Welcome back, Charles! I did notice you not here on Substack, but figured you had decided to move fully to Medium so wasn't "worried" that you'd disappeared or stopped writing. As you know, I can relate to writer's block, or simply life getting too busy to dedicate the time necessary to write a coherent piece worth sharing with others.
I haven't listened to all of these variations yet so can't comment on it yet, but it is one of my favorites, from my limited awareness of Classical music. I always thought of that Doors album as more of a Jim Morrison solo album.
Stay cool this week! I'm roasting here on the other side of the bay....
Thanks Steve! I do hope you'll let me know what your favorite of these turns out to be--they're as different from each other as can be. Yes, it's also quite warm here in SF, by SF standards....
Welcome back, Charles! Good strategy to get beyond writer's block, and a very interesting post.
If I remember correctly, Jim Morrison actually thought of himself as a poet, and "The Severed Garden" was not a surprise, I guess, but a surprise in that it was on a Doors album.
I felt right at home listening to Syu, and the electric guitar is clearly tailor made for that melody. Probably my favorite version just because I'm into rock more than anything else.
Lara Fabian's voice reminds me of Celine Dion, and I do wonder if there is something about singing in French that gives the voice a different quality. Being someone very conversant with many musicians' work, I wonder if you've noticed anything like that.
Thanks Ellen! Well, I think the Doors were headed in an experimental direction so any next album would have been even more out there. Glad you liked the version by Syu--I included it despite the fact that electric guitar-focused music is out of vogue right now.
Ok, now the big one: Fabian often gets compared to Dion, and they do a lot of similar material. However, I think Fabian has a richer, more resonant voice. That polyphonic overtone is something I've never heard from other pop singers (check out 2:10 of the clip, it really jumps out). In theory it can be taught, but most polyphonic singers are male throat-singers. Certainly the language can affect the way things sound--German opera and Italian opera simply could not sound alike, even performed by the same singers. As it turns out, Fabian has recorded and performed in a dozen languages--her recordings in Italian are to die for. I'm thinking about doing a column about her. thanks again Ellen!
I couldn't hear the polyphonic overtone, but you probably have much better headphones, and I also have tinnitus. She is certainly impressive!
I'm optimistic about electric guitar focused music making a comeback everywhere after asking at my local guitar store about sales and hearing that lots of kids including girls are buying electric guitars and finding that the local guitar teacher I wanted to hire is completely booked up.
Encouraging! I have spoken with people at Fender and Dean-- they said that sales of electric guitars have been declining steadily for around 20 years in the U.S., but are growing fast in many other countries. They also said that around one third of entry-level guitars are now sold to girls--the Fender guy went so far as to say that without girls stepping up the industry would be in real trouble.
I wonder if it's because there are much more open, thriving, and even growing music industries in other countries, versus what seems to be a dire situation in the US and UK for aspiring musicians. So many music venues disappearing where kids used to master their craft. I don't know if you saw this video with stats on the massive drop in bands in the charts since 2000 -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_DjmtR0Xls
Pretty darn shocking. If you look at industry changes in the late 90s, I think there's your culprit, not desire to be in a band and make music, but music and radio industries that no longer supported bands and wanted cheap and controllable electronic music. (I'm wanting to research and write more on this!)
Well, you have opened up a huge can of worms! I would love it if you wrote something (or somethings) about this topic. I know you've seen at least one of my articles about it --maybe you could use those as a jumping off point to delve deeper into the problems with the industry. Here are the links to my original series including the one you read, "The songwriters who ate America".
Yes, this is a great jumping off point and thanks very much for those links. I'm interested in tracing what led us here over the decades as the industry was abusive and disrespectful to the very musicians making it a fortune, then stopped even giving successful bands contracts, and on and on to what you lay out today. I've run across problems behind the scenes in most of the posts I've written, which focus on the 60s and early 70s, so half a century ago (!), and I have some early hypotheses about what I'm finding and the implications and repercussions for music and artists. The importance of this, as you're pointing to, is in terms of the music we get to hear and the music creatives get to create, as well as who gets the rewards within the industry. And of course in the past week another can of worms has opened in terms of Clive Davis' approach to business and artists. I will definitely let you know if/what I decide to write about this.
Welcome back, Charles! I did notice you not here on Substack, but figured you had decided to move fully to Medium so wasn't "worried" that you'd disappeared or stopped writing. As you know, I can relate to writer's block, or simply life getting too busy to dedicate the time necessary to write a coherent piece worth sharing with others.
