Eyes On The Prize

The Staple Singers were one of the most luminous acts of the soul era. Anthems like “Respect Yourself” and “I’ll Take You There” embodied much of the hope and struggle of the civil rights era. As one of the leading lights of the Staples Singers, Mavis Staples has been one of the mainstays of soul music for over fifty years. Her new album, We Won’t Turn Back, is one of the better albums I’ve heard so far this year; a post-Bush, post-Katrina demand for change. Ry Cooder’s production adds a darker and more modern hue to the material, and the anger that is present in the songs and in Mavis’ vocals is refreshing – she has become an intolerant champion of tolerance and equality and she sings with the knowledge that being nice isn’t going to get anyone anywhere.

Download: "Eyes On The Prize"
Mavis Staples at Emusic

The Great Bobby Womack

Bobby Womack is one of those great artists who, while well known and loved dearly by soul aficionados, is less known elsewhere. There aren’t any streets named after him, and there haven’t been any Lifetime Achievement Grammys for him. It’s a shame, because for decades, Womack has been one of the great threads running through American music.

Starting in Gospel, his family’s group the Womack Brothers was discovered by Sam Cooke and signed to Cooke’s SAR label in the early 60’s. Renamed the Valentinos, they put out some seminar sides of the period, including “Looking For A Love” (a song Bobby would remake in to a huge hit in the 70’s) and “It’s All Over Now,” which, with Sam Cooke’s blessing, was given to the Rolling Stones in late 1964 (and was their first U.K. #1). Womack also served as the lead guitarist in Cooke’s band.

Womack gained infamy in the soul community for marrying Sam Cooke’s widow Barbara in March of 1965, only three months after Sam had been shot and killed at a motel in Los Angeles. Womack later said that he married Barbara out of fear of what she would do to herself if she were left alone, but it caused enough controversy that Womack had to retreat. His next step was working as a session guitarist at Chips Moman’s American Studios in Memphis, playing on records by Joe Tex, the Box Tops and Wilson Pickett (he contributed several seminal songs to Pickett, including “I’m A Midnight Mover.”)

In the late 60’s, Womack began to find his stride as a solo artist, ironically, it was at the same time that his marriage with the former Barbara Cooke began to unravel. He played guitar on Sly Stone’s epochal post-60’s reckoning, There’s A Riot Goin’ On. In the 70’s, hits like the sublime “Across 110th Street,” “Harry Hippie” and “Daylight” brought Womack major success on the R&B charts. Not wiling to consign himself to any one genre, Womack also took stabs at country (B.W. goes C.W.), blues and gospel. His last big hit was in 1981 with “If You Think You’re Lonely Now.” He's still touring today.

(Thanks to Bob Dylan’s fantastic radio show, I’m able to post the demo version of “Across 110th Street” followed by the original. Buy his music!)

Download: "Across 110th Street" (Demo - from Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour)
Download: "Across 110th Street" (original)
Bobby Womack at Amazon

Laying It Out

This is easily the best thing I've read on the whole Imus/Hip-Hop "controversy." I wish I had written it.

Sound Of The City, 2007

After falling in love with the songs he produced on Amy Winehouse’s album, I’ve been looking forward to Mark Ronson’s new album, Version. It doesn’t disappoint. Featuring re-arranged covers of songs varying from Coldplay (“God Put A Smile On Your Face) to Britney Spears (“Toxic”), Ronson does a brilliant job of creating a modern soul (while still infused with hip-hop) context for the songs, providing a sleek and sexy urban vibe while remaining substantive in feel. This is dance music that you can sink your teeth into. Ronson’s real skill is making these highly stylized versions sound organic, even while he’s using every technological trick in the book. It’s New York City meets London soul circa 2007. Find it and buy it.

Download: "Stop Me" (featuring Daniel Merriweather)
Buy it at Amazon U.K.

I Ain't Got Nothin' To Say

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Indie Soul

We’ve had the Pixies revival (don’t get me started), so now I’m lobbying for a revival for the most soulful (and messy) American indie band of the 80’s, the Replacements. I hadn't listened to them in a long time, but I awoke this morning with them on the brain, and once I put them on the stereo, I was reminded of my deep love for the band. The trio of Let It Be (1984), Tim (1985) and Pleased To Meet Me (1987) are about as good as anyone did in the 80’s – if you don't have them, buy them now. "Unsatisfied" and "Answering Machine" are about as soulful as it gets - just transmuted through punk. (And had they concentrated more on the soul, and concerned themselves less with the punk ethos, they might not have self-destructed the way they did.)

Download: "Unsatisfied"
Download: "Answering Machine"
Download: "I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man" (Live in Detroit, 11/12/87)
Download: "Gimme Shelter" (Live in Detroit)
Download: "Little Mascara" (Live in Detroit)
Download: "Can't Hardly Wait"

Buy the Replacements at Amazon

Songs Of The Day

I never paid too much attention to the Electroclash/DFA scene that James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem (and his partner, Tim Goldsworthy) inspired in New York a few years back. It got a ton of attention, but other than the Rapture’s “House of Jealous Lovers,” not much from of it stuck with me. It sounded pretty good to me, but not much more than that. Admittedly, it generated from an NYC post-punk scene that I’ve never felt particularly at home in – it was hipster music, and my first impulse is usually to recoil from most things hipster, perhaps as a defense mechanism from the feeling I’ll be excluded from it.

However, I’ve been greatly enjoying the new LCD Soundsystem album, Sound of Silver, and it’s first single, “North American Scum.” It’s Jonathan Richman-esque in the best possible way – wry, witty and incisive. And it employs irony to illuminate the song and its lyrics instead of employing it in the manner most artists use it – as a substitute for talent.

Download: “North American Scum”


If all Georgia born performer and songwriter Joe South did during his career was play the guitar intro to Aretha Franklin’s “Chain Of Fools,” he’d still be fondly remembered. But he wrote a bunch of hits for other artists, and a recorded a couple of classic songs under his own name, including “Games People Play” and “Walk A Mile In My Shoes.”

A few years back, Otis Clay (“Trying To Live My Life Without You”) recorded “Walk A Mile In My Shoes” as part of a Joe South tribute record. It’s a beautiful version, and listening to it, I’m reminded that of all the human virtues that I’ve found present in the best soul music, it’s compassion that has been the most powerful, and the most necessary.

Download: "Walk A Mile In My Shoes"

Subscribe To A Deeper Shade Of Soul!

I've gotten a few emails from people asking how they can subscribe to A Deeper Shade Of Soul. Well my friends, it's easy. Just scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page and on the left it says "Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)." You'll need a reader for Internet feeds. I use the Google Reader. There are many others and you can use it to set up a page for all of your favorite blogs and news outlets. Do it - because you really do need more information in your life.

Today In The Bad Idea Department

Oooof.

Brooklyn Soul Sister

Here is a link to last week's Village Voice article on Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, a Brooklyn based soul outfit who are starting to get real attention. It's a worthy read in that I believe it signifies soul's continuing comeback in the public consciousness as well as the utter boredom that many people are finally finding in and verbalizing about "dull-ass, sweet-dude, indie guitar rock."

I've seen Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings live, and while it's been an enjoyable experience, for me, something has been missing. I've found the songs somewhat unsatisfying; they occur for me as approximations of a soul sound rather than soulful in and of themselves. But I am hopeful that they will improve over time, and that the songs will dig a little deeper emotionally on the next release.

