Thursday June 14
NXNE now starts with some films on Monday, but you can't really pick up your press pass until Wednesday so I missed a few worthy films. I did pick up my pass on Wednesday but didn't get around to seeing anything that night. So we start off with;
Bad Religion (Dundas Square);
Bad Religion is one of those classic punk bands the appeal of which has always escaped me. Don't get me wrong, I think they are a good band and all, tight and consistent, and I respect their integrity in founding a label (Epitaph) which played a pivotal role in bringing punk to the masses without selling out. But I have always found them basically faceless. Perhaps this is not entirely their fault, we can hardly blame them for the fact that so many other punk bands lifted their sound. But at the same time they never came up with a real distinctive sound like their contemporaries The Offspring, or an ability to develop and grow creatively like Green Day. Their refusal to do interviews doesn't help either. At any rate I was happy to head down to see them at Dundas Square. Until I got there. The Dundas Square shows were always an uncomfortable experience, having to stand for hours on a crowded concrete square hoping to get a brief glimpse at the band on stage while being constantly jostled and sweated on is no longer my idea of fun. NXNE has blithely made this even more of a trial by expanding the drinking tent and worse by cramming the square with merch tables like it's a flea market in Istanbul without the charm (or food). And by merch I don't mean band merch like t-shirts, CD's and posters. That wouldn't take up much space at all. No we are talking about giant booths for the likes of Sprint or Verizon, which nobody there would have the slightest interest in and who do not exactly suffer from lack of exposure. I mean seriously, is anybody really going to take time out from a concert to compare cell phone plans? Is a potential customer off the street going to push his way through the crowd to do so? The booths have also gotten larger this year, with metal superstructures and roofs just to make sure that they block everybody's view. I ask you is it asking too much not to have corporate ads everywhere? Just to make doubly sure they annoy the largest number of people they also chose to place the booths not only along the sides of the stage but ringing around the front as well, thus not only blocking the view of anyone behind them but also hemming in those in front. If there had been some sort of stampede for any reason people could have been killed in the crush of such an enclosed space. Oh well I guess it's a small price to pay in the name of youth oriented product placement. It's soooo punk rawk mannn! All this made it seem more crowded than Iggy Pop two years ago even though there were less people. Not that I'm blaming the band for this of course. They sounded fine, played a long set and I even caught a brief glimpse of them once or twice. Just a glimpse mind you, enough to make sure there was actually a band on stage rather than just a backing tape.
BAD RELIGION ~ "AMERICAN JESUS";
Glory Hound (The Bovine);
After leaving Dundas Square I made a beeline to the Bovine too catch the Nils but I actually got there early enough for the openers. Gloryhound are from Nova Scotia I think and are a fairly bombastic hard rock band who are tight enough but nothing special.
The Nils (The Bovine);
Of all the stories of Canadian bands that should'a made it but didn't The Nils were the most cursed. A Montreal punk band from the late eighties formed by two brothers Carlos and Alex Soria that I grew up on. Their first two indie eps are still among the very best Canadian punk of the era, or any other. At the time they were bandied about as Canada's answer to the Replacements. Unfortunately their only major label album was a disappointment and they soon broke up. A couple years back Alex killed himself while in the midst of a comeback attempt. Eventually Carlos decided to struggle on with some sort of lineup and recorded a new album. They only played a few of their early songs here which I can sort of understand but found disappointing, especially the hurried way they whipped through them. Their newer songs are OK, their cover of Neil Young's "Everybody knows this is nowhere" was pretty cool though.
THE NILS ~ "FREEDOM";
Revolvers (The El Mocambo);
I was getting pretty tired so after taking a much needed munchie break I wandered down to the El Mo. The Revolvers are a local noisy garage band, or a garagey noise band, whichever. I don't actually recall their songs but they were pretty good at the time.
Bleached (The Silver Dollar Room);
Note to the Black Belles and the Dum Dum Girls (see below); garage punk should have more than one tempo, preferably fairly fast. Another all-girl garage buzz band this year. Bleached pay less attention to looking cool and more to being a good old fashioned rock and roll party. The fact that the band is led by two sisters, Jessica and Jennifer Clavin, from a previous band, Mika Miko, certainly helps. They have the experience and confidence not to worry about their chic outfits and just rock out. They also have better songs (and more of them) and they play better as well. They are also more comfortable and fun on stage. Turns out a little experience really does matter.
BLEACHED ~ "THINK OF YOU";
Friday June 15 2012;
FILMS;
Ja Javla Metal; The story of Swedish Heavy Metal;
The title says it all really; all things metal from Sweden from Yngvwie Malmsteen (sorry that should read Y,,,,,, J Malmsteen, wouldn't want to get him confused with all the other Yngvwie Malmsteens out there) and Europe to Bathory and Candlemass to Entombed and In Flames. With the focus on the 1980's and early 1990's and done in a methodical just-the-facts style that offers no flash but probably appeals to the metal fan's latent desire to be taken seriously. And now I know more than I ever thought I needed to about Swedish Metal.
CANDLEMASS ~ "BEWITCHED";
My father and the Man in Black;
Did you know that for from the 1960's to the 1980's Johnny Cash's manager was a Jewish guy from London, Ontario? Me neither. Sol Holiff was his name and he was almost a stereotype of the sort of Jewish businessmen (often with little or no entertainment experience) who became managers, record label owners, film moguls and comic book publishers in the early to mid twentieth century. He was a serious, sober, hard working, suit wearing, humorless, hard nose who devoted himself to client 24/7 and treated his family like despised employees. He felt bad about though and after he killed himself a few years ago he left behind a whole store room of documents, photos and tapes that his alienated son use to base this movie on. It provides a more nuanced story of the enigmatic figure of cash than "Walk the line" while also giving us a deeply personal family as well. It's self indulgent of course but given the subject matter it gets away with it.
JOHNNY CASH ~ "HURT";
Music;
The Coppertone (The Horseshoe);
Fronted by Toronto based Amanda Zelina's big voice and 1970's stadium guitars Coppertone conjure up obvious comparisons like Heart, Suzi Quartro, The Headpins and Toronto (the 80's band that is). There are certainly plenty of worse role models lord knows.
The Black Belles (The Horseshoe);
The latest buzzband are an all girl garage four piece from Nashville via Jack White who dress up like Go-Go Morticia Adams with matching long black hair and top hats and black lipstick and eye liner. They look great of course and I can certainly see the appeal of four cool goth garage chicks. Just like the Dum Dum Girls last year. Unfortunately I found their one tempo, three chord drone a little dull after a while. They are going to have to change it up a bit. Just like the Dum Dum Girls. Bonus points for their trudge through a version of the classic Nickerbockers' 60's nugget "Lies" which may not be nearly as good as the original of course but was still kinda cool.
THE BLACK BELLES ~ "LIES";
Andre Williams & The Sadies (The Horseshoe);
As one of the last men standing of the classic R&B era we should be amazed to have Andre still alive let alone fully active. Not only performing but recording new material as well. Considering the dissolute life of drugs he led for the last fifty years he is lucky to be alive at all, let alone capable of doing a show in the summer heat. He knows it to, delivering a nice little speech of thanks to those (like the Sadies and Toronto audiences in general) who kept the faith while he got into rehab. By all accounts he has been fully on the wagon now for a couple of years and he does look healthier and more alert than in years past. The set was not very long but he kept out a good energy level. Of course having a quick mid-set pimp gear costume change probably helps but if anyone can pull off that sort of vanity move it's Andre. As per usual the Sadies provide their usual empathetic backing making the whole "Andre Williams sings cow-punk" concept seem natural. To be honest Andre's voice is pretty much shot by now but he was always more of a presence and a composer/arranger than a pure singer anyway. At any rate as one of the last guys of his era still around and capable of still doing adventurous work that appeals to those younger and hipper than your average oldies crowd Andre owes it to us to keep on truckin'.
ANDRE WILLIAMS ~ "SWEET LITTLE PUSSYCAT";
The Reigning Sound (The Horseshoe);
Led by former frontman for North Carolina's garage vets The Oblivians (and briefly Toronto's Deadly Snakes) Greg Cartwright, gave a short class in neo-garage. Short punchy three chord songs? Check. Catchy choruses? Check. Hummable solos? Check. Farfisa borrowed from Dell Shannon? Ditto. A modicum of variety so that all the songs don't sound exactly the same? Got it. Granted they look a little paunchy but I do hope the Black Belles were taking notes.
THE REIGNING SOUND ~ "Can't hold on";
Saturday June 16 2012;
Films;
Jobriath A.D. (NFB);
This is a requiem for a lightweight. In the early 1970's Jobriath was New York's answer to David Bowie. His complete and utter failure was proof that most Americans had never asked the question after all. Everything that Bowie did Jobriath went even further. Bowie wore make up and dresses? Then Jobriath would wear tights and jester makeup. Bowie sang about space and declared he was from Mars? Jobriath wrote space operas and claimed he was from Heaven. Bowie dabbled in the theater? Jobriath would use ballet and performance art of the most ridiculously overblown type. Bowie would rely on wildly bombastic hype? Jobriath would have billboards you could practically see from Mars. Bowie had an egomaniacal manager with delusions of grandeur? Jobriath could find an even shadier megalomaniac manager. Bowie claimed he was bisexual? Jobriath shouted he was rock and roll's first "true fairy". It was all too much, especially for America circa 1973. He put out two big budget albums on Elektra and even with massive publicity and a television appearance they both sank without a trace. And that was that. He was washed up in his early twenties. He would end up years later playing Cole Porter tunes in a piano bar. When he died of AIDS in 1983 it went unnoticed. Even the gay community didn't care, they had disco by then. Of course like all artists who fail completely he has gained a small cult following with the likes of Morrissey, Klaus Nomi and Jayne County. And he was certainly not without talent. A classically trained pianist and composer/arranger he had total creative control of everything and manged to get the likes of Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones, Disco diva Gloria Jones and Richard Gere into the studio. The results are thoroughly competent pomp rock not wildly dissimilar to some of the contemporary work of Bowie or Queen. With the notable absence of a catchy single for radio. He also had never been in a band before, or played a single gig. His only prior experience was a stint on a production of Hair and a few promising demos. Since he had built no audience of his own his management decided to blast their way on to the charts in one rush with the most expensive and overblown ad blitz ever seen for an unknown act. Of course it went down like a lead balloon with rock jocks and critics who had much more power in those days and who deeply resented this preening poseur who had paid no dues. Naturally once it was clear that there was no likely hit single they attacked like hyenas on a wounded gazelle. As might have been expected the record company was not exactly pleased with the amount of money spent on the fiasco either and after it met an even more obscure death they dumped him. In explaining his short whirlwind career the film explains the fiasco by pointing out the delusional publicity and the homophobia of middle America but gives the impression that he could have otherwise made it or that he was just ahead of his time. When he finally went out on his one and only tour he finally figured out how to perform and win over an audience. If only Elektra had given the second album more support. If only radio and the media had given him a second chance. He could'a been a contender. I disagree; I say the whole project was wrongheaded from the start. The film is as blissfully unaware of the changing currents in rock and roll in the mid seventies as Jobriath himself was. At the same time he was sitting in New York working out plans for a massive rock opera and attending chi-chi parties with Warhol there indeed was a scene happening in New York that would change rock forever. But it was happening over at the Bowery and it is impossible to picture him at grungy CBGB's. The bloated pomp rock of Jobriath was a painfully out of touch with punk as Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Yes, Uriah Heep or the Moody Blues. Without his having the fallback of having had previous hits and a legion of fans to rely on. Even Bowie and Queen spotted that trend and retooled their look and sound. What was Jobriath going to do? It's true that in just a few years there would be an actual underground with a network of clubs, indie labels, zines and campus radio that would have been more open. But he doubtless would have little desire to be part of such a low rent scene. For Jobriath it was the big time or nothing. He got nothing. And he was unable to figure out a way back. The movie is a thorough and interesting story of a puzzling figure from an different era. I did not leave it becoming a fan but I did feel sympathy for his hopeless crusade to take rock in exactly the wrong direction at the wrong time. Lord knows we've had worse, even in the 1970's. He could have at least lived long enough to appear in "Velvet Goldmine".
