| He possessed the child's gift of transforming a drop of water into a poem that somehow begat music. | |  |  | | Keep this man in your heart at the ballot box. | | (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images) | | | | quote of the day | | "He possessed the child's gift of transforming a drop of water into a poem that somehow begat music." | | - Patti Smith, "He Was Tom Verlaine" | |
| | rantnrave:// | Lawyers, Guns, Money, Television
Let's lead with the good news, even though the subject of today's good news was never one who felt the need to do that. "The name of the game," he sang, "is be hit and hit back." When it came time to name the album he made after his doctors informed him life had hit him one final time and he'd no longer have the opportunity to hit back, he was unable to use LIFE'LL KILL YA because he already had. MY RIDE'S HERE was also out; he'd used that, too. So, on Aug. 26, 2003, WARREN ZEVON released THE WIND, the last of his long string of darkly funny, deeply moving, weird rock and roll albums, this one ending with a song that asked us to "KEEP ME IN YOUR HEART," and 12 days later he was gone.
Zevon had already been eligible for the ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME for a decade at that point, but he'd mysteriously never even been nominated to an institution that sometimes seemed to be created for the sole purpose of honoring the family tree of 1970s West Coast singer/songwriters. Zevon was the West Coast singer/songwriter's West Coast singer/songwriter, the one they all wanted to be but probably were afraid to be. "Except in dreams," he warned those canyon dwellers, "you're never really free." There are few LA rock songwriters who've ever come close to Zevon's ability to see through the smog, and even fewer who had that many melodies hidden beneath their bottles of vodka.
From the surface of the Pacific Ocean where his ashes were scattered, he probably appreciated that the mere fact he was dead wasn't enough to get him that nomination. Too corny and predictable. It would take another 20 years, it turns out. It's possible what finally put him over the top was the lobbying of an East Coast singer/songwriter/pop star who no one would ever confuse with Warren Zevon. He "don't live around here," Zevon once actually sang about BILLY JOEL. But, hey, Billy Joel attacks the piano with both his fists, is as infamously self-loathing as Zevon was and has only has 40 more chart hits to his credit. So why not? "He banged [the piano], and he banged it good," Joel told the LA Times of his depressive but excitable counterpart.
And so, this morning, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is announcing that Warren Zevon will be on this year's ballot, along with (in rough order of how are they not in the RRHOF already):
- JOY DIVISION/NEW ORDER
- IRON MAIDEN
- CYNDI LAUPER
- GEORGE MICHAEL
- A TRIBE CALLED QUEST
- THE SPINNERS
- KATE BUSH
- MISSY ELLIOTT
- WILLIE NELSON
- RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE
- SOUNDGARDEN
- THE WHITE STRIPES
- SHERYL CROW
It's the first go-round. too, for Joy Division, New Order, Lauper, Elliott, Michael, Nelson, the White Stripes and Crow. All the others have been nominated at least once before, four times in the case of Rage Against the Machine, and rejected by the hall's 1,000-plus voters. The hall's nominating committee has a long history of trying and trying again, and sometimes it works. Dear fellow voters: metal is the rockingest rock music ever invented and Iron Maiden is (along with 2022 inductee JUDAS PRIEST) one of the two metallest metal bands that ever were. You can roll without Iron Maiden but you can not rock.
Joy Division and its successor, New Order, two of the most important British bands of the 1970s and '80s, are a rare two-in-one nomination. Two pairs have made it in that way: PARLIAMENT/FUNKADELIC and the FACES and SMALL FACES. Joy Division began playing nearly a half century ago and yet the nomination feels like a step into a new era for the hall, which doesn't always move as fast as rock itself. A worthy nomination and an easy vote, even if you only owned the t-shirt.
Cyndi Lauper, come on, was a dominant voice in 1980s pop, rock and new wave, and a crucial female voice who could bridge those not always compatible genres (and genders). She was "the Everywoman we needed," critic ANN POWERS has written, "and a fearless songwriter tackling subjects like self-pleasure and self-determination for teenage girls."
The nominations of Lauper, Bush, Elliott, Crow and the White Stripes will serve as our annual reminder that, though it's made up some ground in recent years, the Rock Hall still has a less-than-great record of welcoming women. The hall is far from alone in this, as USC's ANNENBERG INCLUSION INITIATIVE annual accounting of women in the recording studio and elsewhere also reminded us Tuesday. A few years of industry initiatives have made no more than tiny dents in getting women into the most important writing rooms and studios, and in seeing them recognized and rewarded when they do. "Until women and men artists hire women songwriters and producers, the numbers will not move," the report's lead author, DR. STACY L. SMITH, said. "It's more than just allowing an artist to credit themselves on a song, it's about identifying talent and hiring women in these roles. That's the only way that we will see change occur."
