Behold The Hurricane by The Horrible Crows

Brian Fallon of the founding members of one of my favorite bands The Gaslight Anthem started a side-project last year forming the band The Horrible Crows.

Fallon and Ian Perkins released the album Elsie which has echos of the The Gaslight Anthem.  Like his work with The Gaslight Anthem, Fallon's work is a combination fo punk and Springsteen-like storytelling, which is clearly evident in the lead sing "Behold The Hurricane."



While the story of this song is sad, there is a triumphant glory in the music that allows you to comprehend the darkness of the lyrics with a unique perspective.  This song isn't suppose to depress, instead it makes you consider yourself and the choices in your life.  Fallon, triumphs again pushing rock music into places that few musicians date to approach.

Busy Being Fabulous by The Eagles

Since The Eagles got butchered by the ‘Cats last Saturday I think the Eagles could use a little love.

Let me explain.

Last weekend the Northwestern University Wildcats played the Boston University Eagles at football. Since most of my friends are from Northwestern there was a flurry of Facebook posts Saturday morning in support of the Northwestern. Most of them were some variation of “Go ‘Cats beat the Eagles.”

Facebook grouped all of these posts as comments about the rock band The Eagles. So on my feed it says “_______________ and 30 friends also posted about the Eagles,” with a hyperlink on the word Eagles, linking to the Eagles Facebook fan page. Now if you go to The Eagles fan page you will find a long list of posts celebrating the ‘Cats victory.

Since there’s all this misdirected negative energy against The Eagles, I feel like they could use a little love.

When hell froze over and The Eagles reunited in 1994 the accompanying album and concert special was incredibly successful and introduced a whole new generation including myself to one of the greatest and most successful band in the history of rock. For fans of The Eagles this reunion seemed like something that would never happen and in 2007, The Eagles answered the prayers of their fans again and recorded an album of new music.

During at time when CD sales were plummeting the Eagles release of “Long Road Out Of Eden,” their first album of original music since 1979, ended up selling over seven million copies. This double album featured some great songs but the one that always stuck with me is “Busy Being Fabulous.”

Busy Being Fabulous

Eagles | Myspace Music Videos

One of the things I love about artists who record music past middle age is that they are able to sing about things in a way that younger artists can’t. “Busy Being Fabulous” is about a person telling someone how much they missed out on because they were out partying.

This songs has a refreshing and beautiful blend of rock and country which instantly brings us back to the feeling of California rock which the Eagles so beautifully defined in the 1970s.

If you read the lyrics off the page this song may seem full of bitterness and anger. However Henley’s singing and the beautiful back-up vocals transforms the lyrics. While the songs exists as an “I told you so,” message telling someone they messed up, it is also a celebration of the great things in life the protagonist didn’t miss out on.

Like the Eagle’s greatest music, this song has layers that go beyond the surface with a surprisingly layer of maturity and depth.

So check out this song and the accompanying album. It’s really great stuff. The ‘Cats aren’t playing anyone who could mistaken by Facebook as a band again this year so hopefully this sad/hilarious instance of school spirit gone wrong will not happen again.

I Want Love by Elton John

Robert Downey Jr. is back.

This Academy Award nominated actor proved himself one the best actors of his generation but in the late 1990s was getting more press for his frequent drug-related arrests than his acting. After multiple drug rehabilitation programs he started focusing on his career again. In 2007, Downey made a critical and commercial comeback playing Tony Stark in the blockbuster Iron Man. Downey’s road back to stardom began a lot earlier than this comic book movie with the first acting job he got out of his final stint in rehab, an Elton John music video.

Elton John’s 2001 album “Songs From The West Coast” was a return to greatness John. After numerous albums in the 1990s which only had moderate successes (well, except for The Lion King soundtrack), Elton collaborated with his old lyricist Bernie Taupin, old members of his band and returned to the piano based music that made him famous. Reminding us all why we love Elton John, this album has been followed by two other similar albums and the musical Billy Elliot! which represent some of the best work that Elton has ever created.

In 2001, music videos were one of the most important promotional tools in music but the problem was that Elton hated making music videos. So director, Sam Taylor-Wood cast Robert Downey Jr., fresh out of rehab to star in the music video for “I Want Love,” the first single from the album.



Shot with one continuous shot, this amazing video features Robert Downey Jr. walking through an empty mansion lip-synching to Elton John’s song. The director shot 16 takes of the video and chose the last one because John felt that he was relaxed and “the way he underplays it is fantastic.”

“I Want Love” is one of Elton John’s most honest and painful songs. It’s about someone who yearns for love but feels that he can never be loved. Lines like “I can’t love, shot full of holes” describe a sense of inner turmoil and depression. Downey perfectly captures this in the video sometimes looking in the camera but more often looking away like he cannot face us as he admits his own pain.

Everything is stripped away from Downey in this video, there is no special effects, no bravado and even his voice is taken away. What Downey does with what is left is a truly masterful piece of acting, nuanced, subtle and touching.

"I Want Love" is a beautiful example of two artist coming back to themselves reminding us that even though we might find some entertainment in the drama of celebrities' personal lives it's in their that art we find even greater joy.

Boxer by The Gaslight Anthem

A week ago Rolling Stone on it’s “Hear It Now” page posted American Slang, The Gaslight Anthem’s new album that came out earlier this week. Streaming this album through their website I’ve been moving my wife’s laptop around the house so that I can constantly listen to this album but now I finally have the CD.

I discovered The Gaslight Anthem through Rolling Stone when they made a list about the top 40 things to get excited about music and The Gaslight Anthem a band that I never heard of made the list.

