"I Want to Soak Up the Sun"...???

Here we are in another wintery season here in the North East. I should be used to it by now, but every year I cringe a little when I hear the first big snow storm is coming our way. I've been lucky the last few years, we haven't been hit too hard. But it sounds like a big one is headed in this direction over the next day or so.....which got me thinking when I heard a summer-like tune on the radio this morning...

REALLY???

The radio announcer had just finished saying "up to 12 inches" (about the possible snow fall, not about his own potential), and here comes Sheryl Crow, singing about how much she wants to soak up some sun. I love me some Sheryl, don't get me wrong, but I can not take hearing about the summer when it's literally 20 degrees outside and I am bundled up like an Eskimo. Just the other day, as I was trying to defrost myself after sprinting the big 20 feet from my front door to my car in an effort to not freeze a major body part off, I heard the Kid Rock song that mentions "blister in the sun". The only blisters I was worried about at that moment were the ones that were going to form from the cold, not from the sun that I miss oh so very much.

Why in the world do the dj's insist on playing this stuff when it's so cold out? Do they like to torture their listeners? Do they think it will make us happy, thinking back to the good old days of summer when we could ride around with the "car top down and the radio on" (ala Billy Joel in "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant")?? Personally, I think they're just poking at us from inside their toasty-warm radio booths.....laughing as we sit in our cold cars, trudging through the ice and snow, weeping quietly as we remember how warm we were just a few short months ago "soaking up the sun".

Can I call it a "come back"?

I've had this one sitting in drafts for a while...figured it's about time I actually finish it and post it...

Is it just me, or is a cappella music making a come-back? This new trend seems to have been kicked off by a little TV phenomenon called "Glee" (which is returning with a new season tonight, and I am SO excited, it's a little crazy). "Glee", which centers around the lives of a bunch of high school kids and faculty that are involved with the Glee Club, has been a bigger hit on TV than I think any one could have predicted. I mean, really, a show that's all about a bunch of show choir geeks is making huge numbers every week and they were nominated for Golden Globes. And not too long ago, a new show that showcased show choirs was on my TV, holding a contest called "The Sing-Off". This was GREAT for a music geek like me!!! Finally we get recognition and the world is exposed to the glory that is choral singing! WOO HOO!!! (okay, I'll stop flying my freak flag now.....)

I've loved a cappella music for a REALLY long time....we are talking MANY years here.....we're talking about a time back before I could legally drink. I've performed in a cappella groups and I've paid to see a cappella groups. One of the most talented and amazing a cappella choirs that I have had the pleasure of seeing time and time again is Chanticleer, an all-male choral group based out of San Francisco. They perform every thing from Gregorian chant to modern musical pieces that have been arranged or composed specifically for them. There is a gentleman in the group that sings as clear and beautifully as any Operatic Soprano. Every Christmas season, they perform in the Medieval Sculpture Hall at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City (http://www.metmuseum.org/home.asp) and it is an ethereal experience, to say the least. I sit there, each year, as they stand in front of this huge Christmas tree that is placed in front of a gate that has to be about 2 or 3 stories tall that was taken from a Medieval Church, and I end up in awe of the sounds they create. If you've never heard of them, check them out. Close your eyes and take it the sounds; they will amaze you.

I don't really get the idea of the "show" choir. I don't need singing AND dancing in my choral music to make it good; I'm all about the sound quality and the balance of the voices. I don't want to just hear the Sopranos, which happens a lot in a choral setting because that range of voice just carries better in most acoustics than the other parts. I want to hear a good mix of each voice part, that's the beauty of choral singing. Show choirs need to be able to do that while they shake a tail feather. Members must be athletes or super heros or some combination of both because I have no idea how they do it. Breath control ALONE is difficult to do while standing still; it's something that even the best of singers sometimes struggle with, so I can't imagine having to dance around and clap my hands and do all that fancy footwork while I sing a song! Hells no. I would probably fall all over myself, loose my breath, go flat and make a fool of myself. So I give these show choir people a ton of credit and kudos and if I could send them cupcakes, I would, but that probably wouldn't contribute to strong breath control. : )

Economy Killed the CD Star

Do you find yourself with a CD collection that has ceased from expanding? Was there a time when you found yourself regularly having to make more space in your house for your music, and now you find yourself looking for those free down-load cards at Starbucks and using that extra space for dust bunny colonies?

