| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| John9 |
Posted - 11/04/2013 : 15:57:36
I don't think that I'ver ever seen this before. The writer clearly know his stuff really well and all periods of Love's history are covered in equal depth - so much so in fact that there is even a paragraph on the Thomasine and Bushrod soundtrack. In the midst of it all there is a track by track consideration of Out Here.....that must definitely be a first!
http://observer1984.blogspot.co.uk/2007/09/have-you-ever-heard-of-arthur-lee.html |
| 15 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| rocker |
Posted - 07/05/2013 : 19:52:11
Well there you go. It's like if they hear 'free' those music guys freak! |
| lemonade kid |
Posted - 07/05/2013 : 13:06:59
quote:
Originally posted by rocker
Creativity became secondary to MONEY. Elektra and Asylum..many small labels either were gobbled up by the big guys like Warner, or they just died out.
As you brought up 'money' in the biz... Right now, people don't by 'albums' as such now but simply songs. And I think that was because buyers were getting fed up paying alot for an album as the record co's just kept raising prices and stopped buying the cds.
heh now there should be a followup to this one....what 'killed' the music industry!...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X19iZ4CyJf0
Another music great that is very vocal about allowing the free downloading of music is Janis Ian. Her opinion(along with many others, including Macca), and it holds up with greatly increased sales, is that those illegit & free downloads actually help get new artists exposure, and new albums some really good press; those bootleg d/ls fuel the industry & help the art, they do NOT drain it.
So the RIAA and Feds are completely wrong & misguided in their arrests of d/l moguls and attempts to squelch music sharing.
Criticism of the RIAA--Janis Ian
Ian is an outspoken critic of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), a record industry organization which she sees as acting against the interests of musicians and consumers. As such, she has willingly released several of her songs for free download from her website. Along with science fiction authors Eric Flint and Cory Doctorow, she has argued that their experience provides conclusive evidence that free downloads dramatically increased hard-copy sales, contrary to the claims of RIAA and NARAS. Ian's signature tune "At Seventeen" sold over two million singles in the United States alone yet was never certified.
"I've been surprised at how few people are willing to get annoyed with me over it," she laughs. "There was a little backlash here and there. I was scheduled to appear on a panel somewhere and somebody from a record company said if I was there they would boycott it. But that's been pretty much it. In general the entire reaction has been favorable. I hear from a lot of people in my industry who don't want to be quoted, but say 'yeah, we're aware of this and we'd like to see a change too.'"
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Old hippies never die, they just ramble on.
-lk |
| rocker |
Posted - 06/05/2013 : 14:46:30
Creativity became secondary to MONEY. Elektra and Asylum..many small labels either were gobbled up by the big guys like Warner, or they just died out.
As you brought up 'money' in the biz... Right now, people don't by 'albums' as such now but simply songs. And I think that was because buyers were getting fed up paying alot for an album as the record co's just kept raising prices and stopped buying the cds.
heh now there should be a followup to this one....what 'killed' the music industry!...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X19iZ4CyJf0
|
| lemonade kid |
Posted - 25/04/2013 : 22:01:48
quote:
Originally posted by rocker
You know I was just thinking how music was under the spell of all that creativity that was going on during that fabulous time. Musicians wrote and performed and the companies literally splurged to get the bands' music out. Got an idea? Got a band? Can you play? Ok man! Let's record! Bingo. Another record to cherish! Today, the accountants probably run everything..;-)... In the halycon days, it was like one great big music melting pot with competition and creativity all over the place. Today the musical 'ingredients' are there but I think the resulting 'mix' is very very different. There's creativity going around alright but I don't think it was 'explosive' as it was in the 60's.
There also wasn't such a crush to make mega bucks on rock artists. It wasn't expected from this new and blossoming genre. It was more of a sideline for many larger companies. It wasn't until supergroups like CSN&Y and Zep & the rise of the 70's solo artists that record labels became obsessed with the bottom line and huge profits. Creativity became secondary to MONEY. Elektra and Asylum..many small labels either were gobbled up by the big guys like Warner, or they just died out.