JOBRIATH ~ "I'MAMAN";
Slaughter Nick for president (NFB);
Remember a cheesy TV crime show from the 1980's called "Sweating Bullets"? Featuring a private eye named Nick Slaughter and set somewhere in the tropics and basically combined the drama of "Miami Vice" with the suspense of "Bay Watch". I vaguely recall seeing it one or twice, probably in reruns. At any rate it turns out that it's combo of endless summer and bloodless violence made it a huge escapist hit in Serbia at the very time that people were taking it to the streets to bring down the Slobodan Milosevic regime. So much so that Nick Slaughter became a symbol of freedom for millions of Serbs. All this somehow happened with the real Nick Slaughter, Canadian actor Rob Stewart being completely unaware until a Serbian punk band who wrote a song about invited him to Serbia. This film is about that trip. It's a tribute of sorts to the power of pop culture, no matter how trivial.
Marianas Trench (Much Music stage);
On my way to get some food I passed by the Much Music stage where Marianas Trench were rehearsing for their MMVA awards appearance. They weren't wearing their full on stage clothes and makeup so they looked slightly less emo. They also had some black female backup singers which is something all pasty white bands like to do to show they're aware of their "roots". You know, like Motown and stuff. This is assuming Motown had pasty white emo kids with silly hairdos doing souless kiddie stadium rock. Mind you given that those twits from LMFAO are actually Barry Gordy's offspring I wouldn't put it past them.
Shellshag (The El Mocambo);
A loud guitar/drums two piece from New York. Two piecers are an inherently limited genre and Shellshag do not transcend those limits, but they don't embarrass them either.
Limblifter (El Mocambo);
Limblifter were a moderately popular Vancouver band from the mid-nineties era of post grunge indie guitar bands. Apparently the mid nineties are now officially retro enough to justify a reunion. I have only a vague memory of them from back then but they were pretty good here straight forward and unpretentious. Although as is usual with this type of band I can't actually remember any of the songs. The fairly large crowd, who seemed to know all the songs were pleased though.
LIMBLIFTER ~ "VICIOUS";
Meanwood (Rancho Relaxo);
I haven't heard of these guys before even though they're local. They are a pretty cool cow punk with a female singer who can shout with the best of them and the occasional banjo when they want to open up a big can of white trash. They must gave been pretty good to convince me to stay in the always sweltering Rancho. Worth further investigating.
Les Breastfeeders (El Mocambo);
I was pretty worn out by this point and ready to call it a week but not before seeing Montreal's best Ye-Ye garage band. They've been mining this vein for a while now but they always make it seem like it's the newest thing. And they are Ye-Ye enough to always bring their A game no matter how late or small the crowd. There was no too-cool-to-sweat posing for them. Les Breastfeeders were so lively (not to mention well dressed) that I almost forgot it was 2am. Then I went home to sleep.
LES BREASTFEEDERS ~ "400 MILES";
No I did not go to see The Flaming Lips on Saturday. I thought about it, but after coming out of the two movies I saw it was about 9pm and I absolutely had to get something to eat, and a bathroom, definitely a bathroom, or else. By the time I finished a much needed if meager meal it was around 10pm. I still could have made my way down to Dundas Square but after the thoroughly annoying experience of Bad Religion the first day (ie crowing and sightlines blocked by corporate ad booths) I basically said screw it since I knew the crowd would be even bigger for the Lips on a Saturday.
Saturday, 23 June 2012
Tuesday, 29 May 2012
Report from the 88.1fm freeding frenzy
The announcement last fall that the CRTC was opening up the last major FM radio frequency in Toronto led to a larger than usual deluge of applications to fill it. The various applicants show a vast array of Toronto's population from Christians to Gays, from Sikhs to Tamils, from French to Jamaicans, from Indie Rock to Blues. There are applications for talk radio and various music genres mixed in with applications from Ryerson and the CBC. Originally there were 27 applicants but by the final deadline they were down to 22. Here then are the applicants (drumroll please and save your applause till the end);
1. The Evanov Group and PROUD FM;
Owned by Bill Evanov, PROUD FM is the "Gay themed" radio station that has been on air since 2007 at 103.9fm with a small 60 watt signal, and they are looking to upgrade to a larger signal capable of reaching the entire city. Evanov started this bidding war by putting in the first application which acted as a starter's pistols for everyone else. Besides PROUD FM Evanov also owns numerous other stations across Canada and last year was granted a similar license for a Gay themed station in Montreal. One bonus for this one, besides being able to claim they are representing a marginalized community, is that Evanov is proposing to move from 103.9 to 88.1fm which would then open up 103.9 fm for bidding for those who wanted another chance at this. The CRTC might actually like that since it would mean the weren't quite giving away the final signal while at the same time the smaller reach of 103.9 fm would probably convince some of the others to drop out leading to a smaller feeding frenzy next time.
PROUD FM promo;
http://www.proudfm.com/
2. Ryerson University;
Actually Ryerson started off the feeding frenzy in the first place when they lost the license for the previous Ryerson based station, CKLN, whose license was revoked in 2010 as we all know by now. Their attempt to regain the license uses a couple of the old CKLN management and has the support of the National Campus Radio Association (mostly from out west), but is far more Ryerson-centric and not really a true community station than was CKLN. They are promising a mix of "ethnic" programming with Ryerson sports and live music which seems a little vague and confusing and probably of little interest to any non-Ryerson student. In fact it may of little interest even to them. As the CRTC pointed out several times the referendum that agreed to fund the station had only a 10% voter turnout. Another question is whether Ryerson be rewarded for shutting down the last station they had.
Radio Ryerson Promo;
http://ryersonradio.com/
3. The CBC;
Anyone hoping they were looking at moving CBC 3 to the airwaves can forget it, this is an application for a French language repeater station. The CBC has certain advantages over other applications in that they don't have to prove they are financially sustainable, because they're the CBC. And they don't have to prove they have technical and professional experience and know-how, because they're the CBC. It is also part of the expressed mandate of both the CBC and the CRTC to promote National Unity and Bilingualism. In fact the CBC has basically said that they are entitled to the signal and shouldn't even have to bid with all these peasants. That didn't earn many friends. However there is a legitimate question as to whether Toronto's tiny Francophone community warrants a radio station anyway. The current audience for French language TV stations in Toronto is negligible and a couple of years ago Champlain Books, Toronto's venerable French bookstore, was forced to close it's doors. Then there is the matter of whether it is a good idea for the Mother Corp to be starting another radio station while they are going through serious budget cuts. As an additional wrinkle there is another French language application coming from CHOQ FM, and you can imagine all the manufactured outrage from the Tories and their mouthpieces over at the Sun if CBC got it over CHOQ, or anyone else for that matter.
4. CHOQ FM;
A French language station operating with a tiny signal at 1watt on 105.1fm since 2006, like PROUD FM they are looking to upgrade to a larger signal. They face the same questions about the viability of a French station in Toronto. They may have one advantage over the CBC however; a local track record and the knowledge that Toronto's Francophone community is different than Ottawa's in that many don't come from Quebec, Acadia or Northern Ontario (unlike CBC staff) but from Africa and Haiti. The CBC signal is going to be a repeater signal anyway so if there is an actual need for a French station in Toronto it would be better to give it to a group with actual local roots. Like PROUD FM they would also be giving up their current signal, tiny though it is.
www.choq.fm
5. CARN FM;
The Caribbean station owned by Fitzroy Gordon which only got it's license last year now wants an upgrade, moving from 96.8 to 88.1fm. Like the PROUD FM application this would then open up 96.8 to someone else. They now say they need an upgrade to survive, but since they've only been on air less than a year the CRTC is unlikely to be very impressed with this claim. In their application they also take time out to basically call the CBC jerks and liars for opposing them the last time out so that should be fun. At least this time Gordon manages to avoid bragging about his close personal friendship with Stephen Harper and Jason Kenny as he has in every interview in the past year.
Fitzroy Gordon whines about the CBC again;
http://g987fm.com/
6. INDIE 88;
An application from Barrie based Rock 95 to start an "Indie Rock" station which appear to similar to the much beloved CFNY in it's 1980's glory days, before it turned into the much watered down "Edge 102". This one may be a bit of a long-shot but it has gotten some support from the local music scene (I must point out that I also wrote a letter of support) and if done right could appeal to the same kind of engaged scenesters. To win over such a grass roots audience they will have to prove that even though they are in Barrie they can get deeply in touch with the local scene. Then again CFNY started out in Burlington and that worked out pretty well. They also have to be able to define what "Indie" music means to the CRTC who seem to have some trouble with the concept.
INDIE 88
7. DAWG FM;
An application for a "Rock and Blues" station from two brothers who own a similar station in Ottawa where it's worked out well. They have generated one of the largest amount of support letters and there is certainly an audience for blues that is not being served by the bland JAZZ FM. The Ottawa Blues Festival is a big yearly event that one would think could be exported here easily. However the Toronto blues club scene has dried up over the last decade as the audience has moved out further to the suburbs and not been replaced with younger fans. The fading Toronto Blues Society has failed utterly to face this problem so how would DAWG deal with this? At any rate their schedule seems to lean more towards the rock end of things so they might be competing more with Q107 anyway. Oh, and their logo is really ugly too. Still; it's not a bad idea. This is my second favorite one after Indie 88. They also have the support of Dan Ackroyd who appeared via tele-conference
DAWG FM Promo;
http://www.dawgfm.com/
8. Zoomer Radio;
Moses Znaimer's radio for people too old for that darn internet thingy wants to expand. They say their AM 740 signal is so crappy that they just have to move. Unlike PROUD FM or CARN he does not want to give up his current signal however. That does raise an obvious question; if AM 740 is so terrible why do they insist on keeping it? He does have a letter of support from Anne Murray though. So there.
http://www.zoomerradio.ca/
9. CHIN;
Toronto's longstanding multicultural pioneer looks to expand as well, with additional language programming for Russian, Tagalog, Vietnamese and Farsi. They are also not into giving up any of their existing signals. CHIN has an excellent track record and few enemies, and can honestly claim to represent communities otherwise not well served. They are genuinely popular in such circles and have made a lot of high placed friends in politics and should not be discounted. CHIN has proved that is is possible for such a station to pay it's bills and behave professionally. However does Toronto really need another CHIN station?
http://www.chinradio.com/
10. Trust Ministries;
A Christian group who own two other radio stations. Oddly enough manager Scott Jackson used to work for Bill Evanov (of PROUD FM) so that should make for an interesting reunion. They have apparently been working on this for a while and were the second group to announce their intentions (after Evanov) and Jackson also ran a mega successful Christian station in Nashville so they are no amateurs. They are also a registered charity. Their website acknowledges they are a bit of a long shot and asks supporters to pray. I'd say they didn't have a prayer but that would just be wrong.
