Young Despite the Years - Continuing Sonic Explorations by Your Friend Rickenbacker
 

Some time in June, 1995.

My musical journey began then, in a moderately sized apartment in Connecticut. But that's not important just yet.

First let's introduce the family, by whom the seeds of some sort of musical taste were planted in me some years ago.

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My dad, Michael, is a professor of pediatric infectious diseases at Yale, the head of Yale President Rick Levin's World Fellows Program there, and an all around cool guy. Eternally an 80s college student and alternative rock hipster, this fellow introduced me to what became the basis of my musical tastes for years and years, notably R.E.M., Talking Heads, Joy Division, The Clash, The Velvet Underground, X, Paul Weller/the Jam/the Style Council, etc.

Subsequently, he is also a jazz man, and introduced me to many of the jazz greats before my guitar teacher further explicated jazz.

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My mom, Kerry, works as the development director of something that I don't understand fully. She's a bit too happy for her, or rather, my own good, so naturally she introduced me to the music she had always been fond of; U2, Everything But the Girl, Van Morrison, 10,000 Maniacs, and Dave Matthews Band, as whatever she heard once that she liked, she would have on constant rotation for weeks. 2000 was especially brutal; having to hear "Beautiful Day" every damn time I was in the car at least twice. But hey, what can you do.


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My Grandfather, Peter, is strictly a classical and jazz music aficionado. His multiple full walls of CDs and ridiculously expensive stereo system speak volumes to that effect.

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Finally, my Cousin Thomas is one of the coolest guys you will probably never meet. An accomplished multi-instrumentalist and singer, this guy is really just the man. I encourage you to check out his free podcast in which he features some of his tunes (Search Tom Villalon). As an active musician, he comes across a lot of artists who few know about, and then relays them back to me. Great dude. Really great dude. Also notable

With this fairly eclectic background, it was easy to grow my tastes. As a guitarist and then a pianist, I was exposed to blues music as well, and currently I'm focusing on expanding my jazz repetoire as I delve further into guitar music theory. It's a continuing exploration for all of us, music. This can be a bit of a chronicle.

Anyway, that's me and some of my music. I just thought I'd make this thread as a way to communicate with Music Banter my thoughts on all music I listen to, be it an old favorite or a new future classic. Don't expect order. Expect more of a dumping ground.

My last.fm is, as always, in my signature if you want a better look at my tastes.

Dude...yer' mom....seriously. Let me get them digits.

INDEED


Time for an underrated track. R.E.M.'s "Underneath the Bunker" from 1986's Lifes Rich Pageant is definitely that. Awesome surf guitar stylings from Mr. Peter Buck are reminiscent of Dick Dale and the like, while Michael (or someone else perhaps, it's difficult to tell) sings from a distance into a megaphone in a classic Stipe mumble.

Don't know what it's about, but it's a trip. And under two minutes at that!

Don't take this the wrong way Rick, but your mom is seriously hot. I'm a sucker for a woman with a great smile and her smile is dazzling.

My mom looks like Betty White on a bad hair day with a hangover. Try to wrap your mind around that horrifying image and realize what a lucky guy you are.

My entire family is so ugly that we hire stand-ins to pose for family portraits. It's reassuring to know that somebody in this forum is the product of a respectable gene pool. I keep praying that stem cell research will level the playing field for me.

I grew up in the swamps of Louisana and my father worked for a civil engineering company that designed many of the highway and railway bridges that are caving in all around the country right now. My mother laid around on the couch watching soap operas and complaining about her bad back all day.

My grandfather was drunken IRA member who fled to America to avoid a weapons smuggling charge brought against him by the Royal Ulster Constabulary. It was downhill from there on.

My mom hates the entire idea of music and my father's idea of good music was Gene Autry's version of Back In the Saddle Again. My parents were too busy yelling at me to turn down the music, to sit down and listen to any kind of music.

From the time I purchased my first Stooges album, music became my parent's mortal enemy. I thought my dad was having an apoplectic seizure when he first watched one of my Bob Marley videos, one day. He thought I'd joined a cult of marijuana smoking wild men and he was dead right. I was attracted to any philosophy or art that was the exact opposite of the conventional notion of good taste.

I don't hold my mom and dad responsible for the outcome of my own life. They didn't even mean to be my parents , it just happened.

