bedsitter23 | Entries tagged with people who died

We have lost a true original - Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, aged 70.

In high school, I learned about the music that existed outside the radio (Smiths, Cure, New Order, Depeche Mode). A couple of years later I learned about music that existed outside the major labels (the SST, Sub Pop, Twin/Tone, Dischord, Alternative Tentacles, and many others). My first year in college, I learned about some of the truly obscure.

I can't say I ever truly loved Throbbing Gristle. A band that seems most defined by the song "Hamburger Lady" a song about as terrifying as can be created using only audio- about a victim in a burn unit. The noise/art/shock collective would also be typified by the cover of one of their albums 20 Jazz Funk Greats- dressed in bright loungewear standing in a flowery field- as Cosey Fanni Tutti would say "We had this idea in mind that someone quite innocently would come along to a record store and think they would be getting 20 rally good jazz.funk greats, and (upon playing) would just get decimated."

Typically, the location of the picture known as Beachy Head, though beautiful, is one of the world's most notorious suicide spots. Throbbing Gristle would be one of the inventors of what would become known as industrial music.

Breaking up into separate bands, I would have an easy time finding many of the records by Coil, Psychic TV and Chris and Cosey. Of these, Coil is arguably the best, though I did enjoy the soundscapes of Chris and Cosey.

Psychic TV were relatively accessible and were making some interesting music. This was the birth of what was called Acid House, and songs like IC Water and Godstar would reach through to a cult audience. Prolific to the point of ridiculousness, they would be credited in the Guinness Book of World Records for most albums released in a year.

It is of course, impossible to measure their influence on goth, darkwave, industrial, industrial-metal and bands like Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson. I suspect Genesis hoped for some measure of crossover success, which was not to be, but albums like Force the Hands of Chance and Towards Thee Infinite Beat stand now as great touchpoints in esoteric music.

Genesis left the world with a mixed reputation. Like the great provocateurs of his generation, it was never clear what was done for shock and what was true derangement. P-Orridge would be in trouble with the British law many times, eventually being charged with the most damning charges of all. It would bring his career to a brief halt.

In recent years, Gristle bandmate Cosey Fanni Tutti would charge serious allegations about Genesis about things she had been forced to do in the name of crowd provocation and art. Much focused on the early years of the band and art and sex exhibitions like the Prostitution Show done through P-Orrdige's shock collective COUM Transmissions.

That will be part of Genesis's legacy. The latter years would different - a love story, though a quite unconventional one. Meeting Lady Jaye Bryer, their relationship would be one in which they would choose to emulate each other physically. Genesis, now he/r was head over heels in love.

I was lucky enough to see the reunited lineup of Throbbing Gristle in April 2009. They would perform a soundtrack for Derek Jarman's In the Shadow of the Song, and nine other tracks such as 'hits' like Hamburger Lady, What a Day, Discipline and Very Friendly. They would only perform a handful more times, before P-Orridge dropped out in 2010, with Peter Christopherson dying later that year.

Given the looming legacy, they were amazingly musical. Once art terrorists, they were now legends. P-Orridge the mesmerizing front person- at once provocateur, but also full of emotion. Christopherson and Carter backing up with amazing synthetic sound, and Cosey's amazing guitar work. They may have been the first, but they also were still possibly the best.

P-Orridge would start another incarnation of Psychic TV (PTV3) in the early 2000s. Straight ahead acid rock, Genesis promised a "Dark Side of the Moon for the 21st Century."

Hell is Invisible/Heaven is Her/e is one of my favorite albums of the last 15 years. A favorite song was the Gibby Haynes -led "Maximum Swing" which features guitar from Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Elsewhere, Genesis leads the band often in a punk rock race to the finish (with occasional ambient detours like "Milk Baba"). Helped immensely by the creative guitar wizardy of Zinner, David Max and Bryan Dahl. It is likely as accessible as Genesis ever got, which is still 'not really'. There's a bit of Julian Cope or PiL, with Max and co.'s glorious noise pushing this to classic status for me.

Watch on YouTube

Crossposts: https://bedsitter23.livejournal.com/1218128.html

We all knew Roky Erickson wouldn’t live forever, but it is still a shock to hear of his passing.

I did not get to see him perform live, but I believe some friends did. For most of my life, that seemed impossible. Still, for a few years at the end, he was able to get out and perform. It seemed his life ended up with a steady ascent and his death cemented him finally as an American hero.

I am ok with that. There are other garage rock bands and psychedelic bands that deserve attention (Seeds, Sonics, Sir Douglas Quintent) but Roky grew to be the image cemented in our mind. At last, he can be celebrated like Dylan, Reed or Springsteen.

It’s funny. I probably listen to Roky and the 13th Floor Elevators in recent years as much as I do anything. I might hard pressed to name artists I listen to more, but those I do are evergreens like Bowie and Cash.

It has been easy to classify Roky as a Rock n Roll casualty. It is romantic and he gets lumped in with Daniel Johnston, Syd Barrett and Wesley Willis. One can’t argue that his lyrics weren’t a bit out there, but he always struck me as having a real ear for melody.

I was lucky enough to be that impressionable age when Roky finally got his due. The idea of tribute albums came out and Roky got a pretty amazing one. It was a real testament that the artist involved were true fans- but not a group you might have put in the same room - REM, Julian Cope, ZZ Top, Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal Scream, Richard Lloyd of Television, the Butthole Surfers.

Because of that, I bought a matching retrospective. It was mainly drawn from his 80s records for Restless, but the tracks were flawless. I truly treasured that disc.

For someone who wanted more, it was good timing as it was also the era of CDs and it seemed like the Elevators discography was easily found. Another Dimension was also released- a decent sounding live record.

Things were all leading to a Roky revival and in 1995, teaming up with Henry Rollins and Paul Leary and King Coffey from the Butthole Surfers to release a book of lyrics and record a new album

Even in those ambitious indie rock days, Roky was never going to be huge, but the re-recording of many of his famous songs on All that May Do My Rhyme

Allmusic shockingly gives it only three stars, but they are wrong. With Leary, LouAnn Barton, Charlie Sexton, Speedy Sparks of the Texas Tornadoes and brother/Guardian as well as multi-instrumentalist Sumner Erickson backing, it is a cleanly recorded record, that almost is country-tinged in its acoustic spirit. It is also a classic.