Maybe it's a sign of the times. Back in my early- to mid-twenties, about ten or so years ago, I would go to the music store (CD World, to be exact) and I would spend about a hundred dollars on a stack of cd's. I'd do this about once a month. Some of them used, costing around 5 dollars or less, some of them brand-new and full-price. I would buy the stuff that I loved, but I would also buy the stuff that I kind of liked; I would buy a CD from an artist that I had only heard one or two songs from because at that price, who cared? But these days, with cd's costing around $15 or more, and with my job paying less, it's not that easy to indulge my music habit.

There are some groups out there who produce really good radio hits; All American Rejects, for one, I always rock out to when they come on and I was happy to see them perform live a few years ago. But will I plunk down cash for a CD? Probably not. The same goes for a myriad of artists who's work I appreciate, but I can't justify the expense for. I've always enjoyed Ani DeFranco, who is an independent artist that puts out her own music without the marketing machine of big labels, but I've never purchased an album and I probably won't. I just don't like her "enough" to do it.

So my question to you is this - has the current economic situation forced you to change your music buying habits? If it has, has it affected what you choose to buy?

Peter Gabriel

I took a quick look through my CD collection and realized that there's a great one in the bunch that most people only associate one song with, so I decided to write about it today....

"So" is considered to be the album that was released at the pinnacle of Peter Gabriel's career. It made him a big name in the world; sure he had been in Genesis, but does anyone really remember that time? I sure as hell don't. Okay, I'm sure that some people remember it but anyone around my age or younger most likely have no idea that he was even in the group to begin with. And of course there was music that he did before this album; "Melt", for example, included the song "Games Without Frontiers" which was a minor hit for Gabriel. But "So" included the mega-gigantor hit "In Your Eyes", made popular by the movie "Say Anything" (remember John Cusack, standing outside Iyone Skye's window with the boom box....I STILL want a guy to do that for me) and the use of it at almost everyone's prom. It's on the radio in my car at least once every few days, keeping it in the front of my mind as the greatest Peter Gabriel song EVER.

But what about some of the others on the album? Aside from the other mega-gigantor hit "Sledgehammer", they're treated like red-headed step-children, let's be honest. They're ignored and never played, no one ever acknowledges them, and how many weddings have you been to where the bride and groom danced to "Don't Give Up", the duet that Gabriel sings with Kate Bush?

I'm going to address "Sledgehammer" and move on, quickly. Was the video amazing and did it make me go "ooooo" and "aaaaa" and "HOLY CRAP"? Yes. Was the song something that I actually enjoyed listening to and singing along with? NO. Come on, really, what in the hell is that song about??? I guess he's saying that he'll be anything you need....he'll give you anything you want....you can have anything you want....I don't know, it just doesn't speak to me. Never did, probably never will. Can you tell me what the heck he's trying to say?

Let's talk about "Red Rain" for a second, shall we? It seems that he's talking about pain raining down on him, "burning the ground" that he stands on.....maybe this symbolizes his moral or psychological foundations. I don't know, but it's a kick ass song and supposedly, Stewart Copeland played the high-hat that's supposed to mimic the sound of rain on the song. Pretty cool, even if it is just a rumor.

