Matt Schiavenza From the Dragon to the Apple- A Sinophile in New York

Alice in Chains

I've spent the past hour listening to Alice in Chains' 1996 MTV Unplugged album.  It's excellent and adds further grist to my contention that the 90s represent an overlooked golden age for rock music.  Consider Alice in Chains.  They're a great band and better than 99% of the flotsam I hear on modern rock radio.  In their time, though, they weren't huge because:

1. They were typecast as "just another grunge band" and not quite as accessible as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, or Soundgarden

2.  Their songs are very depressing, dealing primarily with subjects like heroin addiction ("Down In A Hole"), war ("Rooster"), and rage ("Angry Chair").  You wouldn't exactly enliven a party by putting an Alice in Chains album in your stereo.

3. Their hit songs were spread out over three or four albums, so they didn't have a Nevermind or Ten to skyrocket them to superstardom. 

Funny how a great band can get lost in the mix sometimes- perhaps under a different set of circumstances Layne Staley's subsequent death would have received far more attention than it did.

Music Rambles

Is there a more disappointing band in the history of rock'n'roll than Rush?  Consider the elements: a brilliant drummer.  Very interesting lyrics.  Creative use of recording technology.  And yet the finished product.....sucks.  I can't stand listening to Rush, even if I appreciate their considerable talent.

And then there's the White Stripes.  I met a Canadian guy who went into excruciating technical detail of why Jack White was a lousy guitarist and Meg White a terrible drummer.  And I thought, "So what?  Their music rocks".  Music doesn't have to be complex to be great.

One of the greatest guitar solos ever- in my opinion- is Neil Young's in "Cinnamon Girl".  And he plays only one note, over and over!  That's why it's brilliant...it suits the song.  He didn't need to indulge in Joe Satriani-like wizardry, even though Young has the talent to do so if he wished.

One more thing- Live 105, our local modern rock station here in the Bay Area, plays nothing but 90s music at noon every weekday.  It's fantastic.  It dawned on me how many great female-fronted bands there were in the 90s.  Elastica.  Veruca Salt. Four Non Blondes. Hole. The Cranberries.

Where are the good chick-bands now?

Speaking of The Cranberries, I can't stop listening to their acoustic version of "Linger", performed live for MTV Unplugged.  It's really an extraordinary song, beautifully sung with their Irish accents.  Worth a listen.

Can Poor Musicians Make Good Music?

Along the hike yesterday, I engaged in a conversation with a French Canadian musician about The White Stripes.  He hates them and calls them the most overrated band in the world.  I protested that they're my favorite band and so we began hashing out support for our respective opinions.

His critique of the Strips focused on a lot of musicological reasons that were frankly beyond me.  He said Meg White is a terrible drummer (something a lot of other people have noted) and that Jack White's a lousy guitarist because, well, his guitar playing is too simple.

When asked to defend the band, I really wasn't able to come up with a substantive response.  Mostly I just said that their music sounds good.  Isn't that enough?  The Montrealian thought not and sort of huffed as if he had clearly won the argument.  But I am reminded of an old Duke Ellington quote: "If it sounds good, it is good."  Nobody would argue that Ellington wasn't an authority on these matters.

This is my frustration with talking to certain people about music.  They've learnt so much about it that they begin approaching it as a science, rather than an art.  They break down music to the sum of its parts rather than taking a holistic approach, which I find more appropriate.  Along the same vein, people criticized The Da Vinci Code for being poorly written- even some people whom I suspect devoured the book in three days as I did.  The only books that are poorly written are the ones you can't be bothered to finish, no matter how sparkling the vocabulary or convoluted the plot.

