Little Worlds: Béla Fleck and the Flecktones

Béla Fleck is unapologetically outside the mainstream: after all, he utilizes the banjo as a jazz instrument!
 
Little Worlds is consistent with Fleck's general approach. It is unconventional insofar as it's a 3-CD set of widely diverse material. (Multi-disc sets often sample a wide variety of musical styles. The Beatles "White Album" and Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road are noteworthy examples.) And "Little World" utilizes unfamiliar instruments, including the theremin and Future Man's synth-axe drumitar.

The sound quality of "Little Worlds" is very good. The musicianship is frequently superb! Several guest artists turned up during the course of recording these discs. (That's a key reason the project evolved into a 3-CD set.)

Branford Marsalis plays saxophone on "Sherpa", which is a terrific song. "Mudslingers of the Milky Way" (with a fine 6-string bass solo) is another outstanding jazz tune. A number of songs are quite funny: not least the guest vocal by Bobby McFerrin on "What It Is". And there is a hidden comedy track (prior to track #1) featuring commentary by David St. Hubins of Spinal Tap. (Again, the Flecktones bring to mind the Beatles, who often recorded joke tracks.)

The reader may be aware that there is also a 1-CD version called "Ten From Little Worlds". I strongly recommend that people choose the 3-CD version instead. The single CD includes several quirky tracks: e.g., the Flecktone's take on "The Ballad of Jed Clampett", which is spun as a hybrid of rap/bluegrass/jazz, with lyrics that deliver both comedy and social commentary! In my opinion, the 1-CD version is rather thin on actual content. But with the 3-CD version, the listener can enjoy the quirky tracks but be satisfied by hearing plenty of exceptional jazz, too.

(review cross-posted on eBay)

★★★★☆
Good!

Bernie Taupin

The Elton John / Bernie Taupin story is well known. They were introduced to one another after each of them answered an advertisement in the New Music Express. Bernie wrote lyrics; Elton wrote music; together, they were a complete package.

Bernie isn't a particularly talented lyricist, but for some reason the partnership with Elton is magical. It often seems to me that Bernie's most cringe-worthy lyrics inspire Elton's best music.

(Most songwriters compose the music first, then fit the lyrics to the melody; but Bernie and Elton reversed the conventional process.)

The album liners to the remastered Elton John discs often make reference to Bernie's lyrics. Here's Bernie himself, in the liner notes to the Elton John CD:

It's how [the words] sound together, you don't have to worry about whether it rhymes or whether the meter's great. It's just how it feels here and now. The perfect example of that is "Take Me To The Pilot". If anybody can tell me what that song's about, it'd be great. But hey, it worked.

I love the song, "Where To Now, St. Peter?" on the Tumbleweed Connection disc. But I was surprised to learn, "[it] addresses the agnostic dilemma of whether the final destination is heaven or hell."

According to Christian tradition, St. Peter is the gatekeeper who lets us into heaven (or not) after our death. But St. Peter might also direct our course here on earth. Is the lyric about a soldier? Is the soldier dying? I doubt many people would guess it without being told.

Or consider "Daniel" (on Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only The Piano Player):

In the companion book to the Two Rooms tribute album in 1991, Bernie Taupin […] admits:  "It is a song that is important to me, because it was the one thing I said about the Vietnam war", and calls it "the most misinterpreted song we've ever written. It's been interpreted as a gay anthem, a family feud song — there's no end to it".

No wonder it has been misinterpreted:  the lyric says that Daniel was flying to Spain! It's clear that Daniel's brother misses him, but that's as far as the lyric takes us. Bernie thinks it was the only thing he ever said about the Vietnam war, but obscure isn't a strong enough adjective in this case. Only in Bernie's head does "Daniel" comment on Vietnam or any other war!

Arguably Elton John's best LP was 1975's Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy. This time, the lyrics hold up rather well. Bernie worked harder on the lyrics, presumably because they were autobiographical. (Elton is Captain Fantastic, of course, and country boy Bernie is The Brown Dirt Cowboy.)

It was very interesting to write about real incidents, and it was a good lesson because when I write very quickly, it rolls out. With this, I took much more time. I would write something, then I'd go on to something else, then go back and work some more on what I'd done previously. It was a new exercise and I think it really paid off.

Frankly, it comes as no surprise that most of Bernie's lyrics were tossed off with minimal effort. Even when the song is a gem, the lyrics are hardly polished.

Other lyricists (Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Pete Townshend, Bruce Cockburn) deliver more of a message. Taupin's lyrics are oblique and evocative, and maybe that's where the magic comes from.

One suspects that a lyric with a direct, transparent meaning would have elicited less dynamic music from Elton.

He still shines on

Oct. 9, 1940 to Dec. 8, 1980. Such nice, round numbers. Exactly forty years, from the beginning of one decade to the end of another.

Forty years is not nearly long enough. And yet, for John Lennon, it was sufficient time to change the world. That sounds like hyperbole, but it isn't.


 
John's blood-
stained glasses, from the cover of Yoko's disc, Season of Glass.
 
 
 
Dec. 8, 1980 — the day John Lennon was murdered — remains one of the saddest days of my life. Strange, that:  that the death of someone I never knew could affect me so deeply.

