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Category Archives: Art and Entertainment
Moby – Great thinking music
What can I say about Moby…
As long as I do not think about his politics or his social choices and concentrate on the music, then I am fine. It is really hard for me to do that with most performers. This is partially why I can not stand people like Pernell Roberts or Mike Ferrell. They let their politics destroy what I thought was their best attribute… acting.
Moby, also known as Richard Melville Hall, I can deal with, though. His music is very hard for me to explain to someone that might never have heard it, or at least did not know they were hearing it. You see, most of his music he puts together, he lets go with no royalties on it. That is to say if you use it for your non-commercial , endeavour he will not go hunting you down and pelting you with his Vegan Hummus. If you do decide that you want to use it for some commercial effort, then you have to give any income generated by it to the Human Society. I guess I can agree with that… at least is it not going to some program to save some endangered slug in Jacutan.
Back to the music.
In a nutshell, the music is progressive, with a little electronica and a little rap here and there. Like I said, you really have to listen to it to appreciate it. I will include some clips at the end of this article.
Personally, I use his music to think to. It inspires creative thought for me and relaxes me. Not the kind of relaxation that makes me want to go to sleep, but the kind that lets me feel laid back. I guess you could say it is like psychological pot. Then, once I have become mellow from the tunes, the thoughts begin to flow.
Many of his songs use sampling from other songs or other people’s spoken words. But they are then put to music in such a way where I think that it actually is complementary to the original artist. But I felt I needed to share that with you up front, in the event you are one of those people that flat out will not listen to a piece of music because they sampled from someone else. Trust me, I know people like that.
If you are interested, then I would suggest getting started with his CD titled “18″. It has a lot of good stuff on it that will determine right away if you are going to like his work of not. If you decide that this type of music is in your style, then the next I would suggest is “Play”.
What you may find in listening to these is that you will have heard many of the songs before. In movies, in commercials… who knows.
Overall I would have to say that Moby is one of those artists that transcends his politics by putting out great music.
Rick Springfield
This article may not be what you are expecting for a piece written about Rick Springfield. No mushy talk about how he was considered an 80s heartthrob or the fact that he played Noah Drake in a soap opera. All of this is true and I am sure that there are many woman… and possibly a few guys out there… that would throw their underwear at him, even to this day.
My like for Rick was based on the story many of his lesser known songs conveyed to me, the songs that never gained the popularity of “Don’t talk to strangers” or “Jesse’s Girl”, which were good, fun songs. As anyone who really knows me already understands, I have always been the one that looks for the deeper meaning in music and the songs that are sung. I have always felt that singing was both for entertainment and to tell a story that you might otherwise not be able to tell through just talking. You just have to take the time to listen to the words.
Many of Rick’s songs that were mainstream became so because they were easy to dance to or easy to sing along with, but not all of them really had a back-story. They were auditory bubble-gum for the kids to listen to and play to. Songs that were more for the ratings and sales than for the intrinsic meaning there. I am sure that Rick will disagree with me on some those points, but they are my opinions.
When you listen to the whole album (or CD), though, you see something that people who just go for the popular songs miss. Hidden in the music is a story in some of the songs. Those are the ones that have always had a meaning for me. A story to tell that I would listen to and that I could find some connection with him through. But in order to understand what is being said, you have to listen past the beat and the music, to the words and what they mean. Listen to the voice and the emotion that it is carrying. Here is a list of some of the songs I am talking about:
Album: Success hasn’t spoiled me yet  Song: April 24, 1981
Album: Beautiful Feelings Song: Guenevere
The Entire “Tao” and “Rock of Life” Albums. – Both of these albums feel like a defining moment in Rick’s carreer. Sort of a spiritual transition. You hear a more contemplative sound in the music and you feel like he is telling you something about himself.
Listening to his music over the years, and having a chance to listen to it in chronological order, or as the albums were released, you get a sense of his developing spiritualism and hear his style maturing as he grows with his music. As time goes on, you get a feel for understanding how his faith works and, in turn, start to feel it yourself.
I have been accused of reading too much into music and you will never hear me deny it. But I think that when a person puts as much into the song as people like Rick, among others, do, they WANT you to understand what they are saying. It is easy to just listen to the tunes and dance to the beat, but I do not think that is what it is all about. There is a story to songs like “Like Father Like Son”, off his “Living in Oz” album. If he took the time to write the piece and put it out there, then he wanted to share it with us.
I have not had a chance to listen to his newer works, but I will be making an effort to get them shortly. I have heard nothing bad about them and, in fact, I see very good reviews of his newer work. He has even released an album of lullabies.
So… it looks like Rick is going to be around for quite a while longer, entertaining those of us who were around when he was building up his steam and now a new, younger fan base. If you listen to the stories, he can still pack in an audience and even holds a cruise on a regular basis that is almost always sold out.
Meat Loaf and Commercialism
I like Meat Loaf… both the dinner kind and the musician, but for the sake of this I am speaking of the musician, Marvin Lee Aday… aka Meat Loaf, for the topic at hand.
As I said, I really like his, Meat Loaf’s, music. I have been listening to his work for about as long as I can remember and the first Album I owned by him was, of course, Bat Out of Hell.
So tell me, please. Who in the world told him to do the “A1″ steak sauce commercial that I just had to misfortune of seeing for the first time? It was bad enough that someone told him he could act, but that was excusable since it was done at a time when it seemed that everyone wanted to get into acting. Thank god that never spread to Ozzy Osbourne. Could you imagine him trying to play the part of say an action hero? Some Rambo type character?
But going back to Meat Loaf, He has proven himself at a very capable and versatile musician. For his music, there is actually little I can say bad about it. The only song that I do not really care for is “Anything for love”, but my reason for not liking it is not his fault… it is the fact that the radio stations played the crap out of it and it seemed like almost every television program, commercial and movie decided to use that particular song.
So… I see this commercial with Meat Loaf, eating meatloaf and then pouring A1 on it and singing “Anything for love.” So not only did this commercial have to have Meat Loaf eating meatloaf… read into that anything you want, but then it had the single song that he released that I cannot stand. Now, however I have a new reason to not like it and this time it IS his fault.
* Thank you Sara for pointing out my error in the difference between Meatloaf and Meat Loaf as opposed to referring to both as Meatloaf. Therefore I have edited the above article to differentiate the Meat Loaf and the Meatloaf.
Posted in Art and Entertainment, Humor, Music and Entertainment
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