I wrote about their amazing title track from their last album “The ‘59 Sound” in this previous post as I was stunned not only by the musical prowess but the depth of emotion writing a song about the hopes and dreams we have about the transition into death.

Almost every tracks stands out including the personal and powerful title track, a glorious anthem:



However the first glance we got of this album and one of amazing examples of this band's artistry is “Boxer.”



In less than three minutes, “The Gaslight Anthem” tells the story of a man reflecting on a friend he used to have who was a boxer. Somehow, in this short song we get the feeling that we’ve watched a three hour biopic.

The verses begins talking about the surface bravado of the boxer, “got your pride and your pose, tucked just like a tommy gun” and the transition into a deeper emotion as Brain Fallon, the lead singer, tells about how the boxer has a love that he denies he misses.

The chorus is a flurry of figurative language, beautifully arranged talking about salvation and healing in the act of writing and listening to music, “he found bandages inside the pen and the stitches on the radio.” The lyrics that immediately follow are subtle and profound speaking to regret and responsibility.

There was something heavy holding you down
And there were whispers that were driving you crazy
And now you hunt the heart of this town.

There’s a confidence in the craft from the mid-tempo groove to the contrast textures between and the verses and chorus. The story is sad but there’s a sheen of nostalgia, “remember when I knew boxer.” It’s almost like he’s thinking not only about the boxer but a simpler time in his own life. The song is about a boxer but it means so much more and it’s within this depth that there is not only artistry but also beauty.

“The Boxer” may not be the greatest song ever, but right now it certainly feels that way.

Miss Otis Regrets by Bryan Ferry/Ethel Waters

Sex, guns, murder, hanging.

No, we’re not talking about a new Eminem song, we’re talking about Cole Porter’s 1934 tragic tale of “Miss Otis Regrets.”

Cole Porter is one of the most important song writers in American history. His works included “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” which became Frank Sinatra’s signature song as well as many others.



Looking back on Porter’s music, so much of it is so ingrained in our culture that his musical invention doesn’t seems impressive. Honestly I didn’t think too much of Porter until I came across “Miss Otis Regrets,” a shocking, haunting and beautiful song.

Cole Porter frames his tragedy from perspective of a butler explaining to a guest a the circumstances in which why Miss Otis cannot lunch. In a proper and collected manner, the butler explains how Miss Otis found that her love had “gone astray.” In her anger she shoots him and is taken to jail. Later a mob comes and hangs her on an oak tree and as she dies she “lifts up her lovely head and cried.” All the time through the butler informs us that “Miss Otis regrets she’s unable to lunch today.”

The first version I heard of this song was by Bryan Ferry, an 1980s singer who became known as part of Roxy Music.



The earliest version of this song I found was Ethel Water’s recording of this song in 1934.



While Ferry stays reserved, Water’s breaks into tears as she sings about Miss Otis’ herself crying. Ferry’s distance from the story, staying cold and emotionless like a stereotypical butler, shocks and haunts us, Water’s emotional reaction pulls directly at our heartstrings. The songs becomes less shocking and more tragic as we are reminded of the sexist double standards against women in crimes of passion at the time this song was written which echo through present day.

“Miss Otis Regrets” is an unforgettable song, nuanced, subtle and beautifully crafted. Music in our past often shows how far we’ve come but sometimes shows us how far we have to go.

Baba O’Riley by The Who

I never gave much thought to The Who until I saw them perform "Baba O'Riley" at Concert For New York City, a fund-raising/tribute concert for the heroes of 9/11.



I knew of songs The Who had done like “My Generation” and had seen parts of Tommy back when VH1 was less concerned with “Celebreality” and more concerned with popular music history.

As I watched The Who opened their set with “Who Are You,” and then they played “Baba O’Riley” and I was blown way. While much of The Who’s music is layered with complex sounds and adventurous musical arrangements, “Baba O’Riley” is simple, powerful and one of the greatest anthems in Rock music.

On the cutting edge of music technology Pete Townsend, the guitarist and main songwriter for The Who discovered a way to create a random flurry of notes within a given note range. Instead of using a synthesizer to mimic strings as a lead instruments, “Baba O’Riley” is one of the first examples of using the synthesizer as a rhythmic instrument.

With the foundation of the song set, Townsend created a simple yet powerful guitar riffs in Rock. The riff is three chords, right square on beats 1, 3 & 4. This riff is like a call to the masses. It’s a brass fanfare for the coming of a King. An invitation to the epic journey of “Baba O’Riley.”

Most bands when they find a good hook, or a catchy bridge, they repeat it multiple times in the song. That’s not the case with “Baba O’Riley.”

Here’s the form:
Verse 1
Bridge
Verse 2
Chorus
Instrumental ending

Where most bands try to get their hook as close to the front of the song as possible, The Who save it to last part of the song. As a listener you don’t know exactly what’s happening and part of you wishes you could get a little bit more of the hook, but The Who decides to leave you wanting more. It’s a magical feeling to not know what is coming in a song but be taken to a place that you least expect.

There is a feeling in “Baba O’Riley” that something this song is not just another rock song. There’s a purpose, a conviction that travels through the form of the song. This song is a declaration and a protest. “Baba O’Riley” is everything that we fight for and everything we believe.

“Baba O’Riley” isn’t the first song to come to mind when we think about 9/11, but when you watch the performance and the way the firefighters and policemen react, rock out and sing along with The Who, it makes perfect sense. The world can be a wasteland, but there’s always something to believe in and there’s always hope. And sometimes all it takes is three simple chords to express the spirit of a nation.

