There’s a stink brewing over the lyrics in a song on the new Rolling Stone’s CD http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4137698.stm
Growing up on CSNY, Dylan, Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe McDonald, Led Zeplin, The Who and their like makes the Stone’s lyrics seem pretty pale to me.
Gotta remember that Neo-Cons have very thin skin, and really small brains and no sense of humour what so ever and always seem to be intellectually constipated, Mick’s words should drive them into rapture…ah frenzy.
MarkB
They should have a listen to the words on Jim O’Rourke’s Insignificance. He doesn’t target neo cons specifically but that CD just about redefines bad taste in lyrics.
I’ve been thinking about this issue – not lyrics or anything, but how music in general has changed. Groups, and not only the big, commercial groups, spend weeks and months in the studio going after some perfect “sound.” And in the end what comes out is some overproduced junk that somehow all has the same sound. I knew someone who, when his band finally got signed by a major label, spent close to two months in the studio working on their first album, on which there’s no dubbing except the vocals. What came out sounded very polished, but the (live) demo tape that I have, with its distortion, sounds better to my ears – there’s some immediacy about it that is lost when one 4-minute song is recorded over the course of a week.
From concept to completion of recording, Kind of Blue took less than 24 hours to create. The Derek and the Dominoes double album has very detailed recording info on it, and I think, with all its overdubbing, it represents maybe five days in the studio.
I guess some just feel a need to make up in polish what they lack in creativity.
Regarding Teri’s topic, you’d think, 25 years after Some Girls, that nobody would be surprised by the Stones being a little direct.
Yeah, and ALL liberals have thin skin, goo-goo guilty denial brains, a sense of humor only at the expense of conservatives and are intellectually dishonest because they can’t deal with the consequences of their ideology. And, that red-state country music with all the flag-wavin’ makes 'em all hyperventilate.
And, actually on topic, whenever I think of the Stones, I think big-mega-mega-corporate business so the jibe seems a little shallow to me…
Before this goes any further, I’d like to note that the article Teri linked didn’t actually say that anyone was upset by the lyrics. It just conjectured that some folks might be. Methinks the media was trying to poke the beehive a bit, and it appears they succeeded…
Thank you, jsluder! Criminey, it isn’t about conservative v. liberals, but how music has changed. I found it interesting that the lyrics were even mentioned in the media when compared to what was out there in the '60’s and early '70’s - “tin soldiers and Nixon’s coming”, “gimme an F, gimme a U”, “Look what’s happening out in the streets Got a revolution Got to revolution” and Dylan’s too many to mention. Did the mind-numbing disco of the '70’s, glam rock and poser rock of the '80’s, and “what the hell was the '90’s anyway” make music a product more than a medium?
I think that’s part of it. Another part is the fact that much of what music gets played on the radio and music video channels is determined by large media corporations. They tend to follow a musical formula which they’ve determined will maximize their profits.
Dylan on a Victoria’s Secret ad…
My comment above was meant to be tonque in cheek, it seems everybody, every organization everywhere is thinned skin these days and it takes just a simple thing like lyrics in a song to get up someone’s nose somewhere.
Mick’s lyrics are almost benign compared to some of the stuff that is coming out these almost a non newsworthy event that will become a national news story, I’m betting on it.
But back on topic, I think that recorded music has changed, from the individual at home with his/her computer and a few music production programs to the mega stars and the million dollar recording studios. To me it is sounding very artifical and contrived.
For example, I was in Goderich last week for the Celtic College and the weekend festival and I purchased several CDs of the groups that were performing there at the end of the weekend. I also got to hear these groups live and up close and almost personal and there is a tremendous difference in sound quality and performance quality. Live performances give off their own vibes that isn’t captured in a recording, we all know that. And with some of the CDs I purchased I got that lifeless sound of to much production control rather the feeling that it is actual musicians recording the music.
MarkB
You know, I think the music recording and delivery system has become so complex that its like a much more multi-faceted gem than before and eludes generalization.
For example, the worse corporate music gets, the more cottage industry stuff pops up. The more produced the corporate music sounds, the more people want authenticity and minimal post-production “magic.”
I am starting to hate double-tracking (on singing) so much that it’s hard to respect anybody who does it, even though that includes almost everybody in corporate music land.. And I think other people feel that way too.
The availability of lower cost sound recording equipment, lower-cost duplication and all enhanced by widespread computer interface has resulted in a huge simmering mass of product out there of all kinds.
I see stuff locally produced of the highest caliber, minimal production, played on good instruments, recorded on good mics and available fairly cheaply. I also seem the same corporate crap that others see.
THe radio industry is being forever changed by podcasting, and I think that the recording industry is being buffeted by aforementioned winds of change as well.
So its hard for me to generalize about everything getting worse.
One thing I would say for sure is that I have actually come to miss Top 40 radio. Even though I had to groan and suffer through some stuff I didn’t like, at least we had some recognizable music icons to talk about in common. I can’t find a music station I even like now.
