Gerald Menard, RIP

My father had been diagnosed with Parkinson's for quite a while, and after some falls, he spent most of September in and out of the hospital and Fidalgo Rehabilitation in Anacortes, finally passing away on October 1, with the funeral on October 16. Even though we'd been expecting this with his failing health, it still takes the wind out of your sails for a while.

So why is Gary Lewis here? When I was still in high school, my parents allowed me to pick music to play during Sunday dinner, and it was tricky to find something that everyone could enjoy, or at least tolerate. Glen Campbell's early albums worked, same with Tijuana Brass -- and for some reason, Gary Lewis and the Playboys. We recently watched the DVD about The Wrecking Crew, the stellar collection of studio musicians who played on not only the Gary Lewis albums, but EVERYTHING. No, really, when the session list scrolls at the end of the movie, it is truly astounding how much they shaped the sound of radio in the early '60s. My father was into Barbra Streisand, and later, Celine Dion, so we didn't share much of a musical diet, but I remember fondly those dinners and I think Gary Lewis was a part of that. So, thanks Gary and Crew; rest well, Dad.

More blog posts to come soon.

Trying to Understand Captain Beefheart

I bought "How to Write About Music" because I needed help. Turns out it's actually a textbook for a college-level course in Music Criticism -- who knew? And as in any textbook, there are assignments.
The first is to listen to an artist "you are completely unfamiliar with" and write a review. Well, okay, I figured rap/hip-hop is out of my comfort zone, let's start with that. Oops. I remembered some Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre videos from back when MTV actually showed videos, so my son went through his collection and made me a "Best of Death Row" (the label) based on the songs I remembered liking.

Yikes! MTV of course played the scrubbed clean versions. I listened to the uncensored versions in my car on the way to work and felt like I was being assaulted. I liked the musical aspects, but kept coming up hard against the lyrics.

Okay, so Attempt Number Two: Entertainment Weekly and Rolling Stone sang the praises of "How to Pimp a Butterfly" by Lamar Kendrick (or Kendrick Lamar -- I'm always getting it wrong) so I gave that a try. Made it through the first few songs...

So. Captain Beefheart. This really was cheating: I've heard Captain Beefheart before, even liked a few of his songs. Heck, I even owned a copy of "Clear Spot" which was issued in a clear plastic sleeve! But I never listened to it much, mostly only the song "Too Much Time", which frankly sounds the least like Captain Beefheart than any of his other songs. But I just didn't "get" Beefheart.

Sometimes when I'm exposed to something touted as 'great' and I don't understand it, my initial reaction is "this artist is pulling a fast one" (Yoko One is another example for me.) What am I missing?

My father is currently in a managed care facility after a series of falls at home. With physical therapy, we hope he'll be able to come home eventually, but that seems like a long road. On my days off, I go to see him, and lately I've been listening to Captain Beefheart during the half-hour drive. Why? You'd think I'd listen to something soothing because these visits are sad and disappointing. But the good Captain gives me something to wrestle with, and darned if he isn't starting to make sense. I'll give him a few more listens and see if I can crack this case. (And I hope this will still count for my homework assignment!)

Alison Krauss, Revisited

I've spent the last few weeks listening again to most of the Alison Krauss catalog, from her first solo album to the latest ("Paper Airplanes") with Union Station. Hearing them in sequence allows you to follow her developing style, not that it needed 'developing', because she was fully-formed on the very fist album (when she was something like 14 years old?)

Alison's been able to rely on various band members over the years for great songs, and she has a knack for finding other songwriters' material that she interprets in her own style. It takes a truly talented performer who can make a Beatles song sound like their own. I'd bet that after her first few albums, word got out and and songwriters were beating down her door.

It was quite a hoot to hear how Alison's vocal style changed over the years. She had a clear, ringing tone at the beginning, perfect for bluegrass, but by the 3rd or 4th album, she added more breath to her voice; she'd found the coo that she still employs today.

I'd mentioned in an earlier blog post how we'd seen Alison Krauss and Union Station in the early days (Wednesday, November 10, 1993) and how much fun they seemed to be having on stage. Cut to the official AKUS live album from 2002 and it's all business. I'll have to watch the DVD of the concert again -- maybe with the longer playing time of the DVD, we get more glimpses of band interaction. And man, I'd like to know the background story of Union Station. She employed them on her second album, and slowly (like Wilco) members left until by 1998 or so, she had the band that she still performs with today. "Paper Airplanes" is the latest album, and my wife and I both agree that it's good, it just sounds like they're on autopilot. They've got their style down pat. James Taylor has admitted in interviews that he's more of a craftsman these days that an "artist", and maybe that's what's going on with Alison. Of course, I haven't followed the whole story -- didn't really like the "Raising Sand" album she recorded with Robert Plant, and the subsequent tour meant Union Station was on hiatus for a while, so maybe "Paper Airplanes" is a tentative step back into the saddle.

Joni Mitchell

With the recent news about Joni Mitchell's medical woes, I was reminded of the early Joni albums where I was first introduced to her vast canon. I suppose most people think of "Blue" and "Court and Spark" when Joni's name comes up, but the very early albums established her songwriting chops.

"Songs to a Seagull" was the first Joni Mitchell album, 'produced' by David Crosby (depending on which interview you read, David either was totally hands-off, or he flattened the sound). It's too bad that the CD doesn't add "Urge for Going", one of her very first recordings (you'll have to buy "Hits" to get that truly wonderful song). "Songs" and the several albums that followed feature Joni's bright flutey (piercing?) high register that significantly lowered over the years, and as such, has been known to be off-putting to some listeners. I liked "Songs" because it mirrored so much of my vision of what my life could be like in the years ahead, post-high school, moving to the city, finding love and finding a purpose.

