Category Archives: art

The Big Compromise: Art versus Success

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Maybe it is inherent in the species. The argument certainly comes up here often enough. And, that issue/question is delineating between driving for success, and selling out.

It does seem there is a consensus, that once a band does indeed make it big, and has some money and serious production behind them, the group loses the vitality and drive sought while spending every day for years practicing and every night over the same span playing dive bars, hoping to develop a sound, move up the venue chain, and ultimately make a comfortable living as a musician.

Obviously some bands make it big–like U2 and KISS–but it seems inevitable that at some point, with commercial success, “the edge” (pun intended) gets lost, and though the band may enjoy an even larger audience, the sound or vision that grabs most serious music junkies becomes lost.

There are exceptions. Elvis Costello. Bob Dylan. Neil Young. Prince. Joni Mitchell. Stevie Wonder. David Bowie. The Beatles. The Stones. The Kinks. Bruce Springsteen. I would even throw U2 and the Dead  in there.

But, for the most part, bands have a sound, are discovered, make it big, and then spend an album or two trying to recapture the raw energy that pushed them in the first place in a more formal recording setting, become commercial, overproduced, and then has-beens.

I guess like every riddle in life, this one really has no answer, but we all have opinions.

But, the whole argument reminded me of something I believe Cyril Neville said when his band released their album, Uptown.

Uptown was a departure for the Neville Brothers, who were certainly renowned within the music world as artists and performers, but despite four singles released between 1978 and 1987, including a great cover of Iko Iko (1981, from Fiyo on the Bayou), they never cracked the Billboard Top 100.

With Uptown, the Nevilles cashed in on their industry cred, showcasing Keith Richards, Ronnie Montrose, Branford Marsalis, and Carlos Santana as guests, with Daniel Lanois producing.

The result was a hit, Whatever it Takes, a song which I still think is great, but which is a far cry from their take on Iko.

But, though the band got a hit, the album was not well received critically, nor was it well thought of by the hard core Neville fans because the sound was so much more commercial.

So, when asked about selling out, Cyril said something to the effect of, “we thought we might like to send our kids to college one day.”

What can you say to that?

Breakfast Blend: Elvis Costello on Letterman 1982

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The Attractions were touring supporting Imperial Bedroom, the album that Columbia promoted with the headline, Masterpiece?

I saw the band on the pier by the Intrepid, and then got a call from my friend Robin. Her neighbor was a writer on the Letterman show, and she had tickets to see them in the studio on Letterman’s show. We went. You can see them here. Thanks Robin.

The reason I landed on this is I’ve been playing that album a lot lately. I hadn’t revisited it for years, partly because of that Masterpiece? dodge. The weird overselling and the record’s effete literary musicality caused a problem. You can’t say you love this record without saying you’re some king of fancy boy. Unless you’re brave.

I love this record. The Attractions were a fantastic band, and the songs and arrangements on this elpee push them to create lively melodic music that can only, sometimes, be called Beatles-esque.

But the record really doesn’t rely on pretension. This isn’t XTC. There’s lots of air and delicious melody in the arrangements. Beatles engineer Geoff Emmerich produces this one, and the sound is precise and rich, full of detail, but each layer adds nuance, not complexity. This is art rock that is art, but doesn’t sacrifice the straight forward perspective of rock, even if the tunes mostly rock only in spurts.

And then there are Costello’s words. He’s a writer of too many words, sometimes, but when they’re pared back, as they actually often are, especially on Imperial Bedroom, he’s also a writer of uncompromising personal directness and vividness. The two songs on this Letterman clip are lyrically bold and personally revealing.

And this live version of Beyond Belief shows the rock heart at the core of Imperial Bedroom.

Lunch Break: Frank Patterson, “Danny Boy”

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WTF?  Frank Patterson? Danny Boy?

Yeah, fucking Danny Boy.

I had the Coen’s great Miller’s Crossing film on in the background while working.

I do love the Coen’s, and while I think Fargo and Lebowski and A Serious Man might be my favorites, then I remember Miller’s Crossing and that it pretty much blows away anything else the boys have done as a whole piece of filmaking.

I am not really a big fan of the song Danny Boy, and my understanding is that Patterson recorded this version especially for the film, but, the sweet tenor, juxtaposed with the ballet of cause and effect and subsequent violence as one mob gang tries to exterminate rival boss Leo (Albert Finney) does so much to define his character within the movie.

So, the music might not be rock and roll, but the sequence surely is.

 

Lunch Break: The Seeds, “Pushin’ Too Hard,” and “I Can’t Seem to Make You Mine”

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Good old YouTube.

It is like looking through the old Macmillan Baseball Stat book: You look up one number, and that leads to another and another and what started out as a search for Napoleon Lajoie’s (got it that time, Steve) best year for doubles (51 in 1910) winds up comparing George Brunet’s career WHIP (1.316) with that of Jamey Wright’s (1.545, pretty crappy for a former first rounder) three hours later.

My piece on the Syndicate of Sound led to Gene posting the Music Machine, and when I finished watching that, there was a link to the Seeds on a show called Shebang, which I think I remember, but am not sure.

I can say that I kind of liked the Seeds, but I can also say this is maybe the worst lip sync ever:

But, in typical stat searching style, that led to this video of 50’s pin-up model Bettie Page dancing, I guess suggestively, to another Seeds hit, I Can’t Seem to Make You Mine.

The song is ok, and for sure Bettie was hot (dark hair, bangs, and blue eyes are deadly. If I knew she was left-handed, and wore glasses sometimes a la Dorothy Malone in The Big Sleep, I would have probably spent my life savings trying to track her down) but for the most part the whole thing is stupid, and not really provocative (was it in 1966?  I doubt it.).

KISS my Griffin

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To say I feel guilty from having been so pulled away from here is sort of rhetorical.

And, I see posts of some great tunes being spotlighted (and there are some I wanna get out there too).

Life seems to be slowing, thankfully, but, while dozing off last night, the Family Guy where Lois and Peter go to a KISS-fest was on. So, funny.

Anyway, this clip is really the only thing out there worth displaying, but it is indeed pretty good (was thinking of you Steve:  maybe Perry is right and we should get a room?).

More to come. Miss you all.