1/13/13 1/13/13

How I Hear It - Beethoven & Van Halen

1/6/13 1/6/13

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.

1/4/13 1/4/13

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?

12/31/12 12/31/12

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...

12/29/12 12/29/12

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."

12/25/12 12/25/12

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.

12/18/12 12/18/12

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.

12/14/12 12/14/12

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)

12/12/12 12/12/12

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.

12/12/12 12/12/12

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.)

12/11/12 12/11/12

¡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

12/9/12 12/9/12

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.

12/6/12 12/6/12

Three Songs (5/4) & Some Thoughts (7/4) About Dave Brubeck (9/8)

One of the important features of a lot of Dave Brubeck's music is his use of rhythm and especially uncommon time signatures. Brubeck met with resistance from Columbia Records when he insisted on having songs with unusual meter/time signatures on his brilliant million-selling album, Time Out. Fortunately for music, the public and Columbia Records, they gave in.I have selected three (3) Dave Brubeck songs, each in a different and unusual meter. 5 beats per measure, 7 beats per measure and 9 beats per measure are far less common than the most common meter in Western music - 4 beats per measure. In keeping with the idea of three - 3 different time signatures/meters - I have also compiled three (3) sets of three (3) songs each. In each of these three 3-song sets, I have chosen a Brubeck composition and followed it with two (2) other compositions that share the same number of beats. In each example, the songs I have selected are not of the same style.

12/3/12 12/3/12

Copyrightable Introductions - Willie Nelson, The Roots, Oingo Boingo, Beach Boys, Desert Rose Band, Beatles

I want to go in the opposite direction from the last two posts - from introductions that are not very copyrightable to those that are very copyrightable. These are introductions that feature substantive musical expression, not the kind that is often associated with introductions. Again, these subjects - copyrightable intros and uncopyrightable intros - came up during this blogging process. I'm very glad they did as I now have more fun topics to explore.

11/29/12 11/29/12

Uncopyrightable introductions - Part 2, William Shatner obliquely, Martha Stewart to me

I should add that I feel that Sandals.com consciously, carefully and deliberately copied the intro to Beatles' Getting Better. Sandals.com did not accidentally derive this introduction, or independently create their introduction. Some composer labored over this...I am trying to establish that one can copy INTENTIONALLY without infringing copyright. Sandals.com copied The Beatles and it was not copyright infringement. I think a statement like "one can copy INTENTIONALLY without infringing copyright" could be controversial.

11/28/12 11/28/12

When Is A Musical Introduction Copyrightable? Katy Perry, White Zombie, The Pixies, Neil Young, Isaac Hayes

I thought I would start to listen more carefully and analyze introductions to songs to find the least and most COPYRIGHTABLE introductions, as well as the "in-between" introductions, i.e., introductions that would exhibit some copyrightable elements. I believe that there is a sliding scale of copyright protection - that some introductions are not copyrightable as musical compositions, some slightly so, some more so, and some extremely so. The length of the excerpt, both in terms of temporal length as well as number of attacks and/or articulations, as well as its originality would also be factors used in determining how copyright protection should be afforded an introduction.

11/21/12 11/21/12

Love Street, A Century of Women on Top, TimeHop, Mikasa

Three years ago today I wrote -"With today's copyright laws, most great composers - Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Stravinsky, Ives, etc. - would be as criminal as Girl Talk, Negativland, the Evolution Control Committee or anyone who finds creative preexisting elements and uses them."I still agree. I'm even more fervent about that.

11/19/12 11/19/12

Copyright From A - Z, Crime Before Thanksgiving, my 19th Annual Berklee Lecture, Inna & The Farlanders

At some points today, I'll select some topics for my two-hour presentation. I'll choose from these questions and issues and more:Can One Copy A Bass Line?Can One Copy A Chord Progression?Can One Copy A Guitar Solo?How To Break The Law/How To Get Away With Crime (Crime? "Fair Use" or The Perfect Crime ?)What Is Fair Use?Fair Use Done Right/WrongWhat Is Satire?What Is Parody?What Is Right of Publicity?Can One Sample?What Is A Mashup And When Are Mashups Legal/Illegal?

11/12/12 11/12/12

Mrs. General David Petraeus, Your Husband Is Cheatin' On Us; The World Wide (spider) Web

What have I heard about the blues? Things like this:Blues is realBlues is lifeBlues is real lifeBlues is the story of lifeBlues tells the story of our livesBlues reflects our timesBlues tells the truthThe blues chases away the bluesThe blues is a womanAnd when it comes to lovin', cheatin', hurtin' and schemin', the blues has that covered too.In the past few days I've come to realize that blues is intrinsic to, and helps tell the story of, THE BIG DEAL at the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA is in the center of all news right now (Monday, November 12, 2012). General David Petraeus, the Director of the CIA, resigned last week because of an affair. We are now finding out more.

11/6/12 11/6/12

Minotaur Shock, Band Of The Day App

This morning I was listening to the podcast (from Stitcher) of This Week In Tech: Episode 378 from TWIT.TV - it's a good, fun episode - when I found out that I had some apps to update on my iPhone 5. Of course this little iPhone 5 machine can update away while I'm listing to Stitcher, so I proceeded to give my blessings so the updates could update.Next, "Genius," the Apple app Recommender-In-Chief that I've wisely enabled, suggested a few apps I just had to have. Check. Got them.Next came another Genius app recommendation - BAND OF THE DAY. Band Of The Day, according to its own statement of honest hype, "unearths the best new music by delivering one new artist a day, every single day.