Musical Roundtable

Jim: We're doing a music roundtable of sorts. Just a few notes on some CDs that caught our ears this week. My dad's a huge Paul Simon fan so when I saw Paul Simon's new CD Suprise at C.I.'s, I grabbed it an ripped off the plastic.

Dona: Just to be clear, you did rip off the plastic.

Jim: Yes.

Jess: We all listened to together and C.I. was finishing every couplet, not a word but going two for two.

C.I.: I just know Paul Simon's writing style. I can usually guess the end rhyme.

Jim: "Solistice" wasn't an end rhyme. And it wasn't just the last two words, like Jess said, two lines by Simon and you knew where he was headed with the next two.

C.I.: I know his writing style, I know his imagery.

Jim: I liked Suprise. Ava had some problems with it.

Ava: My issue was -- we've got enough religions metaphors tossed out by the Bully Boy. I appreciated what Simon was trying to do but "War Prayers" is conflating so much that I feel the whole song is confused.

C.I.: You felt the heart of the song was the third verse.

Ava: That's where he's talking about a mother and her children. If the song had started off with that and developed it, I would have enjoyed it. Instead, I felt he wrote a song that a number of people will listen to and think, "Yeah, war good! God wants it!" They'll miss the line about "liars," for instance. C.I. had a funny line about "Sure Don't Feel Like Love."

C.I.: Is that track four?

Ava: Yes. C.I. said, "Well look what Cher's 'Believe' has wrought."

C.I.: Because of the vocal recording.

Jim: I get Ava's point and, if I think about it too long, will agree but I basically enjoyed the CD.

C.I.: I think any Paul Simon fan will. This isn't an album for hardcore fans only. Anyone who's ever sung along with any Paul Simon song, solo or with Art [Garfunkel] should embrace this CD. I do agree with Ava's point, by the way. I appreciate what he's trying to do and think he makes it musically but lyrically, Ava's point, he would have been stronger with the close up and, lyrically, the song trends towards the universal.

Jim: I was going through all the CDs that had been given to C.I. and not opened yet.

C.I.: I speak out of town a great deal, just to clarify, and there's never enough time. It's not meant as an insult when something sits unopened. But before we move on, the first two tracks are Simon classics. I haven't looked at the CD, so I'm sorry I don't know the titles. But they are as strong as "Dangling Conversation" and "The Only Living Boy In New York City."

Jim: We can stay on this a bit longer. I really did love the CD. The two songs that you're talking about are "How Can You Live In the Northeast" and "Everything About It Is A Love Song." I really loved those two. But I think "Once Upon A Time There Was An Ocean" is my favorite.

Dona: Jim really loves the CD. You're not getting it back.

C.I.: That's fine. To close this out, Simon's engaged with the world around him. This isn't an album where you listen and think, "Uh, what year is it?" It's reflecting on today. There's a line in one of the songs about getting back to the 20th century that Jim loves. I understand Ava's point and actually agree with her quite strongly but the album itself is a meditation on today and I think, my opinion, it's the strongest work he's ever done as a solo artist.

Jim: I'd agree with that and I know his albums. Like I said, Paul Simon's my dad's favorite artist. I grew up hearing him the way Jess grew up hearing everyone. There's a searching quality to his songs that's on this album and he's grappling with hope in times of war, with aging, with pretty much everything. I think it's a great CD and the sound textures are just amazing.

Dona: We'll move to the next CD and I wanted to like this so bad. It's Stranger Things by Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians. Brickell is married to Paul Simon so I thought it would be interesting to listen to her CD after we'd heard Simon's. I also did like the New Bohemians. I was so disappointed with this CD. I didn't feel I was getting songs, I felt I was listening to sketches. Did anyone like this? For the record, I paused for thirty-seconds while waiting for an answer.

C.I.: I just don't care for Edie Brickell as a recording artist. I can't evaluate this disc because I've never enjoyed her solo or with the group. I think all of her songs are sketches. I don't hold it against her that her phrasing owes so much to Rickie Lee Jones. I do hold it against her that her writing is so miniscule. It's as though she's handed a huge canvas and decides to do a doodle the size of a postage stamp in one corner. What's your favorite song by her?

Dona: "What I Am."

C.I.: Yeah. I hated that the first time I heard it. When she was singing about someone "pull me out of the shallow waters before I get too deep," my response was, "No threat of that ever happening." That one, that CD, actually would have stayed in plastic. I would've never unwrapped it. I'm sorry to know that it doesn't even make it for fans of her music, but she's never made it for me musically.

Dona: I guess, for me as a fan of the group, the most disappointing thing was that it's been forever since they put out a CD and this is what they put out? I did have the Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars CD. It was my aunt's and I loved the title and the cover and would always beg her to put it on. One time, my parents were helping her pack up, she was moving to a different apartment, and she gave me that CD while she was packing up her CDs. So I've logged a lot of time on that CD. Should I stop?