Oh yeah, adding: I actually watched American Idol this year, after several seasons of disdain. What I found fascinating is that it had everything rolled into one, good and bad: a huge corporate interconnected mess of endorsements and bs, YET a very good band with completely on the spot performances that were VERY unforgiving. It was weird to simultaneously loathe the delivery process yet witness very good singing and watch the process of change that comes over a musician who is getting the performance experience that is highly transformative. And no matter how much you might scoff, the quality of singing was so high near the end, that I sincerely believe that many corporate music stars couldn’t have cut it, had they had to prove themself in this way. They rely so much on studio effects, not only to splice in improved deliveries, but to actually mess with off-pitch and other tricks. On the Idol show, the kids had to do it right on the spot…
Nice comments, Weeks…
The Indie music scene is the greatest!
When I was in high school I played bass for a band that opened for a great deal of indie bands when they’d visit… some were even local indies…lots of ska and punk.
We had (and still have) quite the neat little cottage industry going on.
You make some very good points, Weeks. It should be interesting to see how it all plays out.
The only radio I listen to very much is the local classical station. The so-called “Classic Rock” station plays the same 10 songs over and over and over, as does the “Oldies” station. There is a decent community college station that plays interesting stuff, but the reception at my house is really poor.
I can’t tell you the last time I bought a “name” CD (unless you want to count the Chieftains 
). And, frankly, I was petrified when “Brother Where Art Thou” came out that it was going to ruin Old Time and Gospel music, too.
I try my best to buy directly from the artist, whenever possible. I have no problems with “at home produced, CDR” recordings - I’ve got many quality ones - and we did ours that way, too.
And I have really tried, but I just can’t take rap. We were at a venue where there was “Christian” rap, that honestly had some pretty powerful messages in it - and I still couldn’t take but about 10 minutes of it. I just don’t “get” the mixing and scratching and thumping bass being music!
Soggy Bottom Boys all the way, Missy!!! YEAH!
So, I guess you wouldn’t like to borrow my Cypress Hill’s greatest hits in Spanish CD?
I could get it for most of the 1st half of the commute back north from that coffee place in SODO. It was great. I’ve got KPLU on in the barn for the shut ins.
It is a sad state of affairs… Seattle had great radio in the mid 1970s.
Well, i was just visiting with a local guitar builder who put out a sampler of music played on his guitars by local artists. Most of it, he recorded right in his shop, one or two of the players have home set-ups. The disc is as good as something out of a store and we play it here at work. His number one rule was no reverb, except natural and no post-production stuff. His is just a tiny drop in a large bucket, I think. With the first sampler, he basically put in stores and donated everything to charity, not even recovering dupe costs (yes, he’s a good guy) and the stores sold a ton of them for $15 apiece. The musicians didn’t ask for pay of course, the whole thing was pretty casual. But the example was in mind when I wrote the post. Good playing, good music selection, nice graphics on the cover, produced at minimal cost, beyond his initial investment of sound equipment. The recording “studio” is just a back room where a bunch of guitars and wood stock is stored.
That’s the kind of thing I mean, in addition to the small professional labels. It coexists with Britney…
Thinned skin is a good point, Mark. Could you imagine the uproar if Randy Newman released “Short People” today? Political correctness has invaded music. Of course, there are the rap lyrics which are beyond bad taste and the odd, over-the-top heavy metal/goth band that put out shock music. But, for the most part, music steers clear of political termoil. Some will tackle social issues, and take the heat for it. It’s as though musicians, and actors, are expected to keep their opinions to themselves and just crank out commercial successes.
Come to think of it, even Randy Newman has become Disney-ized.
Well, the ones who do speak or sing out on political issues get pilloried by the supporters of whichever side is being criticized, so in a way they are expected to keep their opinions to themselves. When they speak out, they’re just “stupid celebs who should keep their mouths shut”; and when they remain silent, they’re “uncaring celebs who refuse to use their status to try to make the world a better place”. It’s a no-win situation.
In terms of what is out there, if anything has changed, the artists out to shock have had to get more shocking to keep up. That’s why I mentioned Jim O’Rourke. But you won’t hear him on radio although you will find him in small ‘arty’ record stores.
More music is available now than ever before. A bigger slice of the jazz, blues and country back catalogue is easily available than ever before, not to mention all the rock records from the 60s that once shocked. If you weren’t shocked back then, you can go into a shop and buy them now and be shocked by them.
Something else has changed of course. Sometime in the 80s, the majors decided that selling a small number of heavily promoted records in all the popular styles was too much work, they started trying to sell the same half dozen overproduced records to everyone. As any market researcher could have told them, they got bigger (but more fickle) markets than ever before but now probably excluded the majority of record buyers who simply turned off mainstream media as a source of entertainment and learnt that if you know how to look for good music, there is an endless supply out there. I wonder if the majors got such a good deal anyway. When a heavily promoted Madonna or Michael Jackson record sold as hoped, obviously they cleaned up. But they stood to loose heaps if they misjudged their audience and a heavily promoted record by last year’s star bombed.