The next day, most of my high school classmates seemed more titillated than grief-stricken. Not me; I found it extremely difficult to make it through that day. The event still has the power to reduce me to tears, if I dwell on it too long.

"We all shine on," Lennon sang. I don't know about the rest of us, but surely John shines on. He's one of the immortals.



Lennon is better known for his Beatles songs than for his solo work, of course. The outstanding exception is "Imagine", arguably the greatest of the many great songs he wrote, not excluding the Beatles catalogue.

Even the lesser work of a genius is liable to be superior to the efforts of mere mortals. So it is with Lennon's solo work. "Cold Turkey", "Instant Karma", "Working Class Hero", "Gimme Some Truth", "#9 Dream", "I'm Losing You", "Nobody Told Me" — this legacy would make a worthy "Greatest Hits" package for a lesser songwriter. But if you happen to be John Lennon, those songs are forever overshadowed by "Help", "Day Tripper", "A Day In The Life", "All You Need Is Love", "Come Together", and the many other extraordinary songs he wrote for the Beatles.

Lennon developed a social conscience toward the end of his Beatles years, and it deeply influenced all of his solo LPs. (The message was usually delivered with Lennon's characteristic humour. For example, one of the tracks on Mind Games is the "Nutopian National Anthem" — 3 seconds of silence in honour of a "conceptual country" which lives up to Lennon's utopian ideals.)

And so it was that, in 2007, Amnesty International utilized John's solo material as the centrepiece of a human rights campaign:

The conflict in Darfur, Sudan, has led to some of the worst human rights abuses imaginable, including systematic and widespread murder, rape, abduction and displacement. Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been killed by deliberate and indiscriminate attacks, and over 2.5 million civilians have been displaced. Help Amnesty International end the atrocities. www.instantkarma.org

Amnesty released a two-CD set of Lennon's solo material, performed by artists including U2, R.E.M., Christina Aguilera, Aerosmith, Jackson Browne, Avril Lavigne, Youssou N'Dour, and The Flaming Lips.

It's a good disc. As with all tribute discs, some tracks are more successful than others:

• U2 kicks off the disc with a solid, straight-ahead take on the title track, "Instant Karma".


• Christina Aguilera tackles one of John's more daring songs, "Mother", from his primal scream era. She isn't able to replicate Lennon's anguished, throat-shredding vocal, but the song retains more than a little of its original power.


• Aerosmith, performing with Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars, recorded a reggae version of the iconic protest song, "Give Peace A Chance". The vocals are hilarious at certain points, which is consistent with Lennon's humour.


• Jackson Browne isn't able to recapture the sublime magic of "Oh, My Love", but this is a passable version of a great song (from Lennon's Imagine CD).


• Something about Lennon's last LP, Double Fantasy, brings out the worst in the artists attempting to pay tribute to him. I would be happy if I never again hear Corinne Bailey Rae's recording of "I'm Losing You", Ben Harper's version of "Beautiful Boy", Matisyahu's "Watching The Wheels", or The Flaming Lips' overblown performance of "(Just Like) Starting Over".


• There are two versions of "Imagine" on the disc. Avril Lavigne's attempt is strictly dreck; Jack Johnson's version would be OK, but only if you had never heard Lennon's original.


• On the other hand, there are solid interpretations of "Whatever Gets You Through The Night" by Los Lonely Boys; "Nobody Told Me" by Big & Rich; and "Isolation" by Snow Patrol. And there are two fine takes on "Gimme Some Truth, one by Jakob Dylan with Dhani Harrison (an acoustic interpretation); the other by Jaguares (a hard rock interpretation).


• Three of the clear highlights of the compilation:  "Jealous Guy" by Youssou N'Dour; "Working Class Hero" by Green Day; and "Real Love" by Regina Spektor.


• Plus there are five more tracks I haven't mentioned.

In sum:  a worthy tribute CD, and a worthy cause.

Songwriting:  ★★★★☆
Performance:  ★★★☆☆
Sound quality:  ★★★★☆
In a word:  Good (even Exceptional, at times).

Is it my body

I listened to quite a bit of Alice Cooper when I was a teenager. "Alice" was "way out", in the cultural ambiance of the 1970s. This was before Marilyn Manson, remember; before Boy George, before KISS. Heavy metal was in its infancy then. Alice Cooper — the son of a preacher — is one of the artists who created the template.

The band's first album was released in 1969:  the same year as David Bowie's first LP. It was radical then for a man to call himself "Alice"; to wear makeup like something out of a horror show; to use a guillotine or an electric chair as part of the act; to sing songs about a hired killer or a necrophiliac, sung from the first person point of view.



The explosion at the end of "School's Out" seemed more titillating than shocking at the time. (The version on the School's Out LP ended with the sound of an explosion, shortly after the line, "school's out forever". The politically correct version featured on the Best of Alice Cooper LP ends with the sound of a bell signalling the end of class, and a bunch of kids cheering enthusiastically.)