Jess: No.

Dona: Well the new CD, Stranger Things. It's how many years later? And look at all that's going on in the world and the songs just really don't reflect that. What was the Dylan song she did?

Jess: "A Hard Rain's Gonna' Fall."

C.I.: For the soundtrack to Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July.

Dona: I just felt like, if you're doing these sketches, record something written by someone else. And I didn't love Paul Simon's CD the way Jim did, Jim loves that CD, but I did appreciate the topics he was struggling with, the things we are all struggling with, but with Stranger Things, forget what year is it, I wondered what decade it was supposed to be there's no real indication of a life today. I was just really disappointed.

Ty: And that's really awful, when there's an artist you like and they put out something that just leaves you so cold. It's not a shift, right?

Dona: Like a new direction? No. On that, I could think, "Oh well, it's me and I just need to give this time." Does everyone know what I'm talking about?

C.I.: Yeah. Boys for Pele, Tori Amos, that CD I could not get into and I love Tori Amos. It was probably six months before I could appreciate it and get into it.

Dona: I can see that happening with that album. But that's not like that. This isn't a CD where someone tries a new approach. It's the exact same thing they were doing years ago and it's not as though anything's happened to inspire them or even to effect them. Considering the war and everything else going on today, it's just really sad how superficial the lyrics are and the band always sounds like it's about to get into a groove but never manages.

Ty: If it helps, I love Van Hunt's first CD but the second one disappointed me so much. On the Jungle Floor. Now there, it was a change in sound. And that was my big problem. If you're Van Hunt why do you want to sound like Prince? Prince does a great job of being Prince, most of the time. But if you've established yourself as a strong talent, why would you just trash the things that made you unique to sound like another artists. There are some jams on there that I can listen to but it really sounds like an artist who doesn't know what he wants to say or who he is.

C.I.: Sophomore curse. I haven't listened to the CD but you're describing many, including Terrence Trent Darby.

Ty: It just felt like product and I think that's what Dona's saying about Edie Brickell's CD.

Dona: That's exactly what I'm saying, thank you, Ty. Again, Simon's CD, I could appreciate what he was going for. I could enjoy a lot of songs on it. There was nothing that would make me scream, "Skip that track!" And Jim won't stop playing it. We're making love to it, we're waking to it. He's got it on the CD player in the bedroom and it never goes off. I couldn't take a second listen to Brickell and the New Bohemians.

Jess: One CD that we all loved was Michael Franti and Spearhead's Live In Sydney.

Ava: We did. And we should note that we're not addressing Yell Fire by Franti and Spearhead or Ani DiFranco's Reprieve because we've already noted them here and because Kat's hoping to do reviews of both.

Jess: This is a really great live recording.

Jim: It's also a DVD but we never watched that. I remember when we got back from New Mexico, I was sprawled out on the floor and we were listening to this. Someone, Ava?, said, "You know the other side is a DVD of the concert. Maybe we should watch it?" And there was this pause and then it was like, "No, let's just listen."

Jess: Right. We've listened to this so much and probably formed the best visuals in our heads already. But this is a really great CD. If you like Franti and Spearhead, get this CD.

Ava: The track that hooked me from the start is where he brought a woman from the audience up on stage with him for that number. I'm not sure she can sing, but she is very much a part of that song. And her efforts at following him, he'll sing a line and then she'll sing it, really make the song and add to it. And yes, Jim, I was the one who suggested we watch the concert on DVD. I was also the one who kicked you to wake you up several hours later.

Jim: I thought that was you. "If you can't feel a thing a thing, hold on to me." That's really the key line of that song.

Dona: And that's why song works so well with the woman. Franti's got a warm voice and can sing but the message of the song is strengthened by the mix between them. I also loved "Everyone Deserves Music."

Ty: One thing I'll note about the packaging, the track listing may be for the DVD but it's not the listing for the CD. I'm pretty sure it's two off. The listings. "Sometimes" was my favorite song on the CD. It's track six but the back cover lists it as the eighth one. And the keyboards are really good on that song.

Jess: Bob Crawford.

C.I.: I think tracks one and two, on the listing, are covered with track one and tracks three and four listed are track two on the CD.

Ty: I think you're right. But it made it difficult to figure out the songs sometimes.

Dona: For those who can't write a full song either right now or ever, they should consider recording "Never Too Late" which is actually a song. I really love that song with it's commentary of "Don't fear . . ."

Ava: But do you think "It's never too late"?

Dona: You mean with regards to Iraq? With someone other than Bully Boy in the Oval Office, maybe. With someone as stubborn and mule headed as the Bully Boy, I think it was "too late" long, long ago. But you know what, he can think he's unmoveable by the will of the people all he wants but the reality is that he, the Bully Boy, isn't.