The Dap-Kings are backing Amy Winehouse on the road, so this has to be a very exciting time for them. If Sharon Jones and her band are not quite the thing that will break down the door for this kind of music in the 21st century, they're knocking really hard on the door. I won't do anything but applaud that.

Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings on MySpace

Rosalita From Carnegie Hall

A pretty rough clip from last night's finale, but very sweet nonetheless.

Bruce Tribute At Carnegie Hall

I did not attend tonight's tribute to Bruce Springsteen at Carnegie Hall. Why? Well, the lineup didn't hold too much interest for me (had I known Patti Smith was going to be there in advance, I might have attended - she got subbed in for Jewel today) and I'm usually not into hearing people do Bruce other than Bruce.

Fortunately, we have a special guest contributor to A Deeper Shade Of Soul who attended the show tonight. His name is Scott Black, and there could be no one more fitting to do this blog entry, as he is one of my oldest friends - I've known him for about thirty years, and he, more than pretty much anyone else, is responsible for turning me onto Springsteen when we were nice little Jewish boys attending Solomon Schecter Day School together in the late 70's and early 80's. (He's still nice...me, not so much.) I returned the favor by turning him on to the Beatles and "Gimme Shelter." Overall, it was probably an even trade.

In the interest of posting this immediately, the text is going up as Scott sent it to me with no edits. Scott is an Ivy League graduate, so please understand that he does know how to use proper punctuation. Enjoy!

Early highlight was clearly patti smith doing an acoustic "because the night" with a heartfelt introduction explaining how bruce's song has pulled her numerous times during her life from the doldrums of despair. She's heads and shoulders above the rest of the talent so far present.

 Another highlight was the elysian fields' rocking (and haunting) version of "streets of fire". Interesting to hear this track (not one of my favorites) song by an indie female.



8:56: frankie vallie's younger brother, bobby, his band ("some jersey boys", and a "soparanos" guest cast member (who's really up there just for show, as he apparently can't sing), perform, what else, "jersey girl.". The whole set is cheese incarnate (down to frankie jr's slicked back hair, and "sha-la-las" with audience clap-alongs, but I still can't help but smile: I love this song, and it's hard to ruin it, even though these guys are way off key.



9:10: uri cane performs an all musical piano rendition of "new york city serenade.". Great song, but Bruce is not best appreciated in non vocal renditions.



9:14: juliana hatfield performs a solo guitar country-tinged version of "cover me". Not bad, but not particularly interesting either. Like many of the other performances, the artist's apparent belief that she has to tone down the song to accommodate the prestige of the venue detract from the force of the song.



9:26: badly drawn boy, a huge bruce fan, takes the stage to perfrom "thunder road.". "I'm scared to death, but fearless at the same time," he begins. The version is good: he sings with a sense of reverence, almost afraid to come across as ever trying to match the original. Plus, it's cool to hear bruce sung in a british accent.

9:34: joseph arthur dedicates a guitar and piano driven "born in the usa" to "our troops.". Ok, we get it already, this is no rah rah patriotic anthem. But the words are so haunting every time.



9:39: pete yorn introduces "dancing in the dark" as a "dark song.". The acoustic, aching version he delivers certainly is: and it works.



9:45: jesse malin and ronnie spector team up for "hungry heart," dedicated to joey ramone. I've heard malin do this cover before, and he sounds like a frog to me. I'm not crazy about the song either, and ronnie botches the lyrics midway through. This is pretty much a disappointment.

9:55: the crowd breaks into "bruuuce calls" as the stage is being prepared for odetta who takes the stage in a wheelchair to perform... "57 channels".?? She's a poet and talks her way through the song, and the song long joke draws ample chuckles and one of the few standing ovations thus far.



10:00: the much heralded hold steady nail
 "Atlantic City." After a soft and melodic intro they ROCK THE HOUSE. A clear highlight.

10:07: THE MOMENT WE ALL HOPED FOR: bruce takes the stage: "I'm wounded, but still alive"...

Solo acoustic "promised land": bruce is in full-bodied woody guthrie mode here.
The version emphasizes the chain of tradition that has always linked bruce to the great folk artists of our nation's past. Next up: acoustic Rosalita.

Bruce interrupts Rosalita to say it's too long to see the whole thing, and proceeds to say, you know the rest of the story... Man grows up to be a rock star, finds a woman he loves happily ever after (despite the rumors), write about being happy (but no one likes it), the country becomes a kingdom, kids buy music out of the air... It's hysterical and ends with a full audience sing along to the song's conclusion. This man is simply a master performer.

Show's over: hold steady, badly drawn boy, jesse malin and bruce took turns on rosie verses for the full band finale. A great time! And bruce was hysterical.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Keith Richards

I'm used to hearing some great, outlandish quotes from Mr. Richards, of the Glimmer Twins. But the news that Keith snorted his own father's ashes (mixed with a little coke, of course) has set the bar anew. The man can do no wrong by me, even when he calls the new generation of British bands, "c***ts."

He is the embodiment of rock and roll excess. But Keith Richards' latest admission is likely to surprise even his most hardened fans.

The Rolling Stones guitarist has told how he snorted his own father's ashes in a drugs binge.

"The strangest thing I've tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father," he said.

The 63-year-old detailed in a magazine interview how he mixed the
ashes with cocaine and inhaled them.

Scroll down for more...

Keith Richards has told how he snorted his own father's (right) ashes
in a drugs binge

"He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little
bit of blow.

"My dad wouldn't have cared - he didn't give a s***. It went down
pretty well. And I'm still alive."

Richards's father Bert died in 2002 aged 84. The news may not be met
with too much enthusiasm by Richards' mother Doris.

The star also recounted his worst drugs experience. "It was when
someone put strychnine in my dope," he said.

"It was in Switzerland. I was totally comatose but I was totally
awake.

"I could listen to everyone, and they were like, 'He's dead, he's
dead!', waving their fingers and pushing me about, and I was thinking,
'I'm not dead!'," he recalled.

He went on: "I've no pretensions about immortality - I'm the same as
everyone else - same as you, same as everybody, I'm the same old
b******, just kind of lucky.

"I was number one on the Who's Likely To Die list for ten years. I
mean, I was really disappointed when I fell off the list," he told
NME.

Richards added: "Some doctor told me I had six months to live and I
went to their funeral. The obit columns are of quite an interest to me
these days. I don't trust doctors.

"It's not to say there ain't some good ones, but on a general level,
no, I wouldn't trust 'em at all."

Richards predicted that Pete Doherty could be the next drugs casualty
- and told him to leave supermodel Kate Moss alone.

"My advice for Pete Doherty is that he should shut the f*** up and
leave her," he said. "I don't know the man. All I know is he's pushing
his luck and there it is, but so is Kate, who I know very well.

"Kate wants to play with bad boys, and she's done one, and then
another one, and then another one. Badabing, badabang, badaboom.
She'll live, the boys will die."

And he warned rock stars not to emulate his fabled drug-taking.

"I did it because that was the way I did it. Now people think it's a
way of life," he said.

Of today's musicians, he said: "Everyone's a load of c***. They're
trying to be somebody else and they ain't being themselves.
Libertines, Arctic Monkeys, Bloc Party? Load of c***, load of c***.
Posers, rubbish."

The Rolling Stones will kick off the European leg of their A Bigger
Bang tour in June.

Last year their touring was interrupted when Richards reportedly fell
out of a palm tree while on holiday in Fiji.

He said of the incident: "I wasn't climbing a tree. I was sitting on a
f***ing shrub. I was sitting on that shrub again today, but I happened
to fall off it the wrong way that day."

