2005 In Music

Last year, around this time, I was writing extensively about the music of 2004. Although I wrote briefly about how awful the AMAs were this year, and was going to complain about the Billboards, which were even worse, frankly it's not even worth my time. This has been an unbelievably bad year for mainstream music.

After watching the labels finally offering fresh faces and sounds in the four years following the original Napster, this is a real disappointment. The link above is to the Grammy nominees where it looks like we're back in the 90's with 8 nods to Mariah. Other than her and the new black hope, Kanye West, and the vapid John Legend, they don't even have anyone to tout.

Rob Thomas and Eric Clapton came out with some good stuff this year. But really, who gives a flying shit? What have you brought to the party this year? Last year we had Green Day, Maroon 5, Los Lonely Boys, Franz Ferdinand & others breaking out with great rock music... much of it with real message and importance, and Joss Stone, who can sing. This year, they are actually reaching back and nominating stuff that came out last year... it's ridiculous!

Kanye, Golddigger? Don't you know that sexism is even worse coming from black guys, who are supposed to know better about oppression? Why don't you just call it hodigger? Is no one loving you for yourself, you conceited shmuck? Your spiritual rap was so innovative, who the hell is in your ear now?

Gwen Stefani is on pretty much the same level except she's not putting anyone down, she just doesn't want her fly girls to hollaback to Kanye-like users of the world. As to the resurrection (emancipation, whatever) of Mimi, what the fuck did she resurrect? Her DOA career after Tommy Mottolla dropped her like the kiss of death, paying off her contract? Her meaningless amalgam of notes only dogs can hear?

It's all crap. The only bright spots this year were The Killers, Aqualung and maybe Natasha Beddingfield, and some of them didn't even get nominated. Am I mad? Hell yeah, can't you tell? Music was finally turning around. What's happening here? OK, here's what I think is happening. We saw the tail end of good mainstream music as the labels desperately searched for new sounds and well-developed bands ready for exploitation when they realized the landscape had changed and they would have to offer up something good.

That is becoming harder now. What has probably happened over the past four years is that the bands who would normally rise into those spots are probably seeking alternate (internet) distribution, wisely avoiding the labels. There will probably be a few years of adjustment when people find the channels which will lead them to the good stuff. The next Maroon 5 is probably winding its way up MySpace, CD Baby etc. and in the future those entities will have their own awards to point out the best of.

Meanwhile, TiVo the Grammy's on February 8th and hope they have lots of fire for Green Day and lots of water to drench Kelly Clarkson to break up the yawn-fest as NARAS returns to its old ways, regurgitating the old guard, for its last stand.

Rize

I would call this Mad Hot Ballroom meets The Paper Chasers except that, to compare this film to anything else would do it an injustice. This fresh, inspiring DVD from photographer/music video director David LaChappelle offers an alternative to the shlock constantly put out there for teens. It’s the story of young people on the Rize from the darkest of starts.

In Compton, Watts & East LA, your choices are Crips, Bloods or Clowns. If you’re not aware of the Clowns, you should be. The Clown Academy was started by Tommy Johnson, a.k.a. Tommy the Clown, after the Rodney King riots, in 1992. There are now over fifty clown groups that feature an eye, not to mention butt, popping dancing that is, believe me, very hard to do. The various companies operate as businesses that entertain at parties.

The film compares it to pure tribal dancing, mixing footage of African dance into a montage. There’s full make up and the dancing itself is very primal. It helps these poor kids release their pent-up anger. It gives them a forum for self-expression and a structured setting complete with huge competitions.

There’s a related dance form called Krumping that’s more of a spiritual form of the same dance, which is more about trance. It goes on primarily in the churches but the big competitions feature dance-offs between members of each group.

There’s discussion of how clowning is also spiritual and very much about rising above one’s adversities and staying pure in your art and expressiveness. The mother of one clown is a krumper and she says she just clowns for god, it’s all the same.

Like the hip hop music used to underline clowning, it has stayed a pure artform, relatively untouched by mainstream media. I think this will continue to infiltrate dance the way hip hop slowly filtered its way into white America. The choreography coming out of the winter music awards shows are showing some of the movement and Beyonce took the stripper dance straight up for Crazy in Love, which was a huge video for her, made the song a hit.

This is an important film to see. Make sure you check out the commentary track, which is under “Set Up”. It will give you a lot of perspective about how these groups are viewed by major artists and how articulate they are about their place in society and the opportunities afforded to them in life.

Disney Bites The Bullet

Disney CEO, Iger seems ready to reap the wrath of theater owners over release dates for feature films on DVD. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal yesterday, he pretty much threw down the gauntlet, saying, “In the end it’s going to be more through force than negotiation”. Although Disney will lose some of its theater platform, it obviously the feels the loss will be more than made up for through savings in promotion and reduction in piracy.