Unfortunately, I stepped on my CD and had to buy it twice.

In 2010, Erickson got one last hurrah by teaming with Okkervil River who helped work some old songs and ideas into a cohesive record. It’s pretty solid and leaves one last great document of his career

Meanwhile in the current environment, it seems every time Roky had a guitar, it found its way to tape. I appreciate the various moments caught. It also means the hard to find records spread throughout his career have bubbled up. I feel lucky to be able to listen to those.

Roky’s legacy is a complex one. Songs like “Starry Eyes”, “Fire Engine”, and “You’re Gonna Miss Me” are classics. Erickson’s issues are legend too- stealing peoples mail, listening to multiple TV sets at full blast at the same time- almost glorified or mocked.

Somewhere in between is Roky singing “I’ve been working in the Kremlin with a three headed dog” with as much sincerity as others sang “She loves you. Yeah yeah yeah” or “How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man”. It was fantastic. I celebrate that.

"the spades "we sell soul"" (Watch on YouTube)

Crossposts: https://bedsitter23.livejournal.com/1169353.html

Social media obviously draws attention to deaths but it is still true that they are sad events.
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Undoubtedly though, the death of Ranking Roger is a sad one.

I almost undoubtedly heard the English Beat first on MuchMusic. That Canadian video station found a spot for ska. I heard “Mirror in the Bathroom” and it is one of those special life-changing songs.

I special ordered “What is Beat?” because I had gotten in that habit. Needless to say, that album is perfect

The Beat like the Buzzcocks had three records that were pretty solid so the greatest hits records are start to finish perfection. Though not quite the same band template, the Jam’s “Snap” and XTC’s “Waxworks” make for four of the most perfect one record compilations of the late 70s and early 80s. True Desert Island Discs.

Of course, in the 90s and early Aughts, I upgraded to CDs and the greatest hits collections got filled out reissues. Without a doubt, there are very few records that I have listened to in my life than What is Beat.

After discovering the Beat, I would go on to discover the Specials and 2 Tone. Always grouped together and yet apart, the Beat because of their amazing pop sensibility, often get labeled as less authentic. Ironically, in terms of career output, the Beat dwarf this mythical competition.

In the 90s, one of the first new wave reunions took place when Ranking Roger joined the legendary Saxa and drummer Everett Morton from the Beat and four members of the Specials to form the Special Beat. To me, this was a really big deal. In retrospect, this was a nonevent in musical press terms. Of course, should that be the case? This was one of an early chain of events that kicked off a new heyday for ska.

Unexpectedly, General Public has another big hit and went to #22 in 1994. Their cover of The Staples’ “I’ll take you there” is a great cover and a deservedly pop staple in its own right and was in the year end Top 100.

In 2013, it was announced that Ranking Roger and Dave Wakeling would both be leading separate versions of the Beat complete with tours, upcoming studio and all that entails. It was hard to imagine Roger without Dave and vice versa after so many years together off and on.

I saw much more press for the Roger version, which had some bona fide claim to the title. Besides Roger, it also included his son, Fuzz Townshend (Pop Will Eat Itself, Bentley Rhythm Ace), Oscar Harrison (Ocean Colour Scene) and Bobby Bird (Higher Intelligence Agency).

In 2016, that record did appear- Bounce. It was a good record though I felt it ultimately fell a bit short of its goal. Not a bad record by any means, but hardly essential.

What I didn’t realize when the new album Public Confidential came out was that Bounce was essentially a group that was in the process of finding itself.

There’s some irony in the fact that it comes out at a similar time as The Specials reunite and release a new disc. There’s also an ironic sadness that Roger passed away so soon after the release.

I wonder if I would have delved into this record without that. I likely still would have. In any case, I am glad that I did. It is a record that meets and exceeds its lofty expectations.

Whereas I listened to Bounce and lamented that Dave was not going to show up, with Public Confidential, I never feel that element missing. It truly feels like the English Beat, mixing the right amount of looking-back nostalgia mixed with a modern feel. It seems hyperbole when reviewers compare it to the Beat's classic, but it really is in the conversation. Nor is this an element of one or two hit singles, but a collection of cohesive songs. I find it unlikely, but it will undoubtedly be on the short list of my favorite albums of the year.

"Maniac - The Beat feat Ranking Roger" (Watch on YouTube)

Crossposts: https://bedsitter23.livejournal.com/1157315.html

Although we knew it was coming, it was still sad to see Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie go.

I was a teen in the late 80s and early 90s and living in the country, it made us not a cable house, but a satellite dish house.

I spent nearly every waking moment watching MuchMusic (at least when I wasn't watching The Comedy Channel) which was Canada's version of MTV.

MuchMusic appealed to me so much more than MTV. Although I loved MTV as well, MuchMusic felt more like the original MTV, the budget was minimal and had more of a diy-appeal, the VJs were a gang- it was all of the things that I would have had with MTV if I had been slightly older, but they were now moving on into big budget production.

Best of all was that it was music pretty much 24/7/365. Like Early MTV, that meant they played a lot of stuff to fill the time. It was more of a potpurri. MTV would play Anthrax, Boogie Down Productions and Big Audio Dynamite sure, but they were each relegated to a specific place and time in the lineup. MuchMusic would play them back to back.

The other redeeming quality was that they had to follow the Canadian content rules and play home grown music. These rules weren't as basic as they sound- it was a mix of the performer, the producer, the writer, band members and who knows what else. Which made Rod Stewart a Canadian artist but Bryan Adams not.

Canada had a lot of great homegrown music and indeed The Hip were top of the list. For me, the best were The Tragically Hip, Blue Rodeo, The Northern Pikes and blues rocker Collin James. I indeed loved Cowboy Junkies and The Pursuit of Happiness which made some inroads in the alt-rock scene. There was a great unconventional wave too (Barenaked Ladies, Moxy Fruvous, Rheostatics. I could go on and on with great Canadian bands that are fairly obscure this side of the border- 54-40, Jann Arden, Bruce Cockburn, Holly Cole and others. Given time, I couldn't name them all- 70s/80s Rockers like Rush, the BTO/Guess Who family, Chilliwack, Kim Mitchell, Red Rider, Gowan, obscure punks like the Viletones and Payola$, Madonna wannabes and pop divas like Mitsou and Alanis (Morrissette), female rockers like Lee Aaron and Sass Jordan, 90s grunge hopefuls Moist and The Tea Party and a whole list of those who hit big in America at least for a moment like Jeff Healey, Sarah Mclachlan, Our Lady Peace, Alannah Myles and Celine Dion.

