Blog
Why Would An Artist Re-Record Portions Of Her/His Own Music?
I want to briefly explore the different means, causes and reasons why music is re-recorded. As always, I welcome readers' input. So far, I have been able to identify more than one dozen reasons to re-record music. This might be tantamount to saying, "more than one dozen categories of re-recorded music." I'm not ready to shout out, "Here is the definitive list of how, why, what, where and when music is re-recorded." For now, this is just a beginning and an interesting pursuit into an area of creativity and originality.
Which words work with which music? W. W. W. W. W. M. ?
How do we react to music based on the WORDS used to describe the style, genre, time period, composer, songwriter, musician, improviser, pianist, keyboardist, singer, soprano, mezzo-soprano, diva, chick singer, etc.How do we react when we are told little? Very little? Nothing? When we see a video BEFORE we hear the music? AT THE SAME TIME as we hear the music? AFTER we hear the music?How do we react when we are told what to expect from the music? From the musical performance? About the music? About how the music was composed? Whether the music was composed or improvised? Whether the composer is young, middle aged or old? "Trained" or "untrained?" From the European Union? United States? Latin America? (Latin America is Flavor Of The Month in classical/art music in the past few years.) Asia? The Subcontinent?
My friend Mulgrew Miller died today (May 29, 2013)
I always felt lucky to see and interact with him. As quickly as possible, I realized that this musical hero to me, who was now a colleague, was just such a great and modest guy. His charm was disarming as can be. I was comfortable with Mulgrew immediately.As I got to know Mulgrew better, I had to ask him - no, tell him - to stop calling me "Doctor" or "Professor." I told him that you are Mulgrew Miller and I call you Mulgrew. I should call you SIR. He laughed. He told me I deserved the titles and the respect.
Preying On Songwriters, My Winter Vacation & Re-Gifting
H E R E I S T H E P R O B L E M A S I S E E I TSometimes the songwriter's team members are playing for a different team, or perhaps playing a different sport. What I mean can be illustrated in a situation like this involving Songwriter(s) A and Songwriter(s) B.Songwriter A's publisher and/or attorney receive(s) a letter from songwriter B's publisher and/or lawyer telling Songwriter A that her/his new song has ripped off or infringed or copied or stolen Songwriter B's song. Publisher A/Attorney A informs Songwriter A that we better fix this. The way to fix this? Songwriter A simply and quickly needs to fork over half of A's copyright and future royalties on his/her song, and make sure that Songwriter B's name appears everywhere that Songwriter A's name appears on this song. All future royalties will be split between A and B.
Jonathan Coulton, Sir Mix-A-Lot, Glee and Whose Baby Got Back?
I heard about the Jonathan Coulton v. Glee thing all day yesterday, last night and this morning. As usual the Hollywood Reporter account is the best. Coulton took Sir Mix-A-Lot's Baby Got Back and transformed it into a much different composition. Coulton's radical revision is in the same league of radical revision as The Residents' The King And Eye in which they (The Residents) wildly re-imagined famous Elvis Presley songs. Here is one of the tamer re-imagines - The Residents' version of Don't Be Cruel. (I use the word, "re-imagine," so as to heap praise upon this practice which goes far beyond the normal, reserved arranging one often hears in popular music. Earth, Wind & Fire's take on The Beatles' Got To Get You Into My Life is another example but not as wildly reimagined as those by The Residents or Coulton.)
How I Hear It - Beethoven & Van Halen
A slew of bagpipes playing tangos in a forest - My Favorite Tangos (Part 1)
Is tango a dance? Is tango music? Is tango both music and dance? To me tango is music and the accompanying dance. To others I'm sure the idea of an "accompanying" dance, meaning the visual subservient to the aural, is offensive. Music is meant for many as something to accompany dance. For me it's music - the invisible art form that grabbed and OCCUPIED me as a child - first. Other stuff - film, video, TV, advertising, ballet, dance, opera, musicals, etc. - is often secondary and there to serve music. I'll more often stick with what I think is this contrarian view - let the invisible (music) rule and let us serve her/him/it/them.