He had brain surgery after the accident and revealed: "I've been
trepanned. That's quite an interesting experience, especially for my
brain surgeon, who saw my thoughts flying around in my brain.

"I've got pictures of it, mate. They cut my head, brain, skull open,
went in and pulled out the c***, and put some of it back again.

"But that's the way it is. I mean, s*** , Keith Richards has got to do
everything once."

· The full interview appears in the new issue of NME, out today.

EMI Drops DRM

A big, big day in the record business. EMI announced in London this morning that they're dropping DRM (Digital Rights Management) and are going to offer a greater range of choice in digital music offered to the consumer. Here's the article from Business Wire:

EMI Music Launches DRM-Free Superior Sound Quality Downloads Across Its Entire Digital Repertoire
Apple's iTunes Store to be the First Online Music Store to Sell EMI's New Downloads

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--EMI Music today announced that it is launching new premium downloads for retail on a global basis, making all of its digital repertoire available at a much higher sound quality than existing downloads and free of digital rights management (DRM) restrictions.

The new higher quality DRM-free music will complement EMI's existing range of standard DRM-protected downloads already available. From today, EMI's retailers will be offered downloads of tracks and albums in the DRM-free audio format of their choice in a variety of bit rates up to CD quality. EMI is releasing the premium downloads in response to consumer demand for high fidelity digital music for use on home music systems, mobile phones and digital music players. EMI's new DRM-free products will enable full interoperability of digital music across all devices and platforms.

Eric Nicoli, CEO of EMI Group, said, "Our goal is to give consumers the best possible digital music experience. By providing DRM-free downloads, we aim to address the lack of interoperability which is frustrating for many music fans. We believe that offering consumers the opportunity to buy higher quality tracks and listen to them on the device or platform of their choice will boost sales of digital music.

"Apple have been a true pioneer in digital music, and we are delighted that they share our vision of an interoperable market that provides consumers with greater choice, quality, convenience and value for money."

"Selling digital music DRM-free is the right step forward for the music industry," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "EMI has been a great partner for iTunes and is once again leading the industry as the first major music company to offer its entire digital catalogue DRM-free."

Apple's iTunes Store (www.itunes.com) is the first online music store to receive EMI's new premium downloads. Apple has announced that iTunes will make individual AAC format tracks available from EMI artists at twice the sound quality of existing downloads, with their DRM removed, at a price of $1.29/€1.29/£0.99. iTunes will continue to offer consumers the ability to pay $0.99/€0.99/£0.79 for standard sound quality tracks with DRM still applied. Complete albums from EMI Music artists purchased on the iTunes Store will automatically be sold at the higher sound quality and DRM-free, with no change in the price. Consumers who have already purchased standard tracks or albums with DRM will be able to upgrade their digital music for $0.30/€0.30/£0.20 per track. All EMI music videos will also be available on the iTunes Store DRM-free with no change in price.

EMI is introducing a new wholesale price for premium single track downloads, while maintaining the existing wholesale price for complete albums. EMI expects that consumers will be able to purchase higher quality DRM-free downloads from a variety of digital music stores within the coming weeks, with each retailer choosing whether to sell downloads in AAC, WMA, MP3 or other unprotected formats of their choice. Music fans will be able to purchase higher quality DRM-free digital music for personal use, and listen to it on a wide range of digital music players and music-enabled phones.

EMI's move follows a series of experiments it conducted recently. Norah Jones's "Thinking About You", Relient K's "Must've Done Something Right", and Lily Allen's "Littlest Things" were all made available for sale in the MP3 format in trials held at the end of last year.

EMI Music will continue to employ DRM as appropriate to enable innovative digital models such as subscription services (where users pay a monthly fee for unlimited access to music), super-distribution (allowing fans to share music with their friends) and time-limited downloads (such as those offered by ad-supported services).

Nicoli added: "Protecting the intellectual property of EMI and our artists is as important as ever, and we will continue to work to fight piracy in all its forms and to educate consumers. We believe that fans will be excited by the flexibility that DRM-free formats provide, and will see this as an incentive to purchase more of our artists' music."

I believe that the price is still too high for the files for the premium files - I'm firmly in the camp that lowering the price will increase sales. But this is a big first step. More commentary to come.

Another Reason To DIg Amy Winehouse

From cnn.com

"Winehouse says it's the unashamed emotionalism of the decades-old
(soul) music that appeals to her.

'A lot of music now is trying to be cool and like, 'Yeah, I don't
really care about you' -- a really blase attitude,' she said. 'I think
it's much nicer to be in love, and throw yourself into it, and want to
lie in the road for that person.

'It's like the difference between having a dance in the middle of the
party and standing around the outside with a beer bottle trying to
look cool.'"

And I Thought Katrina Was A Low Point

This is disgusting.

In The Jukebox This Week

Tony Joe White - Black and White

Thanks to the folks at NYCD, I’ve found one of those albums that is making me wonder, “Where have you been all of my life?” It’s Black & White, by Tony Joe White, a wonderful, swampy, southern soul album from 1969. Filled with great songs like the top 10 hit “Polk Salad Annie,” (Elvis covered it in concert) and showcasing White’s truly marvelous, one of a kind voice, this is an unheralded classic of the genre. Buy it.

Download: "Soul Francsico"

Art Brut - It’s a Bit Complicated (Advance EP)

Art Brut’s Bang Bang Rock N’ Roll was one of my favorites of 2006, and they’re back. Part of the delight in hearing the band the first time around was the shock of humor in Eddie Argos’s voice, and the smartass simplicity of songs like “Formed a Band.” The sound is a bit more fleshed out this time and there are hints of some Northern Soul on it (“Late Sunday”), but while this EP sounds good, the songs aren’t popping out for me the way they did last time out. Hopefully it'll be a grower.

(Credit to Downtown Records for sending the EP without any copy protection – they’re smart enough to know it’ll leak anyway, so they might as well control the context with which it’s originally distributed.)

Download: "Post Soothing Out"

Foutains of Wayne – Traffic & Weather

I never have understood the appeal of this band. Wimpy, cutesy, ugh. It’s the kind of stuff that gives power pop a bad name. This album sounds like a band on its last legs.

Stax 50th Anniversary Celebration – They might as well call this collection, “The Greatest Hits of the United States of America.” Even if the songs are ones that I’ve heard a thousand times before (“Who’s Making Love,” “Shaft,” “Respect Yourself”), it doesn’t make the music any less sublime, and it’s required listening for anyone who loves American music, let alone soul music. To me, Stax’s story epitomizes the best of America – an unlikely community of people from varied backgrounds working together to create art that first transcended and then exploded boundaries of race and music in this country. And it’s art that you can still dance to.

Robin Thicke – The Evolution of Robin Thicke

There are certain albums whose success makes me feel incredibly alienated. This is one of them. I read the glowing comments on Amazon, got the album, and find it a shallow bore. He’s got a nice voice, but why this is getting the praise it’s getting is a mystery to me. It’s all gloss with nothing firm underneath the surface.

Today's Rock Crit Exchange

In yesterday's Salon, writer David Marchese linked to an Ann Powers piece in the L.A. Times regarding the new Joss Stone album. The issue of racial appropriation came up (read the Salon piece and Powers' piece and you'll see what I mean), an issue I find completely tiresome. So I fired off a somewhat nasty email to Ann Powers about the piece, and she wrote me back. The original email is at the bottom and then goes up.