Big studios like Disney are seeing the need to focus. The days of unchecked expansion and diversification are long gone and these dinosaurs are searching hard for core strengths on which to build. The future, for Disney, is the DVD format, which has increasingly accounted for its entertainment revenue. Disney is still primarily a theme park company and apparently that emboldens them to take a risk with respect to box office.

Got to give the guy credit for biting that Hank Barry-like bullet, but, somebody has to do it. Iger likened his position to that of the soldier going first over the hill and taking the bulk of the bullets, and I commend him for doing it. At least Disney has lots of bucks on which to fall.

The theater owners need to stop asking for subsidies like cotton farmers and work on their business model. People still want to go out of the house to be entertained, but you’ll need an IMAX screen,. Those have seen some 800% return. They’ll also need some web-access or software available in the lobby instead of making all your money off selling rip-off candy.

Theater owners are a huge part of the problem. They only run the most teen-boy oriented films and leave many other sectors of potential movie goers unaddressed. When the theaters start becoming true entertainment destinations and offer hands-on, creative, movie-oriented activities, they will profit. They’ve been lazy and pampered by the ease of admitting teen, snack eating boys and doing little else. Instead of threatening studios, they should be addressing the needs of their consumers and offering activities and technology through which they, and their consumers, can profit.

John Lennon

From the ridiculous to the sublime... one blast from the past last night leads to another this morning. Jann Wenner is releasing the unexpurgated text of his 1970 interview with John Lennon in advance of the 25th anniversary of John's death. No death has ever come close to affecting me the way John Lennon's did. I remember the night he died more clearly than I remember yesterday.

I had not been a huge fan of John's. At the time I evaluated music on the basis of its sound, not by the stature of the performers. The Beatles were pretty pop sounding, Elvis sounded a bit simple and shmaltzy, Dylan whined etc. Now, the individuality and importance of these men in developing and shaping the sound of modern music is more of a focus because I'm writing, not spinning records for a progressive radio station.

So, when my mom came in and told me she'd heard that "someone has been shot and they think it's John Lennon", I was unmoved. We'd just lost Keith Moon and the usual assortment of rock ODs, I was used to losing artists and I was in denial. The idea that John could be shot and there would be confusion over his identity was impossible. A few minutes later, I saw the TV screen that came on for special bulletins, we pause for a news flash.... I turned it off, thinking the radio might be safer.... it wasn't, and I'll never forget what came next.

It was Let It Be... and I knew. I basically just lost it, I ran into my parents' room in hysterics. Sometime later, I called my best friend Sue in NM and we just sat on the phone in silence for god only knows how long. There were no words. For at least ten years after his death, I cried every time I thought about John, which was often. He had come to New York, my hometown, for anonymity and safety. He fought hard for his green card. Nixon considered him a huge threat and did everything he could to keep him out of the country. Now Reagan was in office and John was gone, permanently. Conspiracy posters blanketed the city. Traveling in Europe the following summer, I learned not to reveal my identity as a New Yorker, the city that killed Lennon.

Why did I go from being a lukewarm fan at best to reacting with every fiber of being when he died? To understand that, you have to look at the life and death of John Lennon and the timing and cause of his death. He'd had a pretty miserable childhood as the misunderstood genius who is the only person to appreciate who he really is and can't, for the life of him, understand why the shmucks around him don't look to him and see the perspective and awareness he has.

He's abandoned by both mother and father. When he finally, at 16, is just about to reconnect with his mother Julia (of the song), she is run down and killed by an off-duty cop on a motorcycle who was riding recklessly.  Is it any wonder he had such a disdain for authority, particularly after the cop gets off scott free.

He attracts the top talent, forms the Beatles, and their sound is immediately appreciated. He does find the perfect partner in Paul, who tones down his edge to a place where it can be accepted. The American public at that time was a hotbed of repression and every bit of it was exorcised through its teenage girls who made every single Beatle performance into a full on scream fest.

This was echoed by Tom Wolfe in Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test who described the scene at their last concert as a frenzy of pink arms and screaming such that there was no way to hear music. So, here is a serious band going to show after show after show and they see their own fans as, basically, complete assholes. With all the fame and money, they are trapped in a vacuum of backwards babies... still misunderstood. At the same time, despite the great music, there are jealousies and John and Paul (who came from a loving home) never really see eye to eye.  Paul was working class but he was whole, he never suffered the kind of loss John did.  He didn't have that type of sensitivity or experience to draw on.  You can hear it in their vocals.

Finally, John does meet someone, an artist in her own right, that really does understand him. Slowly, slowly, she helps him exorcise his many demons. And I mean many demons. John admitted to hitting Cynthia, he kicked a man in the head who later died of it, he made fun of the wheelchair bound fans who thought he could cure them... he was pretty messed up. But he changed his life and became the first househusband. Setting an example for men that would foster much social change, he finally finds happiness in the eyes of Sean. But, in the first five years of Sean's life, he doesn't touch the guitar.