Don't take me too seriously, but you need to do an intervention before mom gets carried away with that happiness routine. Happiness is overated and the world's greatest art is produced by dysfunctional misanthropes who lack the social skills and the emotional development to do anything productive with their lives. Happiness is the root of all evil.

Interesting points, but perhaps the idea of happiness as a lesser force in the creation of great art is misguided? It seems to me that we only hear and thus think about the art created by people in emotional or physical distress, along the lines of Joy Division, or as the bi-product of rebellion a la the Clash. However, maybe the idea of happiness creating great art isn't implausible, just never thought about. I'd point to a song like Waterloo Sunset, a great song by all means, and certainly not one written in sadness. I might just be thinking to myself and not making any sense.

My musical relationship with my parents has become interesting in the past few years as I've matured (slightly). As an essential conglomerate of their tastes, plus a lot of other stuff, I'm always asked to put on music for dinner parties and the like, you know, make a little playlist. I'll be talking to my dad about a song or artist that I recently got into, and he'll tell me how he loved them in college etc, and of course then I ask him why he didn't introduce me to them earlier. It's a good dynamic, being able to talk to someone (in real life) about music. Afternoons on the patio listening to a good record with a friend are really something special that everyone deserves to experience.

As I said in the previous post don't take me too seriously. My own philosophy is in constant fluctuation and I was yanking at your chain with my own personal history, all of which is true but not nearly as traumatic my own humorous accounts of it.

I do believe in karma and the rule of karma inevitably demands a payment of dues from those who want to sing the blues. Every artistic accomplishment is born in the state of sufferation. Sufferation is West Indian patios for the price one pays for their social station in life. Blues and jazz musicians believe that those who fear or avoid the pain of suffering don't have a soul, which is about the strongest statement you can make about someone's lack of spiritual status.

You're right about Waterloo Sunset it may be the greatest Kink's song and one of the most poetic songs of the rock and roll era. The song connected with me in a way the none of the Beatles songs did.

I beg to differ with your theory that Waterloo Sunset wasn't composed in a state of sadness. One of my passionate enterprises is uncovering the meanings of the popular songs that shaped my own worldview along with the worldview of my peer group. I can't help myself... I have a Bachelor degree in Critical Theory and an MEd in Clinical Psychology, so I'm always looking for the subtext beneath words the shape a great song.

I was always curious about the meaning of Waterloo Sunset until songwriter Ray Davies publicly commented on the song for the first time a few months ago. I'll get to his comments in a minute.

Ray Davies worked on the song for several years before the Kinks recorded it and spent a lot of the time reshaping the meaning of the song. Davies rarely writes a song that doesn't have a double edged meaning to it. For instance Victoria is a thinly veiled denunciation of British provincialism that initially sounds like an anthem in praise of the colonial age of Queen Victoria. Kinks fans know that Well Respected Man is a song about a man who is the pillar of conservative British society but beneath his veneer of respectability is a man who also has lecherous designs on the girl next door.

There is a melancholy message in the lyrics and Ray's vocal on Waterloo Sunset is a wee bit too somber to be simple song about a person claiming that he's in paradise when he gazes at the sunset over Waterloo Station in London. An urban subway station in the middle of London is hardly a tourist destination of those who love breathtaking sunsets.

Some people still think the two lovers in the song, named Julie and Terry were actors Julie Christie and Terrance Stamp and that Davies was concealing some sort of privileged information about a 1965 romantic tryst between them. The NNDB website which is an extensive and reliable source of biographical data still says the Christie/Stamp affair was the subject of Waterloo Sunset on Julie Christie's profile. Look toward the bottom of the page for the info.


My own idea was that Waterloo Sunset was a wry commentary on how the poisonous nitrogen gases from air pollution, mix with oxygen to create spectacular scarlet colored sunsets in the many polluted urban areas. That would explain the melancholy manner in which the song is sung. The lyrical content of the song matched up very closely to my harebrained theory, which turned out to be wrong.