Trust Ministries promo
http://www.lifeonline.fm/toronto.html
11. Family FM;
This one is a little odd. They are claiming to be focused on "Families" whatever that means. Since when is that a genre? They focus on the likes of Raffi and Sharon, Lewis and Bram, but then admit that that will only make up a small part of their actual programming, the rest is bland easy listening. Their vague format is vainly searching for a niche that probably does not exist in any real way. Actually the head of this one, Paul Fredricks, is connected with a Christian Bookstore called "Faith Family Books" which explains alot, although they don't mention the Christian part. They also have the involvement of Jane Hawtin (ex of Q107, CFRB and CBC) who brings radio experience and Pinball Clemmons (ex of The Argos) who brought some jokes and his big smile to the hearings.
http://www.eiradionetworks.com/FamilyFM/about.html
12. BIZ 88;
An application for a Business news format. This has been tried by Blumberg in New York and gotten consistently poor ratings for years. However because of it's high-end audience advertisers may not mind that very much. It's also pretty cheap to run. They have veteran TV news journalist Donna Skelly on board. There was a previous attempt at an "All Business and Traffic and Weather" format a few years ago that quickly failed, even after they desperately tried to attract attention by airing right wing crackpot shows from America like Glen Beck and other denizens of FOX. Since apparently that's what our business leaders want; bizarro conspiracy theories about Obama and Hitler. I can't imagine why that didn't catch on here. Their programming has a lot of blank spots that they are vague on how they intend to fill, which doesn't instill a lot of faith. However that previous station was a low power station with only a localized signal by the airport. This one is run by the same group that owns CHCH in Hamilton who recently had to apologize for accidentally running porn on the air. Nobody mentioned that though since that's presumably not part of their programming plans.
http://biz88.ca/
13. World Band Media;
Another talk radio application. This one has deep pockets and a former Mike Harris era Cabinet Minster on it's Board so they are not fooling around. To prove it, along with their application they also filed a separate and amazing 29 page hostile intervention attacking all the other applications which is pretty hard hitting. Still it's another talk radio format that belongs on AM and which doesn't offer a very convincing argument in their own favour as they want yet another droning talk radio station. Because Toronto doesn't have enough of those already. The best argument they can come up with is to basically say that every other type of radio is going downhill anyway so it's pointless to resist, like talk radio is the Borg or something. Still; should the last FM signal in Toronto be wasted on a talk radio format that really belongs on AM if at all? I think not.
http://www.worldbandmedia.com/
14. TNT Media;
Yet another Talk Radio application. This time from a Montreal group who already own a station there and promise "Extreme, Explosive Talk Radio", (translation; American style all-outrage-all-the-time) and their application uses a lot of exclamation points. Great, that's just what we need. Especially on FM. That above mentioned hostile intervention from Worldband is especially disdainful of this one. But not as much as I am.
15. Metro 88.1;
From Larche Communications who own four other successful stations in Ontario, either country or classic rock so they are not amateurs either. No this is not another doomed attempt at a country station in Toronto. This a doomed attempt at a vague "AAA" format which freely translated means "Rock and pop for people too old for The Edge but not old enough for an oldies station, and too rock and roll for EZ Rock but not quite enough for Q107", mixed with some comedy. Their application has a bunch of figures to prove that they won't just be competing with CHUM FM, Q107 or JACK FM, none of which I believe.
Metro 88 promo
16. Tower 88 fm;
A bland easy listening aimed at women in particular, wait; isn't that why we have EZ Rock? Run by Micheal Wekerle, a radio newbie with a lot of business experience and cash. How much cash you ask? He has Ivan Fecan, former head of CTV on board. They also sweeten the pot by promising to play tons of Canadian content and Aboriginal artists that got them the support of former Chief Phil Fontaine. That's a lot of fire-power for what is otherwise another easy listening station.
TOWER 88 promo
17. Durham Radio Inc;
Durham owns four other stations, mostly country or easy rock. Here they are calling themselves "88.1, The Lake FM", which is one of those annoying pointless brand names radio stations give themselves these days, remember when "The Edge" used to be called "CFNY"? That was when they were actually pretty cool. "The Lake"? What does that mean exactly? Are they going to be playing sea shanties? Actually it's anther bland commercial Easy Listening station which, or the music your dentist plays in the waiting room. Their application is possibly one of the biggest and contains a mind numbing amount of charts and figures, which is only slightly more boring than listening to the station itself would be.
18. Newcap Radio inc;
Yet another easy listening station. Newcap owns a jawdropping 79 other stations though so they must know something. Actually in the time it took me to write this they actually got another one. Seriously.
19. Stan 88fm;
An English language multi-cultural urban/hip-hop/pop/smooth jazz station aimed at second and third generation listeners. It's modestly named after it's owner Stanislas Antony. This might even be a workable idea in a multi ethnic city like Toronto, on the other hand it's so vague it might be a really stupid idea, either way it's different and Toronto is one of the few places it could have come from. At the hearings the CRTC was very skeptical about their finances, so that's a big problem.
20. Asia FM;
A Korean run Asian station which will however be mostly in English with 14% in Korean. The music will be pop and dance from Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan. I know there is a large Asian community in Toronto but how many prefer mostly English? How will Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Tibetans, or Thais (who all have longstanding rivalries) enjoy sharing a station? Do they really have converging tastes? Will they all stick around for the Korean language parts? How many are happy to keep getting their music from the web? It's a bold idea but a risky one. They got the best line in the hearings when one of the other applicants claimed that Toronto already had a Chinese station in Fairchild Radio. Their response; "We shouldn't have to point out that not all Asians are Chinese." Good one.
21. S. Sivakkumaran;
Not surprisingly it's an application for a ethnic radio station aimed at Tamil, Urdu, Farsi, Turkish, Arabic, Malay, Philippino and African communities. This puts them in direct competition with CHIN of course, as well as a brand new Tamil station in Scarborough. However if the CRTC decides that CHIN has enough radio stations that may not hurt them to much, sure doesn't help though.
22.MTSD Broadcast inc;
This is an application for a station aimed at the Punjabi community. There is no doubt an audience here, but they are being opposed by some of the existing radio stations catering to the Punjabis. It is also too limited compared to most of the other choices.
There were originally supposed to be a few other applicants who announced but then either dropped out or were dropped by the CRTC before the hearings for failing the technical aspects as the CRTC reserves the right to do. One such application was from Astral Media who no doubt dropped out when they announced their upcoming merger with Bell which will require them to divest some of their stations including The Flow. Another applicant was for a Tamil station which has instead decided to apply for a station in Markham. Oddly the other three or four were all South Asian applicants
1. The Evanov Group and PROUD FM;
Owned by Bill Evanov, PROUD FM is the "Gay themed" radio station that has been on air since 2007 at 103.9fm with a small 60 watt signal, and they are looking to upgrade to a larger signal capable of reaching the entire city. Evanov started this bidding war by putting in the first application which acted as a starter's pistols for everyone else. Besides PROUD FM Evanov also owns numerous other stations across Canada and last year was granted a similar license for a Gay themed station in Montreal. One bonus for this one, besides being able to claim they are representing a marginalized community, is that Evanov is proposing to move from 103.9 to 88.1fm which would then open up 103.9 fm for bidding for those who wanted another chance at this. The CRTC might actually like that since it would mean the weren't quite giving away the final signal while at the same time the smaller reach of 103.9 fm would probably convince some of the others to drop out leading to a smaller feeding frenzy next time.
PROUD FM promo;
http://www.proudfm.com/
2. Ryerson University;
Actually Ryerson started off the feeding frenzy in the first place when they lost the license for the previous Ryerson based station, CKLN, whose license was revoked in 2010 as we all know by now. Their attempt to regain the license uses a couple of the old CKLN management and has the support of the National Campus Radio Association (mostly from out west), but is far more Ryerson-centric and not really a true community station than was CKLN. They are promising a mix of "ethnic" programming with Ryerson sports and live music which seems a little vague and confusing and probably of little interest to any non-Ryerson student. In fact it may of little interest even to them. As the CRTC pointed out several times the referendum that agreed to fund the station had only a 10% voter turnout. Another question is whether Ryerson be rewarded for shutting down the last station they had.
Radio Ryerson Promo;
http://ryersonradio.com/
3. The CBC;
Anyone hoping they were looking at moving CBC 3 to the airwaves can forget it, this is an application for a French language repeater station. The CBC has certain advantages over other applications in that they don't have to prove they are financially sustainable, because they're the CBC. And they don't have to prove they have technical and professional experience and know-how, because they're the CBC. It is also part of the expressed mandate of both the CBC and the CRTC to promote National Unity and Bilingualism. In fact the CBC has basically said that they are entitled to the signal and shouldn't even have to bid with all these peasants. That didn't earn many friends. However there is a legitimate question as to whether Toronto's tiny Francophone community warrants a radio station anyway. The current audience for French language TV stations in Toronto is negligible and a couple of years ago Champlain Books, Toronto's venerable French bookstore, was forced to close it's doors. Then there is the matter of whether it is a good idea for the Mother Corp to be starting another radio station while they are going through serious budget cuts. As an additional wrinkle there is another French language application coming from CHOQ FM, and you can imagine all the manufactured outrage from the Tories and their mouthpieces over at the Sun if CBC got it over CHOQ, or anyone else for that matter.
4. CHOQ FM;
A French language station operating with a tiny signal at 1watt on 105.1fm since 2006, like PROUD FM they are looking to upgrade to a larger signal. They face the same questions about the viability of a French station in Toronto. They may have one advantage over the CBC however; a local track record and the knowledge that Toronto's Francophone community is different than Ottawa's in that many don't come from Quebec, Acadia or Northern Ontario (unlike CBC staff) but from Africa and Haiti. The CBC signal is going to be a repeater signal anyway so if there is an actual need for a French station in Toronto it would be better to give it to a group with actual local roots. Like PROUD FM they would also be giving up their current signal, tiny though it is.
www.choq.fm
5. CARN FM;
The Caribbean station owned by Fitzroy Gordon which only got it's license last year now wants an upgrade, moving from 96.8 to 88.1fm. Like the PROUD FM application this would then open up 96.8 to someone else. They now say they need an upgrade to survive, but since they've only been on air less than a year the CRTC is unlikely to be very impressed with this claim. In their application they also take time out to basically call the CBC jerks and liars for opposing them the last time out so that should be fun. At least this time Gordon manages to avoid bragging about his close personal friendship with Stephen Harper and Jason Kenny as he has in every interview in the past year.