Even from a rap point of view, Maestro Fresh Wes surely deserved a bigger audience in the pre-Biggie and Tupac days and would have been a great addition along the likes of Kid N Play, Kool Moe Dee and Heavy D. Jazz influenced 90s duo The Dream Warriors were deserving of recognition when they appeared with the likes of A Tribe Called Quest, Digable Planets and De la Soul.

In any case, the Tragically Hip were great. They have been called Canada's REM. In retrospect, there may have been better comparisons, but that was the go to description for any late-80s college rock band with traditional roots influences.

For me the band is defined by their early hits- like "Blow at High dough", "38 Years Old", and "New Orleans is Sinking". This was way before Amazon and you could find any album you want and get it. If you can't find it on Amazon, it's going to be on the internet somewhere- either a digital download from Bandcamp or from the band itself.

The Hips first record- 1987s eight song EP was only released in Canada. I was lucky to be that kind of person who looked everywhere and found it in a pawn shop.

1989s Up to Here saw a bit wider release, and I was able to find it pretty easy in the Amazon-of-that-day The Columbia House Music Club.

Not to speak ill of the dead, but I am less of a fan of the bands maturing work. Specifically, I am talking about what is considered their masterpiece -1992's Fully Completely.

Now that we are 25 years on, I remember that album getting quite a bit of promotion. The local newly launched alt-rock station played the single "Courage" a lot, and that song and "At the 100th Meridian" were definitely heard by a lot of American ears. Yet with the wave of 90s Nostalgia, I never hear about The Hip.

Wikipedia seems to do a bit of explanation. While Fully Completely was supposed to break America, they stopped American production after two weeks. To be fair, "Courage" may be good, but it's not quite as striking as the biggest songs of some of their contemporaries- Gin Blossoms, Live, Verve Pipe and Toad the Wet Sprocket.

I stopped following the band but they continued to turn out their art, and so maybe that is my loss. In any case, it indeed is a loss in that they were a great band and brought joy to a lot of people.

Watch on YouTube

Crossposts: https://bedsitter23.livejournal.com/1097378.html

This one is a bit unexpected and certainly sad for me.

Tom Petty fell in a unique spot in modern music. I can't think of many solo rockers who were loved for so long by so many. Yes, he was part of a band, but for purposes of this discussion, everyone did think of him as an individual.

It's Springsteen and everyone else, but in the last decade Petty might be more beloved. Giving this some thought, I think we can agree on a triumvirate of Springsteen, Petty and Mellencamp.

There are rock bands of course (AC/DC, Aerosmith, Metallica, even Bon Jovi) and there are people in the pop genre, but I am not talking pop. Nor do I feel Petty belongs in that category of great rock guys who dipped into soft rock. Soft rock did love Petty, but I don't consider him a soft rocker. So I am not including in the discussion guys like Henley, Sting, Collins, Clapton, Stewart, Adams, Elton and others.

Nor do I feel inclined to include those rockers who either have too infrequent with their output or just never stayed in the commercial spotlight. So as much as I love some of these guys- I say you can leave out Jackson Browne, Randy Newman, Peter Gabriel, Lindsay Buckingham, Mark Knopfler, John Fogerty, Roger McGuinn or Jeff Lynne. I am also talking charts, so we won't include icons like Dylan, Neil Young and Mccartney or cult figures like Elvis Costello, Lou Reed or Chris Isaak.

So, Petty is truly unique. He was born of a southern rock spirit that should have likely carried into the 80s but didn't. There was the Skynyrd plane crash, the Allmans break up and finally MTV came along and killed the momentum of bands like .38 Special and Molly Hatchet. Petty was able to succeed in this era by embracing the medium and giving us one of the striking music videos ever.

I knew Petty like many of my age from the Alice pastiche "Dont Come Around Here No More". It is still a work of genius- striking and a bit disturbing, and unexpectedly a more lasting Wonderland tribute than anything Johnny Depp or Tim Burton ever put together.

I remember 1986 as Petty rode high and being too young to know my history, and thinking how lucky Bob Dylan must be to be able to tour with Tom Petty. The local Wal Mart played MTV on a loop and it was about my only exposure so I ate up the excitement of the Petty/Dylan tour as much as I did the soul-inspired mid 80s version of the Stones and the excitement of up-and-comers Jason and the Scorchers.

Full Moon Fever of course ended up being the megahit, and no matter what kind of music you liked, you probably bought it. For me, it is still great, though to be honest, I have had my fill of "Free Fallin" and immediately turn it off. To be fair though, I would never turn off "Runnin down a Dream" or "I Wont Back Down"

My friends and I were in love with Manchester in those days, and punk, so the only cool Heartbreakers were those of the LAMF variety, and alternative, which meant it was ok to like REM which was born off the Byrds just as well, but not as cool to like Petty who had the same influences. Petty stuck out but I was never too worried about it. Sure, it was all about the Replacements and the Pixies, but I wasn't afraid of a little Full Moon Fever as I wasn't afraid of Diamonds and Pearls.

Into the Great Wide Open and Wildflowers came out in the landscape change of the 90s. The 90s showed Petty still knew video, and his title song was memorable with the Johnny Depp and Faye Dunaway leads and the single "Mary Jane's Last Dance" with Kim Basinger in a 'memorable' role- like a Hollywood movie. I hated Wildflowers, and I think that was a prevailing thought, but time has come where critics now consider it his masterpiece. It was a commercial success and to be honest I do love all those hits- "You dont know how it feels", "It's Good to be king" and the throwback "You Wreck Me".

Though "serious" music guys discredit Greatest Hits, Petty's Greatest Hits is absolutely perfect. "American Girl" is as perfect as it gets. Released in a world where it wasn't cool like punk or new wave, time has established it as the perfect rock song. It is as good as "Born to Run". The early singles are all there and most are standards now. The only drawback was that it was released before capturing the Wildflowers singles, and another of Petty's finest moments- 2002's "The Last DJ". "Last DJ" is one of this young century's best rock songs. It is less known than the similar "Radio Nowhere" but is just as good. In those days, it was ok to have Britney sing about threesomes, Nelly sing about weed and Eminem to sing about all of that and more, but it was revolutionary to sing about Clear Channel, so the song didn't get near enough exposure.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the two Mudcrutch albums. Anyone who knows me knows that I have been a big champion of these albums. They are some of the best of recent years. Mudcrutch doesn't sound like much in theory- it was Petty's pre Heartbreakers band, and is very similar in lineup (Tench and Campbell, but also Bernie Headon's brother).