Earlier this year, Davies finally settled the matter by revealing his inspiration for the song. Davies told Uncut magazine, Davies said the song's characters Terry and Julie are in fact Ray Davies' older sister and his boyfriend who are now married. Ray, himself, is the third character in the song, who is the narrator of the story. Ray is the one who gazes at this lover's rendezvous at Waterloo station while the world passes him by as he lies his hospital sick bed. His coping mechanism for his loneliness is sense of assurance that the Waterloo sunset is his own paradise and he doesn't need romantic relationships or friends like other people do.

John Donne said,” No man is an island unto himself" but Davies seems to be offering the counter argument which is, "John you idiot, all people are islands unto themselves, and creating a fantasy Waterloo sunset paradise may help human beings cope with the existential isolation confronts our lives."

At the end the song even Julie, her boyfriend Terry and the millions of people swarming like flies in the Waterloo Underground are just like him and being part of a crowd on the same island will never immunize people from the pain of isolation. The paradox is that loneliness is the universal bond that unites us all to the human condition. Man for all of his conceptual intelligence has created a social system that dehumanizes him on a daily basis.

What makes the song brilliant is Davies' talent for telling a very involving story with so few words, and ultimately he leaves it up to the listener to figure out the existential sadness of the story he's telling.

All of that being said I copied the lyrics to Waterloo Sunset for your further consideration:

I believe that Davies' true genius was that as the narrator contemplates existence from a hospital bed, he leaves the listener to realize the innocent beauty of not loneliness, but being alone and feeling happiness. Maybe once the narrator felt lonely, but at the point of narration, he has indeed reached a state of happiness in his separation from society.

And that, my friend, may be the saddest thing of all.

Bruce Springsteen hate?
 

As an American, I've felt almost like it's been my "duty" to like, or at least listen to Bruce Springsteen on a regular basis. And by listen to Bruce Springsteen, I really mean listen to Born to Run, Born in the USA and whatever "Greatest Hits" I have of his, as well as pull a Rolling Stone and praise whatever album he's just come out with. I never really thought about this until a few months ago, when I considered how little impact his music had had on anybody outside of the States. It was then that I actually looked into his discography and discovered why he actually matter(ed).

That said, I think it's unfair how here on Music Banter I find significant dislike not for this man's music, but for who he is or who he has come to embody, that is, the "average workin' class American". I just don't really get it.

Thinking deeper, I wonder if perhaps it is a simple case of judgement by his well known songs and albums on a grand scale that has lead to this misinterpretation of what Springsteen is about. Is it really just that everybody here who dislike's the man so much has only heard "Born to Run", "Born in the USA", "Glory Days", etc.? If that's the case, know that there is a lot more to the man than just the hits.

I point to the album Nebraska, which features heartfelt and humbling songs, a stark contrast from the 80's synth infected trash that was "Born in the USA". Songs like the title track are about more than just "breaking free" and one's "home town". These songs work for everybody, not just the U.S.

When I've asked people in the past why they dislike the man so much, it's for this reason, or that they think he is simply a douche. Well, where does this second point come from? If it is that he's created obnoxious albums, like Born in the USA, I'd reply that while you can't completely discount those albums, one does have to take into account everything else that wasn't so obnoxious.

It's just a little hard to understand, all of it, so I'd like to talk here about why people dislike the idea of Bruce Springsteen, not why people dislike his music.

It's really pretty simple - it's what he represents to a generation who grew up during the Cold War hearing Born in the USA and looking at the guy's arrogantly positioned ass at every turn.
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Bruce Springsteen was not cool in the 80s if you were a kid who listened to any kind of non-mainstream music. Not only was his music throwaway Billboard Top 40 fare (as you asked I'm not giving you my opinion of his music here - just an impression of the man himself -- of course, that impression is inevitably tied to his music in some ways) but it was a representation of what was hideous about the Reagan years: arrogance, indulgence, greed and a general my-dick-is-bigger-than-yours mentality.

Like I said,

There's nothing arrogant about "The Wild, the Innocent, and the E-Street Shuffle", or "Nebraska" for example. Yet these albums are overlooked because the majority of the American public prefers the "ass in the face" that was "Born in the U.S.A."

My problem with the whole deal is just that, are you, as a dismisser of Springsteen's over the top American antics, also dismissing these albums? Or is it justified for you to say that the worst an artist does represents the true colors of the artist?