Fitzroy Gordon whines about the CBC again;
http://g987fm.com/
6. INDIE 88;
An application from Barrie based Rock 95 to start an "Indie Rock" station which appear to similar to the much beloved CFNY in it's 1980's glory days, before it turned into the much watered down "Edge 102". This one may be a bit of a long-shot but it has gotten some support from the local music scene (I must point out that I also wrote a letter of support) and if done right could appeal to the same kind of engaged scenesters. To win over such a grass roots audience they will have to prove that even though they are in Barrie they can get deeply in touch with the local scene. Then again CFNY started out in Burlington and that worked out pretty well. They also have to be able to define what "Indie" music means to the CRTC who seem to have some trouble with the concept.
INDIE 88
7. DAWG FM;
An application for a "Rock and Blues" station from two brothers who own a similar station in Ottawa where it's worked out well. They have generated one of the largest amount of support letters and there is certainly an audience for blues that is not being served by the bland JAZZ FM. The Ottawa Blues Festival is a big yearly event that one would think could be exported here easily. However the Toronto blues club scene has dried up over the last decade as the audience has moved out further to the suburbs and not been replaced with younger fans. The fading Toronto Blues Society has failed utterly to face this problem so how would DAWG deal with this? At any rate their schedule seems to lean more towards the rock end of things so they might be competing more with Q107 anyway. Oh, and their logo is really ugly too. Still; it's not a bad idea. This is my second favorite one after Indie 88. They also have the support of Dan Ackroyd who appeared via tele-conference
DAWG FM Promo;
http://www.dawgfm.com/
8. Zoomer Radio;
Moses Znaimer's radio for people too old for that darn internet thingy wants to expand. They say their AM 740 signal is so crappy that they just have to move. Unlike PROUD FM or CARN he does not want to give up his current signal however. That does raise an obvious question; if AM 740 is so terrible why do they insist on keeping it? He does have a letter of support from Anne Murray though. So there.
http://www.zoomerradio.ca/
9. CHIN;
Toronto's longstanding multicultural pioneer looks to expand as well, with additional language programming for Russian, Tagalog, Vietnamese and Farsi. They are also not into giving up any of their existing signals. CHIN has an excellent track record and few enemies, and can honestly claim to represent communities otherwise not well served. They are genuinely popular in such circles and have made a lot of high placed friends in politics and should not be discounted. CHIN has proved that is is possible for such a station to pay it's bills and behave professionally. However does Toronto really need another CHIN station?
http://www.chinradio.com/
10. Trust Ministries;
A Christian group who own two other radio stations. Oddly enough manager Scott Jackson used to work for Bill Evanov (of PROUD FM) so that should make for an interesting reunion. They have apparently been working on this for a while and were the second group to announce their intentions (after Evanov) and Jackson also ran a mega successful Christian station in Nashville so they are no amateurs. They are also a registered charity. Their website acknowledges they are a bit of a long shot and asks supporters to pray. I'd say they didn't have a prayer but that would just be wrong.
Trust Ministries promo
http://www.lifeonline.fm/toronto.html
11. Family FM;
This one is a little odd. They are claiming to be focused on "Families" whatever that means. Since when is that a genre? They focus on the likes of Raffi and Sharon, Lewis and Bram, but then admit that that will only make up a small part of their actual programming, the rest is bland easy listening. Their vague format is vainly searching for a niche that probably does not exist in any real way. Actually the head of this one, Paul Fredricks, is connected with a Christian Bookstore called "Faith Family Books" which explains alot, although they don't mention the Christian part. They also have the involvement of Jane Hawtin (ex of Q107, CFRB and CBC) who brings radio experience and Pinball Clemmons (ex of The Argos) who brought some jokes and his big smile to the hearings.
http://www.eiradionetworks.com/FamilyFM/about.html
12. BIZ 88;
An application for a Business news format. This has been tried by Blumberg in New York and gotten consistently poor ratings for years. However because of it's high-end audience advertisers may not mind that very much. It's also pretty cheap to run. They have veteran TV news journalist Donna Skelly on board. There was a previous attempt at an "All Business and Traffic and Weather" format a few years ago that quickly failed, even after they desperately tried to attract attention by airing right wing crackpot shows from America like Glen Beck and other denizens of FOX. Since apparently that's what our business leaders want; bizarro conspiracy theories about Obama and Hitler. I can't imagine why that didn't catch on here. Their programming has a lot of blank spots that they are vague on how they intend to fill, which doesn't instill a lot of faith. However that previous station was a low power station with only a localized signal by the airport. This one is run by the same group that owns CHCH in Hamilton who recently had to apologize for accidentally running porn on the air. Nobody mentioned that though since that's presumably not part of their programming plans.
http://biz88.ca/
13. World Band Media;
Another talk radio application. This one has deep pockets and a former Mike Harris era Cabinet Minster on it's Board so they are not fooling around. To prove it, along with their application they also filed a separate and amazing 29 page hostile intervention attacking all the other applications which is pretty hard hitting. Still it's another talk radio format that belongs on AM and which doesn't offer a very convincing argument in their own favour as they want yet another droning talk radio station. Because Toronto doesn't have enough of those already. The best argument they can come up with is to basically say that every other type of radio is going downhill anyway so it's pointless to resist, like talk radio is the Borg or something. Still; should the last FM signal in Toronto be wasted on a talk radio format that really belongs on AM if at all? I think not.
http://www.worldbandmedia.com/
14. TNT Media;
Yet another Talk Radio application. This time from a Montreal group who already own a station there and promise "Extreme, Explosive Talk Radio", (translation; American style all-outrage-all-the-time) and their application uses a lot of exclamation points. Great, that's just what we need. Especially on FM. That above mentioned hostile intervention from Worldband is especially disdainful of this one. But not as much as I am.
15. Metro 88.1;
From Larche Communications who own four other successful stations in Ontario, either country or classic rock so they are not amateurs either. No this is not another doomed attempt at a country station in Toronto. This a doomed attempt at a vague "AAA" format which freely translated means "Rock and pop for people too old for The Edge but not old enough for an oldies station, and too rock and roll for EZ Rock but not quite enough for Q107", mixed with some comedy. Their application has a bunch of figures to prove that they won't just be competing with CHUM FM, Q107 or JACK FM, none of which I believe.
Metro 88 promo
16. Tower 88 fm;
A bland easy listening aimed at women in particular, wait; isn't that why we have EZ Rock? Run by Micheal Wekerle, a radio newbie with a lot of business experience and cash. How much cash you ask? He has Ivan Fecan, former head of CTV on board. They also sweeten the pot by promising to play tons of Canadian content and Aboriginal artists that got them the support of former Chief Phil Fontaine. That's a lot of fire-power for what is otherwise another easy listening station.
TOWER 88 promo
17. Durham Radio Inc;
Durham owns four other stations, mostly country or easy rock. Here they are calling themselves "88.1, The Lake FM", which is one of those annoying pointless brand names radio stations give themselves these days, remember when "The Edge" used to be called "CFNY"? That was when they were actually pretty cool. "The Lake"? What does that mean exactly? Are they going to be playing sea shanties? Actually it's anther bland commercial Easy Listening station which, or the music your dentist plays in the waiting room. Their application is possibly one of the biggest and contains a mind numbing amount of charts and figures, which is only slightly more boring than listening to the station itself would be.
18. Newcap Radio inc;
Yet another easy listening station. Newcap owns a jawdropping 79 other stations though so they must know something. Actually in the time it took me to write this they actually got another one. Seriously.
19. Stan 88fm;
An English language multi-cultural urban/hip-hop/pop/smooth jazz station aimed at second and third generation listeners. It's modestly named after it's owner Stanislas Antony. This might even be a workable idea in a multi ethnic city like Toronto, on the other hand it's so vague it might be a really stupid idea, either way it's different and Toronto is one of the few places it could have come from. At the hearings the CRTC was very skeptical about their finances, so that's a big problem.
20. Asia FM;
A Korean run Asian station which will however be mostly in English with 14% in Korean. The music will be pop and dance from Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan. I know there is a large Asian community in Toronto but how many prefer mostly English? How will Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Tibetans, or Thais (who all have longstanding rivalries) enjoy sharing a station? Do they really have converging tastes? Will they all stick around for the Korean language parts? How many are happy to keep getting their music from the web? It's a bold idea but a risky one. They got the best line in the hearings when one of the other applicants claimed that Toronto already had a Chinese station in Fairchild Radio. Their response; "We shouldn't have to point out that not all Asians are Chinese." Good one.
21. S. Sivakkumaran;
Not surprisingly it's an application for a ethnic radio station aimed at Tamil, Urdu, Farsi, Turkish, Arabic, Malay, Philippino and African communities. This puts them in direct competition with CHIN of course, as well as a brand new Tamil station in Scarborough. However if the CRTC decides that CHIN has enough radio stations that may not hurt them to much, sure doesn't help though.
22.MTSD Broadcast inc;
This is an application for a station aimed at the Punjabi community. There is no doubt an audience here, but they are being opposed by some of the existing radio stations catering to the Punjabis. It is also too limited compared to most of the other choices.
There were originally supposed to be a few other applicants who announced but then either dropped out or were dropped by the CRTC before the hearings for failing the technical aspects as the CRTC reserves the right to do. One such application was from Astral Media who no doubt dropped out when they announced their upcoming merger with Bell which will require them to divest some of their stations including The Flow. Another applicant was for a Tamil station which has instead decided to apply for a station in Markham. Oddly the other three or four were all South Asian applicants
Tuesday, 1 May 2012
Dick Clark vs. Alan Feed
What side are you on, Beatles or Stones? That used to be the defining Rock and Roll question; did you prefer the subtle, clever pop craftsmanship of The Beatles or the raw sexuality of the bad boy Rolling Stones? Or to put it another way; were you a Mod or a Rocker?
This line in the sand was the classic divide of Rock and Roll. The Beatles, especially in their lovable Mop Top phase, were so charming that even some parents could almost tolerate them. They had upbeat melodies and four part harmonies that went "Yeah yeah yeah!". They bounced around the microphone and bowed curtly after each song. And they wanted to "hold your hand". The Stones on the other hand swaggered and swore, they pranced and swaggered. They looked like they were about to steal your hubcaps. They had over-amped guitars and their singer had an arrogant nasal sneer. And they wanted to do a lot more than hold your hand. If you liked the Beatles you may have had good taste but you were not really in touch with the dark heart of Rock and Roll. That's where the Stones lived.
This debate goes even further back than the sixties in fact and has it's echos in contrasts between, say, the clean-cut smiling Bill Haley and the young greasy Elvis. Later after he went into the army the new cleaned up Elvis versus more authentically greasy rockabillies like Gene Vincent. Between white and black Doo Wop. Between the twangy Duane Eddy and the rumbling Link Wray. Between the pop-surf of the Beach Boys and the blaring guitar surf of Dick Dale. Between the slick soul of Sam Cooke and the sweat of James Brown. Between the craftsmanship of Motown and the strutting of Stax. Between the upbeat Mersey beat of the Dave Clark 5 and the blues-rock of the Yardbirds and Animals. Between the Psyche and Folk Rock of California and the Garage Punk of the Midwest and Texas. Between the Nashville Sound of Patsy and the Bakersfield twang of Buck Owens and the later Outlaw sound. Between New Wave and Punk. It actually goes back even further in the 1930's and 40's between the machine-like precision of the white big bands like Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman and The Dorseys versus the more open swing of Duke Ellington and Count Basie. And even earlier to the 1920's and Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke.