I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues by Elton John

In 1975, Elton John released Captain Fantastic and The Brown Dirt Cowboy which became the first album ever to enter the charts at #1. Riding a huge wave a critical and commercial success, John seemed to do no wrong.

Two years later, John announced he was retiring from performing and his next album Single Man, had no top ten singles and was a critical and commercial disappointment. By the time he released Too Low For Zero, Elton John was a shadow of his pass self. Drug and alcohol abuse as well as personal challenges including negative reactions to a 1976 Rolling Stone Interview in which he admitted to be bisexual were taking its toll on not only Elton but also his music.

Instead of having five or six singles off of an album that were hits there were one or two and instead of toping the charts they merely broke the top 10. Amidst this, there were a few songs from this era endure quite like, “I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues.”

Featured on the album Two Low For Zero, “I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues,” only reached #4 on the charts competing with monster hits like “Billy Jean” by Michael Jackson and “Every Breath You Take” by the Police. Once Elton John’s music was at the edge of popular music experiment with form and creating unique sonic landscapes like in the opening of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road with the epic “Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding.”



Now Elton sat squarely in the safe and adult contemporary sound of the early 1980s synthesized rock, but this couldn’t overshadow the warm nostalgia and emotional honesty of the “I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues.”

Elton divided the beat into the three small parts giving “I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues,” a lilting, almost childlike quality. Elton’s voice contrasts from lines sung as manner of fact statements “don’t wish it away, don’t look at it like it’s forever,” to earnest expressions of support “before you and me run. . . ” at the end of the first verse.

At these moments and also during the chorus, “laughing like children . . ” John uses a rhythmic musical device called a hemiola. Instead of having note last over three small beats like 1-2-3 1-2-3, the notes hold over two small beats 1-2-3 1-2-3. This make the notes seem like they are lagging behind slightly creating drama by accenting the offbeats.

“I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues” is about being away from the ones that you love. Reflecting on a relationship, John figures that this feeling of being away from each other must be “the blues.” However, the overwhelming feeling of this song is not “the blues” or sadness from being apart but instead is love, glowing out of soul like a warm memory.

While the most famous lines of this song “Laughing like children, living like lovers, rolling like thunder under the covers” are fun to sing along with juxtaposing child like joy with sensuality, it’s the end of the second verse that says it all: “I simply love you more than I love life itself.”

The 1980s didn’t last forever. In the early 1990s, Elton John wrote the music The Lion King and the release of Songs from the West Coast in 2001 a return to John's piano roots which many considered one of his best albums featuring songs like “America Triangle” (which I discussed in this earlier post). Whether it be shows in Las Vegas or his success on Broadway with Billy Elliot, it seems that Elton is back.

It seems that many things left Elton during the 1980s, his health, his commercial success and his creative drive, but "I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues” reminds us that he never lost his heart

Downtown Train by Tom Waits/Rod Stewart

Tom Waits is one of music’s greatest song writers, and you've probably never heard of him. A true artists’ artist, Waits has been producing music since the 1970s and has released over 20 albums. Many artists have covered his songs and the most famous is Rod Stewart's version of “Downtown Train.”



One of Rod Stewart's biggest hits, “Downtown Train” perfectly fits Stewart’s soulful delivery. Now if you thought that Stewart has a gravely voice, check out Waits singing his own composition.



Waits sounds like Louis Armstrong, horribly aged 20 years, smoking cigarettes non-stop, soaked in bourbon. Gravely doesn’t even begin to describe the grit in this man’s voice and the crazy thing is that his recording of “Downtown Train” sounds angelic compared to other performances. Check out this recording of “Anywhere I Lay My Head,” of my personal favorites.



Once you get past the initial surprise, listen, really listen. It’s the male equivalent of Janis Joplin. This is expression pure and true. There is nothing holding back this voice. Waits could not be singing any harder or with any more soul. In the musical and lyrical world of Tom Waits, his voice truly is the main character walking down dark rain-soaked streets.

Rod Stewart's enters Wait’s world and adds a shimmer. Stewart sings with energy as he almost swings through the lyrics. The groove is reminiscent of the time when it was recorded, synthesized and bright. There is hope and light in this recording so much that you believe that Stewart will actually see the girl that he longs for at the end of it all.

As Waits methodically moves the lyrics, the dirty and gritty background instruments plod along mysteriously. There is something spiteful in Waits’ voice, a little sarcastic and angry. While Stewart pours on the emotion during the chorus Waits almost seems to hold back throwing away the ends of the lines like a man tired of asking the same questions.

The imagery in this song is simple but powerful: “Outside another yellow has punched a hole in the night time mist.” Wait paints a picture of emotions using few words and subtle symbolism. Even though you may not understand exactly what he is saying the emotion his is expressing is crystal clear.

My brother introduced me to the Rod Stewart version first and I’ve always loved that version. When I found Waits original at first it sounded awkward and lacking in any real passion. But more and more I find myself coming back to Waits version because there is something so primal and exposed about his voice that it draws me in.

Whichever one you prefer, it’s undeniable the greatness of this song. The lyrics are incredible, the simple verse melody is intimate and the chorus is beautiful rising and falling like a wolf howling at a full moon.

If you’re not a Tom Waits fan, give his version a try. You may be surprised how much you like it even after initially being turned away from the ugliness of his voice. If you’re not a Rod Stewart fan, give him a chance. It's blue-eyed soul at its best.

Either way, take a minute to jump into the world of Tom Waits whether it be through his voice or Stewart's. It's dark and a little scary, but there's magic there in the moonlight, the empty streets and the memories that keeps hope alive.