"Don't Give Up" has to be one of my favorite songs of Peter Gabriel's. The harmony between him and Kate Bush is just gorgeous, and the quality of the emotion in her voice is impeccable. No one could have sung this better than she did. And the minimal background music allows the lyrics to be showcased, and they are some of the most beautiful and moving lyrics Gabriel has written. He has been quoted saying, "The basic idea is that handling failure is one of the hardest things we have to learn to do" (quote found on songfacts.com), and who can't relate to that at some point in their lives? Who doesn't want to have someone by their side saying "don't give up.....rest your head, you worry too much.....it's gonna be alright, when times get rough, you can fall back on us"?

If you have this CD in your collection and it's getting a little dusty, maybe it's time to pop it open and give it a listen sometime soon. Appreciate the greatness that is the stuff that doesn't get radio play.

Yo-Yo Ma's new jobby job

I've always enjoyed Classical music; my mom is a HUGE Pavarotti fan (the woman cried for days when he died) and I was exposed to Classical music and Opera from an early age. When I was in college pursuing a degree in Music Education, part of completing my four semesters of a required Music History class was field trips to different cultural events. Mostly, they were concerts of Classical music performed by the NY Philharmonic. But there were some amazingly wonderful bright spots at some of those performances. One of them, was Yo-Yo Ma.

I have no idea how the Music Department arranged to get us tickets; probably the same way they got tickets for us to see Pavarotti perform in "Tosca" at the Metropolitan Opera House in NYC. Maybe they begged for them, maybe they plied the ticket agents with alcohol and took embarrassing pictures of them ; all I know is that I got to see some of the greats thanks to that college (Wagner College, Staten Island, NY) and I am eternally greatful. But any way....I still remember being mesmerized by the sounds he made with his cello. I sat practically motionless in my seat, listening to every note he played. I wasn't one to always be fully engaged in the orchestral performances. If there wasn't a singer to listen to, I wasn't all that interested. But there was something about the way that he played that just captivated me and I couldn't help but take in every note he played.

Yo-Yo Ma is one of the greats. If you have NO idea who in the heck I am talking about, he is one of the best cellist of our time. Quite possibly of all time. The emotion that he puts into his playing is amazing.....every note comes across with such technical perfection, but not without sacrificing the grace and beauty that is present in the music itself. His holiday CD, "Yo-Yo Ma & Friends, Songs of Peace and Joy" has been nominated for two Grammys. Not only is he a talented musician, but he is also deeply committed to education and community outreach programs that bring children and young adults closer to the music that he makes. He has been seen on Sesame Street and Mr. Rodgers Neighborhood and he's developed family concerts with many organizations, including a series that was performed at Carnegie Hall in NYC.

He was recently named the Creative Consultant to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. His main role in this position will be to bring the Symphony's music to the city itself, in it's community centers and it's juvenile detention centers. The organization wants to encourage the young artists in the community and to engage them in making music. This is a great effort on their part to include the younger members of their city into an organization that, quite honestly, is usually seen as "high-brow". Growing up, especially in the city or inner-city, your average everyday family isn't buying tickets to the Symphony. I always thought the only people that went to their concerts were the rich; the ladies with their fur coats, the gentlemen in their tuxedos. But this isn't necessarily the case. Having attended quite a few Philharmonic performances in NYC, I can say that all walks of life attend their concerts and I would think that this is the case across the country at performances by other orchestras. Getting the youth of Chicago involved is a great idea; it can build up their self-esteem by showing them different avenues that are available for their creativity, and it can also open up a whole new world of music that they might not have been exposed to before.

Yo-Yo Ma will also be involved in programs aimed to engage college-aged and pre-college aged students, as well as arts programs geared towards the very young (ages 3-5). As a teenager who LOVED to learn new music, a program like this would have been invaluable to me. I knew fairly early on in my education that I wanted to go to school for Music Education; but it wasn't until I reached the college level that I really started to learn about the foundations of music. I knew it was there from hearing Pavarotti and Domingo sing off of scratchy records that my mom played on Sunday afternoons; but I didn't have a true appreciation of where it came from, let alone what it sounded like live, until I was in my early 20's. Who knows, maybe earlier exposure would have encouraged me to keep playing the flute or to take piano lessons a little more seriously.