________________________________________________
Old hippies never die, they just ramble on.
-lk |
| rocker |
Posted - 25/04/2013 : 19:10:12
You know I was just thinking how music was under the spell of all that creativity that was going on during that fabulous time. Musicians wrote and performed and the companies literally splurged to get the bands' music out. Got an idea? Got a band? Can you play? Ok man! Let's record! Bingo. Another record to cherish! Today, the accountants probably run everything..;-)... In the halycon days, it was like one great big music melting pot with competition and creativity all over the place. Today the musical 'ingredients' are there but I think the resulting 'mix' is very very different. There's creativity going around alright but I don't think it was 'explosive' as it was in the 60's. |
| lemonade kid |
Posted - 16/04/2013 : 16:32:39
Or Altamont, Dec 6, 1969.
The loss of Morrison, Hendrix and Joplin only put a period on the end.
In any event, the 70's ushered the death of Rock & hippiedom, with the rise of the singer/songwriter (still a favorite genre of mine-Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell etc), disco and the final blow....punk.
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Old hippies never die, they just ramble on.
-lk |
| underture |
Posted - 16/04/2013 : 16:17:57
I would tend to agree that rock died around the time the Beatles officially broke up, or my preferred date of July 3, 1971.
_____________
You set the scene |
| rocker |
Posted - 15/04/2013 : 20:31:56
Very good guys...
And speaking of ancient Greece which btw is a favorite study of mine!, I'm thinking that perhaps in some distant future that the 'little' bit of music that was made in the short decade of the 60's will be considered a 'swan song' to a golden age of music never to be realized again. The only semblance of understanding then will be hearing the compelling music of bards and bands in a medium long extinct who with simply guitar and drums surely revolutionized a culture. The musical archeologists then will know in that distant past what it meant to 'rock! in 1960's A.D, eh?...... ..My signature on this will be left as A.B. ...A. fter B. eatles.......... |
| John9 |
Posted - 15/04/2013 : 08:12:23
Yes indeed LK - the 60s will always exist in another kind of time. And we can experience it now just as we can Ancient Greece....or the Renaissance. Playlist for today:
The Notorious Byrd Brothers and Forever Changes
Of course, they didn't have the bonus tracks on those two back in 1968....and so they give us in 2013 a kind of 'back to the future' adventure..........and the best of all possible worlds!  |
| lemonade kid |
Posted - 14/04/2013 : 22:41:22
The 60's rock we knew is DEAD, yes. That fact that most kids don't even buy CDs anymore is proof. They will never hold a record jacket let alone a CD in their hands while listening to an album, as intended, in the song order the artist meant for it to be heard.
There is a reason that Sgt. Peppers is in the song order it is...imagine listening to it in shuffle mode. CRAP!
Maybe Rock will never die ..for US. But, yeah, Rock as we knew it, is dead. Sad. Sad. Sad. There is no joy for kids as there was for us in the surprise of seeing the newest Beatles album in the store window; we had no clue when or if there would be a new masterpiece released--that was Christmas every time.
No internet like today to tell us that a new album is planned for release two years from now--spoiler alert. We saw albums released every 6 months from the Doors or Beatles or Stones. Now we're lucky to see contemporary artists release a new CD every 60 months!
The thrill is gone and likely will never return. So yeah, Rock as we knew it is dead. We keep it alive inside, but really, does any one really care except us.
How can they, when maybe, they first heard the Beatle's streaming The White album, then Please Please Me, then Rubber Soul. How can that mean anything to the kids. Do they have a clue what it was all about? Mp3 after Mp3. That is how they get their new music..a track at a time, willy nilly, and listen to those songs in any goddam order and with any number of friggin' artists all in a mash up.
So now I'm bummed out. Do we think any of the kids care that Rock is dead? They don't know what we're talking about anyway!
...so yeah, I'm bummed out...
NOT!