The annual ritual of the Rock Hall nominations also serves as a simple and sometimes cold reminder of who isn't in the Rock Hall. TELEVISION, for example. Ground zero for New York punk rock and therefore, in a way, all of punk rock. And not just that. Television seeded punk with the idea that the music didn't have to sound only like this. It could borrow liberally from ALBERT AYLER, DUANE EDDY, French Symbolist poetry and JERRY GARCIA and sound like that. Or, murmuringly, that. Open rather than closed. Gnarled and prickly and beautiful. The influence of the band and guitarist/singer/songwriter TOM VERLAINE, who died Saturday at 73, runs deep through decades of rock/indie/alternative/etc and probably jazz and other branches, too, many whose practitioners are in the hall and many more who should be. We'll gather back here in 20 years and cheer the nomination and, music gods willing, induction of Television itself. Rest in peace.
Etc Etc Etc
This UMG/TIDAL partnership may be the most consequential music economics story of 2023, and we'll have lots more to say as things develop. It "stands to revolutionise the way musicians make money," the Financial Times' ANNA NICOLAOU reports (paywall). But also the way labels make money. The crucial question will be how those twin revolutions do, or don't, harmonize with each other. Also, "one possibility being discussed is banning 31-second clips," Nicolaou reports, which is a completely bonkers idea. Absolutely. Bonkers... SPOTIFY, meanwhile, has ever more paying subscribers, as in 205 million of them, and says it still can't make a dime... Is GEORGE SANTOS trying to hide his Spotify?... Will artificial intelligence become hip-hop's new ghostwriter?... Why exactly did Brooklyn's BARCLAYS CENTER and SEATGEEK break up with each other?... The WEEKND, AVRIL LAVIGNE and TATE MCRAE are the top nominees for the 2023 JUNO AWARDS.
Rest in Peace Also
Motown songwriter BARRETT STRONG started out as the artist behind Motown's first major hit but eventually settled in behind the scenes at Hitsville U.S.A., where he and his partner Norman Whitfield wrote some of the most iconic pop and soul hits of the 1960s and '70s, including "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone." He also spent those years, and beyond, fighting to be properly credited for his role in writing that first major hit... Influential Philadelphia R&B/soul radio DJ JERRY BLAVAT, aka "The Geator With the Heater"... Colombian guaracha DJ VALENTINA TRESPALACIOS, whose body was found last week in Bogota. Her boyfriend has been charged with her murder... Atlanta Rhythm Section keyboardist DEAN DAUGHTRY, who co-wrote the rock band's biggest hits, including "So Into You" and "Imaginary Lover"... Agent CHIP RACHLIN, who repped artists including Billy Joel and the Beach Boys at ICM and his own agency, Rachlin Entertainment... EDDIE LOPEZ, longtime DJ on the salsa radio show "Alma del Barrio" on LA's KXLU... JOHN ADAMS, a baseball fan who played a bass drum in the bleachers at Cleveland Indians and Guardians games for nearly 50 years. "That drum beat it was powerful," said Kenny Lofton, an all-star center fielder for Cleveland in the 1990s. "It felt like, 'We are the Cleveland Indians.' It took you to a higher place."
| | - Matty Karas, curator | |
| | | |  | | The New Yorker |
| | He Was Tom Verlaine | | By Patti Smith | | Patti Smith remembers her friend, who possessed the child's gift of transforming a drop of water into a poem that somehow begat music. | | | |  | | Attack Magazine |
| | What Happens When You Take Your Music Off Spotify? | | By Harold Heath | | A year ago we published a series of articles about artists who had removed their music from Spotify. We caught up with some of them to see if their views, or situation, had changed over the last 12 months. | | |  | | Bloomberg |
| | Atlanta R&B Factory Love Renaissance Sets Its Sights on Africa | | By Lucas Shaw | | Atlanta-based music company Love Renaissance has raised more than $25 million from investor Matt Pincus. It will use the money to expand its business at home and into the booming markets of Nigeria, South Africa and the UK. | | |  | | The New York Times |
| | Wynonna Judd, on Her Own | | By Grayson Haver Currin | | Last spring, the country superstar lost her mother and longtime singing partner, Naomi Judd, to suicide. At 58, she finally hopes to become the musician she's wanted to be for 50 years. | | | |  | | Medium |
| | I spent two decades running major labels -- here's why I left it behind | | By Mark Terry | | Sit in any conference room of young artists, managers and producers and you'll hear the message loud and clear: artists are less interested in signing restrictive rights deals, and even less interested in handing over control of their music to an industry that has become increasingly reactive, rather than proactive. | | |  | | The Cut |
| | It's Glo Time | | By Tirhakah Love | | Grammy nominee GloRilla is figuring out how to be famous while staying F-R-E-E. | | | | | |  | | Chicago Magazine |
| | The Man Who Fixes the World's Finest Violins | | By Elly Fishman | | He's trusted to repair some of the world's most fabled - and expensive - instruments. How does John Becker manage to unlock the sound of a Stradivarius? | | | | | | | | | | | | what we're into | | | Music | Media | | | | | | Suggest a link  | | "REDEF is dedicated to my mother, who nurtured and encouraged my interest in everything and slightly regrets the day she taught me to always ask 'why?'" |
| | | |
| |
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment