Posts Tagged ‘ popular music ’

Remembering the Silver Fox

July 25, 2010
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Remembering the Silver Fox

By Larry Kaufmann Probably no greatly popular American singer had less desire to be a superstar than Charlie Rich. Private, modest and unassuming, he shunned the limelight and sometimes literally wished he could be fishing rather than on stage. Wanted or not, though, fame would come, with more than two-dozen songs on the country and pop charts in the 1970s, making Charlie Rich the biggest country music crossover star of his time. The ultimate irony is that success came as country’s “Silver Fox,” since Charlie Rich could rock like Elvis, swing like Ella, croon like Sinatra, and plumb soulful depths second only to the Queen of Soul herself. He was the musical twin of Ray Charles, at home in multiple genres and bringing a uniquely soulful fusion of musical styles to everything he sang or played. Very little of this was known by country music fans back in the day, and it’s almost completely forgotten now. In fact, if Charlie Rich is remembered at all, it is almost as a punch line to the mawkish and clichéd hit song “Behind Closed Doors.” That is more than a shame, because the Silver Fox left behind a complex and deeply felt (although

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Another Angle on Sinatra’s ‘Way’

February 26, 2010
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Another Angle on Sinatra’s ‘Way’

Essay by Hal White Perhaps only The American Culture (TAC) can talk intelligently about Frank Sinatra and simultaneously leave a reader wondering about the limits of personal responsibility. But that’s exactly what an article by Mike D’Virgilio has done—at least in my tiny little brain—for several weeks now. Perhaps I should start at the beginning. In 2009 TAC ran a brief article on Sinatra’s famous song “My Way” and its narcissistic lyrics. As most will recall, this song celebrates the premise that throughout the singer’s life he did things his way and was proud of that fact as he reflected on it in his later years. Like Mike D’Virgilio, I’ve long disliked this song for sending such a message. However, D’Virgilio indicated in his article (quoting from a Wall Street Journal column), that since Sinatra “utterly hated” this song—and only sang it because his audience wanted to hear it—that this revelation redeemed Sinatra in his eyes. I’ll grant you that I feel better about Sinatra now that I’ve learned this. But should that be the end of our analysis? I recently read a fascinating news article which discussed what’s called the “My Way” killings in the Philippines. The article was

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The Golden Age of Rock n’ Roll

February 13, 2010
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The Golden Age of Rock n’ Roll

I’ve remarked to my children several thousand times how great the rock n’ roll era from the late 1960s to the mid 1970s was compared with the drek of popular music today. As I do this I throw out the names of artists and bands that all put their unique imprint on the sounds of the day. Recently I was listening to the ridiculously heavy Highway Star by Deep Purple from “Made in Japan,” and thought I should put a list to paper, virtually speaking of course, to prove my point. This is just a partial list of music I enjoy to one degree or another from that era: The Beatles                       Led Zeppelin                    Genesis The Doors                         The Who                             The Rolling Stones Jimmy Hendrix              The Beach Boys               Cream ZZ Top                                Queen                                  David Bowie Elton John                        The Allman Brothers    Deep Purple Yes                                       Black Sabbath                  King Crimson Steely Dan                         Bob Dylan                         Emerson, Lake & Palmer Frank Zappa                     Jethro Tull                       Pink Floyd Neil Young                       Stevie Wonder                 Kansas Rush                                   Robin Trower                  Ten Years After Santana                             Aerosmith I’m sure there are many more. Of course those who grew up in previous and later eras will tell me I’m just deluded by

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Grammy Wrap-Up

February 13, 2007
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Grammy Wrap-Up

  I am seldom capable of watching an awards show, as they are just too painfully stupid. Hence I am grateful to EWTN TV host Raymond Arroyo for providing us with a nice summary of the recent Grammy Awards program on National Review Online. After recounting the ghastly affair, Arroyo offers the following conclusion:  Given this one night’s collective assault on the ears, the eyes, and decency itself, is it any wonder that record sales have plummeted? If this is the best that the American recording industry has to offer the world, their future is very bleak indeed. While relatively cheap music downloads doubled last year, the industry’s bread and butter, CDs sales, continued to slide. In the year 2000, ’N Sync sold more than nine million copies of their album, No Strings Attached. This year’s bestseller, High School Musical sold a paltry 3.7 million. Big retailers like Musicland and Tower Records have called it quits for good. People will download a tune here and there, but their devotion to individual artists is slipping; their willingness to plop down 18 bucks to hear slickly packaged, homogenized drek is gone. As one record exec told a Canadian newspaper this week, “I

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Neil Young’s “Living with War”

November 11, 2006
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Neil Young’s “Living with War”

To get a feel for the new political atmosphere in the wake of the Democrats’ takeover of both houses of Congress, I’ve been listening to Neil Young’s most recent album, Living with War, recently, which was released earlier this year. As you may be aware, especially if you’ve seen the superb Saturday Night Live parody of it, the album is a collection of retro-1960s-style "protest" songs opposing the Bush administration and the American public’s sheeplike acceptance of his many atrocities (ooops—overtaken by events, Dude!). A sympathetic appraisal of one of the most talked-about songs on the album, "Let’s Impeach the President," can be found here. It captures what some people find to like about the album—its lyrics. I’m always much more taken with and interested in the sound of a musical composition rather than its words, and Living with War certainly is a disaster in terms of musicality. Nearly all of the songs are musically primitive, as is apparently Young’s intention, presumably to ensure that the listener attends primarily to the lyrics. The latter, however, are just as mundane and uncreative as the music. Consider these characteristic lines, from the ingeniously titled ditty "Shock and Awe": Back in the days

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"Culture is the expression of the guiding philosophy of the day."—Murray Rothbard
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