Of course it's really a false choice, there is no good reason why a discerning fan couldn't and shouldn't like them all. Taste is not a political of moral question after all. Except when it is.
ALAN FREED & FREDDIE MITCHELL ~ "ROCK N'ROLL BOOGIE";
Because you don't even have to be a Rock historian to know there is a vast world of difference between Elvis and Pat Boone, or any of the various pretty boy singers named Frankie or Bobby. One is authentic Rock and Roll and the other is the music industry's concerted attempt to tame and exploit this new Rock and Roll beast.
That brings us to Dick Clark. Or if I may borrow a quote from Brother Chuck D;
"Dick Clark was a hero to some, but he never meant shit to me, that cat was racist! Straight up racist!"
OK that is totally not fair; he wasn't really of course. But he was closer to the villain that sanitized rock and roll for the white suburbs than was Elvis or even Bill Haley.
The first major political clash in Rock and Roll was between two DJ's and what they represented. Between Alan Freed (and Dewey Phillips) and Dick Clark.
Alan Freed (in Cleveland) and Dewey Phillips (in Memphis) were the first real Rock and Roll DJ's. If they didn't actually invent the term Rock and Roll (as Freed claimed) they certainly publicized it, and brought it and the music of black juke joints, white-trash honky-tonks and urban street corners to the wider white middle class suburbs had no clue such worlds existed.
ALAN FREED DANCES WITH LIONEL HAMPTON;
Freed and Phillips were shocking to respectable society. They were brash and pushy, they bragged and swaggered. They wore loud clothes, they drank hard, chain smoked, popped pills and sounded like it. They were arrogant and utterly shameless. And they loved a good fight with stuck up squares. When the various civic and legal guardians of virtue tried to stop them from playing black music, or from booking concerts with not only mixed race bills but mixed audiences as well, they barked back their outraged defiance. When their concerts got canceled they denounced the petty institutional racism that would deny kids a chance to dance together. And they did it in public. When record companies and radio station owners tried to force them to play the bland white cleaned up cover versions of real Rock and Roll songs they refused. When they were offered bribes to play nice Freed bragged that he had taken their money and still refused to play their crappy records. It was indeed a moral question after all for a few of the early Rock n' Roll moguls like DJ's Alan Freed and Dewey Phillips along with record label owners Sam Phillips of Sun (no relation), Ehmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler of Atlantic, Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton of Stax and The Chess Brothers as it had been for the Lomaxes. They weren't saints of course (au contraire) but they despised the conformist, racist culture of the 1950's and knew that they were mounting a direct challenge by exposing the nation's youth to the liberating sounds coming from the hills and ghettos. In their own way they did as much to integrate America as the civil rights movement without ever actually being a part of it. Some of them paid a heavy price for that, especially Freed and Dewey Phillips.
DEWEY PHILLIPS INTERVIEWS JERRY LEE LEWIS;
It was of course the payola scandal of the late 1950's that destroyed Freed and essentially Phillips as well. The scandal came about when some congressmen came upon the novel theory that the only reason why the hated Rock N' Roll was popular was that vulgarians like Freed forced kids to listen to it. And the only reason they did so was because they were bribed by the record companies, especially the small independent ones who recorded the most Rock. This was called payola. This theory ignores the fact that the major labels who encouraged this witch hunt had openly engaged in payola for years, and they had deeper pockets than the indie labels. It also ignored the fact that at that time payola was in fact perfectly legal, at least assuming it was declared to the IRS. Nonetheless Congressional hearings were held and a defiant Freed was hauled in and grilled. He should have known it would end badly. The fifties had already seen the McCarthy witch-hunts and the less well known hearings on comic books which had essentially destroyed the classic EC Comics empire. These people were not fooling around, they had the power to crush the like of Freed and the desire to do so. Freed was the big prize, his original radio show had grown to include a TV show. He became a show promoter, a record producer and later a producer of wildly popular Rock n' Roll movies. He even owned some publishing rights, something that would, rightly, not be allowed today but which was once again perfectly legal at the time. He was genuinely famous, possibly the first multi-media star. With his brash manner, raspy voice and loud jackets Freed was the very face of the enemy as far as the Rock hating establishment was concerned. Even more than the actual singers, who tended to be rather polite and soft spoken to the media, Freed was a swaggering affront to polite society and proud of it. The very spirit of Rock and Roll.
ALAN FREED INTROS JIMMY CAVELLO'S "ROCK ROCK ROCK";
Freed, arrogant as ever, refused to back down or apologize, nor would he lie. When he refused to sign an affidavit swearing that he had never taken payola his career was over. Then the IRS went after him and hounded him to his grave a few years later. Dewey Phillips was slightly luckier, he would keep his radio and TV shows in Memphis for a while. However the new squeaky clean era would have little time for a boisterous hard drinking pill popping throwback like Phillips. As the raw early rockabilly and R&B was replaced by the fresh scrubbed pop he lost first his TV show and then his radio show, forcing him to retreat further into the small town stations of the south, he would survive Freed by only a few years.
Enter Dick Clark.
Dick Clark was not one of the breed of DJs who discovered Rock n' Roll as an unwanted foundling and forced the bawling, brawling brat on the world. That role went to a few men (and they were all men) like Freed, Dewey Phillips, Macy Skipper and even Rufus Thomas and Bill Haley (both of whom started out as DJs). However Dick Clark had actually been kicking around television and radio for years before Rock n' Roll hit as a sort of utility fill-in man. He had been a radio and TV announcer, a game show host and a DJ known for his clean-cut preppy professionalism and affable demeanor rather than any actual interest in music. In fact he had no such interest or background at all and in later years he would admit that his favorite records were the various bland light classical compilations put out by Reader's Digest at the time. He had no background in Rock, or even Jazz. Alan Freed by contrast had genuine music roots having served as an MC and trombonist in a swing band before stumbling onto R&B. However while Clark was not by any stretch of the imagination cool or hip, if his job required him to learn at least a bit about what the kids were listening to then he would do it. This was not as cynical as it sounds, this sort of nine-to-five "just say your lines and hit your marks" attitude was quite common at that time. Such TV icons as Mike Wallace, Johnny Carson, Jack Paar, Walter Winchell and Dave Garroway had similar journeyman backgrounds until they figured out what they were good at, but in Dick Clark's case his choice seems to have been especially arbitrary. He could have just as easily ended up as the host of a game show or chat show as anything else. However if he little real interest in Rock n' Roll it must be admitted that he didn't look down on it either and he did not condescend to his teen audience, and this was more than could be said of many others at that time. His bland boy-next-door good looks and affable persona was perfect for TV in the same way that Johnny Carson's was, and the way the often loud brash Freed was not. While Freed courted controversy and got way too much enjoyment out of his bad press, Clark studiously avoided any such problems while still mostly giving his audience what they wanted and not completely horrifying their parents. And while his squeaky clean image may have been a mask, it was one he was quite comfortable wearing, there were never any sordid scandals attached to him. That didn't mean that he was really squeaky clean though.
DICK CLARK & SAM COOKE;
When the payola scandal hit Clark was almost as famous as Alan Freed and so he was also called in to testify in front of congress, some of what was revealed showed that he was actually even more compromised than Freed was. It turned out that while Freed had taken money from favored record companies and had been given a share in the publishing on a number of songs, Clark had an interest in no less than thirty three music industry businesses, including record and publishing companies, management agencies and even a record pressing plant. Among the artists involved with Clark these included a several big pieces of chart topper Duane Eddy who had not surprisingly gotten a big push from Clark's shows. While Freed had always maintained his independence and refused to play records he thought his audience wouldn't like, and was openly disdainful of the pretty-boy Teen Idols and white-bread pop cover songs, Clark had no such qualms, he would happily champion the various vapid Frankies and Bobbys that the industry began to churn out. Besides music Freed had sold rebellion and sex, Clark sold neither. Clark carefully presented not only himself but the rest of his empire in a solidly respectable way while still being able to appeal to the teen audience. It was this balancing act along with his sense of self-preservation and professionalism that saved him from the fate the likes of Alan Freed or Dewey Phillips. Freed had snarled his defiance, Clark had been smooth and polite. Freed had refused to sign any wavers promising to behave, Clark quickly divested himself of any embarrassing conflicts of interest and promised never to step out of line again. And everyone believed him because he was Dick Clark. Freed and Phillips drank hard and gambled their money away, Clark built up an empire of game shows and restaurants. He would later add "Candid Camera", "TV Bloopers" and the New Year's Eve at Times Square to his haul, although those shows were created by others.
DICK CLARK & THE BEACH BOYS;
In later years Clark actually showed little shame about any of this, occasional admitting in interviews that he knew and cared little about music and once famously referring to himself as "a whore". He did try to burnish his reputation somewhat by claiming that he too had fought racism as Freed had done by hosting integrated concerts. However he seriously overstated his boldness, his studio audience was noticeably white and clean cut, with boys wearing prim jackets and ties and the girls wearing midi-hemmed dresses. There would be no smoking or gum chewing, no leather jackets and jeans, especially for girls. And there would most definitely not be any mixed race couples on American Bandstand, ever. The black artists Clark preferred were of the decidedly non-threatening (if still talented type) such as Chubby Checker, Frankie Lymon, Sam Cooke and the Motown stable. When singers like Jerry Lee Lewis, Larry Williams and Chuck Berry found themselves embroiled in scandals Clark was quick to drop them. Once he had divested himself of his interests in Duane Eddy he dropped him as well. Gene Vincent got on Clark's blacklist when he walked off in protest over Clark's lip-sync only policy. All this allowed Clark to survive while most of his contemporaries fell by the wayside, it also made him an extremely rich man. This may not however make him a villain like the successive owners of MGM Records, Mitch Miller and Mike Curb who made a concerted effort to stamp out Rock n Roll, and were rewarded by seeing their once powerful label all but disappear. He was certainly no hero though.
As the fifties turned into the sixties and some artists would begin singing cruder material and even protest songs, American Bandstand would remain an oasis of suburban calm. Eventually even the Bandstand had to end but by then Clark had branched out into so many other interests that he probably didn't care. He became the sort of distant exploitative tycoon who could be trashed by Micheal Moore in "Bowling for Columbine" for taking corporate handouts while using forced welfare workers for free labour.
DICK CLARK INTERVIEWS THE JEFFERSON AIRPLANE;
Still his argument that his non-confrontational approach and businesslike attitude was the best way to keep Rock alive rather than the red hot visionary like Freed is not without some truth. The forces that were roused against Rock n' Roll in the late fifties should not be underestimated. It was after all the McCarthy era and the power of government to force a "clean-up" of the airways was very real. Less well known today was a contemporary attack on the comic book industry which destroyed many careers, drove many publishers out of business and forced an industry wide standard which amounted to an all-out censorship regime which would stay in place until the 1970's and retarded the artistic growth of the medium until the 1980's. The possibility of doing the same to Rock was very real. So perhaps while Freed is the more heroic (not to mention entertaining) figure, his kamikaze attitude was not the best long term strategy. If a few years of putting up with Frankies and Bobbys until the big social and cultural changes of the 1960's cleared the decks and allowed a more open society that would allow more creativity and expression, then perhaps it was worth it.