Big Butter & Egg Man, Banana in Your Fruit Basket, Grinding Mill and other carnal songs
"I want a butter and egg man. Won't some great big butter and egg man want me?"Why does this woman sing so emphatically about wanting a man who possesses BIG BUTTER and EGGS? Is she headed down a dangerous dairy path? With all that is known in 2013 about a diet high in cholesterol, this song might already be maiming young minds but could the butter and eggs be representative of something more than food? Is this a tongue-in-cheek metaphor?
Laugh, Wince & Wonder Why - Eduard Khil, Eric Idle, Barbara Boxer & Paula Abdul
The cloudy sky of the cover is as vague and indefinite as my December 31, 2012 and view of 2012. The colors of the photo do not seem real - the place, time of season and day also seem as untrue and uncertain.As for the following five (5) videos - they make me laugh, wince and wonder why. I hope you'll like them too and try to make them comport to your New Year's Eve's desire(s). Only the first video, featuring Eduard Khil, is appropriate as a reminder of people who died in 2012 and left behind a legacy. In the large list of great people who died this year...
The Russian Monster Fill, Bath Bombs, Tervis, Twitter + the letter "B"
Last night I learned about bath bombs and Tervis shakers. The bath bombs excited my excessively girly girly friend, while the Tervis shaker we found at Bed, Bath & Beyond in mall-infested Williamson County, was a Patriots shaker. I'll now be able to make my Irish versions of caipirinhas here in Middle Tennessee using my new New England Patriots Tervis shaker.Back to these are a few of my favorite Twitter things. When the dog bites, when the bee stings. I'm still stuck on that Mary Poppins' song. This time - the letter "B."
Humans Acting Out In Business, My Favorite Twitter Accounts - the letter "A"
Those Resources are a list of websites that relate in some way to the music and entertainment industry - they are connected to the music and entertainment industry in my mind. It is my belief that every musician and person in the world of music and entertainment must know more than music. Law, technology, business, film, video, television, advertising and communication, especially 21st century style communication by means of social media, are some of what should go into/be shot into/forced down the throat of/taught to a musician or person living in these post-Mayan times. We need to confront and try to master what is represented by those social media proper nouns - those companies and services - and verbs formed by speaking nouns as if they were verbs.
Wish Lantern on Love Circle, Newtown & Sandy Hook, Merry Christmas, Kill City Space Ship & Invasions are Not Just For Aliens Anymore
I was honored to have music and video composed to honor my 40th blog post. Quite unexpected but really cool. It is the work of Kill City Spaceship and is entitled Mike's Fortieth Blog. This music was composed based on the great E G# C F# A opening chord of the Beatles' song, "All I've Got To Do." Kill City Spaceship informed me that the music composed to honor my blog post was based on that E 11 #5 chord and its four (4) inversions. Composing a work based on a musical motif, which involves compositional technique and development, is too often unknown to the general public, and foreign to the world of pop songwriting. But just as musical styles can overlap, so too shouldn't theories of music and composition.
Do these parts of Alicia Keys' "Girl On Fire" remind you of another song?
There are six (6) places in "Girl On Fire" in which Alicia Keys sings, "Oh oh oh oh oh." Listen to the Alicia Keys "Girl On Fire" and especially these six sections.0.35 oh oh oh oh oh1.39 oh oh oh oh oh2.54 oh oh oh oh oh3.04 oh oh oh oh oh3.15 oh oh oh oh oh3.25 oh oh oh oh ohDo these five (5)-note melodic excerpts, that are heard six (6) times in "Girl On Fire," remind you of another song? As I mentioned, the song to which I am referring was a very big hit that appeared in a very big 1980's hit film. If you recognize the song, do you think there is a potential copyright problem?
Is Alicia Keys guilty of copyright infringement? A lawyer quotes a feebly written blog and files a foolish lawsuit
I was startled to read that "some of the suit is based on my reporting" as I had never heard of a copyright infringement lawsuit filed because of the "reporting" of a blogger, and especially a blogger who demonstrates his incontrovertible ignorance of copyright law.Friedman states, "Hopefully musicologists will be called in, etc. experts who can testify about Keys's use of two lines from the chorus of 'Hey There Lonely Girl' in 'Girl on Fire.'"This is such a poorly conceived and written sentence. First, is Friedman stating his hopes that musicologists "will be called in, etc.?" As a musicologist who has testified in copyright infringement cases in U. S. federal courts for 20 years, I am extremely curious as to what Friedman means by "etc...." As I try to understand, I think he might mean that we are called in and then comes other actions - the etcetra part. Just what does the "etc." of his sentence mean, and have I been "etc.-ing" these past 20 years or should I start "etc.-ing" now to make up for the times in which I did not etcetera?