Similarly, I just finished reading Scar Tissue, the new autobiography of Red Hot Chili Peppers singer Anthony Kiedis.  The conventional wisdom about RHCP is that they are comprised of three first-rate musicians and a goofy frontman who can't really sing.  Of course, Kiedis is no Freddy Mercury- but I would still argue he's a damn good singer.  Listen to "Scar Tissue", "Under the Bridge", "Venice Queen", "Road Trippin'", or "Porcelain".  All lovely songs.  Sung well?  I don't care- I still love them.

The book itself is great by the way.  Talk about a pure dose of sex, drugs, & rock and roll.  Kiedis reminds me a little bit of a guy I knew in college named Luke.  His friends and flatmates would note the steady procession of women emerging from his bedroom and ask him how the hell he did it.  "It was a beautiful experience, man", was Luke's most common response.  As it is Kiedis'

Did you know that "I Could Have Lied" was written about his failed relationship with Sinead O'Connor of all people?  I didn't.  Hard to imagine a more unlikely couple.

The book does document Kiedis' struggles with drug addiction- particularly heroin.  He was clean for five and a half years around the time Blood Sugar Sex Magik was big- but then relapsed and didn't officially go clean until December 2000.  I actually found his advice for kicking a drug habit quite useful- rather than pretend you don't want to use, acknowledge that you do but that you choose not to.  That's an important difference, and a useful tip for anyone hooked on anything from heroin to cigarettes.

Enough rambling- back to walking around

RIP Syd

I note with sadness the passing of Syd Barrett, the founding guitarist and vocalist of Pink Floyd, one of NBNL's favorite all-time bands.

Of course, Syd hasn't been part of Floyd for a long time- over thirty-five years, in fact.  His increasingly erratic behavior, driven by excessive consumption of psychedelic drugs, forced his bandmates to replace him with David Gilmour.

Most people are aware of the 70s Floyd albums, such as Dark Side of the Moon.  Yet for interested fans it's worth checking out The Piper At the Gates of Dawn, Floyd's first album, as well as the singles "Arnold Layne" and "See Emily Play".  Both feature Barrett's brilliant insanity.

By the way, the classic Floyd song "Shine On You Crazy Diamonds" and the whole Wish You Were Here album are thought to be tributes to Barrett by his former bandmates.

RIP

Random List- Possible “5th Beatles”

Here are some of the peripheral Beatles characters that either referred to themselves as the "5th Beatle" or could plausibly claim such a distinction.

1. Stu Sutcliffe
    Sutcliffe was an art college friend of John Lennon's, and agreed to sell one of his paintings for enough money to purchase a bass guitar.  He accompanied the band to Hamburg, but his playing was so poor that he would turn his back to the audience lest they discovered his ineptitude.  When the Beatles returned to Liverpool, Sutcliffe elected to stay with his girlfriend, photographer Astrid Kircherr (the woman who gave the Beatles their famous "mop top" look).  Sutcliffe died of a brain anuerysm in 1962 before the band broke it huge.  The excellent film Backbeat profiles Sutcliffe and Kircherr' romance at length.

2. Pete Best
    The Beatles' first drummer.  Best was always an outsider, refusing to go along with the Beatles' fashion and sense of solidarity.  In Hamburg, Best often missed gigs, leading the Beatles to turn to another Liverpudlian drummer- Ringo Starr.  When the Parlophone label signed the Beatles, producer George Martin asked them to choose another drummer.  Best was sacked, and Ringo made permanent.

3. Brian Epstein
    Epstein was a wealthy shop owner who discovered the Beatles and agreed to manage them.  Enchanted by their charisma (and possibly infatuated with John Lennon), Epstein heavily promoted the Beatles and was instrumental in their breakthrough.  When the band decided to stop touring, Epstein was devastated.  He died of a drug overdose in 1967.  In the ensuing years, the Beatles realized that Epstein made a series of disastrous financial decisions that cost the Beatles a fair portion of their potential revenue.

