For all Beatle fans. For musicians that grew up with the Beatles and that want to aspire to their pop excellence. The Beatles set the standards of what can be done. They were the princes of pop. They set a new tone, a new social zeitgeist that defined our music and was acknowledged by their peers. They were and are continually honored by classical and jazz musicians that play their catalog of songs. Artists from Wes Montgomery to Jeff beck to Al De Miola have played Beatles songs on guitar. Countless classical musicians have paid respect to their brilliance by playing their repertoire. When I worked for The Moss Music Group, an American classical music company back in the 1980s, we had Ofra Harnoy, a beautiful young Canadian cellist, release an album of Beatles songs. The Beatles are and simply will be the genius musicians of our age.
This is my little contribution to their influence. A rough demo but a sincere gesture of my heartfelt warmth for the FAB FOUR.
I never knew what that song was. It seemed better than “Furniture Music” but not quite a pop song. Maybe it was a pop song for the future, not so much for the present. The dour forecast kind of works against the fun of it. It had a guitar opening, like "Rebel Rebel" had a guitar opening, but goes into an apocalyptic view of things, whereas Bowie was talking about strange kids in dance clubs. I think if Bill should redo "Panic in the World" he should change the lyrics. Bowie had a penchant for that Doom's Day thing too with Diamond Dogs where he talked about "rats the size of cats." But I can never tolerate it. Bill presents a sleek Dooms Day view but if he wanted a hit he should have kept it neutral: sing about hairstyles and kids in dance clubs. Because that's who's going to be buying it.
This song sounds really familiar and reminds me of another song (maybe "Fox on the Run"). I think the Beatles converge with bands like Barclay James Harvest, ELO, and Cheap Trick for pop writing. What sort of holds BBD back is their lack of a pop sensibility. Sunburst Finish had "Ships in the Night" that pointed them in that direction. But they gave that up, and I don't think the Beatles would ever be persuaded to give up hit songs. As individuals, they all continued to write hit songs. I think the Beatles' day of musical experimentation ended with “Revolution 9.” To my thinking, what would be interesting is to have Sunburst Finish redone and have Paul McCartney play the bass on it. Then you would have a Beatles influence. But Bill is on the NOW train and won't even entertain the possibility. Nothing ventured, nothing gained…
I think the Beatles and BBD are almost two different animals. Sunburst Finish came from the Bowie/Glam school steeped in artifice and art-rock. The only Beatle that I know who hung with glam musicians was Ringo. He was great pals with Marc Bolan from T. Rex. John Lennon briefly worked with Bowie for one album, but he was never really into glam, though he had some interesting remarks about it. If anything John was getting back into his early influences about 1975 by doing old rock and roll covers. I think Bowie set the stage for the Sunburst Finish album with The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Both albums had songs about a rock guitar player. Further, both Bowie and Bill wrote songs about their artistic heroes. Bowie wrote about Andy Warhol and Bill wrote about Jean Cocteau.
If there was a successor to the Beatles I can only imagine the individual Beatles in their solo careers. Some people think the band Klaatu was the Beatles in disguise. That was proven not to be true. BBD, as a spin-off of Bowie and Glam, became more futuristic reached out into outer space. If we look to Drastic Plastic and compare that with Bowie's Scary Monsters we see a future of “scary monsters” that makes us “panic in the world.” But despite this similarity (and that Andy Clark worked on both records), only Bowie will continue on in the future, whereas BBD was now winging its way to the "Islands of the Dead."
The sad thing is that Michael was probably expecting an endorsement from Segovia in starting off his career. And he gets dismissed because of his fingering choices. Michael obliviously didn't give Segovia what he wanted. On top of that, Michael praised Segovia to the skies only to carve a career on the hippie guitar player circuit. Watch Michael's eyes, and you will see the lies in his praise for Segovia, frantic lies he can almost believe: that there is only one way to play Ponce. What Michael learned is that Segovia was an asshole and to go the other way: go long hair, pop songs, etc. That was true in his heart, to be an artist rather than a living shade to Segovia.
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Yeah, this guy is amazing. I've studied classical guitar and have my Grade 8 from the Royal Conservatory. I never fully got into it -- partially because it seemed rigid and very snooty to me. Classical music is “art” or "serious" music whereas everything else is considered “folk” music. Also, it can be very traditionally bound, especially with fingering, style of guitar (no cutaway), how the guitar is held, etc. And, you can be at the mercy of an asshole who thinks his word is God. For example, Andre Segovia (who I saw in concert) was like that IMHO, and you can see how he treated his student in a Master class.
I heard some of his music on classical guitar. Ana Vidovic performed Yesterday on guitar with his arrangement, and it sounds very nice. Also heard Ana play Asturias by Issac Albeniz, and it was lovely. However, you hear a cough in the audience and I wrote: "You know how it is with these Russian mob families. The oligarch's daughter is playing a classical piece and the competing crime family sends in a cougher." I got over 400 remarks for those two sentences, many correcting me that she was Croatian. But a good number saw the humor in it. She also does Barrio's La Cathedral which is a weird piece because Barrios was a South American Indian composer for the guitar, and he wrote a beautiful piece that sounds very European. And not so weirdly enough I found an oriental person perform it quite well. What is interesting to me is his speed at the end and the look he gives the guitar as he finishes.
I didn't know that. At first, I thought he was with YMO. Now I know he is not with them. There is something about Japanese music that reminds me of German music. To my thinking, Kraftwerk is like YMO. There is a certain aesthetic sparsity, intricacy, and artificiality to their music. Also, I think of bonsai plants and origami. It's all about compression and miniaturization. Like a Haiku poem.
Both Kraftwerk and YMO presuppose wealth coming from industry. Japan and Germany are very industry oriented. Somebody's dad owns a factory! You play with music. No really dangerous emotions. Just the stylized ones you get on the cover of Vogue. Music for airport bars and for the wealthy as throwaways.
And then there is the shadow. Embrace the shadow, embrace the opposite. In Japan the opposite of miniature is Godzilla. Germans have their shadow of Beethoven or Mahler's Symphonies.
I should listen to Toru and hear what he is about.