Category: Music

The Musical Industrial Complex: A closer look

 

By: Guest Writer Cranky Yanky

I recently embarked on a mission to discover some “new” music, or better stated, music that is “new to me.”  Since I am quickly approaching the age of 60, I have now been listening to a lot of the same music for several decades, whether voluntarily or not, and quite frankly, I’ve had enough!  Thankfully, technology now affords us access to almost all recorded music, so I decided to explore this extensive “virtual” record collection for possible hidden gems.  What follows is my “music mining” process:

  1. My search began in 1964, so I went to the Wikipedia page called “1964 in Music.” There it lists all the notable album releases for that year month by month. I then clicked on each musical act of interest which took me to their corresponding Wikipedia page. Once there, I pulled up the musician’s discography and downloaded all studio albums released during that decade (avoiding live releases or compilations and I also excluded music genres that I know I do not enjoy – Jazz, Country, and Progressive Rock.)
  2. After downloading all of the 1960s releases from several musical acts, I then began to listen to EVERY song using what I call the 30-second rule.  By “30-second rule” I mean that I gave each track “up to” 30 seconds to capture my interest and/or not bore me.  I immediately skipped any “hit” or familiar songs.  (I also avoided “bonus” tracks like demos and alternate versions.)
  3. All songs that survived my 30-second rule were then placed into a playlist to weed out the weaklings.  The “survivors” now comprise the song lists that I will be enjoying for my remaining time in this earthly realm.

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On the lighter side … weekend fun

Glen Campbell (1936-2017) was, in my view, one of the best natural musicians that I have ever encountered, probably the best guitar player. As you will note if you watch the interview above with Bob Costas, he also was a very charming, natural, and funny man. (It took Costas a few minutes to see what Campbell was really saying about his acting in the movie True Grit that earned John Wayne his best actor gig. He was subtly suggesting that he was so bad that he made Wayne look very good.)

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So, what’s more fun than talking about Beatles?

This video was posted in the comments under my Friday Tidbits piece, and has taken on a life of its own. So I decided to bring it front and center. It is loaded, and I mean loaded, with oddball things, but what caught my eye most was the appearance of original Paul McCartney, but only in brief shots, a few seconds each. He is mocking the Beatlemania days, doing the headbanging and woooos, all the while playing left-handed bass. Take a look at the screencap below the fold. The guy I say is Beatlemania Paul is circled in orange.

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How terribly strange to be twenty-six

Two things are really bugging me this morning, one that in the musical piece above, it is not only preceded by a commercial, but that they interject one too. They actually cut into the music and start talking about f****** insurance! That is about as indifferent to human suffering as anyone I know can be, even my ex-wife.
 
The other is that line, “How terribly strange to be seventy.” I know, Paul Simon (current age, 79) was only 26 when he wrote it, and from that perspective, being seventy looked like the end of life. His description of old men sitting on park benches in another song, Bookends, has them merely waiting to die.
 

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Ear Worms

Maarten wrote some time back about a phenomenon in music we call “ear worms,” though I cannot locate that specific piece. I’ve been suffering a bad case lately. Two songs have haunted me, one that I resent, the other that is just fun.

The one I resent is “Paul” McCartney, the original Paul, singing “For No One” from their 1966 album Revolver.  It is a haunting melody about losing a lover, that devastating feeling most of us know when after deep emotional involvement, we simply don’t matter anymore. Nothing can be done but get over the pain and move forward.

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McCartneyism

A commenter, Den, some time back suggested that I watch the movie Give My Regards to Broad Street, put out in 1984, written (supposedly) by “Paul” McCartney.” I say “supposedly” because I have no belief in the man’s integrity, knowing as I do that there are two of them. A lot of great songs have come our way from this pair, but the question I ask is that even if we assume Paul McCartney wrote that stuff, well then which one?

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Healing Vibes

For a change of pace, I am putting on my energy healer hat for the time being. I offer this post today to help uplift minds, bodies, and spirits, on this sunny Sunday afternoon as I take a brief in-breath from all the dismal narratives, of which I often contemplate, analyze, and discuss. This soundtrack, featuring a very talented sound healer and medicine woman named Vylana, resonates deeply within me, and perhaps it may for you . . .

For those who may want to learn more about sound healing:

Thanks for the memories

We are on the Amalfi Coast today, having down time. We are meeting our daughter for dinner later this evening, and the town of Almalfi is just wall-to-wall shops and tourists, so inside is better than outside. So I have been laying here on the bed looking at old photos of the Beatles, trying to figure out the Paul/Mike dynamic.

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My Sunday morning … wasted efforts and ramblings

Martin Sheen flipped

A reader suggested that I take a look at Charlie Sheen as being a Matt Damon Batch member, and I didn’t have to look long. There are certain characteristics that immediately jump out at me, among them the part on the left side of the head, the square jaw, and what has to be considered ruggedly handsome features of leading man quality.

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It’s murder I say … murr-durr

ITheory of murder

I start from the basis of the theory that James Paul McCartney is dead since September 1966 and that he was intentionally.

I do not get involved in theories such as, many doubles, twin brother or that he is alive. Nor do I get involved in comparisons of faulized photos that flood the web or in declarations of the same faul who does not know their own history. All this has no chance of integrating into the context of the environment that surrounded the Beatles until 66 and has prevailed to this day, which explains why the lie is still valid.

A premeditated death must have a motive, a cause. It’s a matter of thinking, who has the power to keep a lie for so many years. Faul alone could never have done it. He was only fortunate in having some resemblance to the victim, he was selected, his reward was adjudging property, money and fame of a deceased. And he keeps working for them.

The intellectual authors are those who have much to gain, and for them winning is not money, it is power. They have their plans and if some get in these, they eliminate them. The world is full of these examples.

The music industry is just one of the many ways they use to achieve their desires. They just have to find those who have the potential to serve their plans.

In those days the plan was to manipulate the youth, with music and drugs to instill ideologies.In this context the Beatles were found when they became famous and were targeted. First they would involve them in any way and make them try LSD. Three of them gave in and were caught, but not one of them. The result is PID. (Salvador Leopoldo Vanda Soler)

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