Sic Semper Tyrannis

Whatcha' Listenin' To?

Journey Greatest Hits

I’m not going to even feign a critical detachment here. With this album I recovered the soundtrack to my childhood. Or at least a large part of it. Everything I know of the ideas of love, romance, sadness, yearning, and heartbreak I learned from pop music in general and these guys in particular. Whether or not this is a good thing is definitely fodder for discussion.

But I do know one thing. For a brief two-week period in fourth grade I wanted to be Steve Perry, the lead singer. Leafing through the photos in the liner notes it became pretty clear to me that I was inspired by the idea of being a singer in a rock band with my heart on my sleeve. I think I was only smitten by the Platonic form of being Steve Perry or one of the guys from Journey because these guys were badly-dressed, hairy and ugly as sin. It’s obvious by the sounds, however, why they sold out arenas. I think the music was written and recorded in a pop music laboratory.

The Killers Hot Fuss

Speaking of music perfectly concocted in a lab, you have this album. Take The Edge’s guitar sound from U2, retro analog synth weedlie-weedlie sounds and up-front vocals with catchy melodies and stir. Are The Killers the Journey of our times? Could be.

Hilary Hahn Beethoven Violin Concerto in D, Bernstein Sonata

In the liner notes to this album the young Ms. Hahn tells an amusing tale of being invited to perform the slightly obscure Bernstein piece for an American music festival and her violin teacher at the time beseeching her to try another, more established piece. “How can I teach a piece I don’t know?” complained her mentor.

While I realize she tells the tale for humorous effect I could not help but feel a slight sadness that this moment between student and teacher revealed a glimpse of the wretched state of conservatism that plagues orchestral music programming. When the teacher can’t be bothered to learn anything beyond the beloved, tried and true (and tired?) standards of the repertoire, how shall the orchestra escape from its position as a large cover band, as Frank Zappa described it?

So, not surprisingly, the more unpredictable orchestration and dynamism of the Bernstein piece interested me much more.

Ray Charles Genius + Soul=Jazz/ My Kind of Jazz

This CD is a Rhino reissue of two albums released in the early 60s and early 70s I never even knew existed: Ray Charles swinging out with big bands and playing Hammond organ on mostly instrumental tunes. They are only nominally “Ray Charles” albums, for the real stars are the arrangers (one of whom being Quincy Jones) and the Count Basie Band.

While the liner notes are effusive in their praise of Charles’ musicianship, it’s certainly not evident on these recordings as organ isn’t his primary instrument and his solos feel like “plug and play” technology, just filling holes in arrangements that would work with or without his contributions. However, if you want to maintain a swinging bachelor pad in the retro mold, you could do much worse than this music.

posted by Mike @ 4:53 PM