Those two records are fantastic. Very much in the vein of Byrds and Flying Burritos influence, with a little bit of NRBQ and Buffalo Springfield. If you have not listened to these records, I once again strongly encourage to do so. Petty was an amazing singles artists, but these are fantastic records. Also the song "Trailer" got a bit of airplay on Adult Alternative radio.

The sad thing of course was that the last Mudcrutch record came out last year and that meant we were still being treated to essential Petty music. What an artistic loss.

Crossposts: https://bedsitter23.livejournal.com/1096214.html

I have to say I was caught by surprise like everyone when I heard Prince died, and I feel like this is de rigueur, but I actually am a big fan.

Prince kind of sticks out in my collection. I liked him in the 90s when all of my favorite bands looked a certain way- like the Pixies or Dinosaur Jr or 10,000 Maniacs. Of course, there was more to Prince than R&B. He was a rock n roller and a funk hero. So he may not have been "hip" like Fishbone or the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, but he was just as cool in my mind.

I started with Prince as one of the biggest stars of my formative years. It was Michael Jackson and him above all else in that rarefied air, that only had room for people like Bruce or Madonna. I often got mileage out of the quote Prince said in the late 90s/early 00s in which he pointed out that he was always considered the weird one, and Jacko was who you wanted the kids to emulate; whilst Prince turned into a devout married Jehovah Witness.

Prince in the 80s though was the most out there of the out there growing up in the Bible Belt. He pushed gender boundaries with lyrics that seemed to be of the most perverse and sacreligious, brought to stage by a group that looked the same with Wendy & Lisa pushing things even more. What did it all mean? Still, even with the mystery of what he meant by the image of doves crying, there was no denying the power of his music. His music could be denounced by the same people who would admit it's quality.

When I hit critical mass, those Serious Teenage years, I watched Purple Rain, and as it did with many really struck a chord with me. It's rock n roll self-mythologizing of the greatest effect of which every generation has one (or more), but Prince's personality pulled it off. (As Prince has passed, various tributes have went out to the film, but I like those who call it the best bad movie).

The movie took me to the album (and 1999) to get my fix of the man's music. The singles I already knew very well, and need not to go into much detail, but should still be mentioned how well they married rock and R&B. 1999 is a fine album, worthy of mention especially for the singles.

Whereas Purple Rain is a great record start to finish. I knew of the song "Darling Nikki" of course before I ever heard it. That album track made so famous by the PRMC, proving the Gores were better publicists than Warner Bros. It is (regardless of topic) a masterful song.

Prince was not the typical musical fare for me at that time, but it should be. Prince isn't that far off from the Cure, in the ability to create their own universe, own language, and soundscapes. The vocals and lyrics full of the mystery and wonder that begs a dedicated audience. The guitarwork and musicality undeniable to even people who don't like the frontman.

Besides Purple Rain and 1999, there are a couple other albums that have gained universal acclaim. Sign O the Times is generally considered the go-to, largely based on the range of styles on the double album. I still prefer Purple Rain, but SotT certainly has its share of great moments. The other album is the early career Dirty Mind, which truly is a solid piece of work. (Controversy gets close too, if not quite there).

I have not visited his other 80s albums, but even with some of those being considered critical flops (particularly Around the World in a Day), all seem to have their fans.

Of course, the Prince at this time of my discovery was the one who still had the power to go to number one and did that with the unique "Batdance". Much has been written since his death, but it seems so odd now- a vanity project- less a soundtrack than the opportunity for an artist to muse on a superhero. Although, I doubt Batman needed the help, I feel like in some crazy way, Prince is responsible for resurrecting the mythos as much as Tim Burton or Heath Ledger.

Prince's next project was the ambitious Graffiti Bridge. GB was the sequel to Purple Rain. It's too generic (yes, I have seen it) to capture anything of Purple Rain's thunder, but the soundtrack is pretty great. Highlights include the strong single "Thieves in the Temple" and some strong stuff from the Time. Prince's intention on the album was to highlight some new and old talent- He was successful in launching Tevin Campbell (who did have a successful career before he got himself into embarrassing legal troubles). Unfortunately, I don't think he got Mavis Staples and George Clinton the relaunch he hoped (Mavis is starting to get her due, but it took a decade and a half and help from Jeff Tweedy).

The next couple of albums still had plenty of chart power. Diamonds and Pearls introduced the New Power Generation. NPG led to a belief that Prince didn't "get" rap music, and there's some clunkers on D&P, but there's some great stuff there too. "Money don't matter 2Night" was only a minor hit but a great song. The Love Symbol album continued with the Princemusic that was still appealing to the radio and still a great listen. It's a pretty strong and consistent album.

This was pretty much a high point all around and things go a bit awry. Prince has the record label argument and things get patchy. Looking back now, it's pretty amazing what he did. He changed the game, and although Prince didn't kill major Label supremacy, he certainly helped.

"Come" with Prince 1958-1993 was supposed to be an ending, but it was also supposed to be a return to guitar rock. It's a terrible album. It ends with a song called Orgasm which is just that. It's a Prince album imagined by someone who wants to copy what a Prince album is and not getting it.

"The Black Album" got a release in 1994. It was legendary, and gives the power of the Prince mystique, There are few people who sold their own legend like Prince (see above), and in a social media age, it's hard to imagine there ever will be. Black Album was supposed to be released after Sign O times, but Prince said the Devil told him not to release it (or something similar). It was at that time (and still is) one of the most famous bootleg moments of rock n roll. The truth is it is not a genius record. There are a couple of moments. "Le Grind" is a hit in the style of "Get Off" and "My Name is Prince". "Cindy C" (Crawford) is another keeper, but there are clunkers like the strange diss track "Bob George".