Hey Ben,

Thanks for YOUR reply. I really appreciate it. Certainly all of the questions you raise below are crucial. It's truly the challenge of the critic to try to answer those very elusive and often seriously subjective questions!! One thing that has always fascinated me is that some people can be affected by things I think are utter pap, while others may feel nothing at what deeply moves me. I'm not against quality judgements but it's fun and interesting to try to unpack them, too.

The issue of Dylan and identity is utterly fascinating. For sure, he saw/sees himself as a channel through which the culture blows (pardon the reference!). I've read early interviews with him where he's described his songwriting process as "vomiting," that it just comes out -- he is oracular, at least according to him. Yet it's interesting too how late Dylan plays a LOT with images and even sounds of minstrelsy -- this happens in "Masked and Anonymous," in "Love and Theft," (named after a book on minstrelsy) and in the new album. It's almost as if he's trying to take a hard look at his own process. Perhaps that's the prerogative of an old bard!

thanks again for writing!
best akp

________________________________

From: Ben Lazar [mailto:blazar70@gmail.com]
Sent: Wed 3/28/2007 1:05 PM
To: Powers, Ann
Subject: Re: Joss Stone


Dear Ann,

Thank you for your reply.

I would never deny that such matters of identity have been debated throughout the history of popular music - of course they have (and especially since post-modernism took over the academy in the 80's.) It's just that for me, that issue has become exhaustingly dull. (The issue of race isn't dull, but as a continual reference point from which to evaluate art, I'm a little exhausted by it.) For me, the issues are: Are the songs great? Is is there anything emotionally affective on the record? How's the groove? Melody? Rhythm section? Is this person really communicating something resonant?

I went to metacritic.com last week to check out the reviews, and yes, I too saw the references that you did, but perhaps those references were there because most of the writers there are better at writing from a sociological rather than musical perspective. (Greil Marcus was/is great at that, but in the hands of lesser mortals, ugh.)

Perhaps the issue of authenticity is at the center of popular culture. But for me, it's about emotional authenticity rather than from the vantage point of identity politics. In the Scorcese Dylan documentary, one of the Staples Singers wonders aloud how could have written "Blowin' In The Wind" when he was a white kid. Perhaps it's because Dylan's imagination was so boundless that he saw himself as a human being, rather than a middle-class Jewish being from Minnesota. Maybe when people realize that our similarities far outweigh our differences, we'll be able to address fundamentally important issues together, instead of dealing with what occurs for me as the ephemera of a lamentably post-modern era.

Best,
Ben


On Mar 28, 2007, at 3:40 PM, Powers, Ann wrote:


Dear Mr. Lazar,

Well, that's a frustrating reading of the piece. Upon receiving your letter, I reread the piece, and I remain surprised that you would read what you have read into it. I think you have misinterpreted the views of others, which I note in the piece, as my own views.

I wasn't advocating the idea that performers can't take on identities different from the ones they "own" on the surface. Why would I do that, given that my number one record of last year was by Justin Timberlake?

I was trying to point out that Stone's taken a lot of flak for doing it. Reading the many mixed to negative reviews of her new album, I noticed that there's a ton of skepticism about her right or ability to perform in the style she performs, precisely because she is an upper-class white woman. You can look on metacritic.com and see how often that very point is either implied or directly mentioned. Perhaps this seems like an old debate, but when it comes to this artist, it still rages.

I chose to tackle that issue directly in the piece and let Stone address it, which she did, as did her producer Raphael Saadiq.

While I agree with you that "identity is a construct," (I went to graduate school in English, and as I'm sure you are aware, in academia, THAT idea is a cliche as much as any idea of authenticity), it seems strange to deny that such matters have been debated throughout the history of popular music, and still are today. Have we really moved beyond issues of identity completely? That would be a fascinating world, perhaps a utopian one. But is it really the world we live in?

I'm sorry you feel you must insult me as well as argue with my point of view. As I see it, the debate over authenticity is one that is at the center of understanding popular music and popular culture. In fact, there's a new book on this subject -- "Faking It," by Yuval Taylor and Hugh Barker. Just bringing that up to note that I'm not the only one thinking about these matters.

At any rate, I guess I'll say, thanks for reading. I appreciate your opinions and your perspective. I'm sorry you didn't appreciate mine.


best

akp


________________________________

From: Ben Lazar [mailto:blazar70@gmail.com]
Sent: Wed 3/28/2007 12:19 PM
To: ann.powers@latimes.com
Cc: editor@latimes.com
Subject: Joss Stone


Dear Miss Powers,

I can't say I've ever been much of a fan of your writing, but I thought your recent piece on Joss Stone was an awful article, revealing a perspective that occurs for me as tired, leftist, post-modernist drivel suffused with the worst kind of obsession with identity politics. When you write that her identity is "artificial" and that her seeing herself as part of a tradition that extends to rock earliest days of white singers in love with black music "isn't so easily claimed now, since the civil rights movement and identity politics have laid bare the realities of white privilege," I think you miss the whole point, and for me, with that sentence, you reveal yourself to be a second class writer and thinker. There is no such thing as "authentic" identity; it's ALL a construct that we choose as we develop, based on our past, our environment and decisions we make. Great artists recreate themselves into who they want to be; Elvis did it, Little Richard did it, Phil Spector did it, Dylan did it, James Brown did it, the Beastie Boys did it (as have a host of others).

I don't even care for Joss Stone's music; I find her current album soulless; but that's not because of her background - it's because her music rings to me as hollow. However, I love parts of the Amy Winehouse album; and is her identity any more or less "authentic" than Joss Stone's? I don't think so. Perhaps if you examined what works and what doesn't work about Joss Stone's album, rather than come from the perspective of addressing her "authenticity," (the tired obsession of indie-rock thinkers everywhere and actually the ultimate inautheticity) you might have written an interesting piece.

You'll Go Your Way, And I'll Go Mine?

Like a lot of people in the music business, I read Bob Lefsetz’s email blog. I find him somewhat insightful when he’s talking about tech issues, but when he writes about music, I lose interest quickly. And while some folks may find him passionate, he often occurs for me as an upset five year old in a sandbox, hurling accusations and invective in a way that I find more bemusing than illuminating.

Bob wrote a piece published this past Saturday that compared the current music climate to the 60’s, when FM was just beginning and Top 40 ruled. He made some distinctions between the two eras (the fact that top 40 then had room for an occasional older act and that now it’s mainly hip-hop and urban music), but he basically was implying that the indie sector and the internet were the underground FM of today. Perhaps there are some similarities, but I believe Bob really missed the important distinction.

What really created the underground rock audience that facilitated the move away from “teenybopper” top 40 radio was the impact of Dylan, and specifically, “Like A Rolling Stone,” which went to #2 on the singles chart in the summer of 1965. That success was not a fluke; Dylan specifically wrote the song to be a hit. After seeing other artists have chart success with his songs (the Byrds, Sonny & Cher, Peter, Paul & Mary), Dylan, who had loved rock n’ roll before he discovered folk (his high school ambition was to play in Little Richard’s band), not only wanted to play the game, he wanted to explode the game, which he did. After Dylan, artists who didn’t fit the teenage paradigm saw possibilities for themselves with their music that didn’t exist prior to Dylan’s success. It’s no accident that soon after “Like A Rolling Stone,” the Beatles sped up their path of sophistication that resulted in “Rubber Soul” in December of ’65 and “Revolver” in August of ’66 (which created a whole new set of possibilities for artists, etc.). The success of the artists who were the mainstay of underground FM in it’s earliest days would have been pretty much inconceivable without Dylan’s impact; Hendrix, Pink Floyd, the Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival (who were a top 40 band as well) and a host of others. Even the Velvet Underground, who never got much radio play of any kind, would not have emerged in the form they did without Dylan. It’s not that Dylan was a huge influence on every artist; it was that his success created a whole new world of possibilities from which to emerge.