"Clouds" followed, and by now I was imagining myself as the one who would rescue Joni from the shallow and deceitful men that featured in some of her songs. Yes, me, the White Knight. Listening to Joni helped me be more sensitive, but really, looking back now I realize I've only recently begun to be the man I had hoped I was then. (And there's so much more to go...) I guess my point here is that I very much internalized these songs in those days, and hearing them again, I get a glimpse of the person I was then. Joni's music offered a promise of hope and a yearning to explore the larger world.

By "Ladies of the Canyon", more of the songs were piano-based, and I like them slightly less than the acoustic guitar songs --- her guitar chords sound more quirky to me, the piano ones more earthbound, if you will. Still a fine album, though.

These days my favorite Joni albums are the ones that saw her popular appeal dip. I find it hard to believe that albums like "The Hissing of Summer Lawns" and "Hejira" weren't hailed as the masterpieces they are back in the day. But then, I sorta dropped out after "Mingus", so maybe I'm clueless too. I do want to tackle "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter" again -- maybe I'm finally ready to hear it.

A Brief History of the Future, Firesign Theatre Style

Hearing the Firesign Theatre for the first time was a life-changing event for me. But I struggle to explain it because there's so much cultural and historical baggage attached; I worry that someone new to FT would need an annotated transcript to get 60% of the jokes. Here's the deal: Firesign wrote comedy material specifically for the LP medium, meant to be listened to multiple times. Unlike comedy albums of the time, they weren't just recordings of live performances but (again) specifically crafted to be multi-layered -- I STILL find jokes I missed every time. And they were funny, really funny.

Sometimes the FT gets lumped in with Monty Python, two comedy troupes from (relatively) the same era. But I'd suggest there are vast differences: while I can watch MP skits again and again, there's rarely anything new to hear (other than an obscure-to-me British pop culture reference). I love the familiar, and wait for my favorite lines. And there are times when I can be amused by the concept of a sketch rather than the actual sketch itself. MP were much better presented on screen; FT never seemed comfortable on screen (or even sometimes live), so their best presentation is in audio. Hard to cross over there. Firesign, stuck in radio in a TV world.

Finally, FT wrote long-form pieces, each one 20 minutes plus. Who listens to anything like that in one sitting anymore? The sad thing for me is that FT wrote stuff way ahead of its time, and yet now, when we can actually understand and appreciate their prescience, their audience has, for the most part, disappeared.

But enough handwringing. For the initiate, the 2 CD compilation "Shoes for Industry: The Best of the Firesign Theatre" is a good collection, and it contains the complete Nick Danger sketch, which is most people's introduction to Firesign World.

The first album "Waiting for the Electrician or Someone Like Him" has its moments, but they really hit their stride with the next 3 classic albums ("How Can You Be In Two Places at Once When You're Not Anywhere At All", "Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers", and "I Think We're All Bozos on This Bus"). There were still fine albums ahead; my favorites include "The Tale of the Giant Rat of Sumatra" (probably their most pun-filled album), "Everything You Know Is Wrong", even their much later Rhino albums like "Give Me Immortality or Give Me Death" and "Boom Dot Bust", but a lot of the albums after the classic 3 were spotty (but the good spots were great -- our family is always quoting from "Ben Bland's All-Day Matinee" from the much maligned "Just Folks ---A Firesign Chat" -- initially released on Butterfly, a disco label!)

Firesign were and are great, and great fun too. Consider listening to some on your next road trip ('on the freeway, which is already in progress') -- who knows where you might end up?

RIP Phil Austin

Phil Austin, "lead guitarist" with comedy troupe Firesign Theatre, passed away Friday. Soon I'll do an overview of the Four of Five Crazy Guys, but here I just want to pass along my condolences to Phil's wife Oona. Phil was a warm and generous guy; he will be missed.

Cassettes Clinging to Life?

I still have way more cassettes than I need; can't listen to them in the car anymore, so why do I keep them? Yeah, thought about replacing them with CDs, but...well, here's an example. My Bruce Cockburn tape would require buying 4 CDs to replicate the track list. So I spent $5.99 at Goodwill and bought a decent boom-box. The tape's still in good shape -- why replace it?

Here's the deal with cassettes: for most of us music enthusiasts, cassettes were all about control. For the first time, I could pick and choose the songs, the sequencing, and even the cover -- I was a producer! (Reel-to-reel tapes were a whole 'nother thing, and the only people I knew with reel-to-reel were in the Navy. I'd love to see a socio-economic profile of entertainment hardware users; who bought reel-to-reel, or Beta tapes, or laserdiscs?)

I'm proud to say that the mixtapes I made for friends (or girlfriends -- or potential girlfriends!) were always enthusiastically received. I really put some good collections together. But later...I don't know, maybe I was too budget conscious, but I'd do stuff like splice in new songs to replace the ones I got tired of -- and it was either too long (bad edit!) or muffled or just a  mess. But even though many of these old tapes aren't sequenced very well, I still enjoy them because I can remember where I was (physically, emotionally) when I put them together.

I recently read an article on CollectorsWeekly.com about the whole burgeoning indie cassette label scene. (Urk, I just wrote 'scene'!) Cassettes are cheap compared to vinyl, and you can record yourself or your band for a lot less money than a studio session. They're easy to mail, and you can pass them around chain-letter style.

The major labels (what, are we down to 3 now, each one gobbling up as much musical real estate as they can) try to keep the lid on things pretty tight, so I find it amusing that an old discarded technology can still survive, like Robin Hood in Sherwood Forest, to give The Man a little competition.