One day Sean asks about the Beatles. John writes Woman, about his love for Yoko. He writes Beautiful Boy for his son. He records the songs for Double Fantasy. This is the music that is mostly fully John. It's not Beatles, it's not rage, it's John, happy and in love with his wife and son and their beautiful life together. This was the real deal. John knew the apex of fame, but he now realized that the fullest happiness was in loving family.

After 40 years, the most amazing artist of our time is ready to live his life. He is finally free and happy and creative. And then, in the blink of an eye, his life is over at the hands of yet another "fan" who doesn't understand him. His message is finished. We'll have no more of his music and perspective and comment. We'll have nothing but the tragic irony of his sad life to look to in figuring out what lesson we should take.

So, what should we learn from the life of John Lennon? The same one I try to exhibit in all my writing... live your life while you have it. I was listening to Barbara Sher the other day and she says she does not understand people who, at 40, say their life is half over. For the first twenty years you have to ask your mother to borrow the car, the second twenty, you're basically just working your brains out. At forty, you are just beginning to live. Your life isn't half over, your life is just starting.

The saddest ones, to me, aren't the ones who think it's half over at forty, it's the ones who think it's all over at forty. Just break out the granny sweater and wait for death....sit there in your dead marriage and live through your kids for forty years. But, really, if you've lived your life fully and deeply, the best stuff happens after forty. John was cut down right as he was, at long last, ready to reap the hard fought fruits of happiness. And this is why I cry, even today, in thinking about how much he gave us and how little time he got to appreciate his life here on earth.

To me, John Lennon is the 20th Century's Van Gogh, the artist that most fully conveys the pain of that era. In Vincent we see the sad eyes of those potato eaters and the tragedy and irony of his own sad life, never losing touch with the pain of being human, the challenge of being human. Although John lived to see great fame, he remained mired in the jealousies of others for almost all his life. During his life, he was known mostly for his pop tunes and enigmatic lyrics. The pained art of his post Beatles years had ended and he was just about to put forth his real artistic statement, when he was killed.

Sorry, the show closed on B'way Yoko, but, you need a set and a plot, ok? Anyway, all I can say is, if there's a rock and roll heaven, and there is.... you know they've got a hell of a band.

Howard Stern

Never in a million years did I think I'd write about this prurient panderer to pubescent boys, despite his principled move to satellite radio. Till tonight, when I saw his interview with Ed Bradley on 60 Minutes. I've never heard anyone before talk about Roosevelt and what happened there.

I was born in Queens. The American dream to people like my Brooklyn born parents was to move to the suburbs and they moved to the segregated town of Roosevelt. Eddie Murphy grew up there. I've never looked up anything of the history there, or remember much about it. But, here's what I do remember.

My early elementary years were wonderful. The lily white school emphasized drama, every class put on a full out play every year. I was a great reader & performer, singer, always got the leads, did wonders for my self-esteem. One night I remember a group of men coming to our door. Apparently they were going around the neighborhood getting everyone to agree not to sell their houses to blacks.

There was forced integration, busing, coming. In third grade I was bussed to a very run-down school. I remember being threatened. Nevertheless, I loved my third grade teacher and had a great year. By fourth grade white flight was in full force and the situation around me was getting scarier. I felt very threatened, even the teachers seemed to feel threatened.

This was elementary school. Howard talks about the High School and parents who were morally opposed to fleeing from blacks, who were, as Stern pointed out, very angry, and attacked Stern, the only white guy, with a vengeance. I was finally moved to lily white Massapequa during fifth grade. What's interesting is that until I was in my twenties and heard my mother make an extremely racist remark, I thought my parents stayed out of principal, as Stern's did.

No, my parents were just out of it. Disconnected, in their own little world, they simply didn't realize how out of hand the situation had gotten until the town was 98% black. I remember being friends with the black family down the block and enjoying their big family picnics. I'm sure this formative experience had an effect on me. And I remember liking the one black guy in our High School.

However, a near, if not actual, rape, by a black man in San Francisco during my hippie/travel years left me quite racist into my early twenties. Which is why I didn't make much of the overtures by an attractive, black friend at college who kept coming on to me. At first I laughed off this young, militant version of Malcolm X & Bobby Seale, until I fell for him harder than just about anyone, ever, and was never the same since... as almost any man who really knows me can tell you. So much for my own pitiful self awareness on this subject. Though god knows I've done my time paying white guilt.

Stern shows a lot of self awareness and says his experience in Roosevelt filled him with rage at the whites who moved out, and left him there to deal with the wrath of racist ravaged blacks. I hear ya baby. Maybe not enough to tune into your new channel and listen to the phone sex lady, but,hey, at least you no longer fill me with disgust. And, it does explain a lot.