Putting my Highway 61 Revisited vinyl on the turntable, that's all that matters.
Taking me back.
Arthur would have put a positive spin on it all ...Forever Changes, man!
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Old hippies never die, they just ramble on.
-lk |
| rocker |
Posted - 14/04/2013 : 21:39:10
Thank you lk and harvey for putting in your 4 cents worth on this tiopic that interests me very much. I like your positive outlook lk and yet I do agree with some of harvey's points that rock is a bit different in some way from the past. I don't see it as getting to 'dead' since rock is being performed today in many venues and in many styles. Perhaps as it should since cultural art does 'morph' through the years and taking it in different directions from it original base.
Now one observation I've made is that rock, as performed according to the way lk describes it, is a bit disjointed to me in that it's all over the place,i.e. maybe now you see it and now you don't since its performed everywhere but yet you can't pick it up. Arguably I think we didn't miss too much back in that 'golden age'. And I don't think that nowadays you can call it music of a generation as perhaps in our day. But perhaps that doesn't count so much as whether or not rock stands out as 'art' as it once did. And I mean that figurativley. You know when we got those albums, we looked them over read the liner notes and scanned those lyrics intently. Man, we revered them like sacred icons...;-)...I'm not sure if that's done in these days since everything has been 'digitized'. I think we get cut off a bit with the rock that's then produced. But maybe that's making a mountain out of a molehill if those 20 years old today feel that doesn't necessarily have to be the way to go for them now when it comes to music. Surely maybe it's the passing of generations here when it comes to making and listenings to music in our world. Well in any case, I'll still be rockin' with you guys regardless don't you worry...;-).... |
| lemonade kid |
Posted - 14/04/2013 : 15:32:05
Whoa....we need some hope here, Harv!
Rock and Roll will never die. Even if the TV and radio moguls want it to (they don't want us to think, just buy). Let 'em try to kill it; we're ok.
The 50's & 60's were the seeds of Rock--pure and unsullied. We will never see such talent again. But new Rock will always sprout up, even on barren ground, and there will always be emulators and imitators. Some worthwhile, some not.
Nowadays, through streaming or mp3 bootlegs or music sites...Rock will survive on the "new radio". Hell, most of the new Rock artists I collect or enjoy will NEVER be heard on radio or TV, and that is ok. They only want Simon's stars anyway. The machine creates them, chews them up and spits them out. Not a nice place for real Rock anyway.
But they are out there. We discover them thru youtube, or filestube, or googling or small clubs...Rock will never die... the good Rockers will never get airplay. That's ok.
They are performing via the internet and recording with Garageband or hole-in-the-wall studios, selling their albums at their home page, selling cheap tickets and bypassing the greedy ticket sellers, all in the name of Rock.
Roots Rock, Country Rock, Garage Rock, Grunge, Punk -- call it what you will...it's alive and well, but not on the airwaves or in the record mogul's best seller catalog. S'ok.
It's like that great futuristc novel, 1984 (god, remember when 1984 was so far away in the future it seemed totally possible! Or 2001?!). Ever if the MAN burns all the music... or the books, there will always be a gathering of the faithful, who will never forget, and NEVER let the music die.
Maybe I'm naive or living in the past or just being dramatic, ...but I believe in Rock & Roll.
So, anyway, all it takes is folks like us, Harv, people that remember what Rock was, and is...keep the faith!!
Keep on rockin' in the free world!
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Old hippies never die, they just ramble on.