Tumbling Dice by The Rolling Stones

Starting in with a laid back guitar lick that drips with sweat and grit, “Tumbling Dice” slowly comes to life like a man getting out of bed after a hard night of drinking. Mick Jagger softly hums letting the groove settled. Back-up singers straight out of a gospel choir respond to Jagger with a soulful exclamation like a congregation saying amen.

While “Tumbling Dice” is a sinful statement where a man blames women for his promiscuity, it is also a righteous example of the transcendent beauty that comes from the marriage of blues and rock. While other rock bands were influenced by the blues the Rolling Stones played the blues and reminded the world how good pain could feel when it was put to music.

“Tumbling Dice” was recorded along with the many of the song on the album, Exile On Main St. in France near Nice. Many of the songs were written in various places over a period of four years, however the most potent songs were recorded in France in the hot summer nights of 1971. Exile On Main St. originally called ragged by critics has been recognized as one of the Rolling Stones best albums. Rolling Stone ranked it number seven on their list of 500 greatest albums calling it “definitive songwriting statement of outlaw pride and dedication to grit.”

Mick Jagger for all his bravado and style, isn’t necessarily the easiest singer to understand. When I first heard “Tumbling Dice” I was instantly drawn in by the groove but had no idea what Jagger was saying. I decided to listen to this song a couple more days to figure out the words and after a week, I gave up. After listening to “Tumbling Dice” with the lyrics right in front of me, I realized that it would have been nigh impossible for me to decipher the words from Jagger’s performance.

At first I was annoyed at how unintelligible the lyrics were but after figuring out what the song was about it began to make sense. This is not a song about a Shakespearean actor declaring his love. This is a low down drunk gambler, hard on his luck trying to rationalize his immoral behavior and this is exactly what Jagger sounds like.

The form of this song outlines this gambler rationalization which deteriorates as the song goes on. In the first verse, he explains how “woman think I’m tasty but they’re always trying to waste me.” He calls woman “low down gamblers” and claims that they cheat. He explains that their complaining and all of their games is the reason he can’t stay, so they might as well call him the tumbling dice.

In the second verse, he tries to explain himself. He’s got places to go but no money left. Identifying himself as a “rank outsider” he sings that “you can be my partner in crime” jokingly. However, he concludes again that he can’t stay. In the last verse, the gambler simply states that he’s a “lone crap shooter, playing the field ever night.”

The most unusual thing about “Tumbling Dice” is how each verse gets progressively shorter. The first verse is eight lines long, the second verse is six lines and the last verse is only two lines long. This is a beautiful example of the form serving the story of this song. He tries in the first to blame other woman, which is easy for him. In the second verse when he looks at himself it’s harder so he doesn’t have as much to say. By the time he gets to the last verse he’s given up making excuses for himself and arguing his case so he just states the truth in his reality.

Like “Under My Thumb,” “Tumbling Dice” is a statement of masculine bravado, both cool and pathetic, brave and desperate. When we are hurt it’s easy to blame other, harder to blame ourselves and sometimes it’s easier to simply villainies ourselves.

There’s one more way to handle feeling pain in our lives. Turn down the lights, throw away your inhibitions and rock out to “Tumbling Dice.”

Feeling bad never felt so good.

Under My Thumb by The Rolling Stones

I’ve never seen my relationship with my wife as a power struggle. We have disagreements but these issues aren’t really related to the power structure in our relationship. We’ve been married a little under a year, so some of you who have been married longer may be thinking, “just wait” and you may be right but for now it’s not really an issue.

I’m very conscientious of not giving my wife, Diana any unsolicited advice or insisting that she do something a certain way. There’s a lot of little things that we do differently. For example, we have different approaches in loading the dishwasher. I like to keep the same type of cups in a line and give each dish plenty of personal space. My wife on the other hand puts as many dishes in the dishwasher as possible.

Now, are the dishes less clean when my wife loads the dishwasher? Not really, am I wasting tons of water and space by not packing the dishes in as tight as I can? Maybe, but I doubt it. The bottom line is that we just feel comfortable loading the dishwasher in different ways. Really, after a long day at work, if she says that she will load the dishwasher, I could not care less how she does it.

Part of the reasons I’m so careful about the way I treat Diana is because I don’t want to be controlled myself. I don’t want to have a wife that spends all her time telling me what to do. I know it might just be this “guy thing” this fear that our girlfriend or wives are trying to change us but I think it’s something more.

When you are constantly told what to do and how to be by someone who is suppose to accept you for who you are, there is a feeling a resentment and anger that grows in response. I know what this is because once upon a time I had a girlfriend in high school who I resented for trying to change me. She was probably just trying to expand my horizons but I didn’t see it that way at the time and I probably didn’t communicate to her how this made me feel. What is scary is how much I envied the voice in “Under My Thumb” and how much I wanted to have power over her.

The protagonist in “Under My Thumb” is celebrating the fact that he’s girlfriend is no longer controlling him and pushing him around. The tables have turned and now she is under his thumb. He controls what she wears and compares here is a “Siamese cat” who is the sweetest “pet" in the world. These misogynistic lines continue as he states that “her eyes are just kept to herself” while he can still look at other people. This line implies a level of promiscuity that he is engaging in while she is devoted entirely to him.

When I was in high school, the song was a male empowerment anthem. Here’s a guy who was controlled by a girl but now it’s all different, it’s changed, he’s the one in charge. What could be bad about this situation? Now, many years later I noticed something sad about this song, almost regretful.