Prince still had some hits in the cannon, and I think "the Gold Experience" is an underrated companion to the Diamonds& Pearls and Lovesymbol albums. The album (as he did many times even up to his final recordings) tries to tie in cyberspace and erotica. It has a killer opening track "P---y Control" a song that could never be a single, but became famous by word of mouth.

Leave it to Prince to be able to pull off a stunt like that, and have a cult hit in the way very few artists (like David Alan Coe) could ever pull off. He also released a 20 minute song back in the Batman days called Scandalous Sex Suite with Kim Basinger. It was a song only diehards had heard, but had gained it's own legend.

Gold Exp.. is a worthy album- still with the radio hit ("Most Beautiful Girl in the World"), still with the clunker diss track (like Axl Rose, Prince loved these) "Billy Jack B----".

I wonder if we will see artistry like we saw in the 90s with Madonna and Prince. Songs like "P---- Control" and "Justify My Love" were scandalous. Post-90s, we live in a world of Celebrity Sex Tapes, Howard Stern, HBO shows with mainstream audience sizes, and Vivid Video girls as recognized celebrities. Will we ever be shocked like that again?

There is another legend Prince has helped propagate which is that he has hundreds of albums and thousands of songs hidden in the archives. The end of the 90s saw Prince releasing some shelved material. I was pretty excited about these and bought one of his first such collections- Emancipation- a 3 disc set. I thought it felt like leftovers and hardly worth the hype (it did get some good reviews). I did like the cover of Joan Osbornes "One of Us".

Things get even weirder in this century with an instrumental jazz album. I have always kept an eye on him and it seemed like the comeback was just around the corner. 1999 gave Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic which followed the Supernatural formula of pairing with young and current stars- in this case, Eve, Gwen Stefani, Sheryl Crow and Ani DiFranco. 2004's Musicology has a great single in "Cinnamon Girl" (not the Neil Young song).

The truth is that I hadn't been excited by a Prince album in a long time until 2014 in what most music critics probably don't even consider a major album- his project with 3rdEyeGirl called Plectrumelectrum.

It's ironic of course in a way that Prince always delivered- it's a total cock rock album- the big dumb guitar rock n roll that is stereotypically white male, yet the band was Prince and an all-female power trio. Indeed, it showed that Prince still had plenty of gas in his tank, and I have to say I was still excited for what was coming next.

Prince's death meant a lot to many people, and it was good to see his genius recognized. It is easy for me to sound critical here and I actually mean the opposite. Prince had not had a hit in many years. You would have to go back to 1995 for his last Top 40 hit "Eye Hate You" (not counting a time appropriate re-release of "1999"), and since then he has had only two singles chart i the Top 100.

Yet, longevity is very difficult, doubly so in it seems in Pop Music. Look at the great R&B artists, no one has that string of success. Even the greats- Marvin Gaye, Aretha, Sly Stone, George Clinton. You could maybe say Stevie Wonder. You could say Michael Jackson. Even those who burned brightest (Mariah, Janet, Whitney, Celine) don't have decades upon decades. You could maybe say Diana Ross. Cher, certainly. Elton John certainly. Madonna probably our last great pop star.

This isn't even a pop thing, We give some credence to our rock legends- Rolling Stones, Springsteen, et al, and every album is an event, but their new singles are not Top 10 anymore. Maybe Bon Jovi. Maybe U2. Sir Paul, of course. Country, of course has a different legacy, but post - Urban Cowboy, even the Garths and Faith Hills eventually fade away in time. I am undoubtedly missing some one, but I challenge anyone to come up with 20 people with a better career than Prince. There might not even be 10.

So I think it is appropriate to take a time to say how remarkable a career he had. We will doubtfully see many more with the type of career he had- in terms of popularity, in terms of genre outreach, in terms of creativity. It's a worse world without him.

Crossposts: http://bedsitter23.livejournal.com/1053066.html

I realize this is way late, but as far as 2016 is killing everyone off, let's get this done.

I probably don't need to say anything about David Bowie, as certainly it all has been said, but he is on the short list of my all time favorite artists.

I wish I could quantify it, and I bet I could. I can't imagine there are too many artists I listen to more than Bowie. I have to admit I have a certain romance for a type of musical act- which is the mythical four piece who generally put together four or five albums and break up. This saves them from making albums like Cut the Crap or Kill Uncle and saves them in a certain light.

An artist like Bowie has 50 years of music. It is hard to take it all in. In that time, no artist can go without some blemishes on their career. Some moments that were not up to par. It's hard to sum up Bowie in a few words. When you look at Bowie's affect, it's new wave, it's goth, it's punk, it's industrial. It's Duran Duran and Morrissey and Bauhaus. It's glam. It's The Sweet and Numan, It's Britpop. It's Suede, and Kraftwerk and Sparks and Gary Glitter and Neu! and Japan. It's almost any time anyone wants to insert art into rock n roll. It's a list of influences where it's hard to say where Bowie starts and other legends begin like Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Marc Bolan, Roxy Music, Brian Eno and Trent Reznor. It's certainly Madonna and Kiss, UK glam and US glam, Lady Gaga and Bono, LCD Soundsystem and TV on the Radio,

It's Marilyn Manson and indie geekdom like Flight of the Conchords, but it's also Bowie on Soul Train, and the Bowie that was funky, and was sampled by Ice Cube, Jay Z, ODB and Public Enemy.

Bowie could have just inspired Peter Schilling's worldwide hit, and would have had a better career than most. Bowie's one line on Arcade Fire's Reflektor was way cooler than most artists discographies.

When I was in my formative years, Bowie was a pop star, in the same terms that Madonna or Michael Jackson or Wang Chung or Culture Club were pop stars.

Not knowing anything of Bowie than what was offered, "Blue Jean" was one of my favorite songs as a kid. "Let's Dance" another. This period is often ridiculed by people who think about this stuff too much. A teenage follower putting on mascara for the first time would only deliver a lyric with such sincerity as "the Serious Moonlight".

But Bowie at his most mainstream is amazing. Take those four top 20 singles (" Lets Dance", Blue Jean", "China Girl" and "Modern Love") and you have a Hall of Fame career. I probably should include the not so-terrible "Dancing in the Street" as well.

I think there are not too many pop songs better than "Let's Dance". I thought Craig David's remake would be a big hit (in the UK, it was), but alas.

The Bowie I got up as I grew into Serious Music Fan was Bowie at his worst in a lot of ways. At that point in time, Bowie was probably more known for his acting roles like Labryinth than his albums.