4. George Martin
    A veteran producer of comedy and classical music recordings, Martin discovered the Beatles and felt that their charisma would overcome their technical shortcomings.  His genius was being able to take an idea or concept from one of the musically illiterate band members and articulate it in the recording studio.  His finest hour was the twin recording of "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane".  After the Beatles' breakup, Martin would later produce the schmaltzy folk-rock band America, famous for their hit song "Horse With No Name".

5. Murray the K
    Murray the K was a New York disc jockey who championed the Beatles ardently.  In 1964, when the Beatles first arrived in America, Murray allowed the four to request songs on his show, earning him their affection.  He was the only one on this list who actually promoted himself as "The 5th Beatle"

6. Billy Preston
    An accomplished American keyboardist, Preston was hired by the Beatles in late 1968 to play on a couple of their hit singles, "Get Back" and "Don't Let Me Down".  Lennon and Harrison wanted Preston to become a permanent member of the band, but McCartney vetoed it.   Preston would continue to record music long after the Beatles split up.

7. Yoko Ono
    Yoko contributed very little to the Beatles music, but is reviled for "causing their breakup".  I actually believe the Beatles' break-up was inevitable and Yoko simply accelerated it, but her ubiquitous presence in later studio sessions certainly didn't lift the morale of the group.  Yoko was a well-known avant-garde artist and would infamously make several "musical" recordings, characterized by her appalling caterwauling.

8. Jimmy Nicol
    Nicol was hired to drum for the Beatles on an extended tour after Ringo Starr was sidelined with tonsilitis.  He faded into obscurity after Ringo's return.

9. Marijuana
    The Beatles' first encounter with the herb purportedly occured when they met Bob Dylan.  Dylan never did any work for the Beatles, and the two never collaborated, but his influence on the Beatles (especially John Lennon) became apparent as early as 1965 with the release of Rubber Soul and the Beatles surely had something to do with Dylan's transition from pure folk to folk-rock.  As for the bud itself, Ringo himself attributed the increasingly introspective lyricism evident in the Beatles' middle period to their experimentation with grass.

10. Mark David Chapman
    Many people offered enormous sums of money to the Beatles if they would reunite during the 1970s.  It never happened.  Famously, Lorne Michaels of Saturday Night Live held a check for $1,000, inviting the Fab Four to play on his show.  Unbeknowngst to Michaels, both Lennon and McCartney were watching the show together and very nearly hopped into a cab to claim the check.  Alas, it didn't happen.   Chapman's bullets, fatally wounding Lennon in 1980, put a definitive end on any discussion that the Beatles would reunite.

A Lennon Soundtrack

Here would be my choices for a "Best of John Lennon" mix, including his work with the Beatles-

1. I Am The Walrus
2. In My Life
3. Nowhere Man
4. Norwegian Wood
5. Girl
6. Tomorrow Never Knows
7. And Your Bird Can Sing
8. She Said She Said
9. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
10. A Day In The Life
11. Dear Prudence
12. Happiness Is A Warm Gun
13. Julia
14. Sexy Sadie
15. Come Together
16. Imagine
17. Mother
18. God
19. Gimme Some Truth
20. Working Class Hero

Lennon Remembered

Today marks the 25th anniversary of John Lennon's death at the hands of a crazed assassin.  As an enormous Beatles fan, I never fail to note this tragic occasion.

I've often read that Lennon's death signaled the end of an era- perhaps the "day the music died" more so than the plane crash that felled Buddy Holly.  To me, Lennon's rise and fall paralleled the evolution of his entire generation, living through the most turbulent times of the 20th century.

To see the early film of the Beatles, smiling in their neatly-pressed suits, you'd be hard-pressed to believe that in a mere few years they'd be the vanguard of the swinging, psychedelic 60s.  Lennon was the band's leader and great innovator- even when Paul McCartney staked his claim as the more prolific songwriter, everyone knew that Lennon was "it"....the cool Beatle.