The full article that I referred to earlier can be found through this link.

To learn more about Yo-Yo Ma and his music, his website is www.yo-yoma.com. His music can be heard on the soundtrack for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", as well as in many videoed performances such as the ones shown on the Yahoo Music site.

These Days - The Forgotten Bon Jovi Album

"I was walking around, just a face in the crowd trying to keep myself out the rain/Saw a vagabond king wear a styrofoam crown, wonder if I might end up the same/There's a man out on the corner, singing old songs about change/Everybody's got their cross to bare these days." "These Days" (Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, Desmond Child)

Everyone who was old enough (or young enough, I guess) in 1986 to have a radio probably remembers Bon Jovi's first BIG album, "Slippery When Wet". These same people probably remember the follow-up smash, "New Jersey" that was released in 1988. I remember when "Bon Jovi", the first album released came out in 1984, but only because it was my introduction to what I consider to be one of the best rock n' roll bands of my time. But does any one, aside from the die-hard fans like myself, remember "These Days"?

Most people my age can name a handful of Bon Jovi songs. In the 80's, they were everywhere on the radio; now a-days these same songs are on what's considered "Classic Rock" stations (which is painful for me). "You Give Love a Bad Name", "Living on a Prayer", "Wanted Dead or Alive" (my personal fav), "Never Say Goodbye" just to name a few. Even the stuff from the '90s and later like "Have a Nice Day", "Who Says You Can't Go Home" (written about New Jersey and returning to play Giants Stadium; also turned into a Country hit with the addition of vocals by Jennifer Nettles from Sugarland) are easily recognizable by most. But can anyone reading this, aside from myself, sing the lyrics in the correct melody that start this post? Probably not.

Most Bon Jovi albums follow a similar pattern. Upbeat, stadium anthems that people can sing along with. Anthems that talk about surviving the day-to-day difficulties of life on the neighborhood streets; love and relationships. Love songs that describe a love so amazing and deep that words can barely describe how strong the author's emotions are and how lonely he is without his love by his side. Each song with a verse, a chorus that's got a strong hook to it, a great guitar solo in the middle to highlight just how good Richie Sambora is (if you've never listened to the song "Dry County" off of "Keep the Faith", I highly recommend it....really shows off his talent), and somewhere in each song is a chance for Jon to show off his pipes. But on "These Days", it's all about raw emotions. The good, the bad, and the oh so very ugly (think about the raw and ugly that Lady Ga Ga speaks of in "Bad Romance", that's what they're writing about here). The only fist-pumping going on here is at the sky, and is accompanied by a multitude of cries begging for help, for answers and for mercy.

The first track, "Hey God" sounds like it belongs on the current album, "The Circle". The overall theme is someone asking God "what the hell is going on"; there's a family that's on the verge of loosing their home, a child who's destined to die young in the streets of his ghetto neighborhood, a man begging for God to tell him what to do with his life that has gone to crap because nothing around him is working. It's a very strong and somber tale that could easily fit into the landscape of today. The next song goes right along with this theme. "Something for the Pain" begs for something to fill the hole that's been left by that fantasy of the perfect lover, who is now gone. "I've tried to need someone, like they needed me/I opened up my heart but all I did was bleed" is deep, deeper than Jon, Richie and their often seen co-writer Desmond Child tend to go. It's that admission that most of us have to make at some point - I've been hurt, I'm bitter, I'm trying to open myself up to love but every time I do all I get is pain. And when Jon sings it in perfect harmony with Richie, you know that this pain is real.