Ava: I hope you're right. I loved the Franti and Spearhead album but my favorite "new" CD this week was Illuminations by Buffy Sainte-Marie. Brenda Norrell's "Buffy Sainte-Marie's censored sounds" (Indian Country Today) had Dona and I interested in more of her music, we've largely just paid attention to the greatest hits, The Best of Buffy Sainte-Maire. And Sainte-Marie is manipulating her vocals on parts of this album, not unlike Paul Simon does on track four of Surprise.

Dona: And the "new" CD is actually an album released in 1969. "Suffer The Children" is probably my favorite song. It's about, or one theme in the song is the teaching of fear and being taught to look outside your country for the 'evil.'

Jim: What stood out to me is what stands out to me everytime which is how few comparisons are made of Patti Smith and Buffy Sainte-Marie's vocals when they share a great deal in common. I think we all enjoyed this one. My own favorite track is probably "The Dream Tree."

Ty: And the sad thing about this CD is that it did come out in 1969. Makes you really grasp how much shallow abounds today. Justin Timberjoke rips off the music of Prince and others to try to sound 'sexy' but he still sings like he's an accountant major in a clip-on tie.

C.I.: And I think that's a good point about a lot of the music today. Neil Young put out Living With War and we're still waiting for anyone to match that. It's still not happening for the most part. And it's not being strived towards. An album I've actually been thinking of lately, but haven't had time to listen to, is Gram Nash's Song for Beginners. Which I'm betting only Jess is familiar with.

Jess: Yeah, I do know that album quite well. "Military Madness" is a great song. And where are those songs today? "War Prayer" tries, and I'll give Paul Simon credit for that, but Neil Young's come alive by engaging with the world around him, Paul Simon's come out of a deep coma by doing that, artistic coma, and you'd think people would see that or Green Day's success or the works of others and that they'd have the guts to dig a little deeper. God save us all from "Sexy Back."

Jim: And there's a lot of work being done on independent label's. One CD that we really loved was by a group we'd never heard of. They're on tour right now and will perform in Oakland on the fourth, Kind of Like Spitting.

Jess: That's the group. The name of the CD we were listening to by them is Learn: The Songs of Phil Ochs. It's a collection of songs written by Phil Ochs.

Dona: And what kills most tribute CDs for me is the glitz factor. It's either overdone or you've got someone damned determined to overwhelm the entire project on their one track. I can list several from the Tapestry and Rumors tribute albums. Because the entire CD is by one group, Kind of Like Spitting, it has a cohesion and it's also true that the songs are done in a more intimate style. Or maybe low-key is the term. But this was an enjoyable CD that you could listen to without grimacing or reaching for the remote. But to the point that Ty and C.I. were making, at some point, you either have to reject the nonsense, the product, or just accept that you are as useless as the product you're listening to. And I'm waiting for some more bravery in future releases. Neil Young has not been stoned. Who else is going to step up to the plate? You'd think a number would be chomping at the bit. Trying to demonstrate, "Oh, well that's Young, look what I can do!" Instead, you have more of the water color, pale word jumbles coming from Bob Dylan.

Jim: The most disappointing CD put out by a grown up this year. Truly. Give it up. Pack it in. His ego's been so stroked, and the usual hand-jobs were given on the new CD, that he can utter such ridiculous statements as, "I own the sixties-who's going to argue with me?"

Ty: I'll argue with him. Old man better not say that around me. MLK. Malcolm X. If we're focusing on music, James Brown, Diana Ross.

Ava: Which is a good point, Diana Ross. Diana Ross and the Supremes had more number one hits than any other American artists in the sixties. James Brown had more popular success. Dylan was like Laura Nyro, whose music I love, his songs were popularized by others. Say "Blowing In The Wind" to some who grew up in the sixites and they'll think of when they first heard Peter, Paul & Mary sing it. Say "All I Really Want To Do" and they'll think of Cher or the Byrds. This is a man who had trouble going gold. His idea that he owns the sixties is a bit of a laugh.

Jess: Well, the Beatles. They were certainly more popular than Dylan. There songs were and are better known than Dylan's. It's an old man trying to grab bragging rights because he's got so little to point to today. "Hey, I don't just make a CD every few years, I'm a disc jockey." Wow. You have yet again underwhelmed a nation. And your use of "slut" in the lyrics reads like a desparate attempt to be "down" with the young 'uns.

Jim: And listen to a radio if you're going to talk about recordings.

Ty: You're talking about when he brags on himself and then feels the need to note that, he thinks, other songs aren't recorded, right?

Jim: Right.

Ty: I noticed something. Did anyone else?

C.I.: I did. Does anyone else want to go?