Songs such as the "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" perfectly capture the indulgences and excesses of the late 60s, full of mantras and grooviness and so many colors, man.  In the 70s, Lennon's work reflected the narcissistic "me" generation, and Beatle John himself hibernated in a New York apartment, singing "I Just Believe In Me....Yoko and Me...and that's Reality".  Before his violent end, Lennon finally appeared at peace with his marriage, parenthood, and approaching middle-age- the saccharine sweetness of his last album, Double Fantasy, indicate that his days of rabble-rousing were gone with the wind.

The 80s did mark the end of Baby Boom high culture- bell bottoms became Brooks Brothers suits, hard-edged and gritty film became blockbuster dreck, and the music lost much of its edge.  Loads of people traded in their hippie caravans for BMWs and embraced the age of Reagan and Star Wars with dollar signs in mind.

As Lennon himself might have said (and did once sing), "The dream is over....what can I say?".  And so for a generation of his fans, Lennon's death was the final nail in the coffin.

Dark Side of the Moon…Explained!

I've been a major Pink Floyd fan since I was 17.  I own several of their albums and have listened to them so many times I can predict every little squeak, fart, or helicopter noise that emanates from their music.  They've always been a bit more mysterious than most major rock bands, and their mythology only grew with the bizarre connection between Dark Side of the Moon and The Wizard of Oz.

So I was quite curious when I picked up a Dark Side of the Moon documentary I found at my local DVD shop.  I regard Dark Side as the finest Pink Floyd album, and one of the ten best rock albums ever.  I've listened to it literally hundreds of times, almost always in its entirety.

The documentary takes you through each of the nine songs, providing a fascinating glimpse into how Floyd made such complex recordings without modern technology.  All four band members are interviewed, as well as a few other assorted oddballs. (Including David Fricke, the ubiquitous Rolling Stone journalist whose record collection is a lot larger then yours).

For a band famous for making somewhat bizarre music, the four members come off as perfectly normal English gentlemen.  In particular, David Gilmour looks quite well-preserved: he could pass for your English professor in his blue blazer and conservative sweater.  Unlike a lot of rockers from that era whose brains have been through a few too many spin cycles, the Floyd four have remained completely articulate and thoughtful. 

Some highlights- Gilmour singing "Time" and strumming an acoustic guitar, keyboardist Richard Wright playing the first few measures of "The Great Gig In the Sky" on a baby grand piano, and bassist and main songwriter Roger Waters explaining his inspiration for Dark Side's remarkable lyrics.  One commentator compared the lyric "Hanging on in quiet desperation/is the English way" to something written by Oscar Wilde.

Part of Dark Side's allure has been the snippets of conversation interspersed with the songs.  Uttered in flat English voices, some of the lines include "I've always been mad" or "I was definitely in the right", or of course the weird stoned laugh during "Brain Damage".  Waters explained that Floyd prepared a questionairre and distributed it to some of the ordinary workers at their recording studio.  One of the questions was "When was the last time you were in a fight? And were you in the right?" explaining the answers given at the end of "Money".

While Floyd worked on Dark Side, Paul McCartney and Wings were recording Band on the Run in the same building.  Waters actually gave McCartney the questionairre, but related that Sir Paul was too conscious of being recorded and couldn't provide genuine answers.

The success of Dark Side and the ensuing fame for Floyd resulted in the typical alienation and hatred of celebrity.  The result?  Yet another classic album, 1975's Wish You Were Here.

If you're a dedicated Floydhead, do not miss it.

10 Songs

Here are ten songs chosen at random from my IPod:

1. Portishead "Undenied"
2. The Who "Magic Bus"
3. Ozzy Osbourne "Crazy Train"
4. The White Stripes "The Union Forever"
5. Louis Armstrong "Fireworks"
6. Jimi Hendrix "Wild Thing (Live)"
7. Thelonious Monk "Solitude"
8. Jon Brion "Magnolia"
9. The Fugees "Family Business"
10. Mos Def "Ms. Fat Booty"

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