The marimba and the fuzzy bass line create a dark and smoky atmosphere like that of a dive bar. Mick Jagger’s voice has a uneasy shake in his voice when he sings “it’s down to me.” This is why I now hear this song as a guy bragging to his friends about how much control he has over a girl when in reality he is still under her thumb.

If the tables truly have turned and he has tamed that shrew then it really isn’t something that will bring happiness. If I somehow exerted the control over my high school girlfriend that I felt she had over me it would probably leave me feeling hollow and alone.

Sometimes when people around me are talking loudly, I talk softly in the hope that they will notice and start talking softer, but sometimes I speak quietly simply because I don’t like yelling all the time. Sometimes when we do things for other people we are truly doing things for own my soul.

If you feel that relationships are about power, take another listen to "Under My Thumb." It's a dark place to be.

There's no room in love for power.

Father and Son by Cat Stevens

“Father and Son” Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) live performance
“Father and Son” music video

Dear Boyzone fan,

Recently I came across a video of you with a stadium full of your fellow Boyzone fans cheering at a Boyzone concert. I understand how boy-bands like Boyzone provide an escape for many pre-teen and teenage girls like yourself.

I’ve seen stadiums of girls going crazy over singers starting with Elvis Presley, rising to new peaks with the Beatles and continuing with bands like Bon Jovi. That’s nothing out of the ordinary. What was odd, and honestly kind of bizarre was how the song that the entire audience was singing along to was “Father and Son.”

Most of the time when you see thousands of girls singing along to pop songs, they are rock anthems or love songs which have relatively simple lyrics without deep layers of meaning. So you can see how Boyzone is unusual in choosing to cover “Father and Son,” one of popular music’s most personal, powerful and emotionally brutal songs.

I’m not trying to discredit Boyzone’s performance or recording of “Father and Son” but rather, I want to illuminate some things about the song that you love so much. Studying the meaning of the words and understanding the history rarely diminishes my personal enjoying of the song but rather adds a layer of meaning that only makes the song better.

Cat Stevens, now known as Yusuf Islam, originally composed and recorded “Father and Son” in 1970. Stevens sold over 60 million albums in the 1960s and 1970s At the peak of his fame in the 1977, he converted to Muslim, changed his names to Yusuf Islam and left the music industry. He has only recently released started performing music and his first album since the 1970s, Roadsinger.

As one of the most successful solo male artist of his times, Stevens set himself apart singing about relationships in an revealing and powerful way. With songs like “Wild World,” Stevens added a unique perspective on life with a folk music style that challenging artists of the time to dig deeper into the complexities of human relationships.

“Father and Son” is unique in the fact that the song is a conversation between a father and his son. Cat Stevens differentiated these two characters by singing with darker tone for the father and a brighter tone for the son. Stevens does not provide any that explains the context of the song. Instead, he starts in the middle of the scene as the father responds to the son.

We can gather from the father’s opening words that the son feels he needs to make a change. The father tries to reassure his sn but some bitterness seeps through when he says tells his son that he is young and that’s his sons fault. The father cites his own life as proof that he need not do something drastic to find happiness.

The father continues talking about how he was in his son’s shoes. He says that he knows “that’s its not easy, to be calm when you’ve found something going on.” He encourages his son to think about everything that he has because “you [the son] will still be here tomorrow, but your dreams may not.”

We do not hear the son’s words in response to his father but instead his thoughts. The son explains, “from the moment I could talk I was ordered to listen.” The son is so focused on the fact that he feels that his father does not validate his thoughts and feelings that he is completely closed to any advice his father has to give.

The father continues, repeating what he just said to his son again. We hear the son’s thoughts in the background, ”away, I know I have to make this decision alone, no.” It’s as if the son is standing there being lectured, holding in his words as they have proved useless, trying to will his thoughts to his father.

The son responds “all the times I cried, keeping all the things I knew inside, it’s hard but its harder to ignore it.” He explains that if these feelings were right, he’d agree but “its them [other people] you know not me.” None of these ideas and thoughts feel like his own anymore. It’s his father’s words, it’s people telling him how to be and in order to feel independent, to be himself, he feels he needs to go away. Behind his son’s struggle the father’s thoughts echo in the background, “stay, why must you go and make this decision alone?”

Everything that is between this father and son, are within all of us. There are times when we try to give advice and it’s not taken because not because our advice is bad, but because the people who we seek to help need us more to listen than to advise.

On the other side, there are times when we need to communicate what we feel, and be willing to listen to advice and trust people who simply through living longer may know better. We struggle for so much of our life to be independent, sometimes we forget, that independence is not an end goal, but a means to leaning to know ourselves. Sometimes out focus on independence blinds us to the feelings of the people around us.

I don’t know if you felt all of this when you were singing along with Boyzone. If you weren’t, it’s no a big deal, but now that you know more about this song, I hope it’s more meaningful. Is it a little weird for “Father and Son” to be a boy-band song? Yeah, but is it a horrible thing, not really. Boyzone’s version of the song bring people to “Father and Son” who otherwise never would have heard it and give them a glimpse of the complexity of love and the struggles that define our relationships.

Stan by Eminem

"Stan" music video

What does the jazz music of Duke Ellington, the rock ‘n roll of Elvis Presley, the folk music of Bob Dylan, the theatrical rock of Kiss, the punk music of the Sex Pistols and pop music of Madonna have in common? Parent groups criticized all of this music as having a dangerous influence on youth, disseminating non-Christian values and as being examples of insidious, worthless and bad art. People even put into questions whether this art was even music. All of these styles music threatened people so much that some even concluded that it was the work of the Devil himself.

