http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Thu, 15 Jul 2004 12:42:10 EDT http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/ Phillip WinnSunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding. Administration0@blogcritics.org Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/07/15/124210.php Alan ConnorOver at ACME, we're running a 12-part competition to win the Golden Age Of American Rock 'N' Roll series, courtesy of the nice-as-pie Ace Records. Each CD has 30 blasts of music, and lengthy sleevenotes, one of them with an introduction by Frank Zappa:To deny rock music its place in society was to deny sexuality. Any parent who tried to keep his child from listening to or participating in this musical rotual was, in the eyes of the child, trying to castrate him.Along the way, you can learn about the alternately cheering, bizzare and depressing stories behind these lodestones of rock 'n' roll. §For example, the story behind "Daddy's home" is an unhappy one. Shep and the Limelites were a two-part harmony trio who recorded a sextet of songs covering the development of a relationship: "A thousand miles away", "Daddy's home", "Three steps from the altar" "Our anniversary", "What did Daddy do?" and "Remember, Baby", à la John Updike's Maples saga. Roulette, who owned the first of these, are an early example of a successful arm of the industry seeing the chance to make some money, give a kicking to small label and knock around a few hornets' nests -- they charged that "Daddy's home" infringed their copyright and slapped a lawsuit on Hull Records in the mid-'60s. Hull was until then doing staggeringly well for a tiny outfit, but the label and band were put out of business, and finally Shep and the band regrouped in 1970, just before he was mugged and murdered in his car. Well done, everyone.§There's also the Eamon and Frankee of the early 1960s: Jimmy Norman and Barbara George.Barbara had already made it clear in "I know (You don't love me no more)" that the relationship was over, but Jimmy wasn't taking orders from any dame, and calls her up:[phone rings] - Hello? - Hello, girl! - Who's this? - This is me, and I just wanna let you know:I don't love you no more You and I are through! I don't love you no more I'm gonna find someone new!The sleevenotes make it abundantly clear that the scratches on this recording come from the sound effects record used on the original recording and not because of sloppy research on the compiler's part. Got that?§Then there are the naughty Bobbettes.The Bobbettes had hated a short-sighted schoolmaster:I hate Mr. Lee and he hates me He's the four-eyedest teacher that you ever did seebut Atlantic thought it might be better to rewrite it as a love song: better to have some teenagers lusting after their teacher than resenting him. The real Mr. Lee was a good sport, and bought a box of the 7"s to give out to pupils. His response to the follow-up "I shot Mr. Lee" is not recorded. One - Two - Three (Hey!) I shot Mr. Lee . (Uh oh!) Three - Four - Five (Hey!) I got tired of his jive. (Uh oh!) Woh oh oh, he should've never (Uh oh!) Woh oh oh, he should've never Shot him in the head boom boom (Uh oh!) Shot him in the head boom boom. §The Bobbettes did amazingly-well for African-Americans, especially since this was a time when a black man (Julius Dixon) and a white woman (Beverly Ross) can get away with writing a song together behind closed doors, but need to pull in a black stooge to play "Ruby" if their Ronald & Ruby act is going to avoid a lynchin'. Shame to keep the real "Ruby" tucked away. She wrote "Judy's turn to cry", "Candy man" and "Stop laughing at me". Meanwhile, Dixon wrote for James Brown and Kitty Wells and died earlier this year.§My personal favourites are probably Dale and Grace.The duo who crooned out "I'm leaving it up to you" split in 1964, whereupon Dale did what's known in the indutry as a "Sam and Dave" (although Grace hadn't shot anyone in the face, and Dale never sang with Lou Reed), and got himself a new Grace. From their official site:This Dale and Grace also split in early 1990. The original singing partner of Grace Sattenfield, Jimmy "Dale" Jordan, teamed again with Grace to become "The New Dale and Grace."  In 1994, the duo released a new project, "The New Dale and Grace Album." It is a delightful combination of the old and new, and they are in better voice than ever. Here's the tracklist of their new album. See if you can guess the concept. How Great Thou Art I'd Rather Have Jesus Learning To Lean The Old Rugged CrossIn God's Hands In The Garden Prayer Is The Key To Heaven Crying In The Chapel I Know A Man Who CanThrough It All Until Then Wind Beneath My Wings The New Main Street Singers are alive and, well...