Some of the saddest Bon Jovi songs to date are from this album, although I will admit that the new CD "The Circle" has some tear-jerkers for me on it. The majority of the songs are sad; there really isn't an upbeat one in the bunch of 12. The most "up-lifting" song, if you can call it that, is "Something to Believe In", in which Jon practically begs the universe to send him something, anything, that will restore his faith in the world. With each passing track, the listener goes deeper and deeper into the depression that comes from just having your heart broken by the one that you thought would never leave, by the world that you thought would never let you down. These are the songs you listen to when you're sitting on your floor and you think you can't cry any more, when it's 2 in the morning and you're exhausted but you can't sleep because when you close your eyes all you see is their face.

"Baby I thought you and me would stand the test of time, like we got away with the perfect crime/But we were just a legend in my mind, I guess that I was blind"from "This Ain't a Love Song" speaks of that illusion that most everyone has had at one point in their lives about their significant other that is eventually found to be false. Most of us have had that "great love" that we can't imagine our world without, until one day we're without them and we realize that all that time we thought they were the one, they weren't. "Now the sky it shines a different kind of blue/And the neighbor's dog don't bark like he used to/Yeah me - these days, I just miss you/It's the nights that I go insane/Unless you're coming back, for me that's one thing I know that won't change" rips my heart out every time I hear it in "It's Hard Letting You Go". I cried many a time to this song when I had my heart broken by the guy that I thought was going to be there forever. "I lost all faith in my God, and His religion too/I told the angels they could sing their songs to someone new/I lost all trust in my friends, I watched my heart turn to stone/I thought I was left to walk this wicked world alone" again talks about disenchantment and the fall-out of being let down by everything that you know in "Something to Believe In".

There's a reason that this album was not a commercial success, at least not here in the US. It's a total departure from what made them successful in the first place; we can't just shift gears from up-beat, happy songs that we can sing along to in our cars with the windows rolled down on a summer's day to songs that make us want to sit alone in a dark room with a bottle of wine, a crazy straw and a box of tissues. They returned with a compliation, greatest-hits like album after this that restored their image and got them back on their stadium-rock track. But there's something to be said for this departure; it might not be filled with a long list of number one hits, but the music and lyrics are soulful and meaningful when given the time to be appreciated.

I wrote this in an effort to show that Bon Jovi isn't just some throw-back to the days of Aqua Net and spandex; they aren't just a hair metal band that sings of all the women they've had back stage at their shows. Yes, there are plenty of those songs on their albums and we love them (when you hear Jon and Richie say to pretend groupies "bring your girlfriend....bring your mom" in an invitation to party on their bus during "In and Out of Love", you know that they were a rock band in the '80s). But if that's all you think they are capable of producing, I ask you to take a listen to "These Days". It will open your eyes to a couple of song-writers, recently inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame in June 2009, who do truly pour out their hearts and souls onto the pages of their compositions.

'80s Pop vs. Todays Tweens

Remember the teeny-bopper, mall-rat music of the '80s? Did you love it?? Come on, admit it. You made your parents buy you Tiffany and Debbie Gibson tapes so you could rock out with your jelly bracelets, leg-warmers and Benetton sweatshirts.  I know I did! "Hello, my name is Michele and I was a teeny bopper who hung around the mall all day on Saturdays".   : )

I was thinking about the difference between that music that I grew up with (I wasn't a HUGE fan of the mall-star stuff, I liked hair metal more...but that's a whole other post) and the music of today. How different are Tiffany and Taylor Swift? Is there a big disparity between The Jonas Brothers and New Kids on the Block?  Who are we of a different generation to say that the music that the kids listen today is just fluff and bs??