This type of music criticism seems silly to us now. It’s hard to believe that anyone thought the way Elvis danced was too sexual for the eyes of youth and that people honestly took Kiss records away from their children because the believed them to be “Knights In Satan’s Service.” Did these people even listen to this music? There biggest hit, “Beth” is about as threatening as a Care Bear. It seems every generation has a style of music that their parents just don’t understand. This lack of understanding brings up the same criticisms and one of the most polarization genres of music between my generation and my parents’ generation is rap music.

The common complaints about rap music are that it uses explicit language, it glorifies an undesirable culture, and that it takes little skills and musical creativity to produce. These broad generalizations do describe some rap music. However criticizing a whole genre of music based on its worst examples is like calling all classical music trite, repetitive, unoriginal and lacking music skill because I just heard an 6 year old play “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” on a violin.

Yes, a lot of rap music includes swears word and explicit descriptions of sexual activity. Some rap music does describe gang and drug culture in a favorable and sentimental way. And I have heard some rap music that seems to have been put together with as much a skill and creativity as a 3 year old making a house out of Duplo blocks. Including explicit language does not mean that something is automatically “bad” art (i.e. Pulp Fiction) and just because the subject and the perspective of a piece of art is not one that you agree with does not mean that it is worthless. If we judged everything in this world as bad because we don’t get it, we’d live is a very dark and narrow-minded world.

“Stan” by Eminem, one of his most effective works, is a unique song that tells the story of a crazed fan named Stan, whose obsession with Eminem leads him to commits suicide and kill his pregnant wife in the process. Like many rap songs, “Stan” includes a sample from another song that is used for the chorus and the bass line during the verses. Most rap music sample music from 1970s funk music and Eminem takes an unusual approach taking him sample from the British pop singer, Dido (who is featured in the music video for “Stan.”). Eminem utilizes the beginning of the first verse from Dido’s hit “Thanks You”.

My tea's gone cold, I'm wondering why I got out of bed at all
the morning rain clouds up my window and I can't see at all
And even if I could it'd all be grey, but your picture on my wall
it reminds me that it's not so bad, it's not so bad.

The original song is a simple and intimate statement of gratitude that starts with a level of darkness and opens up to a soaring and beautiful chorus. The part that Eminem uses only hints at this maintaining the feeling of rain clouds throughout. Instead of these words being about a loved one, the lyrics become a perverted statement of Stan’s obsession with Eminem. This is an amazing example of how context can change the meaning of lyrics.

The first time we hear Dido’s sample it is in background covered by rain and slightly distorted as if it is being listened to on the radio. Then it is repeated in the foreground accompanied by an aggressive drum beat and baseline which immediately transforms the sample and brings us into the mind of Stan.

In the first verse, Stan is explaining how much he likes Eminem. The rapping is closer to talking. The lines don’t rhyme and only at the end of the verse “This is Stan, your biggest fan” do the words have a clear rhythm to them that line them up with the beat. The song lays out the Stan’s obsession with Eminem and that there are some hints of something a little off when he explains that he will name his kid after Eminem’s daughter. Stan then explains how he has a room full of Eminem’s pictures and it becomes clear that the picture on the wall that Dido is singing about is in Stan’s world the pictures of Eminem he has up on the wall.

The anger starts to build in the second verse. The swear words that were used casually in the first verse begin to be said in anger as Stan explains how he feels he was dissed by Eminem. Stan reveals personal issues including abuse by his parents and the act of cutting which Eminem has joked about in earlier songs. Eminem is openly responding to his critics by dealing with the possibility that people may misunderstand what he is joking about and taking it for truth. He is also defending himself by filling out his character of Stan with other problems in his psychology unrelated to Eminem which in some ways are more responsible for Stan’s behavior. The speed of the rapping becomes faster in this verse, and even though it doesn’t included rhythm schemes, the faster tempo reveals rhythmic patterns in the speech that work within the framework of the drumbeat and the base line.

What Stan does in the third verse is an amalgam of jokes that Eminem made in previous songs. Stan misinterprets these lines as being taken seriously and we are witness to a disturbing and atrocious act. Eminem performs his lines as Stan with a uncomfortable level of anger so much so that it's almost unbearable to listen to.

You ruined it now, I hope you can't sleep and you dream about it.
And when you dream, I hope you can't sleep and you scream about it.

The screams of the pregnant girlfriend in the background are haunting, the tears of frustration can be felt in the Eminem's performance and like a nightmare, we finally awake from horror at the end of the verse.

The last verse is Eminem’s letter back to Stan. He tries to help Stan and give him some advice revealing a caring and giving artist beneath the bravado that Eminem carries as a rap star. Eminem raps in his normal rapping voice which is slightly higher and more nasal then the voice he did for Stan. In the last verse, Eminem raps in the more traditional way with a clear rhythm scheme and accentuated rhythm in the words to line up with the beat. There is a smoothness about the way that Eminem works through his lyrics, and takes pauses in order to keep the lyrics set in certain places in the beat. The beauty is that you don’t think about his rapping because there is nothing awkward in his delivery. The rhythms don’t point themselves out but instead help provided punctuation points at the ends of the line help to reinforce a sense of phrase and continuity.

If art truly is a reflection of the human experience, then art needs to comment not only on the beauty in human emotion but also in the darkness. There is no doubt that this song is not pleasant to listen to for some people. I still remember listening to this song for the first time and feeling like Eminem does at the end of this song, frozen in utter shock and disbelief.