Previously you said that you wanted to discuss why people don't like the "idea of Bruce Springsteen, not why people dislike his music" and I gave you my reason. Yes I do hate the image he projected during the Born era - and that's when I first heard of him. His other music is a separate topic. It's true that because of his American flag draped ass I was not interested in hearing any more of his music. On the other hand, I have been hearing and reading for well over a decade about how amazing Nebraska is and when I finally get around to listening to it I am convinced that I will like it. I do think Born in the USA is garbage that I would rather never hear, but if his other music is good, I'll give him credit for it.

I admit that the USA debacle has left a stain on my consciousness that will be difficult to remove. Maybe it is the reason that I haven't gone out of my way to hear Nebraska so far. It certainly didn't help.
However, no, it is not at all justified to judge an artist overall by his worst work. And that's why I will listen to his other (good) music one day. Maybe I'll even become a huge fan and stick a worn red cap in my back pocket.

Thanks for the discussion and interesting points.


I reviewed R.E.M.'s new album Accelerate, from 2008, yesterday.

I'll paste it here, but here's a link to the original post.

1. Living Well Is the Best Revenge
2. Man Sized Wreath
3. Supernatural Superserious
4. Hollow Man
5. Houston
6. Accelerate
7. Until the Day is Done
8. Sing for the Submarine
9. Horse to Water
10. I'm Gonna DJ

The fourteenth album by the Athens G.A. alternative rock group R.E.M. is somewhat of an enigma. Their first album since the commercial and largely critical failure that was Around the Sun in 2004, Accelerate is, as a whole, stylistically different from anything they have made since 1996's New Adventures in Hi-Fi. Despite what the album's title may suggest, the material here is not particularly forward thinking musically, though it does lyrically call for a sort of metaphorical "acceleration" in the United States particularly. Instead, where Up was melancholic balladry, Reveal was an effort at creating an R.E.M. version of U2's All That You Can't Leave Behind, and Around the Sun was... more melancholic balladry, Accelerate feels almost like a sort of fresh piece of garage-rock revival, a la the Strokes. For the first time since the early nineties, Michael Stipe doesn't sound like he's 50 years old. And, for the first time since the late 80s (!!!), I don't picture Michael Stipe singing these songs with his blue makeup and three piece pinstripe suit.

The album opener, entitled Living Well Is the Best Revenge effectively dismisses whatever taste was left in the mouth of a listener to any recent R.E.M. music. After "Living Well", no track on the album ever gets as poignantly raw or lyrically biting as it was. As a plus, it features bassist Mike Mills on backing vocals for the first time since 1996, and shows just how important his vocal presence was.

Man Sized Wreath is a song in the same vein, and doesn't offer much else, but is fortunately followed by the lead single, Supernatural Superserious. And wow, what a song. From the perspective of someone who's followed R.E.M. for a long time, this song really makes me do a double take to make sure this isn't Monster or New Adventures in Hi-Fi that I'm listening to. Peter Buck lays down more straight up power chords on this track than he has in his entire career. This is certainly not a return to the jangly sound of R.E.M.'s 80's work as some critics have praised, but it is a fresh sound from R.E.M.'s mid nineties stadium rock days, a sound which has been all but forgotten with their past three albums.

Ironically, the next track, Hollow Man, would fit right in on Reveal, and with it's bare piano verse and soft guitar-led chorus, seems very out of place when surrounded by the heavy Supernatural Superserious and the dark Houston, a song about life Post-Katrina: (If the Storm doesn't kill me the Government will). Because of this great difference in style, Hollow Man could have ruined the album. But, because it's actually a pretty great tune, it somehow works.

R.E.M.'s first title track ever comes along right after that. Essentially a straightforward rock song, it is led by a fantastically distorted guitar riff from Peter Buck, that which will stick in your head for hours afterwards. The lyrics are dark, yet as the name suggests, forward thinking and political. It is followed by the equally dark and political song Until the Day is Done, which features a haunting acoustic riff, plus Michael's best vocal performance on the album. This sets the pace for the next two songs, Mr. Richards and Sing for the Submarine, the former of which may be the most outright and radically leftist song in the R.E.M. catalogue. Gone are the days in which Stipe would postulate his political ideals through abstract pieces like Fall On Me from Lifes Rich Pageant [sic] it seems. I guess that's his idea of forward thinking.