At any rate Clark managed to keep an affectionate place in the hearts of a generation of teens who got their first exposure to Rock n' Roll from American Bandstand. In fact it may be safe to say that for many white, middle class suburban teens they might not have otherwise discovered Rock at all. There are many important figures of rock's early years whose only surviving footage was an appearance with Dick Clark. That alone would have gained himself a footnote in Rock history.
Canadian footnote; one of those groups who made an appearance on Clark's show was a Montreal band called The Beau-Marks who became the first Canadian band (as opposed to a vocal group like the Crewcuts or Diamonds) to score an international hit with "Clap your hands" in 1960.
DICK CLARK AND THE TRASHMEN ~ "SURFIN' BIRD";
DEWEY PHILLIPS & JERRY LEE LEWIS;
Tuesday, 10 April 2012
Prof Kitzel's Time Machine Profile; Vernon Dalhart
Vernon Dalhart was the first star of country music, recording the first million selling record "The Prisoner's Song" in 1923, the success of which proved the viability of country (and other rural) music as a business. ..
~ Early life ~ ..
Born in Marion Try Slaughter in 1883 in Marin County Texas, Slaughter worked as a cowboy and learned to sing and play cowboy instruments such as the harmonica, quills and jew's harp, he also became a championship whistler, a then popular cowboy art. Later he moved to Dallas where he received formal vocal training as a tenor. Eventually he moved to New York City where he began singing in Gilbert & Sullivan Operettas and recording for the Edison Cylinder Company. He adopted the the stage name Vernon Dalhart after the name of two Texas towns where he had worked as a cowboy. Today the name "Try Slaughter" would be a perfect name for a country singer but those were more wholesome & conservative times. He recorded an estimated 400 records between 1915 and 1923 using a number of aliases mostly in the style of other popular singers of the day like Billy Murray, Cal Stewart, Arthur Collins, Bert Williams and Carroll Clark backed up by a full orchestra, "The Alcoholic Blues" and "Heart Hearted Hannah", prohibition laments are typical examples.
VERNON DALHART ~ "HARD HEARTED HANNAH";
~ Country Star ~
By 1923 music styles had changed to jazz and blues and his with career in decline Dalhart took a chance by recording a 78 of a weepy, sentimental ballad "The Prisoner's Song" backed with an old railway song 'The wreck of the Old 97' for RCA Victor backed by country guitarist Carson Robison and sung in a less "pop" and more rural style. To the surprise of all the record was a massive success, becoming one of the first million sellers and eventually selling and estimated 7 million copies, an astounding number for the era, and this doesn't even include overseas sales, making it one of the biggest selling singles of all time. Some accounts suggest the true sales may have reached more than double the official figures by the time WW2 ended since he rerecorded the song for different labels. The record was particularly popular in the white rural south, an audience hitherto untapped by the New York and Chicago based record industry, encouraging record companies like RCA, Columbia, OKeh and Paramount to record more authentic country (and eventually blues) artists and establishing country music as a viable industry. Dalhart himself would record scores of records in a similar style for the rest of the decade teaming up with Robison, and later adding a female fiddle player Adelyne Hood with whom he also started an affair, they also sometimes used on unknown piano player or players for some tracks. Dalhart preferred to record maudlin ballads about train wrecks ("The freight wreck at Altoona") mine cave-ins ("The death of Floyd Collins") and similar tales ("The sinking of the Titanic" & "The Mississippi flood") all of which sold well, often he recorded the same songs for different labels including Columbia and even Black Patti. However by the end of the decade tastes had changed once again with the success of more authentic country singers like Jimmie Rodgers, the Carter Family, Uncle Dave Macon, Fiddlin' John Carson and Charlie Poole. ..
VERNON DALHART ~ "THE PRISONER'S SONG";
~ Decline and death ~ ..
By 1928 Dalhart and Robison had a falling out over musical differences (Robison wanted to do more authentic country recordings and write more original songs) and business (signing a cut-rate deal with Columbia) furthermore Dalhart and Hood were strictly recording artists and had no interest in live recording unlike Robison who left to a solo career while Dalhart signed a contract with the failing Edison company which soon ceased operation after the stockmarket crash of 1929. With the record business devastated by the worsening depression and without a record contract Dalhart and Hood turned to radio, hosting the "Barbasol Hour" in 1931 but this only lasted a year and Dalhart & Hood traveled to England where they recorded a few singles with English Jazz guitarist Len Fillis, including one hit "The Runaway Train". They returned to the USA but found little work until they got another radio show in 1938 and a new contract with RCA in 1939 where he recorded the infamous gay cowboy ballad "The Lavender Cowboy" which was widely banned in the USA, the records didn't sell and after RCA let his contract lapse the radio show also failed. By then Dalhart had run through his fortune and Hood left him to pursue a solo radio career as "Betsy White". Dalhart retired from the music business, aside from becoming a voice teacher and doing some voice-over work on radio, eventually taking a job as desk clerk in a hotel in upstate New York until he died broke and alone of a heart attack in 1948. Adelyne Hood later married and retired from music, dying in 1958 while Carson Robison would continue as a respected solo artist until his death in 1957. ..
VERNON DALHART ~ "WRECK OF THE OLD 97";
~ Hall of Fame ~ ..
Dalhart had never been popular with the country establishment in Nashville since he had never worked there and he was viewed with suspicion due to his pop singer roots and distant personality, and was often overlooked in county music histories. However in 1970 he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriter's Hall of Fame, which is a little ironic since he was not primarily a songwriter. He was finally inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1981 and the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998 for "The Prisoner's Song/ The wreck of the Old 97" which is still one of the top five selling singles of all time. Dalhart is considered the most recorded singer of all time with perhaps 1000 records (many of them hits) to his credit, but since he recorded under many aliases for various companies in a time when poor records were kept and there were often no contracts the true number will never be known.
Members;
Vernon Dalhart ~ Vocals, w/ Carson Robison ~ Guitar, Adelyne Hood ~ Fiddle, Len Fillis ~ Guitar
VERNON DALHART ~ "BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN";
Thursday, 29 March 2012
So; What Were White People Listening To Before Rock & Roll Anyway?
Recently a number of musical figures from the fifties died who can answer the question; What did white people listened to in the pre-Rock and Roll post WW2 era of the late forties and early fifties (obviously black Americans already had a variety of good Blues, Jazz, R&B, Doo Wop and Gospel)...well if you were cool and lived in a big city then you listened to Jazz. Especially the Cool Jazz of Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, Chet Baker and Gerry Mulligan. If you were a bit older and weren't worried about drugs then there were still a few BeBop fans, if you were even older then there was still some swing hanging around. If you were young and political you listened to Folk like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, The Weavers and the Kingston Trio. If you were young but not political there were the collegiate type vocal quartets like the Four Freshmen, Four Lads, Four Preps, Crewcuts and The Lettermen. Whose names all imply their College Frat roots. And if you were working class and living in the south or west you listened to Honkytonk Country, Western Swing, Bluegrass or White Gospel. But not everything that happened in the 1950's was cool you know.
( Note; Very few white people, no matter how cool, listened to the blues or black gospel in the 1940's and 50's other than a few young folk musicians and critics, by the end of the decade that would change as the Folk Revival discovered the likes of John Lee Hoooker, Mississippi John Hurt, Son House, Skip James, Rev Gary Davis and a legion of other survivors from the 1920's & 30's and introduced them to a new generation)
Speaking of bluegrass; Earl Scruggs, one of the classic bluegrass pickers just died at 86.
EARL SCRUGGS & LESTER FLATT ~ "SALTY DOG BLUES";
Bluegrass great Earl Scruggs, who played banjo with the classic Bill Monroe and his Blue Sky Boys band from 1945 till 1948 when after a tiff with the notoriously hard assed Monroe he left with fiddle player Lester Flatt to form the Foggy Mountain Boys. Monroe never forgave them. Flatt and Scruggs would become his only real rivals for classic bluegrass and even today Scruggs pioneering three fingered style is still considered the only legit way to play for bluegrass pickers. The Foggy Mountain Boys would breakup in 1969 with most of the band staying with Flatt and and Scruggs would go on to a long respected solo career. In the film "Oh Brother where are thou" the band formed by Clooney and co. is called The Soggy Bottom Boys by way of tribute. Flatt died in 1979.
FOGGY MOUNTAIN BOYS ~ "WHEN THE ANGELS CARRY ME HOME";
Also dying recently is Everett Lily, one of the Lily Brothers & Don Stover, an important Bluegrass band of the late fifties.
Short Doc about the Lily Brothers & Don Stover;
Another bluegrass picker; Doug Dillard, played with The Dillards and later with Gene Clark and The Byrds;
The Dillards on the Andy Griffith show;
Or if you were Celtic there was The Dubliners, one of the classic Irish folk groups from 1962 on, along with the even older Chieftains. Which is not technically pre Rock and Roll. However for most people on Ireland, Newfoundland, Cape Breton Isle of Man or the Scottish Highlands it might as well have been. The old ways still held firm there for a while yet. Founding member "Banjo Barney" McKenna, who sang and played banjo and mandolin, and who had previously been in the Chieftains, died this week at age 72.
The Dubliners ~ "Whiskey in the jar";
OK that's all well and good but what if you weren't cool enough to be listening to jazz, political enough to be listening to folk or white trash enough to be listening to country or white gospel? Well then the pickings get pretty slim indeed. There is always classical music of course, if you were an educated snob. Then there is the world of whiter-than-white post war pop best exemplified by these four who also just died;
THE MCQUIRE SISTERS ~ "SUGAR TIME";
Dorothy McQuire ~ Singer with 1940's & 50's Pop Vocal group The McQuire Sisters. (aged 84) The McQuire Sisters were the most successful female vocal group of the Fifties. Starting off while still children singing in a church where their mother was a minister by the end of the forties they had moved into secular entertainment taking inspiration from the biggest singing group of the forties, the Andrews Sisters. Although they were already seasoned performers with a record deal they appeared on the top-rated TV show "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts" in 1952 where he gave them a residency that lasted seven years and gave them the exposure to score a few dozen top forty hits throughout the decade. Besides the usual syrupy fifties pop fare as the Rock & Roll Era took over they became one of the pop acts including the likes of Pat Boone, Guy Mitchell and the Crewcuts, to adapt to the times by recording bland versions of R&B hits like "Goodnight Sweetheart Goodnight", "Sincerly", "Tears On My Pillow" and "Rhythm 'n Blues" which show a serious lack of either rhythm or blues but plenty of wholesome perky bounce.
THE MCGUIRE SISTERS ~ "RHYTHM & BLUES";
These records, which are clearly inferior to the originals would be deeply resented by black artists and become much loathed by rock historians as exhibit A in illustrating the concept of Cultural Appropriation and are laughable today but they did play a role in bringing Doo Wop to a larger audience.
THE MCQUIRE SISTERS ~ "SINCERLY";
The era of the super white cover versions only lasted a few years and was over before the fifties was even done but the McGuire Sisters were popular enough to continue on TV and Vegas until the end of the sixties when Phylis McGuire went solo and the others essentially retired aside from occasional reunions. Phyllis would become better known in the sxties for her relationship with gangster Sam Giancana.