Eminem answered his critics with a song explaining the worst thing his influence could lead to and instead of arguing back and saying that the possibility of something like this wasn’t possible, Eminem comments that in some ways even he is powerless to stop this kind of madness. This doesn’t excuse Eminem from any responsibility in a situation like this but it does make it clear that in any crime there are feelings more complicated than we can imagine.

Does this song use explicit language? Yes, but it is used to reflect the way some people communicate. Does it talk about a subject that some people would rather ignore? Yes, but obsessions is a true human emotion that is undeniable in our human nature. Will this song influence young people to do exactly what Stan does? I don’t know, maybe for some people but I know the majority of American’s who have heard this song didn’t as the amount of people who murdered their pregnant girlfriends did not spike when this song came out.

Is this song an example of great music? Yes, as it clearly communicate emotions that we all share and tells a complex story that comments our worst fears. It is essential that art helps us deal with the many facets of the human experiences in order to create a more connected and understanding world.

You may not like “Stan” and that’s ok, but hopefully you understand it a little better. It is important to work to understand songs that we are not accustom to. As getting to know people that are different then us helps us know ourselves better, exploring art that is beyond our everyday experience helps us understand what is meaningful about the art we love and the emotions deep within our hearts.

Everytime by Britney Spears

"Everytime" Music Video

We don't deserve Britney Spears.

I’m not saying that we deserve better. I’m saying that Britney does.

Critics often say that we get the popular icons that we deserve and with insidious way we treat our celebrities we deserve much less then Britney.

If one of your friends checked into a drug rehab clinic or had to fight for the custody of their children, I doubt any of you would make a light of it. I doubt that any of you would say that they deserve these struggles and I doubt that any of you would hope that this friend would have to face further tragedies in their life.

Yes, there are times in our lives when we feel hurt, threatened and insecure and we wish bad things on other people. This is often our first response but always our worst. We would not accept this attitude in our children, then why do we accept in the way we view our celebrities?

Britney Spears came on to the scene in 1999, a pop princess for a new generation who could do no wrong. She was touring, releasing albums and entertained people around the world. Then things started going wrong in her life and the media became critical of her marriage, her children and her lifestyle. Instead of showing concern for the problems, people seemed to enjoy watching her life fall apart. There is nothing sadder then watching a friend’s life fall apart, and nothing more rewarding then watching it come back together. Then why is it different with Britney?

Some say it’s because she deserves it. She has money and she lives in a big house. Therefore, it’s ok to be overly critical, it’s ok to make jokes about a serious medical condition and it’s ok to call into questions the character of people from gossip and speculation.

Britney chose this profession; she knew what she was getting into. Paparazzi have been exploiting celebrities long before Britney was even born, but that doesn’t make it acceptable. Corruption in politics is not ok just because its been around a long time and I don’t think its ignorant to expect that the people we elect into office to be able to rise above a corrupt system. We may not have created the machine that feeds our appetite for celebrity drama and yes, celebrities in many ways are as much to blame for this as we are, but I believe that we can do better. It is a human need to observe outside drama to help us deal with our own lives and the greatest and the most meaning drama is in the art, not the artist. Britney proves this in her strongest song “Everytime” from her fourth album In The Zone released in 2003.

“Everytime” is a daring song for Britney Spears because it features her voice. Britney Spears is not a great singer. Her voice lacks the sexual prowess of Shakira, the range of Mariah Carey, the soul of Beyoncé and the pop sensibilities of Madonna. Britney usually belts with a nasal, whiny voice that only through recording techniques comes across with an appealing vocal quality. In “Everytime” Britney does something different. She pulls back her voice, carefully singing through a half whisper which clarifies her tone and pulls her sound higher up into different resonating cavities in her head creating a light and airy tone, which may not work for all songs but is absolutely perfect for this song.

Britney sings the first words “notice me” with such childlike sadness. She barely sings these notes through the tone of someone choked up and fighting back tears. Britney stays at this line between crying and singing allowing her voice to shake. When she gets to the last line of the first verse “Why carry on without me?” she has nothing left. Instead of getting louder into the chorus like we expect she gets soft like a person defeated by her own failed hopes.

The lyrics reveal a level of depth that most Britney Spears songs do not approach. This is the story of a girl who realizes how much she needs a person in her life. She blames herself for her own depression and disturbingly self-aware of her mistakes. Overall this song is an apology that climaxes in the bridge:

I may have made it rain
Please forgive me
My weakness caused you pain
And this song is my sorry

Britney follows this apology in the next verse hoping that his face will “fade away.” In some ways apologizing is Britney’s first step in moving on with her life. Sometimes in life apologizes bring people back together after conflict. However other times apologies allow people to move through difficult times. Britney is not trying to get this guy to come back to her. She is acknowledging her own feelings, her own faults and in some ways, this apology is more for herself then the other person. If the other person forgives her it may make her feel better, but it is only through forgiving herself that she can truly move on.

The greatest part of Britney’s performance is not her singing. It’s two breaths that are heard, one after “I need you baby” and the other at the end of the bridge “and this song is my sorry.” When you are close to someone feeling them breathe is like feeling their living soul. Hearing this small breath in followed by a longer breath out we feel the emptiness that is inside of Britney and feel a closeness to her emotions.

In this song, Britney has givens us a tragic figure, a drama we can relate to. This song expresses feeling of defeat and exhaustion more emotional then physical. It speaks deep emotional truths about the challenging in life and how much the mistakes we make can haunt us throughout our lives.