I hate to actually say this out loud, but Debbie (now known as "Deborah") had some talent. Granted, she wasn't a great singer but that girl wrote everything that she sang. She started off writing and recording in her parents' garage and ended up bee-bopping in malls across the country.  I don't know about anyone else, but I was an aspiring singer at the tender age of 12 and I couldn't imagine being that famous, having all of those people looking at me as I sang.   She was pretty cool in my eyes.  She sang about the angst that all of us felt, but not in an overly sexual way....never did she elude to anything more than kissing and hugging. That would have been WRONG. Now Tiffany, on the other hand, didn't write her own stuff so right there that's a point against her. So she was 16 or 17; there are plenty of musicians that start earlier than that (Debbie, for example). But for what she lacked in song-writing talent, she made up for with the pipes - she did have a good voice and there was the dance that she did - who could forget it? The sway back and forth, with the big side-step. Oh yeah, everyone tried to replicate that (in fact, I think both she and Debbie did it, so I'm not sure who the originator was). She also did the mall tour and everyone wanted to dress like her and dance like her and sing like her. She brought back some classics, including one of the Beatles' hits "I Saw (Him) Standing There"; she made them live in the present day again which was not an easy feat in the days of big hair and spandex. I grew up knowing who the Beatles were, but it wasn't until she sang one of their songs that I actually cared about what else they sang.

Now looking at some contemporary comparisons - Taylor Swift, for one, is what we now consider to be a cross-over artist. She started off in Country and is now a pop star, although her music really is Country-based and much of it has that "sound" or "twang" to it. Coincidentally, Tiffany also started off doing Country music but never gained a lot of popularity doing it. Taylor Swift has a broad appeal; she writes about the stuff that happens to you the first day you walk into high school, and everyone can relate to that. Whether it happened to you this past September or it happened 10 Septembers ago, you still get it. She writes about heartache and love in an innocent fashion that makes the teenagers cry and the adults go "yeah, it's cheesy, but I get it".  I'll admit that her song about Romeo and Juliet made me shed a tear or two the first time I heard it because it took me back to that unrequited love that I wanted to have that moment with that she describes when she sings "he knelt to the ground and held out a ring".  She has that squeaky-clean image, just like Debbie and Tiffany did back in the '80s, and she writes songs that appeal to the masses of teenagers of the world,  just like Debbie and Tiffany did when they were dancing their way through our hearts while we ate cookies at the food court.  Top that appeal off with a great fashion sense (let's be honest, that girl can wear a dress on the red carpet like nobody's business), a really popular and attractive boyfriend (even though she and Taylor Lautner won't admit that they're a couple) and being very attractive herself, she was destined to be a star.

The Jonas Brothers, or the Jo Bros as I've heard them referred to as, have the teen aged girls screaming and crying from a mere mention of their names. It's incredible to me that three boys can incite SUCH amazing responses from such a large number of girls across the entire world. But then I think back to a little group called New Kids on the Block, and I am transported back to my friend Beth's bedroom that was adorned with Jordan Knight posters. Although all grown up now, back in the day, NKOTB garnered the same type of response and notoriety that the Jo Bros have. They sang straight to the heart of every girl out there on the other side of the stereo speakers.  Both groups are made up of boys that have good looks, clean images, and they just want a girl to love them for who they are.  I was in the minority growing up - I was never under the spell of NKOTB and I might not understand the Jonas Brothers, but I will say this - the mega machine that is both is something that can't be stopped. Sure, New Kids had their day in the sun and it ended for them, but not before they had world-wide fame, had sold millions of dollars worth of records and merchandise, and had become a household name. Those same girls that were crying at their shows are the same girls who grew up and are now spending their grown-up money on tickets so they can cry at their shows today. They might not have Top 20 hits any more like the Jo Bros, but they can still sell out a venue and star in some (presumably) steamy dreams.  And when you compare the two groups on a musical talent level, the Jo Bros beat the New Kids hands down.  The Brothers write their own music and play their own instruments.  I think that once I saw one of the New Kids pick up a guitar....I think....I might be thinking of Backstreet Boys, though.  Any way, in that regard, it's hard to compare the two when clearly one has much more overall musical talent than the other.

So really, is the music of this new millenium all that different from the music of the '80s?  Take away the big hair and acid wash jeans.  Take a look at some of the lyrics of the teeny-bopper music of the '80s and compare it to the tween music of today.  I think there is a lot more similarity there than anyone wants to admit.

