja" Tee, a once-only from the 1993 Steely
tour...my most worn, and comment generating Tee shirt from any artist.
I only make it to 4 or 5 big concerts a season now for many reasons.
I'm glad when Steely Dan of Brian Wilson (and a handful of other
artists/instrumentalists) make it to town. I don't really care about
any deals with the devil they may choose to (or have to) make to
tour...as long as the ticket price is whatever _reasonable_ is for me
these days. Don't usually buy a T-shirt, except in special cases..
Just glad there's some extraordinary music coming to town. And great
new music occasionally being released on CD (or whatever).
imo
Steve
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
tim r
apparently it comes down to how many 'hits' or , in this case 'reads'
also, posting jpegs fucks it up as well, they've only so much discspace.
uk posters, it's at the expense of the rest of the world.......cheers .
''persoball'' ......explayne.....
yowsa,
tim r
Patrick Powell <pfgp...@lineone.net> wrote in message
news:B60293D0.1D7A%pfgp...@lineone.net...
> I am unfortunately (unfortunately because I have two small children I miss
> very much) away from home for three days every week, and so when I get
home
> and download newsgroups, I often miss some which have come and gone and
are
> no longer included in the 25 or 50 or whatever it is Outlook Express
> downloads every time. I say that because I seem to be reading replies to
> replies to replies and donšt know what was originally said.
>
> My first two messages (Sad Old Gits and Sad Old Gits < The Sequel) were
> partly tongue-in-cheek in so far as most of us get a little touchy about
our
> age and feel we can still cut it with the youngies (anyone under 25) and
> resent anyone implying anything else, and so my message and its title seem
> to have touched a raw nerve. So what the hell. I was teasing. Bugger
anyone
> with no sense of humour. Everyone, even all those nubile youngies (and how
> you interpret Onubileš depends on your sex and sexual orientation < Išm
> being non-specific as I donšt want yet more criticism) will hit 40, then
50
> themselves and will feel just as sensitive about.
>
> As for Walt and Donny-baby, well here in Britain we have the concept of
OThe
> Establishmentš which is largely and ironically made up of former
> revolutionaries, non-conformists, non-joiners, radicals etc etc ad nauseam
> who have simply grown older and been coralled into The Esablishment. And
the
> fact is that Wal and Donny are for better or worse now Establishment.
> Nothing really wrong with that. They donšt pretend to be otherwise as do
> some of those cynical huporcrites in Hollywood who preach greenery and
> revolution and go home and sack the Filipino becuase she didnšt clean the
> toilet with her tongue. Yes, I am a touch disappointed that Walt and Donny
> have taken to selling $66 Steely dan sweatshirts, but I am also a touch
> disappointed that after turning 49, I was obliged < had no choice, even <
to
> turn 50 a year later. And given the same circumstances, who can honestly
say
> they wouldnšt do similar or the same. So it IS refreshing that there are
> some artists who never allow themselves to be yoked into the Establishment
> although tye come along about once every two generations. Beethoven was
one,
> believe it our not. Had scant respect for anyone.
>
> But all along I have said apropos Steely Dan that the music is the thing,
> and I have, persoball, stressed music, even though I dig the lyrics. I
quite
> honestly do not give a flying fcuk whether they sell out, sell in, sell up
> or down as long as they continue to produce excellent music which enthuses
> me and which stands repeated listening (including 2vN < it bemuses me that
> anyone feels that is in any way inferior). Steely Dan are head and
shoulders
> far above any of their peers. Itšs the teeny-bopper fandom element which I