Anyway, Sing for the Submarine is a great track for big R.E.M. fans, as it quotes the titles of many R.E.M. songs as it gradually progresses. Stipe's most haunting lyrics on the album appear here.

The next and final tracks are easily the worst on the album, providing little with Horse to Water, and absolutely nothing with I'm Gonna DJ, the latter of which is totally a throwaway song that should have been replaced with one of the songs created during the Accelerate sessions. Unfortunately, because of the albums very short length, these two songs take up a large enough percent of the album that they really detract from its quality.

All in all, Accelerate is a quick listen, over in a flash, with some very memorable moments throughout. It seems that it was created less to be a really good album, and more to prove a point that R.E.M. could still produce heavier songs even without former drummer Bill Berry.



Must buy tracks: Living Well is the Best Revenge, Supernatural Superserious, Houston.

TL;DR: Get it if you like R.E.M.'s material from the mid-90s, or if you like garage rock revival style music.

I've owned a copy of Accelerate since it was released last year. I've done nothing more than listened to short samples of each song on Accelerate before hitting the next song arrow on my Windows Media Player. R.E.M. was a hugely important band to me in the Eighties but every album they've made since they left IRS records in 1987 has disappoined me. The quintet of albums the band made on IRS, Murmurr, Rekoning, Fables of the Reconstruction, Life's Rich Pageant, and Document are as close to a sucession of perfect albums as any American band has ever gotten.

On Springsteen: Thunder Road, Born to Run, Nebraska, Glory Days and Tunnel of Love are brilliant songs. I would have been proud to claim authorship of any one of those five songs. I'm not a rabid fan of Bruce Springsteen but he deserves recognition for the things he does well. I admire Springsteen's passion for music and his sense of human decency.

I think Springsteen fans who call him The Boss and yell "Yeee Haw!" whenever Born In the USA is played, are far more offensive than Bruce Springsteen's music. They're the same buffoons who think Huey Lewis is a musical genius.

I think there's plenty of room in the world for populist rock. I will publicly confess to loving Tom Petty's Damn the Torpedoes. Ditto for John Hiatt's Slow Turning . John Prine's brilliant self titled debut album is a brilliant collection of populist anthems and Prine's first album is as good as any album Dylan ever made, including Blood on the Tracks.

This is a recording of a song called "Montague Terrace (in Blue)," recorded by American singer Scott Walker for his 1967 solo debut album, the simply titled "Scott."


One might note the rich imagery Scott utilizes, or the unusual orchestral instrumentation. Perhaps most notable is Scott's resplendent baritone voice; flawless by any definition of the word. Indeed, "Montague Terrace" is a beautiful song. With a four-album catalog of fantastic pop music like this it is nearly impossible to believe that Scott Walker, born Noel Scott Engel, did not become a massively successful pop star; a legend still remembered today. Yet perhaps Scott's relative anonymity is due to his own reclusive nature. After Scott 4, his first record to feature only his own compositions failed to chart anywhere, he released a series of fairly uninspired albums largely composed of covers of other people's songs. While Scott the singer lived on with limited success, Scott the songwriter all but disappeared.

Then, in 1983, after nearly ten years without recording a solo record, Scott released the polarizing "Climate of Hunter," which featured original compositions and a dark sound that divided listeners and critics. It was to hint at incredible things to come for this enigmatic singer/songwriter.


Twelve years later, Scott Walker released the most haunting album ever made. Eleven years after that, his next release, titled the Drift, was even more so.

It's weird, I'd completely forgotten about this journal 'til now. Glad you bumped it though Mr. Rickenbacker sir, especially with a post like that :D

It's always great seeing someone else giving Scott Walker the praise he deserves around here. I just can't get enough of his stuff to be honest - the best of it just sounds so original, and his lyrics have such a vibrant sense of imagery about them. His voice is quite possibly my favourite in music too, bar none.

Anyone reading this who doesn't know who Scott Walker is, get yourself copies of Scott 4, Tilt and especially the Drift and either be amazed or completely turned off! Funnily enough, that's another reason to admire the chap - for how he polarises opinion, especially his later, darker, more experimental work, you know there's gotta be something special in one way or the other underneath it all.

I never even knew you had a journal. But the opening post was quite an interesting read. It was different and such. Good review also, it always surprises me how smart a kid you are. :)