I haven't listened to all of these variations yet so can't comment on it yet, but it is one of my favorites, from my limited awareness of Classical music. I always thought of that Doors album as more of a Jim Morrison solo album.
Stay cool this week! I'm roasting here on the other side of the bay....
Thanks Steve! I do hope you'll let me know what your favorite of these turns out to be--they're as different from each other as can be. Yes, it's also quite warm here in SF, by SF standards....
Welcome back, Charles! Good strategy to get beyond writer's block, and a very interesting post.
If I remember correctly, Jim Morrison actually thought of himself as a poet, and "The Severed Garden" was not a surprise, I guess, but a surprise in that it was on a Doors album.
I felt right at home listening to Syu, and the electric guitar is clearly tailor made for that melody. Probably my favorite version just because I'm into rock more than anything else.
Lara Fabian's voice reminds me of Celine Dion, and I do wonder if there is something about singing in French that gives the voice a different quality. Being someone very conversant with many musicians' work, I wonder if you've noticed anything like that.
Thanks Ellen! Well, I think the Doors were headed in an experimental direction so any next album would have been even more out there. Glad you liked the version by Syu--I included it despite the fact that electric guitar-focused music is out of vogue right now.
Ok, now the big one: Fabian often gets compared to Dion, and they do a lot of similar material. However, I think Fabian has a richer, more resonant voice. That polyphonic overtone is something I've never heard from other pop singers (check out 2:10 of the clip, it really jumps out). In theory it can be taught, but most polyphonic singers are male throat-singers. Certainly the language can affect the way things sound--German opera and Italian opera simply could not sound alike, even performed by the same singers. As it turns out, Fabian has recorded and performed in a dozen languages--her recordings in Italian are to die for. I'm thinking about doing a column about her. thanks again Ellen!
I couldn't hear the polyphonic overtone, but you probably have much better headphones, and I also have tinnitus. She is certainly impressive!
I'm optimistic about electric guitar focused music making a comeback everywhere after asking at my local guitar store about sales and hearing that lots of kids including girls are buying electric guitars and finding that the local guitar teacher I wanted to hire is completely booked up.
Encouraging! I have spoken with people at Fender and Dean-- they said that sales of electric guitars have been declining steadily for around 20 years in the U.S., but are growing fast in many other countries. They also said that around one third of entry-level guitars are now sold to girls--the Fender guy went so far as to say that without girls stepping up the industry would be in real trouble.
I wonder if it's because there are much more open, thriving, and even growing music industries in other countries, versus what seems to be a dire situation in the US and UK for aspiring musicians. So many music venues disappearing where kids used to master their craft. I don't know if you saw this video with stats on the massive drop in bands in the charts since 2000 -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_DjmtR0Xls
Pretty darn shocking. If you look at industry changes in the late 90s, I think there's your culprit, not desire to be in a band and make music, but music and radio industries that no longer supported bands and wanted cheap and controllable electronic music. (I'm wanting to research and write more on this!)
Well, you have opened up a huge can of worms! I would love it if you wrote something (or somethings) about this topic. I know you've seen at least one of my articles about it --maybe you could use those as a jumping off point to delve deeper into the problems with the industry. Here are the links to my original series including the one you read, "The songwriters who ate America".
https://zapatosjam.substack.com/p/the-grammys-should-eliminate-the
https://zapatosjam.substack.com/p/are-you-a-foreign-artist-you-are?utm_source=publication-search
https://zapatosjam.substack.com/p/how-the-irs-sticks-it-to-foreign?utm_source=publication-search
https://zapatosjam.substack.com/p/the-songwriters-who-ate-america-part?utm_source=publication-search
Yes, this is a great jumping off point and thanks very much for those links. I'm interested in tracing what led us here over the decades as the industry was abusive and disrespectful to the very musicians making it a fortune, then stopped even giving successful bands contracts, and on and on to what you lay out today. I've run across problems behind the scenes in most of the posts I've written, which focus on the 60s and early 70s, so half a century ago (!), and I have some early hypotheses about what I'm finding and the implications and repercussions for music and artists. The importance of this, as you're pointing to, is in terms of the music we get to hear and the music creatives get to create, as well as who gets the rewards within the industry. And of course in the past week another can of worms has opened in terms of Clive Davis' approach to business and artists. I will definitely let you know if/what I decide to write about this.