What Dylan created took ambition of Olympian proportions. He deliberately set out to impact a world outside of his own. I don’t hear ambition of that size today. What I hear are artists working with a mindset that confirms limits, rather than explodes them. The Arcade Fire may resonate strongly with an audience, but it’s an insular audience that seeks to confirm it’s own superiority as an audience. And in that mindset, today’s crew of “vanguard” artists will alter nothing and simply confirm everything; namely that we are just destined to live apart from one another – you’ll have your music, I’ll have mine, my music is smart, their music is stupid, etc. I don’t know about you, but I find that thoroughly dispiriting. And ironically, given the "Long Tail" view of our future, the only thing that will alter that is a hit. It's no accident that the last time the rock world truly shook in a large scale way, it was in the aftermath of "Smells Like Teen Spirit," a hit song that rendered one world irrelevant and ushered in a new one.

When Springsteen made “Born to Run” in 1975, he said, “I’m going to make the greatest rock n’ roll record of all time.” Does any artist even have the guts to say that anymore? Does any band have the willingness to play for those stakes? I don’t know the answer to that question, but I do know that at this point, I’m far more eager to hear an artist go for that and fail, than I am in hearing an artist work within their range of limits and succeed.

Bob Dylan (with the Hawks): "Like A Rolling Stone" (You Tube)

Introducing Soul Lite

What first drew me to soul music as a teenager was the both the pain and longing I heard in it and the possibility of transcending that same pain and fulfilling the longing. Maybe that's why when I hear an album like Joss Stone's new one, Introducing Joss Stone, I bristle when people refer to it as a "soul" record. It occurs for me as a hollow album, showcasing the considerable vocal talent of an artist who has absolutely nothing to say and says it even less interestingly. Great soul singers can make the most banal, cliched lyric feel profound. Joss Stone could sing a song with lyrics with a Dylan-like depth, and it would come off as empty. Don't get fooled by this one - it's not even in the vicinity of true soulfulness.

Jamaica to Toronto

For those of you who might have thought that Memphis, Detroit and Muscle Shoals had the first and last word in 60’s soul, I have news for you. There’s a great compilation I just discovered a few days ago – Jamaica to Toronto: Soul, Funk & Reggae 1967-1974. It’s a recently released collection with a very interesting origin. Apparently, in the late 60’s, Toronto’s large West Indian population was a magnet for Jamaican touring artists who ended up emigrating there. The music that resulted is a brew light on the reggae, but heavy on the soul. It was a scene hidden from the world, but it was one of real vitality. Check out the Cougars version of the Temptations “I Wish It Would Rain.” It’s stunning.

Download: The Cougars - "I Wish It Would Rain"
Buy it at Emusic

“It Ain’t Rock N’ Roll, But I Occasionally Like It”

Steven Van Zandt has an interesting piece on the indie rock renaissance that you can read here. I’m not sure if he nails it, but with his outsider's perspective, he comes closer than most in summing it all up. Steven has always been a rock n’ soul traditionalist – the first three albums he ever produced, the first three by Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, were great summations of the Stax/early 60’s New York R&B/Atlantic sound that was so influential to the Asbury Park artists. But in the past five years, he’s reinvented himself as a torchbearer for the garage rock sound on his radio show for Sirius, Little Steven’s Underground Garage, where he’s left the soul behind to concentrate on exposing his version of rock n’ roll to a new generation. It’s a version that’s begins with “Louie Louie” and is heavy on the Kinks and the Ramones. I’m guessing that in his recent travels as a DJ, he’s been exposed to the new-indie. His piece isn’t a rave about the music – he calls it “sexless” and “hookless, with occasionally unforgettable melody.” And I disagree with him when he writes, “Eventually this generation will use up its angst, experience enough catharsis and tire of appropriately mourning the state of our horrifying world and need an energy infusion to party again." I believe that's wishful thinking - you could have written the same thing about grunge in 1992, and that never happened. But it’s still an interesting perspective – that of someone who is still committed to the idea of rock as popular music coming to terms with a generation whose philosophy is in diametric opposition to the one he grew up with.

Apes And Androids

Last Wednesday night I went to see Apes and Androids at the Shindig party in Tribeca. The band happens to be co-fronted by the younger brother of one of my closest friends from high school, and since he was in town from L.A. and the band was playing, we went down to check it.

Apes and Androids have been getting a lot of lovin' from indie rock blogs in NYC. So I went in not expecting much - and I was very pleasantly surprised how good they've gotten. Their energy is great - the crowd of hipsters was dancing and letting loose with a complete lack of self-consciousness (which I can tell you is very unusual for a crowd of hipsters). And they play great - it's not the usual indie wank. They've gotten a great drummer and the grooves were propulsive and danceable, with enough syncopation to keep it from being too white. It's very 80's centric music (big surprise), with a lot of songs that seem to be about futurism, but they add a lot of strange and humorous twists that keep the music from descending into a pretentious mess.

Suprisingly, the band is without a deal right now, but that should change soon. They're one of those bands whose weirdness might help them.

Apes and Androids on MySpace

On Listening

One of the great pleasures of my youth that has become a rare occurrence for me as an adult has been the act of actively listening to music with people. Sitting in a room or being a car with a group of friends, getting into a song or an album, turning someone on, or being turned on by them in return – those moments have provided me with some of my favorite moments in life. They can shape how I listen to something and how I can get my past my own immediate judgments and biases – and they now occur all too infrequently.

I write of this because a couple of weeks ago, I was at a dinner party with some friends, and at the end of the night, there were four of us sitting around listening to music. Our lovely hostess, Amber, was playing Odetta’s version of “Gallows Pole.” I, of course, learned the song through hearing it on Led Zeppelin III, and when I found out that Amber hadn’t heard Zeppelin’s version of it, I broke out my iPod and we listened to it.

I’ve heard the song at least a hundred times, and it’s never been one of my favorite Zeppelin songs, but as the song began and built momentum - Jimmy Page’s slowly strummed acoustic guitar turning firmer into that signature riff in the chorus, adding banjo and mandolin, Robert Plant’s vocal rising in pitch and intensity as the song’s tension built and cracked into John Paul Jones and John Bonham’s irrepressible rhythm section – well, it was like I was hearing the song for the first time. As we listened, everyone’s head was moving in unison, and very spontaneous smiles broke out on our faces, and without a word exchanged between us, we knew we were experiencing something special – and it was only special because it was a shared experience.

I learned something important that night – oftentimes it’s less important what you’re listening to then who you are listening with and how you are listening. I used to believe that listening to music was a passive experience – but it’s not, at least not necessarily. To actively listen to a piece of music, to find yourself in it and to find what you can create for yourself in it – well, that’s just one of the best experiences life has to offer.

And it’s a hell of a lot more fun to do it with other people.

I'm A Real Man Of Genius!

Damn. No one's made a short film about me before.

Frighteningly accurate, too.

The Heart Trumps The Head

Thanks to someone who shall remain nameless, I have a copy of the new Wilco album, Sky Blue Sky, hitting the street on May 15. I've never been a big Wilco fan. I enjoyed a few tracks from their first two records, but have never gotten into the works they've been celebrated for, like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. To be blunt, I found those albums boring - I never got into the songs, and they struck me as efforts that celebrated the cerebral at the expense of the emotional.