"School's Out" predated Columbine by nearly 20 years; it was released before school shootings became a real, all-too frequent phenomenon. If I relished hearing the explosion at the time — and I certainly did — it was like giggling at the phrase "bare naked ladies", not like jerking off to a hard-core pornographic image. In other words, it was several steps removed from gritty reality.

It's interesting to listen to Alice Cooper now that I am no longer Eighteen. I am pleased to validate the musical taste of my 18-year-old self. Alice Cooper wrote a number of fine songs!

I am sometimes amused to come across a "Greatest Hits" package from a group that had only one noteworthy hit. But The Best of Alice Cooper is a worthwhile compilation. It starts strong with "I'm Eighteen", introduces Alice's self-deprecating humour with "Is It My Body", and then shifts gears to the creepy, very powerful "Desperado". That was the track that first drew my attention to Alice Cooper:  my older sister owned Killer. "Desperado" blew me away the first time I heard it, and it still sends a thrill up my spine today.

The liner notes describe "Under My Wheels" (another Killer track) as "garage band 101", which sums it up nicely. "School's Out" features a driving bass line, biting guitar accents, and downright hilarious lyrics. "Generation Landslide" has a mocking "Da-da da da-da!" bit at the beginning that makes me laugh out loud every time I hear it. It also happens to be a very musical song.

And on it goes, one outstanding track after another:  "No More Mr. Nice Guy" (an a.m. radio staple when I was a teenager); "Billion Dollar Babies" (Alice's biggest hit, though it's not one of my personal favourites); another creepy favourite, "Welcome To My Nightmare"; and "Only Women Bleed", a beautiful song which presents itself as a sympathetic examination of wife abuse — but I'm convinced that Alice just wanted to see whether he could saturate the airwaves with an unsubtle reference to menstruation.

The rest of the disc is perhaps grade-B material. Alice's creative peak was brief. But still, he was a fine songwriter as well as a born entertainer. The disc is a worthy addition to the music library of anyone who enjoys rock.

Songwriting:  ★★★★☆
Performance:  ★★★☆☆
Sound quality:  ★★★☆☆
In a word:  Good.

Haydn, string quartets

Franz Joseph Haydn was a groundbreaking composer. He is often called "the father of the symphony"; sometimes also "the father of the string quartet".

Haydn was older than, but a contemporary of, both Mozart and Beethoven. He established the musical templates which Mozart and Beethoven then perfected.

As far as symphonies go, I prefer Beethoven. But I love Haydn's string quartets, whereas Beethoven's tend to strike me as maudlin. (Beethoven bridged the classical and romantic eras; I suppose the romanticism of Beethoven's string quartets is a little over the top for me.)

I don't have a lot of string quartet recordings in my library, so perhaps I shouldn't spout off on the subject. But I can at least recommend my favourite among the recordings I do possess:  the Alban Berg Quartet (pictured), performing Haydn's String Quartet in G, Op. 77 No. 1; and his String Quartet in F, Op. 77 No. 2.

Admittedly, the disc has one peculiar feature. In between the two beautiful compositions by Haydn, there is a modern piece by Berio:  Notturno (Quartetto III). When I say "modern", I mean the Alban Berg Quartet produces lots of squawks, squeaks, and squeals on their instruments:  unmusical noises. And there are 23 minutes of it.

I find that I can appreciate modern, atonal compositions in a live setting — it's a "happening", as they used to say in the 60s — but I never feel like inviting this sort of performance into my personal living quarters. It may be unenlightened of me to admit it. At least I can say that lots of other folks share my ignorant opinion.

Anyway, the two Haydn compositions consist of four movements each. So the disc has four beautiful, stirring tracks, followed by Berio's evocation of a cat yowling — one might imagine the poor feline desperately warding off a swirly — followed by four more beautiful, stirring tracks courtesy of Haydn. It's a schizophrenic experience, but on balance there's more Haydn than Berio.

I suspect the Alban Berg quartet was making the point that it's all music, and the silly distinctions people like me make between Haydn and Berio are arbitrary.

I remain unpersuaded. I don't find the Berio relaxing and pleasurable, whereas the Haydn compositions are both of those things:  gloriously so.

A good string quartet possesses what I describe as "quiet energy". It's easy to generate energy by grabbing an electric guitar and turning the amp up to "11" (per Spinal Tap), and maybe throwing in a primal scream (e.g., Roger Daltrey of The Who in "Won't Get Fooled Again").

It takes superior musicianship to keep the volume down yet crank the energy up. A string quartet, in the capable hands of talented musicians, has the potential to do just that.

Because it's quiet, a disc with "quiet energy" can be used as background music while you're concentrating on a demanding task. But because of the energy, it is also rewarding to set your task aside and attend exclusively to the music.

Notwithstanding my reservations about track five, I recommend the Alban Berg Quartet recording very highly. As I said above, this is my favourite of the string quartet recordings in my music library.

Songwriting:  ★★★★★
Performance:  ★★★★☆
Sound quality:  ★★★☆☆
In a word:  Exceptional.

Here's the Alban Berg Quartet performing a string quartet by Beethoven.



If you would like to hear Haydn's string quartet in G (the first composition on the Alban Berg disc), you can hear another performance of it here.