-lk |
| harvey |
Posted - 13/04/2013 : 22:50:10
The only TV music programme on free TV in the UK now is 'Later' with Jools Holland and the occasional 'Special' featuring a group or artist who's management seem to have bent the ear or wallet of a TV executive somewhere. Considering the number of free TV channels available this seems a remarkably small amount of music that is visible and a lot of that is non-rock. The modern digital age of downloads, legal or otherwise seems to have removed the 'personal' choice of music and success seems to come from personal contact with other 'fans'of a particular band or artist. Kids hear it, they tell their friends and they all download it and suddenly it is a hit without a live performance anywhere then the artist/band have to get a live act together pretty quickly before it all goes cold and the record company lose interest. Then once they are out there and performing they have to keep producing new and interesting stuff or the next hot act will push them out. So ... lots of acts only last 2 albums worth of material, one put out as a sure fire thing for the record company and the next which the record company will chance it and see how it goes and then drop the act if it does not make lots of money. So bands these days are quite commonly very short lived for several reasons, firstly the pressure to produce two albums worth in quick time is too much for some people, the pressure to tour and promote this music can be too much, the public are very fickle, the press are always looking to knock you down once they have promoted you up. The press have to pigeonhole everything so the term Rock 'n' Roll can get missed sometimes so if a band puts a few numbers like that in their act they will not necessarily get the credit due and will be dubbed with another style of music. I think Rock'n'Roll is possibly dead but bands and artists will still play Rock'n'Roll tunes based on tunes they heard a few years ago but those tunes will be dismissed usually as 'just another old Rock'n' Roll tune'. I think the life of a tune could possibly have been removed by multi tracking which means that the clarity of old tunes has been lost in a noise of multiple rythm guitars and synths which muddy the sound and then the vocals have to be pumped up to higher levels to be heard above the background music. The fact that there are electronic pitch shifting devices that can make tone deaf people sing in perfect pitch means that talent these days sometimes means the ability to impress Simon Cowell or similar for your 5 minutes of fame and music acts have to compete with dance acts and dog acts now. There is not much room for Rock'n'Roll to move really, there is only a limited amount of new ways to play it, slow, medium, fast, loud, soft, ABCDEF&G flat, sharp, major, minor and make it sound different from all the other songs that have been played in the last 60 years. As I said, R & R will probably survive but not as we know it and as part of other music styles so blink and you could miss it. There are very few of the original Rock and Rollers alive now and due to the nature of the business there will probably not be many new ones as the business is always looking forward for the next money making sound and rarely looks backwards. Only bright spots in UK are the Festivals ie Glastonbury etc but the TV coverage is pretty awful sometimes and consists of a few bits of live action interspersed with interviews and 'studio (acoustic)' performances and pieces to camera trying to 'see what is happening' at the festival other than the music, so the actual live content is usually 3 numbers by one band or artist followed by 3 numbers by another artist who sounds pretty similar to the last. Only the top name artists get a whole set shown so it is luck if you like the top act or not sometimes. Hopefully The Stones may rescue things this year a bit but there have been a few big names that have not 'turned up' in the last few years. It can be a career killer, BB King was on at the last Glastonbury festival the year before last and the first few numbers his guitar was completely out of tune and his licks were in the wrong key and he just carried on, putting his fingers where he usually did and looking puzzled as to why it sounded so bad. Then he twigged and tuned it up and all was ok after that. Probably his guitar tech's fault if he handed him an out of tune guitar 'Blame the roadie'.
I might have been around as long as the Beach Boys but I have not had nearly as many arguments as they have had....yet.
Harvey the Roadie |
| lemonade kid |
Posted - 13/04/2013 : 21:27:58
quote:
Originally posted by rocker
And harvey if I may, you've been 'around' like the Beach Boys tell me what's the state of rock'n'roll to you? Think it will last or what????
I need to know if it's in a safe place!.....thank you for your prognostication!
I'd like to chime in too, here--A neighbor "kid" on the island here (he's 22 years old) dropped everything to see Dylan here this week...so yeah, as long as the kids keep choosing the classic rock over what the corporate machine keeps spewing...I believe ROCK is safe!
________________________________________________
Old hippies never die, they just ramble on.
-lk |
| rocker |
Posted - 13/04/2013 : 20:44:31
And harvey if I may, you've been 'around' like the Beach Boys tell me what's the state of rock'n'roll to you? Think it will last or what????
I need to know if it's in a safe place!.....thank you for your prognostication! |
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