The Bowie I got was the one in Tin Machine. TM is of course a punchline now, but I am quick to completely dismiss it. If Bowie wanted to make a straight rock album in a band setting (which apparently he did), he could have done much worse. There are enough songs on the two TM albums that anyone should be proud of.

The Bowie I got was one who was mounting a comeback with the very sharp looking Black Tie, White Noise. Here he covered Morrissey (Morrissey's very Bowiesque "I know it's going to happen.." and even Mick Ronson showed up. I was excited. For the record, I think it is about the worst album ever.

But it wasn't the worst time to be a Bowie fan, There was a great hidden single - the guest vocal on Adrian Belew's "Pretty Pink Rose" and the re-emergence of a little song I had never heard before called "Under Pressure". It had been a minor hit, and yes, it was because of the Vanilla Ice sample, but has become a song that is way more popular every subsequent year than it was originally ever was.

But most of all, I was lucky to hit a time when Rykodisc was reissuing all things Bowie. So no surprise that I started with the Greatest Hits- which was an updated ChangesBowie with his 80s hits added. It of course, is a good point to start if you have to pick one, and some of those songs while already evergreen singles are songs that have grown over the years. Indeed, "Heroes" is more well known 30 years later due to some high profile covers.

It of course meant it led me to the reissue of Ziggy Stardust in 1990. What can I say about Ziggy- it's a towering moment of artwork, but more rarely, it's a piece of art that is still greater than even its lengthy reputation.

I know the album inside and out and it is one of my favorites. I can't say enough about it.

I picked up other albums Lodger and Station to Station. I don't really like Lodger (It's reputation seemingly putting it on a pedestal in the last decade) though it has what may be my favorite Bowie song "DJ" and another keeper "Boys Keep Swinging". Station to Station, on the other hand, was a real hidden gem. (I also watched "The Man who Fell to Earth" a bit difficult art movie, but Bowie nailed the part perfectly, leaving a deep impact on anyone who viewed it.)

From then, it has been a dive back into the catalogue. Surely, nothing as good as Ziggy or Station. I dont appreciate Low as much as many do. But man, there are some great singles in there- "Man who sold the world", "Oh You Pretty Things", "Sound and Vision", "Life on Mars"., "Heroes" (even more grand in its album version) and many more, The last album of Bowie's I have recently "discovered" is Scary Monsters- an album of Bowie being influenced by new wave, while making the perfect new wave album.

The truth is Bowie was also back on the upswing. The recent attention given to Bowie betrays to me what I think are a fine string of albums. Indeed a decade of music that would make anyone as proud to have a career. Outside, Earthling, Hours, Heathen, Reality

Of these, Earthling and Heathen are my favorites. Earthling sounded like it was not going to age well even as it was released (and it hasn't), but it is one of my favorite end-to-end listens of its time. All the albums have plenty to advise them, but Heathen seems to be the most solid of all. Sort of no nonsense in its way, as if Bowie finally got his Tin Machine idea right.

With The Next Day, Bowie finally got the critical acclaim he had been missing. I agree. I thought it was a tremendous album. Blackstar would be his farewell, and I feel a bit blasphemous calling it anything less than a masterpiece. In any case, the conventional wisdom now is that Blackstar is the masterpeice, and the Next Day wasn't all that good to begin with. I disagree. I think blackstar is good, not great, but I can understand the sentimentalism.

It's sad to see Bowie go for many reasons. Even if his career started in the 90s, I would still say it was worthwhile. The one thing that did come out of Bowie's death was an outpouring of people sharing memories and meeting people you didn't know that knew his music so well.

Music is always about the next generation, but even as the 90s on, he should have been fading into the background, he was still in the midst of the forefront. One hopes there's a Johnny Cash-sixed archive that is left to be discovered. We can hope.

I am going to close here knowing I likely left something out. That was the nature of how talented he was.

Crossposts: http://bedsitter23.livejournal.com/1052654.html

This is one of those blog posts that I would have written back when people read LiveJournal. Still, there's a few things that prompted this.

First, I have posted a lot of 90s music here, and really enjoy writing and sharing about it. It is probably because those were important years for me, but I do think there were some great albums released then. In any case, time to bring the series back.

But this is mostly prompted by the Onion's AV Club question from earlier in the month "What pop culture do you love but disagree with?'

For me, what quickly comes to mind is Ice Cube's 1991 album Death Certificate.

While the album preceding (AmeriKKKas Most Wanted-1990) and the album following (The Predator-1992) are in the ballpark, Death Certificate is a masterpiece of early 90s angry Cube.

For comparison, in 1992, I was into punk and spending hour after hour listening to the then-recently released Buzzcocks Greatest Hits album Operators Manual.

Death Certificate was punk. This was the era in which Reagan turned into Bush, and it was pretty clear that this particular Bush didn't care about black people. Much credit goes to the Bomb Squad. While they made their name with Public Enemy, here they found the right mix of music to take Cube to the next level. There's George Clinton and Parliament all over as well as plenty of James Brown, but there's also a list of artists you might not expect- Zapp, Mountain, the Meters, Bobby Byrd, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Marvin Gaye, Booker T & the MGs, the Gap Band, the Staples Singers, Fishbone , Gladys Knight & the Pips and many others

Cube didn't get his back due back then, likely to the Gangsta roots he came from, and he hasn't got his due since (In 20 years, he hasn't been able to reach these heights again on vinyl) as his music is overshadowed by his acting career.

It's one of my favorite albums ever.

It's also somewhat embarassing,. It's profane and obscene, of course, but it's over the edge in these terms. It's homophobic, racist, and misogynist. "Black Korea" of course should be a rallying call for blacks to own businesses, but is a cringeworthy tune based on Asian stereotypes. "No Vaseline" is a typical rap diss song as is typical of the genre, but as implied, is datedly homophobic (even when it was released) and blatantly racist against Jewish NWA manager Jerry Heller. "Horny lil Devil", "Doing Dumb Sh--"(powered powerfully by some "Funkentelchy") and "Look Who's Burnin" should be warnings against promiscuity and a public service announcement against STDs, but are no more enlightened than the Bell Biv Devoe albums of the day.