Best Chord Ever - Part 1 - The Beatles "All I've Got To Do"
Listen to the first sounds, i.e., the first chord, in this Beatles song:Beatles - All I've Got To DoThe chord has no business being here. Or in any pop song. Could this chord be heard in jazz? I don't think Ornette Coleman would use this chord. I don't think Thelonious Monk would have either. Cecil Taylor? Maybe Cecil Taylor would use it. Early Weather Report? Yes, maybe. I could imagine this chord/hear this chord in "Vertical Invader" from side 2, song 1 of Weather Report's second album, I Sing The Body Electric. The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Eminem and Kanye - nope, they wouldn't use it. The Beatles used it. Once and only once. The chord is used only at the opening. Never again in any Beatles song. Not in outtakes, bootlegs. Nowhere.
I Had Almost Given Up On You - This Chord Didn't Want To Change (Part 1), 14-Style Bliss
One of the most famous songs that stays on one chord for a long time is the first and only song I know responsible for the name of a great band and a magazine.Muddy Waters - Rollin' Stone (1st new chord occurs @ 2.05)The Doors created one of those "must-know" ubiquitous guitar riffs with the opening of "Roadhouse Blues." This guitar riff and song open the album, Morrison Hotel. Morrison Hotel is the origin of the famous name, "Hard Rock Cafe."Doors - Roadhouse Blues (1st new chord occurs @ 1.19)
Johnny Cash, Danzig, Life in Vizify, Today is not 12/12/12, Social Media Reveals I'm 65/132 Brazilian
I got my Vizify account, 2012 version, on Tuesday. They were wise to get it out before 12-12-12. If we have social media, we must have social media metrics. And bells and whistles. Vizify does all of that well, and fortunately, our lives can be reduced to a few pages.Before I broadcast my life in Vizify, I should note that Facebook has now taken to their version of metrics a la the encapsulated annum-in-review model. If all goes right with this bit.ly link, and if Facebook will allow you access, here is the Facebook version of my 2012 life in Vizify.
Happy 12 12 12, Twelve Twelve Twelve, Zwölf Zwölf Zwölf, Dodici Dodici Dodici, Doce Doce Doce, Douze Douze Douze
Wayne Shorter, Bo Diddley, George StraitWhat day is it? December 12, 2012? December 12, 2012 can be abbreviated as 12-12-12 or 12/12/12 or 12.12.12 or spoken Twelve Twelve Twelve, Doce Doce Doce, Douze Douze Douze, Dodici Dodici Dodici, Zwölf Zwölf Zwölf or hundreds of other ways. If you've been near social media, you also know that this will be the last repetitive date ever. (That's true only if a 13th month is never added to our calendar. There could be a 13th month because like copyright terms, Viagra and Cialis, there's always someone who wants to lengthen something.)
¡Cubanismo! at The Exit/In, Caetano Veloso, Café Tacuba & Music of The Americas
Perhaps it is best that in 2012 the entire hemisphere is called THE AMERICAS, mostly to make things less messy when it comes to division via land mass.* * * * * * * *To the simple point of this post - three (3) great songs from The Americas (the Americas situated south of continental U.S.) that feature * copyrightable introductions. *B R A Z I L, C U B A, M E X I C O
Music of Africa & Copyrightable Intros - Les Têtes Brulées, Four Brothers & Thomas Mapfumo
I've been passionate about world music since I was a little kid and heard some of my parents bossa nova albums, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Perez Prado, and some others. Also in those days there was I Love Lucy with some of Desi Arnaz' very hot bands on TV. I always loved what I perceived as its sophistication...The point of this post is world music and copyrightable intros in world music. I want to limit it to just three (3) examples, all of them from two (2) African nations - Zimbabwe and Cameroon.