Ty: I think you and I are the only ones who may have noticed it. If you're thinking of the same thing I'm thinking of.

C.I.: He's really slagging African-Americans. We're talking about the cover story of Rolling Stone's September 7th issue. Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On?" -- his logic -- must not hold up as well his songs because 'who's recording it?' and Smokey Robinson's 'Tracks of My Tears" in the same way. He's trying to paint himself as the artist, the sole artist in some instances, and compares the Mona Lisa for some reason. To make that comparison, that likeness of his work to the Mona Lisa, he has to dig up someone to slag. Who will it be? He offers Alicia Keys but then decides he doesn't want to go there and settles for Michael Jackson. There's also the creepiness factor of his statement: "There's nothing about that girl I don't like." With an emphasis on "nothing" and the fact that an adult artist's being called a "girl."

Ava: Maybe we're supposed to be relieved that she wasn't called a "slut"? I'm sorry, Ty, I didn't pick up on that when I read it but now that it's been pointed out, yes, it was there.

Ty: That just ticked me off. And I'll offer my theory, for the bulk of the sixties, American ownership of the charts came via Motown, Aretha and others. That was the success. Dylan wasn't a chart success for most of the sixties on the singles chart and he's still trying to disown what others did accomplish.

C.I.: Before some tired hack of a professor takes his hand out of his pants long enough to type out an e-mail, Dylan did once list Smokey Robinson as one of the great songwriters. It's also true that he then took that back and said it was a joke. A fact that's rarely noted but it is public and is probably known even by those who attempt to only note the first statement. The interview's a turn off. How much that has to do with Dylan and how much that has to do with the writer is open to question but, as a general rule, anytime you sing your own praises, you're asking to be slammed. And obviously, "What's Going On?" and "Tracks of My Tears" have been covered many times and will continue to be covered many times. As for Ty's theory, anytime someone's singing their own praises and down grading others, they invite those theories. I don't know what's sadder though because from some of the statements, Dylan's saying compare him to others not his past but either the writer or Dylan at that moment, was stuck in the past. When you've already written one book on your past and are planning another, maybe time can be devoted to discussing the new album. Not the mosit juvenile jottings provided by the author of the piece but a serious discussion.

Jim: Maybe the new album doesn't hold up to a serious discussion, maybe that was the thinking.

C.I.: That may be. I haven't listened to it because I had a feeling it would pop up in a roundtable and I'd prefer to say, "Haven't listened to it yet, sorry." But in terms of the article, that's the writer's fault, not Dylan's. He was plugging the new album. He is always high on the new album, whatever album it is, and willing to talk about it from what happened in the studio to the song writing. The writer isn't interested in the new album. He's interested in tripping back to the eighties with his laughable nonsense. Empire Burlesque's production was an attempt to garner more listeners. To imply that he was of age in the eighties and the production confused him, the writer, is just silly. You can say you don't like the production, but to use Dylan's terms laid out in the article, compare him not to his past but to what others are doing. Empire Burlesque fits in with what others were doing in terms of production. It was only a surprise/shock for those still wanting Dylan behind an acoustic guitar.

Jess: You actually like Empire Burlesque.

C.I.: Yes, I do. I prefer Knocked Out Loaded because you can hear real genius at work on that album. Sometimes it's pulled off wonderfully, sometimes it's not. But the process is there. I think it sums up where he was and where he was looking at, on the horizon. The albums that would follow, after the attempts at U2 polish, would bear that out. He's also charting, lyrically, more directly the themes that he's been exploring of late. "Drifting Too Far From Shore" is a good example of that. What I think, of the critical reaction to Knocked Out Loaded, which was just blistering, is that Empire Burlesque was an attempt at a commercial sound. It got knocked around a bit in terms of the original reviews. That made the pedestal shake a little. Then when it didn't translate, the attempt to update the production sound, into huge sales, a lot of people who bit their tongues were out for blood and Knocked Out Loaded became the target. "Maybe Someday" is so strong that it should be covered by other artists. But I haven't heard the new album, I have no comment on the new album. The article is what I'm commenting on and I found it very poor. It would have been improved if it had been a Q & A presentation. At this late date, I don't think most of us need a listing of highs and lows on Dylan or the moist writing of the worshipful fan. If you were going to do some sort of article, as opposed to a Q & A, then maybe the way to structure it would be to address the new album and, as Dylan points out, put in alongside the work others are currently doing. Instead, someone thinks we really need to grasp that he's embarrassed by his coming of age years in the eighties. He should be more embarrassed by his feature writing today.

Jim: And on that note, we'll wrap up. By the way, if you're wondering about the participation in this roundtable we insisted everyone who usually helps (except Dallas, who we tried to make take a break) enjoy their Labor Day weekend, it's just the six of us.