So I'm suprised to be writing that I think Sky Blue Sky is excellent - it sounds like they quit worrying about the need to be experimental (although that component is still there) and just concentrated on writing really strong songs. I get the feeling that Jeff Tweedy was listening to Donnie Hathaway records when he was writing and making this album instead of listening to Ok Computer.

That's a good thing.

An Imaginative Couple

In the blog, I've mainly avoided two of my other favorite subjects, sex and politics. But this video is a combination of the two that I can't resist.

Ain't No Bed Of Roses

Soul music history is littered with stories of artists with tremendous talent who didn't find the success they were looking for. Judy Clay is one of those artists. Despite having a voice that could bend steel, and performing with the likes of Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Cissy Houston (Whitney's mom) and others, the singles she recorded as a solo artist stiffed. She had a couple of minor hit records as duets with William Bell and Billy Vera (of "At This Moment" fame), but she couldn't capitalize on them. And the social climate of the times worked against her; TV shows wouldn't book her and Vera to sing their minor-hit "Storybook Children" together because Vera was white. Combined with a reputation for being "difficult," Clay found herself stymied at every turn. Her son recounted that she was so embittered by her lack of success that she couldn't watch award shows because when she saw Aretha Franklin on them, it would upset her too much.

Judy Clay eventually quit secular singing and went back to her roots in the church, singing gospel until her death in 2001.

Download: "Bed Of Roses"

I'm Trying Really Hard

I've had the new Arcade Fire album for about a month now, and I've listened to it more during that time period than any other album in my collection. I wish that meant that I love it, but it doesn't. What it meant was me saying to myself, "Ok, I'm really going to sit down and get into this album," putting it on, and then having barely any of it resonate with me.

What the hell does everyone hear in this thing that I don't? I like it, but c'mon. I admire the band's integrity and the fact that they're doing it their way, but some great songs would be really nice - so many of the melodies seem half-realized, and there isn't much interesting happening rhythmically. (I am really enjoying the last song on the record, "My Body Is A Cage.")

And if someone compares it to Springsteen one more time...

How I Came To Terms With "You Light Up My Life"

A couple of weeks ago I came across of this incredible video clip of Patti Smith singing the schmaltz classic “You Light Up My Life” on the late 70’s/early 80’s TV show “Kids Are People Too.” Initially, the clip felt vaguely surreal to me; Patti Smith, Priestess of Punk, singing Debby Boone! But I was taken in by the sweetness of Patti’s performance (even though she pretty much butchered the ending) and then I found myself actually being moved by the song – a song I have very concrete memories of.

In the summer and fall of 1977, I was living in Plainfield, NJ with my dad. My mom had died suddenly in a car accident a few months previously and our house was enveloped in sadness. My dad, God bless him, refused to sit around mourning. He started dating a few months after the accident, and he would sometimes play “You Light Up My Life” before he would go out for the evening. And he would get REALLY emotional when he listened to it; he would sing full guns blazing, tearing up on occasion. I was six, and it was really tough to see my dad get that intensely emotional and I started to dread when that song would come on the stereo. So when I began reading rock criticism in my teens, seeing the universal scorn that the song inspired in the rock community made the dread I experienced as a little boy feel justified in some way – not on emotional grounds, but on aesthetic ones.

But watching this video of Patti Smith first speaking lovingly of the song and then singing it, without giving a damn about how it would look to anyone else, I allowed myself to drop my past experience of the song, and the criticism I had read of it. I just listened and watched the open heartedness of Patti’s performance, the sweet (if somewhat maudlin) simplicity of the lyrics and the utter lack of cool in the song (I mean that as a complement). There’s no emotional mask in the song or the performance – it’s totally naked. It’s a song about having someone who gets you thru when you didn’t think you were going to be able to. Yeah, it’s kind of corny, but thanks to this video, I get what my dad got out of putting that song on the record player. Even if the singer was Debby Boone.

It’s amazing what someone putting something up on YouTube can do.

The Best Soul You've Never Heard: Volume 2

One of the many things I love about soul music is the seemingly limitless amount of treasures that are out there to be discovered. Up until about a week ago, I had never heard of Eddie Holman before. But thanks to an email from a reader, that is no longer true.

Eddie Holman has been a soul music lifer. He made his debut at the Apollo Theater when he was ten and sang on Broadway and Carnegie Hall while still a teen. When he moved to Philadelphia as a teen, he became heavily involved in the soul scene there, and sang in legendary groups like the Stylistics and Delfonics. Smokey Robinson said in that period, "he has the voice of an angel."

I just got his 1970 album, "I Love You," and while it's somewhat of a mixed bag - like much Philly Soul, the strings can get overripe and turn the songs into mush - the high points are very high indeed.

Today, Eddie Holman is a Baptist preacher in Philadelphia and he continues to tour. How the hell did I never hear of him before?

Download: "I Love You"

Give The Drummer None

Last night I watched Saturday Night Live for the first time in eons. It was a repeat, and the Shins were the musical guest. I kind of like the Shins, but when I saw them during CMJ in 2003, I thought they were boring. Watching them last night, I remembered part of the reason why: Their drummer is awful. The word that kept coming to mind was "emasculated," a word that I've never used in the context of a musician before. But whoever the Shins drummer is, he played so damned limply that I almost yelled at the TV.

There are a lot of conservative commentators who wonder aloud about the so called feminization of American men. I don't know about that, but I do sometimes wonder about it when it comes to the vanguard of current rock bands. Where did everyone's balls go? It's not like I'm looking for the false machismo of the rap/rock era, but a lot of bands seem to play like "power" is a dirty word.

"I Couldn't Help It If I Tried"

Being a child of the 80’s, I knew Dexy’s Midnight Runners from their 1982 smash “Come On Eileen,” a song that I probably heard at almost every Bar Mitzvah I ever attended. However, that was where my knowledge of the band ended; I figured they were just another in a long line of one hit wonders.

I was wrong. Thanks to my friend Lewis, I recently got turned on to Dexy’s 1980 debut album, Searching For The Young Soul Rebels, a wonderful Northern Soul (that’s British soul for you folks unfamiliar with the term) album that I’ve been getting more and more into over the past month or so. It’s unmistakably the work of British boys infatuated with American soul, but it’s remarkable for the fact that it stands as much more than homage – the band’s personality shines through.

Check out this video of “I Couldn’t Help It If I Tried.” Notice the impeccably arranged horn lines as well as the interplay between the bassist and the drummer – these guys were really good!

Why I Love A Real Rock & Roller

I came across this today in Page Six and it made me laugh in appreciation of the contrast between the "upright" citizen and the "degenerate" rock n' roller.

A big Hollywood madame got busted, and some of the names in her little black book were published. Among them were actor Bruce Willis, former L.A. Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda and former Sex Pistol guitarist and current L.A. DJ Steve Jones. Here are some of the responses of the "accused" johns:

Among the individuals whose names were also recently unsealed by Los Angeles Superior Court are Willis, Lasorda, ex-Sex Pistols rocker Steve Jones and late movie producer Don Simpson.

Willis' lawyer, Marty Singer, told Page Six, "It's a total fabrication. He doesn't know the woman, he's never met the woman. My client doesn't need to pay for sex, he doesn't pay for sex."

Lasorda's lawyer, Tony Cappazola, was also indignant. "He's very upset. It's a slimy book so full of inaccuracies. For instance, she says she called Tommy back on his cellphone and he didn't even have a cellphone . . . She's an over-the-hill, desperate hooker attempting to make a buck," said the lawyer, who scoffed at Gibson's claim that Lasorda paid $1,500 in cash. "You know Lasorda. He wouldn't buy lunch," Cappazola said.