All of which is a shame, because Ice Cube is on point. Because of his image, he never will be though of in the same terms of Chuck D or Gil Scott-Heron. He even wasn't able to get the kind of respect Ice T got from the rock community, despite the fact T's lyrics were fairly infantile in Body Count.

So, Death Certificate is partly gangsta fantasy, but it's also part class struggle, and with the Bomb Squad treatment, it's incredible.

For me, the apex of the album is a two minute detour called "Bird in the Hand". A masterblast as angry as pointed as anything that ever came out of the mouth of Lydon or Strummer.

"Ice Cube - A Bird In The Hand" (Watch on YouTube)

Which is the other reason for this post. What drives the track in terms of anti-Bush venom is a sample from BB King's "Chain and Things".

"BB KING - CHAINS N THINGS" (Watch on YouTube)

If your view of King is the soft bluesman in the public eye for the last two decades, then "Chains and Things" is a good place to start.

The break at the 3:36 is the riff that drives Cube's best moment on his best album.

Respect for all involved.

Crossposts: http://bedsitter23.livejournal.com/1019997.html

A friend texted me that Lou Reed had passed away yesterday. I was a bit afraid it would go unnoticed, but looking today, it didn't.

I can explain a lot of my life by telling my Lou Reed stories and probably already have.

It begins in the years 1988 and 1989 when Rolling Stone was still relevant (at least relevant to me) and something called the College Rock chart. I had learned in my single-digit years that some of the best music was at the lower positions of the Top 40, and I next learned from friends that some of the best music didn't make the Top 40 at all.

I was devouring everything that was headed my way, but wasn't ready to stop there, so supplementing the stuff I began to know (REM, Elvis Costello, PiL, etc), I would look at the "College Rock" chart in Rolling Stone each month and began to buy what was #1.

Lou Reed's New York was one of those albums that I bought just based on that suggestion. It blew me away. I knew Springsteen of course, and had grown up on Billy Joel. Still, nothing quite prepared me for this- loud, profane, and intelligent. Covering subjects that couldn't be further away (physically and emotionally), but connecting to my core. I would never be the same again.

Discovering Reed inevitably led to the Velvet Underground, who were finally getting the respect they deserved. (Lest you forget, the VU continued after Reed, touring Europe and continuing with Doug Yule to record Squeeze. The point being no one particularly noticed Reed was gone). I would inevitably got to the Velvets, as everyone I loved were covering them and singing their praises.

Of course, that music profoundly moved me and I had to get all the VU stuff (for some reason, I never picked up loaded until much, much later, which I probably should have done sooner).

I played the compilation Best of continuously, and picked up a weird little tribute album at a college record store by a bunch of bands I never heard of (Chapterhouse, Buffalo Tom, Nirvana, James, the Screaming Trees, the Wedding present) and one I had (Ride).

I bought one of my first CDs- a used copy of Rock N Roll Animal, which I didn't like as well as the studio stuff, but was always intrigued that it featured a band that went on to work with Alice Cooper. Like most people looking for a starting point, I moved onto Reed through compilation albums- and there were three that i picked up that did a fair job of filling me in - compilations from his days on RCA and Arista.

Like any artist whose career lasts that long, Reed had ups and downs and it's easy to mention the downs- but it's hard to name too many artists who kept hitting highs again and again- "Street Hassle" Berlin, "Coney Island Baby", Transformer, and of course, New York.

Reed post-New York saw his fame rise, and shared stages with Springsteen and Jackson Browne, Bono, and Elvis Costello. His albums geared more towards what he wanted to accomplish, and not aimed for charts or fans. So while I didn't get too excited about subsequent albums, and basically ignored his "Raven" project, his Metallica collaboration, and his meditation music, there was always plenty to discover in Reed.

With all the tributes, there's probably nothing left to stay, but felt like sharing. There's going to be a lot of references to Eno's famous comment "The first Velvet Underground record sold 30,000 copies in the first five years. I think everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band!” Truly, Reed's influence on me was so profound that I wanted to go back and seek out what influenced him (Warhol, Delmore Schwartz, Algren, John Cage, Ornette Coleman) and even still am interested in bands like The Crystal Stilts and Foxygen that take him to the next generation.

Indeed, it's hard to say the Velvet's influence is bigger than the Beatles and Stones, but it is hard to say it isn't. From the noise and feedback of Sonic Youth and Jesus & Mary Chain, the beautiful dream pop of Mazzy Star, to the not quite radio-friendly "hits" of REM and Dream Syndicate. There's no punk. No Stooges. No U2. No New Wave. No art rock. No Suicide. No Chrome. No Joy Division. No Bauhaus. No Patti Smith. No Talking Heads. None of the great New Zealand sound. None of the great American bands like The Feelies and Galaxie 500. No Krautrock. No Siouxsie, no Strokes, and no Arcade Fire.

hard to say where to start with Reed and plenty will be posted today, so I am going with one of the many, many covers. The Cowboy Junkies' version is "based on the slower early version included in 1969: The Velvet Underground Live. Lou Reed himself described it as "the best and most authentic version I have ever heard"".

"" (Watch on YouTube)

Crossposts: http://bedsitter23.livejournal.com/953884.html

Sure, there was Hugo Chavez, but the big buzz was that the WWE's Paul Bearer died.

As the last bit of the cartoony WWF of the 1980s and wrestling to go before the 'realism of the "Attitude era', Bearer was the manager (and storyline father) of the Undertaker.

Most people will know him from that character- manager to one of the most popular and well-known pro wrestlers ever.

However, that character was not what I knew Paul Moody for.

I knew him as the loud, arrogant, and generally annoying Percival "Percy" Pringle III- manager of Rick Rude and others. it is fitting that I am doing a series on music that I grew up with. I should also mention a Saturday morning ritual growing up was World Class Championship Wrestling- "live' wrestling from Dallas, texas- with characters like the Von Erichs, the Fabulous Freebirds, the One Man Gang, Erik Embry, the Missing Link, Chris Adams & Gino Hernandez and others.

You know you should never believe a pro wrestler about anything (ask them, and they will tell you they invented everything first), but I do believe Michael Hayes when he says the WCCW was the first great modern wrestling tv show and the template that the WWF would end up using during their "Attitude" era. Hayes says the WCCW gave people great matches, great feuds, and great storylines, while the two biggest promotions of the day (NWA,WWF) would rarely show their top stars in action, and rarely gave a match that was anything but a star versus a jobber.