THE MCQUIRE SISTERS ~ "BLUE SKIES";
Marion Marlowe ~ (aged 83) Pop singer who scored some hits in the early fifties and was another regular on the Arthur Godfrey Show. After she was dropped by her record label she was fired by Godfrey in 1955, later moving to Broadway
Marion Marlowe "Lover";
Russell Arms ~ (aged 92) Early 1950's pre-R&R pop singer, appeared as a regular on the TV show "Your Hit Parade" which featured weekly covers of top 40 hits, he managed to parlay this gig into a fairly successful recording career of his own as well as appearing in western musicals. Once R&R hit this sort of approach became impossible and "Your Hit Parade" was edged out by shows with actual R&R singers hosted by Alan Feed, Dewey Phillps and Dick Clark (aged 92)
Russell Arms covers "Standing On The Corner" (hit version done by Toronto vocal group The Four Lads);
Russell Arms ~ "Papa Loves Mambo" (originally by Perry Como);
Nick Noble (real name Nick Valkan); Another one of the pre-rock white pop singers who would be put out of work when rock hit. Noble actually manged to have a few more hits though as an easy listening and country singer (aged 85)
NICK NOBLE ~ "A FALLING STAR";
( Note; Very few white people, no matter how cool, listened to the blues or black gospel in the 1940's and 50's other than a few young folk musicians and critics, by the end of the decade that would change as the Folk Revival discovered the likes of John Lee Hoooker, Mississippi John Hurt, Son House, Skip James, Rev Gary Davis and a legion of other survivors from the 1920's & 30's and introduced them to a new generation)
Speaking of bluegrass; Earl Scruggs, one of the classic bluegrass pickers just died at 86.
EARL SCRUGGS & LESTER FLATT ~ "SALTY DOG BLUES";
Bluegrass great Earl Scruggs, who played banjo with the classic Bill Monroe and his Blue Sky Boys band from 1945 till 1948 when after a tiff with the notoriously hard assed Monroe he left with fiddle player Lester Flatt to form the Foggy Mountain Boys. Monroe never forgave them. Flatt and Scruggs would become his only real rivals for classic bluegrass and even today Scruggs pioneering three fingered style is still considered the only legit way to play for bluegrass pickers. The Foggy Mountain Boys would breakup in 1969 with most of the band staying with Flatt and and Scruggs would go on to a long respected solo career. In the film "Oh Brother where are thou" the band formed by Clooney and co. is called The Soggy Bottom Boys by way of tribute. Flatt died in 1979.
FOGGY MOUNTAIN BOYS ~ "WHEN THE ANGELS CARRY ME HOME";
Also dying recently is Everett Lily, one of the Lily Brothers & Don Stover, an important Bluegrass band of the late fifties.
Short Doc about the Lily Brothers & Don Stover;
Another bluegrass picker; Doug Dillard, played with The Dillards and later with Gene Clark and The Byrds;
The Dillards on the Andy Griffith show;
Or if you were Celtic there was The Dubliners, one of the classic Irish folk groups from 1962 on, along with the even older Chieftains. Which is not technically pre Rock and Roll. However for most people on Ireland, Newfoundland, Cape Breton Isle of Man or the Scottish Highlands it might as well have been. The old ways still held firm there for a while yet. Founding member "Banjo Barney" McKenna, who sang and played banjo and mandolin, and who had previously been in the Chieftains, died this week at age 72.
The Dubliners ~ "Whiskey in the jar";
OK that's all well and good but what if you weren't cool enough to be listening to jazz, political enough to be listening to folk or white trash enough to be listening to country or white gospel? Well then the pickings get pretty slim indeed. There is always classical music of course, if you were an educated snob. Then there is the world of whiter-than-white post war pop best exemplified by these four who also just died;
THE MCQUIRE SISTERS ~ "SUGAR TIME";
Dorothy McQuire ~ Singer with 1940's & 50's Pop Vocal group The McQuire Sisters. (aged 84) The McQuire Sisters were the most successful female vocal group of the Fifties. Starting off while still children singing in a church where their mother was a minister by the end of the forties they had moved into secular entertainment taking inspiration from the biggest singing group of the forties, the Andrews Sisters. Although they were already seasoned performers with a record deal they appeared on the top-rated TV show "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts" in 1952 where he gave them a residency that lasted seven years and gave them the exposure to score a few dozen top forty hits throughout the decade. Besides the usual syrupy fifties pop fare as the Rock & Roll Era took over they became one of the pop acts including the likes of Pat Boone, Guy Mitchell and the Crewcuts, to adapt to the times by recording bland versions of R&B hits like "Goodnight Sweetheart Goodnight", "Sincerly", "Tears On My Pillow" and "Rhythm 'n Blues" which show a serious lack of either rhythm or blues but plenty of wholesome perky bounce.
THE MCGUIRE SISTERS ~ "RHYTHM & BLUES";
These records, which are clearly inferior to the originals would be deeply resented by black artists and become much loathed by rock historians as exhibit A in illustrating the concept of Cultural Appropriation and are laughable today but they did play a role in bringing Doo Wop to a larger audience.
THE MCQUIRE SISTERS ~ "SINCERLY";
The era of the super white cover versions only lasted a few years and was over before the fifties was even done but the McGuire Sisters were popular enough to continue on TV and Vegas until the end of the sixties when Phylis McGuire went solo and the others essentially retired aside from occasional reunions. Phyllis would become better known in the sxties for her relationship with gangster Sam Giancana.
THE MCQUIRE SISTERS ~ "BLUE SKIES";
Marion Marlowe ~ (aged 83) Pop singer who scored some hits in the early fifties and was another regular on the Arthur Godfrey Show. After she was dropped by her record label she was fired by Godfrey in 1955, later moving to Broadway
Marion Marlowe "Lover";
Russell Arms ~ (aged 92) Early 1950's pre-R&R pop singer, appeared as a regular on the TV show "Your Hit Parade" which featured weekly covers of top 40 hits, he managed to parlay this gig into a fairly successful recording career of his own as well as appearing in western musicals. Once R&R hit this sort of approach became impossible and "Your Hit Parade" was edged out by shows with actual R&R singers hosted by Alan Feed, Dewey Phillps and Dick Clark (aged 92)
Russell Arms covers "Standing On The Corner" (hit version done by Toronto vocal group The Four Lads);
Russell Arms ~ "Papa Loves Mambo" (originally by Perry Como);
Nick Noble (real name Nick Valkan); Another one of the pre-rock white pop singers who would be put out of work when rock hit. Noble actually manged to have a few more hits though as an easy listening and country singer (aged 85)
NICK NOBLE ~ "A FALLING STAR";
Tuesday, 20 March 2012
On Joan Baez and Phill Ochs
This past month the PBS series "American Masters" featured specials on folk singers Joan Baez and Phil Ochs (they also had ones on Cab Calloway, Sam Cooke and Marvin Gaye, but that's another subject). While watching them I was reminded of something.
I was never a particular fan of their purist brand of folk; too pristine and stately for my liking, and not a lot of fun, I prefer my folk either rough and rootsy or the elaborate garage-folk rock of The Byrds and Buffalo Springfield. However one has to have nothing but admiration for their true commitment to the ideals of the original folk movement, often at great personal cost and risk.
JOAN BAEZ ~ "WITH GOD ON OUR SIDE";
Both of them, especially Baez, not only supported the great battles for civil rights and peace with the usual public relations but also by putting themselves on the line literally. In the early sixties when concerts in the deep south were segregated as a matter of law, she insisted on contracts that specified integrated audiences, or risk cancelling the whole tour. When black students attempting to integrate schools in the south were threatened by stone throwing mobs, Baez came down to personally escort them to school. The sullen mobs backed off. A committed Quaker pacifist, she insisted on repeatedly advising draftees on how to resist the draft. Which got her arrested repeatedly. Every time she got out she went right back to the draft offices and resumed counselling draft resisters. As did her husband who got a longer stretch. She went to Vietnam while Hanoi was under constant bombardment by US B52's. She went to Cambodian refugee camps under the reach of shell fire. She went to Chile to stand with the Mothers of The Disappeared. She went to Sarajevo while it was under bombardment, going to a market that was a known target of Serbian shells, and sang "Amazing Grace".
JOAN BAEZ ~ THE NIGHT THEY DROVE OLD DIXIE DOWN";
All the while Baez never once lost her temper or raised her voice. She remained the very embodiment of her friend Martin Luther King's ideals. And she never seemed to be in it for the publicity. In fact by her political activities, her insistence on placing activism ahead of touring and her refusal to compromise her musical style she gave up the kind of mainstream success she would surely have had. It's hard to remember now that she actually started her career off by getting on the cover of Time Magazine and her firsts two albums were million sellers. She was a very big star, and an earthy/angelic sex symbol to boot. Most artists would sell their very souls for that kind of attention, she put it to work for public justice while keeping her artistic vision intact. I still have little interest in most of her music, aside from her Nashville album with the classic version of "The night they drove Old Dixie down", but it's hard to see how anyone could have have set higher standards for any "political" artist.
JOAN BAEZ ~ "WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN" (ON THE MUPPETT SHOW);
Phil Ochs did not have the strength or discipline of Baez. Probably bipolar and a hard drinker as well, Ochs flirted with stardom and the attention it promised. But he always came back to the ideals of the original sixties folks scene. He worked himself to exhaustion for all the right causes and ruined his health. He organized rallies, events and demos but didn't hog all the glory. He passed up plenty of chances to promote his career to promote peace. He lost good friends in the Chile coup. By the time the Vietnam war ended and Watergate brought down Nixon Ochs was a broken-down wreck, sick, tired, depressed, often drunk and confused and overweight from overeating and meds that did not seem to work. He killed himself in 1976. The musical output of Ochs was more varied than Baez but he was no less insistent on following his muse wherever it led. "I ain't marching", When I'm gone", "Another age" and "James Dean of Indiana" are his best songs. Today Billy Bragg and Bruce Springsteen sing both his praises and his songs.
PHIL OCHS ~ "I AIN'T MARCHIN' ANYMORE";
There have been no shortage of singers, actors and writers who will attach themselves to causes. Some, if not most, are no doubt sincere. Some are opportunists and poseurs. Some are both. Even the sincere one have a pretty easy time of it these days. In fact I would say the same about plenty of full time "activist" types. It is easy to get cynical. Sometimes it is good to remember the real thing. Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and Harry McClintock were it. So were Joan Baez and Phil Ochs.
PHIL OCHS ~ "JAMES DEAN OF INDIANA";
PHIL OCHS ~ "WHEN I'M GONE";
I was never a particular fan of their purist brand of folk; too pristine and stately for my liking, and not a lot of fun, I prefer my folk either rough and rootsy or the elaborate garage-folk rock of The Byrds and Buffalo Springfield. However one has to have nothing but admiration for their true commitment to the ideals of the original folk movement, often at great personal cost and risk.