Jones told the L.A. Times, "It's possible. I crossed paths with her back then." He told us, "We all have to make a living . . . I think sex for money should be legal. It's such a [misdemeanor]. Who cares?"

I love it. We get denial and righteous indignation from our upright friends the actor and the baseball manager, and then comes along the punk rocker to say (metaphorically), "Who gives a shit?" Nice going Steve. You made me a fan again.

Without A Song

When the decline of rock as a popular genre is discussed, sociology and/or economics usually enter the discussion. Audience fragmentation, the dispersement of rock fans into separate and mutually exclusive entities, is often mentioned as a culprit. Or, it will be argued that there is simply too much competition from other media (the Internet, video games, etc.) for rock ever to be the central point in popular culture that it once was.

I get all those of those reasons, and I agree with them to varying extents. But I have a simpler reason. Most current rock bands don’t write truly great and memorable songs.

I’m thinking about this in regards to the new Kings of Leon album, Because of the Times. I was made aware of the April release of the record from a thread I read yesterday in the Velvet Rope (a music industry website), where the praise for the release was almost unanimous. I got kind of excited – maybe they stepped up their game and have really improved. So I got my hands on a copy of the album (shit, why lie – I downloaded an advance copy off of Bit Torrent) and I listened to the whole thing about six or seven times all the way through yesterday. And you know what? When I woke up this morning, I thought about it, and I realized that I couldn't hum or remember a line, a hook or a chorus in any of the songs. Not one song left any lasting impression on me! The album sounds cool – the production is moody in a sort of sexy way and I like the vibe of it – but where are the great songs? Because despite everything that’s occurred in the music industry in the past few years, one thing has not changed – this is still a business of songs. And amongst "credible" rock bands, great songs have been in very short supply.

I’ve had these thoughts occur with many other critically acclaimed new albums by bands like the Arcade Fire, My Morning Jacket, the Shins and others. It’s not that I find these albums to be bad – they’re often sonically inventive and interesting and I can tell that there’s a real personal vision in the albums. I can find enjoyment in listening to them. But they’re ultimately unsatisfying to me, because at the end of the day, I want songs that are impactful, with hooks and choruses that draw me in and engage me, instead of songs that I can barely remember -even after I’ve listened to them ten times.

Great new rock isn’t dead. It’s in hibernation. All it needs is a band with great personality to write truly great songs – and if that happens, it will make a rock renaissance seem like it had been a in the cards all along.

Anyone Want The U2 Catalog For Free?

While the industry battles over D.R.M., I'd be willing to bet that barely anyone in the industry even knows how to use Bit Torrent, the decentralized file sharing protocol that allows for an enormous amount of date to be transfered between computers anonymously. Check out this page from Torrent Spy, a Bit Torrent site (one of many). This page isn't offering individual tracks - it's offering artist's entire discographies! According to the web page, there are over 27,000 people right now downloading the entire U2 catalog for free. I'm not exactly sure how you compete with this - but offering an inferior product at iTunes is not the answer.

Recommendations Wanted

If anyone has some great new albums they'd like to recommend, I'm all ears.

My Simon Cowell Moment

I'm featured today on NextBigHit.com's podcast, where I'm reviewing 12 songs. I wasn't too much of a jerk (which may disappoint some of you) in my critiques of the (mainly mediocre) selections. (There were a couple of good tracks.) DJ Copperhead, who runs the site, was quite gracious and I enjoyed recording the podcast with him.

Rubber Soul

For some reason, perhaps because I obsess about music more than most adults in their mid-30's do, I haven't been able to get Christina Aguilera's performance of James Brown's "It's A Man's World" out of my head. I'm a Christina fan; I liked parts of her most recent album very much, and I thought "Ain't No Other Man" was one of the best singles of last year. But having watched the performance again on YouTube I've come to the opinion that her performance was empty vocalizing and symptomatic of the problem of so many talented singers today - they confuse oversinging with having actual soul. Christina sang over those lyrics like a Mack truck running someone over at 75mph - a lack of subtlety combined with a series of empty vocal gestures. She's got the pipes - but to me it felt like she could have been singing any lyric, and that she gave more thought to how she was going to impress everyone in the audience as opposed to how she was going to communicate with them. It wasn't James Brown's influence I felt up there - it was Mariah Carey's, and for me, that says it all.

The Inescapability Of Classic Rock

I was in Chicago this past weekend to see my sister, who I hadn't seen for a long time. She has a fifteen year old step-son, Alex who I met for the first time. Whenever I meet a teenager, I always ask them what they listen to. I do so out of curiosity and also the hope that they might turn me onto something I've never heard.

So I sit down to dinner with Alex and the family and I asked him what he's listening to. And out came a stream of classic rock bands. Led Zeppelin. Steely Dan. Aerosmith. I asked him if he was into any new bands. He looked at me quizically; I asked, "My Chemical Romance?" "They're ok," he said. "Not into emo so much," I inquired. He almost laughed. "No way. No emo." he said. The Shins and the Arcade Fire weren't even on his recognition chart.

I've heard stuff like this before. I've met a lot of teenagers who tell me they like classic rock more than the music from their own generation. But why? What is it about classic rock that makes it preferable to so many kids? What is it about modern rock that makes it's appeal so narrow? There are the usual conspiracy theories about the influence of the baby boomers, but I don't buy that. A former intern of mine, when I asked him why he listened the Stones, Springsteen and the Who to the exclusion of most new bands, had the answer that I had the most difficulty responding to:

"Because it sounds better."

Further Grammy Reflections: Nothing's Changed

You can bank on reading many articles or blogs today about how irrelevant the Grammys are. And I agree with most of them. But here's the thing - The Grammys have never been relevant. They've almost always honored the safe, middle of the road selection. They pretty much ignored rock for thirty years until The Joshua Tree won Album of The Year in 1987. Remember Jethro Tull winning the first Heavy Metal Grammy over Metallica in 1989? Here's an article from 1986 by Jon Pareles in the NY Times, who's got another article about the Grammys in today's issue.

February 23, 1986
THE GRAMMY AWARDS: MAINSTREAM AND SAFE

By JON PARELES
Tuesday night at 8 on CBS, the 28th annual Grammy Awards will be bestowed with great fanfare by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Performers and record-business executives will buckle on their cummerbunds and smile for the television cameras; an audience of millions will tune in to see just what 1985 meant to the music business.

''The Grammys are a big factor with records that appeal to a more passive audience,'' says Dan Beck, vice president of product development at Epic Records. ''There's an audience that isn't tuned into hit radio, or doesn't recognize the names on the charts, but still has some interest in music. That night they can tune in and get a synopsis of what music is considered important - what records they should add to their collections.''

Will they get a reliable picture? Do the Grammys really, as the recording academy's president Michael Greene puts it, reward ''creative and technical excellence'' in recorded music?

In theory, the Grammys should single out a good selection of the year's best recordings -pop, rock, jazz, classical, soundtrack, spoken-word, blues, reggae, comedy, even music video. With 71 categories this year, including two new ones - splitting up Best Jazz Vocal Performance into separate awards for male and female singers, plus Best Polka Recording - the Grammys might well seem encyclopedic. But like the movie-business Academy Awards that initially inspired them, the Grammys often leave observers bemused, bewildered or outraged.