In any case, I grew up hating Pringle, which means that he was really good at what he did.

Pringle went on to bigger fame, and per his story was actually an undertaker in real life.

Moody, an Alabama native, told the pro wrestling website PWTorch. com last year that had a degree in mortuary science. He said he was a licensed funeral director and embalmer. He was called to WWE chairman Vince McMahon's office about taking the job as Undertaker's manager without the company knowing his true background.

"It was one those had-to-be-there moments when Vince realized I was the real thing, the real deal," Moody told the website. "I was the real Undertaker."

The quality isn't so good, but this is what I grew up with.

Current Music: Steppenwolf- 16 Greatest Hits
Crossposts: http://bedsitter23.livejournal.com/920981.html

A couple of people passed away and felt I should mention something as I usually do.

Gore Vidal passed away. For brevity, go here for 26 great quotes by the man.

Vidal's life reads like "the most interesting man in the world'. on top of that, the Right attacked him as a gay socialist, and Vidal never ran away from his life or politics, instead embracing the barbs pointed at him.

I became a fan after seeing his interviews. He had an epic interview on Real Time with Bill Maher which a certain Box Office channel continually is taking down. you will have to do with only a snippet.

I read Vidal when he was in my 20s with a book a couple of friends loved, Live from Golgotha. I liked the idea, but didn't really get into the book that much. Comedy blasphemy is fine, but I felt like others (life of Brian, Christopher Moore's Lamb) have done it better.

I went back to Vidal after his Maher interview and read Burr, a book in his Narratives of Empire series. I enjoyed it quite a bit. It reminded a bit of Michener in the way the book developed (my experience with Michener is admittedly limited, so correct me if I am wrong), but it had all these great characters and moments.

I plan on revisiting Vidal in both his nonfiction prose and his other Empire stuff again down the road.

Of course, the big news the media took was that intellectualism was dead, and all these great minds who were huge celebrities- Vidal, Mailer, Capote- are all now dead and gone. I don't quite believe that- their are still a lot of great authors who are well known (. It's just their audiences (no surprise The Daily Show is a big booster) are just a tad bit smaller in a cable world.

I also felt I should say something about Tony Scott. I was a fan of his. I don't know that I share the love for Top Gun the rest of my generation does, but I did really like The Hunger, which may or may not be terrible. You have True Romance on the list as well, but you have a lot of movies that may not be classics, but were solid enjoyable films from the last decade or two (Man on Fire, Crimson Tide, Enemy of the State).

My feelings for Scott are caught by his last film Unstoppable which was an exciting film despite having a plot that you knew from the beginning. The other reason I will always appreciate Scott (That is brother is Ridley, probably doesn't hurt) is that he may have put together the nine finest minutes of celluloid ever captured.

The Hire for BMW films

Apologies to defFrog who covered both of these deaths better already here and here.

There's plenty of more Vidal content on the web if you have time for it. I would start with Democracy Now's remembrance.

Current Music: She Wants Revenge - s/t
Crossposts: http://bedsitter23.livejournal.com/883175.html

You may have heard Norman Sas has passed away.

If you don't recognize the name, he is better known as the founder of Electric Football.

I'm going to steal from Bill Bryson:

The worst toy of the decade [the 1950s], possibly the worst toy ever built...it took forever to set up each play because the men were so fiddly and kept falling over, and because you argued continuously with your opponent about what formations were legal and who got to position the final man...it hardly mattered how they were set up because electric football players never went in the direction intended. In practice what happened was that half the players instantly fell over and lay twitching violently as if suffering from some extreme gastric disorder, while the others streamed off in as many different directions as there were upright players before eventually clumping together in a corner, where they pushed against the unyielding sides like victims of a nightclub fire at a locked exit. The one exception to this was the running back who just trembled in place for five or six minutes, then slowly turned and went on an unopposed glide toward the wrong end zone until knocked over with a finger on the two-yard line by his distressed manager, occasioning more bickering."

Jim Rome and others have spent time on this passing and I hate to say it, but i have to agree. No toy (as a kid) was looked at it with so much excitement, and then once I had it, was so disappointed. I don't want to be someone who hates on nostalgia but it is accurate.

There is something born into me (and many men) that I desperately want to be a professional sports manager or owner. It is why I( and millions of men) love fantasy football and Madden. For me, it was because there was no way I would grow up to be an athlete. In others, it might be that 'armchair quarterback' instinct that if it was up to them, their team would have made that one move that won it all.

i actually had this game and friggin' adored it (and another football game that was decided by dice)- you would put an offense play down and the defense would put a play down and then you would turn on a light bulb and it would reveal what went down. of course, video games made all of the above obsolete, but I am still a huge football coach wannabe.

Anyway, enjoy some Electric Football greatness (I apologize for the video host's enthusiasm).

Current Music: The Smiths- Hatful of Hollow
Crossposts: http://bedsitter23.livejournal.com/866473.html

I was a big Bradbury fan so I feel I need to say something about his recent passing.

I discovered Bradbury ain those all-important pre-teenage years, and I loved him.

I started with Martian Chronicles (which I did enjoy), but it was the entrancing Something Wicked this way comes and the short-story collection The Illustrated Man. Those books had a profound effect on me.

In my 20s, I tried Fahrenheit 451 but didn't really enjoy it. There are a couple of possibilities why I didn't like it. For starters, at that point in my life, there were a handful of books I gave up on. I think I was just too busy for reading. Another thought was that I had recently finished 1984 and that book may have stole some thunder from 451. In any case, it's quite likely that by the time I got to this book, i had seen and read similar stories that had been written since and were more to my liking or more modern.

You should know about me that my genre of choice growing up was speculative fiction. I was a huge fan of The Twilight and Bradbury. I have only in recent years, read or plan on reading the big Sci Fi names (Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein). I also (except an occasional terry Brooks book) was never that much into Fantasy, despite spending much of my teenage years with devotees of JRR Tolkien and Fred Saberhagen.

I have through the years checked out some of the more recent Bradbury stuff. Like any writer with a similar CV, there has been nothing that captured my attention like those big "hits". That said, some of the short stories have been excellent, some were enjoyable, and some I could have skipped. Discussions I have had with others who grew up with Bradbury skew the same way.

In any case, he was a favorite writer as a teen and I will always appreciate that.