JOAN BAEZ ~ "WITH GOD ON OUR SIDE";
Both of them, especially Baez, not only supported the great battles for civil rights and peace with the usual public relations but also by putting themselves on the line literally. In the early sixties when concerts in the deep south were segregated as a matter of law, she insisted on contracts that specified integrated audiences, or risk cancelling the whole tour. When black students attempting to integrate schools in the south were threatened by stone throwing mobs, Baez came down to personally escort them to school. The sullen mobs backed off. A committed Quaker pacifist, she insisted on repeatedly advising draftees on how to resist the draft. Which got her arrested repeatedly. Every time she got out she went right back to the draft offices and resumed counselling draft resisters. As did her husband who got a longer stretch. She went to Vietnam while Hanoi was under constant bombardment by US B52's. She went to Cambodian refugee camps under the reach of shell fire. She went to Chile to stand with the Mothers of The Disappeared. She went to Sarajevo while it was under bombardment, going to a market that was a known target of Serbian shells, and sang "Amazing Grace".
JOAN BAEZ ~ THE NIGHT THEY DROVE OLD DIXIE DOWN";
All the while Baez never once lost her temper or raised her voice. She remained the very embodiment of her friend Martin Luther King's ideals. And she never seemed to be in it for the publicity. In fact by her political activities, her insistence on placing activism ahead of touring and her refusal to compromise her musical style she gave up the kind of mainstream success she would surely have had. It's hard to remember now that she actually started her career off by getting on the cover of Time Magazine and her firsts two albums were million sellers. She was a very big star, and an earthy/angelic sex symbol to boot. Most artists would sell their very souls for that kind of attention, she put it to work for public justice while keeping her artistic vision intact. I still have little interest in most of her music, aside from her Nashville album with the classic version of "The night they drove Old Dixie down", but it's hard to see how anyone could have have set higher standards for any "political" artist.
JOAN BAEZ ~ "WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN" (ON THE MUPPETT SHOW);
Phil Ochs did not have the strength or discipline of Baez. Probably bipolar and a hard drinker as well, Ochs flirted with stardom and the attention it promised. But he always came back to the ideals of the original sixties folks scene. He worked himself to exhaustion for all the right causes and ruined his health. He organized rallies, events and demos but didn't hog all the glory. He passed up plenty of chances to promote his career to promote peace. He lost good friends in the Chile coup. By the time the Vietnam war ended and Watergate brought down Nixon Ochs was a broken-down wreck, sick, tired, depressed, often drunk and confused and overweight from overeating and meds that did not seem to work. He killed himself in 1976. The musical output of Ochs was more varied than Baez but he was no less insistent on following his muse wherever it led. "I ain't marching", When I'm gone", "Another age" and "James Dean of Indiana" are his best songs. Today Billy Bragg and Bruce Springsteen sing both his praises and his songs.
PHIL OCHS ~ "I AIN'T MARCHIN' ANYMORE";
There have been no shortage of singers, actors and writers who will attach themselves to causes. Some, if not most, are no doubt sincere. Some are opportunists and poseurs. Some are both. Even the sincere one have a pretty easy time of it these days. In fact I would say the same about plenty of full time "activist" types. It is easy to get cynical. Sometimes it is good to remember the real thing. Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and Harry McClintock were it. So were Joan Baez and Phil Ochs.
PHIL OCHS ~ "JAMES DEAN OF INDIANA";
PHIL OCHS ~ "WHEN I'M GONE";
Tuesday, 13 March 2012
RIPs to Micheal Davis of the MC5 and some other classic rockers
Michael Davis ~ Bassist for the classic late 1960's proto-punk band The MC, later joined with Ex Stooge Ron Asheton in The New Order (not the other one). There is literally not a punk, garage or grunge band alive or dead that has not been influenced by the MC5. Nuff said ~ 68
THE MC5 ~ "KICK OUT THE JAMS";
THE MC5 ~ "MOTOR CITY'S BURNING"; <
Levon Helm; Drummer with The Band and The Hawks from the 1950's on. Starting off as a backing band for Ronnie Hawkins on Roulette Records before Hawkins moved to Toronto. Helm later moved to Canada as well and rejoined Hawkins new all-Canadian group renamed The Band as they went on to play with Bob Dylan on his classic folk-rock records, still later the Band would go on to a solo career in the late 1960's and 70's with several classic albums. After the Band broke up Helm would continue with a solo career as well as acting, including a role as the father in "Coal Miner's Daughter". He had been battling cancer for years and died at age 72.
THE BAND ~ "I SHALL BE RELEASED";
Buggs Henderson, guitarist with the Nuggets era Texas garage band Mouse and Traps, best know for their blatant Dylan rip off "A public execution" as well as the excellent "Maid of Sugar Maid of spice" died of cancer last week at 68. He stared out with an R&B group called the Sensors and in later years recorded as a solo blues guy.
MOUSE ANT THE TRAPS ~ "MAID OF SUGAR MAID OF SPICE;
Freddie Milano ~ Singer with Dion and The Belmonts, one of the greatest white Doo Wop groups with hits lke "Runaround Sue", "Lovers who wander", "A teenager in love" ~ 72
DION & THE BELMONTS ~ "RUNAROUND SUE";
JERRY "BOOGIE" MCCLAIN ~ "TWIST 62";
Donald Duck Dunn; Bassist with Booker T & The MG's, the classic house band for virtually all the classic Soul and R&B hits put out by Stax Records in the 1960's. Hits by the likes of Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Rufus Thomas, Carla Thomas, William Bell, Eddie Floyd, Albert King, as well as several instrumental hits by the MG's themselves. Later worked with Wilson Pickett, Muddy Waters, Freddie King, Neil Young, Joe Walsh and Jerry Lee Lewis. Still later he played on Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks "Stop dragging my heart around". Appeared in the "Blues Brothers" movie as himself backing up the Brothers as well as Cab Calloway.
Booker T & The MG's ~ "Green Onions";
Herb Reed ~ Singer with 1950's Doo Wop group The Platters ~ 83
The Platters ~ "The Great Pretender" & "Only You";
Lloyd Brevett ~ Jamaican double bassist (The Skatalites) ~ 80
Chris Ethridge ~ Bassist with Gram Parson's International Submarine Band and The Flying Burrito Brothers. Also played with The Byrds and Emmylou Harris ~
The Flying Burrito Brothers ~ "Older Guys";
Robin Gibb ~ Singer with the Bee Gees, best remembered for their disco hits but originally known for a series of lush 1960's pop hits such as "To love somebody", "I started a joke" ~ 62 The Bee Gees ~ "I started a joke";
Vince Lovegrove ~ Co-lead singer (with Bon Scott) in 1960's Australian group The Valentines. The group broke up after a drugs bust and Lovegrove went on to be a producer and manager while Scott would later join AC/DC ~ 65
THE VALENTINES ~ "BUILD ME UP BUTTERCUP";
Richie Teeter ~ Drummer with late 1970's New York punk band The Dictators, later with 1980's hair band shockers Twisted Sister ~ 61
THE DICTATORS ~ "SEARCH AND DESTROY";
TWISTED SISTER ~ "WE'RE NOT GONNA TAKE IT";
Ronnie Montrose with 1970's hard rock band Montrose along with singer Sammy Hagar before Sammy went solo became a total twat. Ronnie later went solo ~ 66
MONTROSE ~ "BAD MOTOR SCOOTER";
Mike Hossack, one of many drummers of the 1970's stadium rockers Doobie Brothers most of whom were not brothers and none of whom were named "Doobie" ~ 65
THE DOOBIE BROTHERS ~ "CHINA GROVE";
THE MC5 ~ "KICK OUT THE JAMS";
THE MC5 ~ "MOTOR CITY'S BURNING"; <
Levon Helm; Drummer with The Band and The Hawks from the 1950's on. Starting off as a backing band for Ronnie Hawkins on Roulette Records before Hawkins moved to Toronto. Helm later moved to Canada as well and rejoined Hawkins new all-Canadian group renamed The Band as they went on to play with Bob Dylan on his classic folk-rock records, still later the Band would go on to a solo career in the late 1960's and 70's with several classic albums. After the Band broke up Helm would continue with a solo career as well as acting, including a role as the father in "Coal Miner's Daughter". He had been battling cancer for years and died at age 72.
THE BAND ~ "I SHALL BE RELEASED";
Buggs Henderson, guitarist with the Nuggets era Texas garage band Mouse and Traps, best know for their blatant Dylan rip off "A public execution" as well as the excellent "Maid of Sugar Maid of spice" died of cancer last week at 68. He stared out with an R&B group called the Sensors and in later years recorded as a solo blues guy.
MOUSE ANT THE TRAPS ~ "MAID OF SUGAR MAID OF SPICE;
Freddie Milano ~ Singer with Dion and The Belmonts, one of the greatest white Doo Wop groups with hits lke "Runaround Sue", "Lovers who wander", "A teenager in love" ~ 72
DION & THE BELMONTS ~ "RUNAROUND SUE";
JERRY "BOOGIE" MCCLAIN ~ "TWIST 62";
Donald Duck Dunn; Bassist with Booker T & The MG's, the classic house band for virtually all the classic Soul and R&B hits put out by Stax Records in the 1960's. Hits by the likes of Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Rufus Thomas, Carla Thomas, William Bell, Eddie Floyd, Albert King, as well as several instrumental hits by the MG's themselves. Later worked with Wilson Pickett, Muddy Waters, Freddie King, Neil Young, Joe Walsh and Jerry Lee Lewis. Still later he played on Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks "Stop dragging my heart around". Appeared in the "Blues Brothers" movie as himself backing up the Brothers as well as Cab Calloway.
Booker T & The MG's ~ "Green Onions";
Herb Reed ~ Singer with 1950's Doo Wop group The Platters ~ 83
The Platters ~ "The Great Pretender" & "Only You";
Lloyd Brevett ~ Jamaican double bassist (The Skatalites) ~ 80
Chris Ethridge ~ Bassist with Gram Parson's International Submarine Band and The Flying Burrito Brothers. Also played with The Byrds and Emmylou Harris ~
The Flying Burrito Brothers ~ "Older Guys";
Robin Gibb ~ Singer with the Bee Gees, best remembered for their disco hits but originally known for a series of lush 1960's pop hits such as "To love somebody", "I started a joke" ~ 62 The Bee Gees ~ "I started a joke";
Vince Lovegrove ~ Co-lead singer (with Bon Scott) in 1960's Australian group The Valentines. The group broke up after a drugs bust and Lovegrove went on to be a producer and manager while Scott would later join AC/DC ~ 65
THE VALENTINES ~ "BUILD ME UP BUTTERCUP";
Richie Teeter ~ Drummer with late 1970's New York punk band The Dictators, later with 1980's hair band shockers Twisted Sister ~ 61
THE DICTATORS ~ "SEARCH AND DESTROY";
TWISTED SISTER ~ "WE'RE NOT GONNA TAKE IT";
Ronnie Montrose with 1970's hard rock band Montrose along with singer Sammy Hagar before Sammy went solo became a total twat. Ronnie later went solo ~ 66
MONTROSE ~ "BAD MOTOR SCOOTER";
Mike Hossack, one of many drummers of the 1970's stadium rockers Doobie Brothers most of whom were not brothers and none of whom were named "Doobie" ~ 65
THE DOOBIE BROTHERS ~ "CHINA GROVE";
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