The drama created here is fictional but emotionally real. Yes, it is true that there are photos of Britney Spears driving with her baby on her lap, but the emotion we get out of reading about that story is a shallow reflection of our insecurities as opposed to a meaningful connection to our own feelings.

I know that they way we view our celebrities is not going to change any time soon. People get great joy out of following celebrity’s lives and it’s not really fair for me to stand judgment of what brings joy to people’s lives. This is probably all harmless but maybe it is not. Maybe every time we look into a celebrity’s life and mock it we are bringing darkness into out hearts. It just feels wrong and I challenge you to think about the way we view the people in our lives, celebrities included.

My hope for Britney Spears is my hope for all people.

I hope that she finds happiness in her life.
I hope she has people in her life who she loves and loves her back.
And I hope that every time she tries to fly she soars into the sky.

Hurt by Johnny Cash

"Hurt" Music Video

“I HATE country music.”

Through the groans and protests, I insisted that we were going to listen to some country music in the music theory class I taught last year. We started each class listening to different kinds of music to expand our musical knowledge. I felt it was important to discuss all genres of music so one day I told the class that day that we would explore to country music.

One student asked, “well, who are we doing to listen to?”

“Johnny Cash,” I answered.

“That’s ok, Johnny Cash rocks. I hate country music, but Johnny Cash is different. He’s more then country” replied the student.

Great people in our society transcend the labels that we put upon them. Abraham Lincoln was more then just a president. Albert Einstein was more then just a scientist and Johnny Cash was more then just a country musician. Johnny Cash was a force of nature. He was an artist that never compromised his integrity and never forgot the audience who he continued to serve until days before he died. He was not a saint, but he was a man, flawed like all of us but empathetic like so few of us.

In 2002, “Hurt” introduced Johnny Cash to a new generation and reintroduced Johnny Cash to the world. Rick Rubin, one of popular music’s most influence producers, started a new series of albums in which Rubin presented a raw and intimate Cash. These albums featured Cash covering modern popular music, older country music and new songs written by Cash himself. The fourth album they did together American IV: The Man Comes Around featured “Hurt” a cover of a Nine Inch Nails song by Trent Reznor which represents some of Cash’s best work.

This song speaks from the voice of a man in depression. He is looking back at failed life full of regret and pain.

[Verse 1]
I hurt myself today to see if I still feel
I focus on the pain the only thing that's real
the needle tears a hole the old familiar sting
try to kill it all away but I remember everything

The lyrics in this first verse are uncomfortable raw. Self-abuse and drug use are subjects that make us feel uneasy and what is truly striking is how aware the narrator is of his actions. He knows that he is trying to escape the pain of remembering a life and he knows he is failing. The “old familiar sting” tell us that he has done this many times, and many times before the drugs did not help him kill the pain of remembering.

[Chorus]
what have I become?
my sweetest friend
everyone I know goes away in the end
and you could have it all my empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

The chorus is not so much about self-doubt but the inevitability of pain in life. Everyone this person knows has left. We don’t know if it’s through death or loss of a friendship but he is left with nothing. He has been let down and hurt so much that he believes it is inevitable for him to do the same.

The second verse reflects elaborates the first verse with a feeling of helplessness and the passage of time that separate us from people around us as it makes feelings disappear. The chorus that follows has the same lyrics and where the first chorus stops the second chorus continues.

If I could start again a million miles away.
I would keep myself, I would find a way.

Even though he admits in the end that he would find a way, it’s only through a distance too far to imagine. There is no chance in his life that things could improve, so all he can do is hang on to the slight possibility that maybe he could have made things different.

There are different musical sounds that describe the range of human emotion. Many times when we think of musical expression, we think of express joy through the sound of a beautiful orchestra. Sometimes we forget there is also musical sounds that bring out darker feelings in ourselves. The guitar line that starts the song is bare like a tree in the dead of winter that has long forgotten the memory of its leaves. Low sounds on the piano echo mysteriously in the first verse. Then right before the chorus, the piano begins playing the same note, constantly and incessantly throughout the entire chorus. It starts out like a bell tolling in the distance but then comes to the forefront. This ugly sound hammers at our ears like a mistake that refuse to forgotten as it that take over our minds like a specter of doom.

The second verse provides some aural relief and the piano note begins again. The piano note slowly comes to the forefront and where we it in the first chorus, it continues. The sound builds to peak and you feel like the music is about to explode. Rick Rubin distorts the recording like a speaker that is turned up too loud on purpose at the end of the song to add another layer of intensity. It makes us feel like things are shaking apart until the texture draws back and we are left with Cash’s voice.

Johnny Cash’s baritone voice is one of the expressive in popular music. His voice is distinctively country in the way he shapes his notes. At the end of every line in the fist verse, he lands on the last note purposely under the pitch and glides back up to pitch at the end of the note. This “twang” gives a color and shape to the notes working around the pitch to give distinct feeling of longing that characterizes so much of country music.

Johnny Cash was seventy years old when he recorded “Hurt.” Few, if any artists produce music at this age and even fewer of those create some of their best work at this age. Some things get better with time. Great whiskey over time becomes pure. The true core of the flavor comes forward as the impurities diminish. Johnny Cash’s voice reflected a long life filled with many emotions and his art purified towards the end expressing raw emotion, closer to the human heart then many dare to explore.

I listen to “Hurt,” and I feel sad, torn up and afraid, but somehow safe because he is there. Johnny Cash reminds us that even when going through the darkness in our life we are never alone. In solitude, we can find solace in that belief. Johnny Cash is more then country. He is more then a singer and he is more the music. Johnny Cash is the feeling right after the tears have stopped that reminds us that only if you have been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.