Ruminations on this New Year's Eve 2011
Sunday, January 1, 2012 at 03:52PM It’s been a wild, crazy and busy year. And the first one since I started this blog that I did not post regularly. I started thinking that everything that I had to tell you had been said. I didn’t want to repeat myself and I didn’t want it to transmogrify from a self help site to a self indulgent site, as there are already quite enough of those in cyberspace.
This year saw the release of my first studio solo CD in four years, Backstage At the Resurrection. It got a lot of airplay and spent about six months on the radio charts. I am still doing the songs from that CD as well as songs from the other 22 CD’s in my live shows.
It gets more and more difficult to put a set together when you have such a catalog to draw from. And even though some of the songs are decades old, they haven’t become dated or weird (IMHO). A few have, but most of the time I am writing with an eye on posterity and so there are not references or sounds that would make it too dated.
Following the traditional instruments route helps maintain their immediacy, though my arrangement style is definitely rooted in the last century, which I believe will be regarded as some kind of remarkable time for popular music.
Cliff Eberhardt and I released All Wood and Doors in July and have received an incredible amount of press, all of it good. Nothing but five star reviews across the board, with the exception of one doors fanatic who said that I was just wrong to rearrange these songs…as though they came down from the mountain on tablets or something. I wrote him a nice letter to which he replied with his usual grace. I leave it to you to discern the gist of his epistle.
I was just listening to Coldplay live and was truly amazed at the limited vocal gifts of the lead singer and the inane lyrics. The camera would pan the audience and they would all be singing along. I immediately think back to the early Beatles and the same sort of inane lyrics that made me so happy and I guess this is what the inexperienced listener expects. Something that they can understand.
Meanwhile, I’m writing a song about losing my parents, which very few of those people will experience for decades. You begin to wonder why you are writing such things. Then it comes to me. I have always written from my own experience and my own heart. I have never written a “hit” song that I wrote from the get go as a hit song. I have had some hit songs, but I was always trying to write a great song. I know that that is subjective and you may find my work lacking in all respects but that is your opinion. I have mine and it’s just as valid.
And validity comes from sincerity and intelligence, not from having convinced a million sheep that entering the slaughterhouse is good for them. We often mistake commercial success for validity. It’s not validity, it’s commercial success. Nothing wrong with that, but I don’t want to confuse it with what matters to an artist, and at this stage of the game, I’m pretty sure that’s what I have become. In a perfect world that would be enough. In this world, it’s still pretty close to enough.
Happy New Year.
Reader Comments (3)
Happy New Year to you too. Here's to 2012 being the best year yet.
And yes...you are an artist.
Eva
Happy New Year to you!Coldplay is also one of may favorite bands! -Sarah-
A wise man once said: "The more you give your gift the more it gives you."
With regards to taking talent to artistry...You sited Coldplay and then the Beatles
The Beatles may have had simple lyrics in some of their songs that had easy access...but something stirred the listener..the songs shimmered...they had magic...Coldplay is quite listenable but after a song or two..I'm quite sated...
Paul McCartney has said that he and John were quite competitive at songwriting...and it showed...to go in a few short years from "Please Please Me" "Love Me Do" and "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" to 'Here There and Everywhere" "Norwegian Wood" "and "In My Life" to mention a very few...is astounding...and yet the appeal is instantaneous whether an introspective song or an upfront pop tune...
It takes talent but it also takes work...and The Beatles worked hard...now I dunno what goes on with Coldplay...but I can say that the lead vocalist is limited...his timbre is pleasent enough but he doesnt take you anywhere...In the past almost 17 years of training and almost all of my 34 years I've sung I've aspired...I've studied my ass off...and my voice shows it...it doesnt take much to put out passion...tho if you arent studied vocally you may end up damaging your gift...I mean you simply must know what you are doing if you are making a career out of singing...Now The Beatles smoke drank took drugs screamed there heads off in songs and vocally you could hear the wear after awhile...but again the appeal was there ...they had the truth of their songs in their voices...the lead singer of Coldplay doesnt abuse his voice (that I've heard) but there isnt passion in his singing...it's a very Euro-Pop sound...centered controled but safe...stagnant...now take someone like Annie Lennox...from the beginning her sound vocally was centered and haunting soulful...but she almost lost her voice from the touring and lack of vocal technique...but I digress
"The more you give your gift the more it gives you" Just who said that? hmmmm
My philosophy is(and my point is) if you arent there for your audience if you dont grow and develop then why are you a performer..? If you the more you give to your audience the more they give to you...and you must ALWAYS give them more than what they are giving you...the whole thing is very kinetic...
Technique you can learn passion you can't...another band (The New Radicals) said it well: "You've Got to Get What you Give"
And giving is the greatest gift for a performer...for an audience...for a Human Being...especially if you are a Freelance Human Being...;)
If I missed the mark here as I tend to do by going farther than I need...Then I hope There is a symbolic gesture that hits it...