§The competition takes the form of a daily question, for each of which you can win one of the CDs, and be entered in a draw to win all 12. Today's question is of the following crimespossession of marijuanaarmed attempted robberytaking a minor across state lineshomemade pornographypossession of illicit firearmspoisoningvideotaping women in his restaurant's restroomtax evasionwhich has Chuck Berry not been convicted? Answers, with postal address, to acmerock10@lnreview.co.uk, please. Closing date July 17th. Rock (and roll) on! Music17469@blogcritics.org Thu, 15 Jul 2004 12:42:10 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/06/30/105203.php Alan ConnorBonjour from Pézenas, a small village in the Languedoc, which has a webcafe even though it looks roughly like this:The music signs weren't great at first, notwithstanding the obvious influence that local boy Molière had on Neil Young. I'm speaking, of course, of Arnolphe's description of his ideal wife in L'Ecole des Femmes:En un mot, qu'elle soit d'une ignorance extrême: Et c'est assez pour elle, à vous en bien parler, De savoir prier Dieu, m'aimer, coudre, et filer.†translated in "A man needs a maid" asI was thinking that maybe I'd get a maid Find a place nearby for her to stay. Just someone to keep my house clean, fix my meals and go away.But bien sur, Pézenas's greater and most-recent contribution to music is Boby Lapointe. Wedding duties and irksome French opening hours mean that we're currently unable to bring you a report from the Musée Boby Lapointe, and so a fuller appraisal will have to wait. For the moment, a potted biography of the French Ian Dury.You're most likely to have seen Boby Lapointe in Tirez sur le pianiste [right], where he plays the burly pub singer doing a jerky dance singing a suggestive song, with subtitles. This was his his big break, courtesy of François Truffaut, who'd seen him at the Le Cheval D'Or cabaret in the 1950s. Prior to that, Boby had been many things: a childhood prankster (he desecrated the church weathercock I can see from my chambre d'hôte), a mathematician (he later invented a binary system which the community seems to have found quite useful) and resistance figure (he escaped from a Linz labour camp and spent the rest of the year on the run). In post-war Paris he started writing, mainly intricate tumbling patterns of words which variously make your brain hurt, make you laugh, or give a snapshot of people living their lives. What money he earned from cabaret, films and recordings he tended to squander on bad business ideas, and eventually Yéyé shoved Boby to the sidelines, but he carried on recording until returning to Pézenas to die in 1972. The town now has, as well as the Musée, a Place Boby Lapointe, a Papeterie Boby Lapointe, and sculpture all around town dedicated to Boby.Unless the Aubade De Boby is rescheduled, or the Musée adopts normal hours, the next mention of Boby will be about the CD we nabbed here. Until then,Moralité: Avanie et mamelles Sont les framboises du Destin! §As you might expect, Les Inrockuptibles are delighted that The Cure is back, and offers a career retrospective, where we learn that Seventeen Seconds is Le chef d'œuvre de Cure. Un disque paranoïaque et sombre, quasi heideggerien dans son intérêt métaphysique pour la question de temps, de la mort, du feu. The paragraph goes on to mention Baudelaire. Of course it does. The lesinrocks site has an interview with Polly Harvey, should such a thing float your boat. Music16958@blogcritics.org Wed, 30 Jun 2004 10:52:03 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/03/13/153125.php Alan ConnorIt's easy to forget sometimes that the karaoke is probably technically crushingly unhip. In the office, we have many thoughts about the karaoke: with a Music Critic head on, it's a great barometer for the shelf-life of songs liked by people who don't care Quite So Absurdly about music (Simon Cowell claims that field trips to karaoke pubs was his research tool for what Robson & Jerome should be trying). It's also a refreshingly anarchic world, the karaoke, where The B-52s jostle with Celine Dion and everyone's up for grabs. Plus we all, you know, like the karaoke.So you forget that people who like The Fall and Lucinda Williams and Zappa aren't really supposed to "do" the karaoke. Until you're reminded by NME that karaoke is "one of music's seven deadly sins" and that Lost in translation has helped it gain "cool points by the hour". Sheesh.The thing is, people do do the karaoke, and there's nothing especially funny or remarkable about Punk Rock Karaoke (though it does look damn fun), and the loveliness of Lost in translation and the "incongruity" of Stellastarr* singing "Careless whisper" doesn't change a thing or matter a hoot.To be fully frank, I'm just cross because the article looked like it might be about to provide some useful material for my list of Karaoke Hazards. Music13684@blogcritics.org Sat, 13 Mar 2004 15:31:25 EST