The Grammys bring nationwide attention to a record, certifying - as any top award does - that the material is not just popular, but important. In the music business, which is continually striving for respectability, the Grammy is often considered a kind of pinnacle. Some who complain about the Grammys may just be sore losers; others may simply have been overlooked amid the thousands of records released every year. Year after year, however, the Grammys have made stodgy, middle-of-the-road choices and ignored major achievements.

Should the Grammys be taken seriously? ''Sure - if we win,'' says one record-business executive. The Grammys do bring both commercial and cultural recognition to their winners.

Certainly the Grammys reward their winners financially. Bob Merlis, a vice president of Warner Bros. Records, says a top Grammy - for Album of the Year or Song of the Year - can add a million LP sales to an album that's still selling actively at the time of the Grammy broadcast (records released from Oct. 1, 1984 through Sept. 30, 1985, are eligible for 1985 Grammys). ''What it boils down to,'' Mr. Merlis says, ''is when you're hot, you're hot.''

Irwin Katz, the director of merchandising at RCA Red Seal Records, believes the Grammy for Best Classical Recording of 1984 doubled the sales of the winning album, Leonard Slatkin conducting Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5. Bruce Iglauer, president of Alligator Records, said the Grammy awarded to Clifton Chenier's album ''I'm Here'' (for Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording, 1983) boosted the album's sales up from 5,000 to 8,000 copies, a significant gain of 3,000 for a specialized offering. ''For an artist like Clifton or Koko Taylor, who shared a Best Traditional Blues Recording Grammy for 1984,'' he added, ''winning the Grammy tells the artists themselves that they're recognized beyond a few hundred screaming fans in a bar or a nightclub. That recognition is important.''

Dr. George Butler, Columbia Records' vice president of jazz and progressive music, said that the trumpeter Wynton Marsalis's jazz and classical Grammy awards in 1983 had a ''significant impact'' on his career, as did his live performances on the awards broadcast. To coincide with this year's Grammy broadcast and its nationwide exposure, the pop band Dire Straits, which has been nominated for six awards, will release a new single this week.

Records are nominated and selected for Grammy Awards by a membership of 6,000 music professionals - performers, songwriters, producers, engineers, arrangers, backup musicians and others with at least six recording credits. The full group votes for Record of the Year (which means top single), Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist. Members can then vote in eight other categories, presumably those in which they're familiar with the genre and the nominees.

Yet the Grammy, the most prestigious award in the record business, does not have a great track record in popular music. (In the classical field, the awards almost always go to long-established performers playing mainstream repertory.) Looking through the Grammy Awards since 1958, the year they started, it's easy to see a bias toward unchallenging pop songs and performing styles.

Almost invariably, the Song of the Year is a torchy ballad - such as Debbie Boone's ''You Light Up My Life'' in 1977, Barbra Streisand's ''The Way We Were'' in 1974 and the Police's ''Every Breath You Take'' in 1983; the Album of the Year is a collection of tuneful, smoothly crafted pop, such as Billy Joel's ''52d Street'' in 1979 and Olivia Newton-John's ''I Honestly Love You'' in 1974.

What's missing is the most vital element in the American record business - rude, noisy rock and roll. The coming of rock changed the esthetics of mainstream American music, showing that willful, self-directed amateurs and outsiders could make better music - more heartfelt, more innovative, riskier and, yes, more popular - than the pop professionals. With the Grammys, the pop professionals continued to look down their noses at rock even as it was earning them their salaries.

Among those who have never received the award are the Rolling Stones (who will get a Lifetime Achievement Award on Tuesday, apparently as penance), Steely Dan, Jimi Hendrix and Talking Heads. Similarly ignored were the great Motown songwriting team of Holland-Dozier-Holland - whose songs, such as ''You Keep Me Hanging On'' and ''How Sweet It Is to Be Loved By You,'' have proved as durable as anything from Tin Pan Alley. It took the Academy until 1979 - more than two decades after Elvis Presley - to admit that crooning wasn't the only game in town. That year, it instituted Best Rock Vocal Performance and Best Rock Instrumental Performance awards, still distinguishing rock from pop.

John Coltrane received his one Grammy posthumously, in 1981. Henry Mancini has 20 Grammy Awards; Bob Dylan has two - one shared with the other performers at ''The Concert for Bangladesh'' (which also garnered the only Grammy for Phil Spector, as co-producer) and one for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male, for his 1979 single ''Gotta Serve Somebody.''

Blockbuster albums such as Michael Jackson's ''Thriller,'' Fleetwood Mac's ''Rumours'' and the ''Saturday Night Fever'' soundtrack have won Grammys, but in the years between mega-hits, the Academy honored, for example, the studio band Toto and the songwriter Christopher Cross. Remember them? Things were even stranger in 1965 and 1966 -years of Beatlemania and Motown -when Frank Sinatra had the Album of the Year twice.

''Prior to 1981,'' says Michael Greene, the Academy's president, ''I wouldn't say the Grammys were a good reflection of American music. The Academy has gone through a long maturing process, finding its way to be more inclusive of certain genres of music. As in any organization, a certain group starts the organization, and the Academy was for many years light in rock, new music, Latin and the more ethnic-based styles. By their very nature, those groups are anti-organizational, anti-structural; it's pretty logical that they would be the last to come in. But we now represent a pure cross-section of the music industry.''

Still, an anti-rock bias persists. At last year's awards, multi-million-selling, critically applauded, musically influential albums by Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner and Prince were contending for Album of the Year; the winner was Lionel Richie's ''Can't Slow Down,'' a well-made but slight album of formulaic pop songs.

Outside the top pop categories, the Grammys are often eccentric. There are confusing categories, such as those for Best Gospel Performance, apparently meaning country-pop music with devotional lyrics; Best Inspirational Performance, meaning pop with devotional lyrics, and the separate-but-equal Best Soul Gospel Performance, for black gospel music.

There are also unexpected clusters of nominations. This year, the Atlanta Symphony has stirred up the classical community by getting four out of nine nominations for Best Classical Album, prompting accusations of bloc voting. ''Who wins that category will be the most telling thing,'' Mr. Greene said. ''Next year, we're going to take a look at what happened there.''

And there are also odd nominees. This year, the British pop songwriter Sting shows up in the Best Jazz Instrumental category with the one-minute 15-second title tune from his album ''The Dream of the Blue Turtles.'' Last year, Best Latin Pop Performance went to the well-known pop stylist Placido Domingo, while the British singer Sheena Easton shared Best Mexican/American Performance for a duet with Luis Miguel.

Because nominees and winners are chosen by secret ballot, it's impossible to know for certain what causes those selections. ''I don't think the Grammys are more unfairly given than other awards,'' Mr. Iglauer of Alligator Records says. ''But a lot of people do vote in categories they don't know about, and choose names they know rather than albums they've heard. I've been guilty of that myself.''

The Grammys can be counted on in some areas, notably craft awards for technical achievements and Hall of Fame Awards, which honor historically significant recordings from pre-Grammy days. And it is difficult for any award to keep up with the shifting music business; Mr. Greene says the Academy is considering adding such categories as the accordion-driven dance music known as zydeco (which dominates this year's Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording category), ''new age'' music and another rock category for hard-rock/heavy metal.

The recording academy has, indeed, become somewhat less insular in recent years. But as with any award, the Grammy is still only a reflection of those who choose the winners - and not, by any means, the last word on current music.

Most Important Grammy Statistic

God and Rick Rubin tied for the most shout-outs. Actually, Rick is starting to look somwhat Godly these days. Has anyone seen them in the same room at the same time lately?

(Statistic provided by a friend of A Deeper Shade Of Soul.)