Where's my bug zapper??

Fireflies by Owl City is the bane of my ear's existence. There really is no other, nicer way to put it. This song buries itself into my brain and I can't dig it out, even with the usual "It's a Small World" trick! I wouldn't say I enjoy the song by any means, but if I think about what the lyrics (possibly) mean, they're kinda cool.

I took a moment to look up the lyrics - I suggest you do the same if you haven't already or if you can't make them out as they're sung (I used this site, lyricsmode.com, which is pretty reliable). I really, honestly have no idea if there is any hidden meaning behind the lyrics "You would not believe your eyes/If ten million fireflies/Lit up the world as I fell asleep" but it says one thing to me. It sounds like the musings of a child, as they lay in bed on a summer's night, after playing in the backyard around dusk. That's all well and good and lyrics that convey that image definitely have their place in the world; I'm not a fan of that place, but still they have an appeal to some. The music that lies beneath these words is also very whimsical in nature; makes you feel as if you're laying on the grass with a bunch of fireflies up above you. I prefer the music to the lyrics in this case.

Moving to the chorus, the lyrics change a bit; "I'd like to make myself believe/That planet Earth turns slowly/It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep/Cause everything is never as it seems/When I fall asleep" makes me think of an adult who is looking back on their life and they want to relive that care-free time when the most important thing they had to plan for was grabbing a jar from the kitchen before running outside to catch as many of these little natural lanterns as possible. I'd also like to make myself believe that the Earth turns slowly, because I don't want to think that time moves so fast that my youth is now gone and with it the enjoyment of running around my backyard chasing after fireflies.

As I said, I don't really like the song. It's contagious, which I guess is good for the artist, but that doesn't make it a "good" song in my book. Sure, I think that it has a cool meaning behind it (at least I think my interpretation is cool; your's might be totally different), but I just can't get behind it. Maybe if I hear more of their stuff I'll understand it better or I'll at least be able to appreciate their music on the whole. But this song....it just "bugs" me.

Rock n' Roll Messiah??

I LOVE music....I know a lot about it, I'm a singer, I have a music degree, I can't seem to go for very long without humming a tune, I know a lot of random music facts.....I live and breath music, in short. So I figured that someone out there would probably appreciate my musings on the music that I hear or that I make. And for my first post, I've chosen the music that is being presented on my TV right now - "Messiah Rocks!".

Okay so maybe I'm a purist, maybe I'm a music snob. I've been called both. But why did Boston Pops Director Keith Lockhart and Lyricist and Director Dani Davis feel the need to go HERE? Not only has the overall feeling of this epic Oratorio been lost, but the distractions are HUGE on this stage. Between the three, I believe three, electric guitars and the gold lame boots on the one female singer (who I don't think is a Soprano by any means) I don't know where to look. And that's part of the issue, too. You shouldn't feel this compelled to watch the Messiah being performed. I shouldn't care if the singers are sitting on the floor or leaning up against the drum kit (yup folks....I said drum kit); it's about the music and the lyrics and the quality of both that are presented by the musicians. The singers - LaChanze (Tony-Award winner from "The Color Puple"), J. Robert Spencer from "Jersey Boys" and MiG Ayesa who appeared in "Rock Star: INXS" on TV a few years back - are decent singers and are doing a good job with the materials they've been given. But to have Messiah turned into a rock piece is just.....painful, to say the least. I have sung Messiah many times and I have yet to recognize a piece aside from the Hallelujah Chorus and For Unto Us a Child is Born (which has very recognizable lyrics, too so it was easy to pick out). There is something to be said for familiarity, especially with a beloved piece such as Messiah, and that familiarity has been trampled on and the piece is a mashed up heavy-metalesque concert that I could head-bang to.

I just realized that the Director is wearing leather pants. They are ALMOST as tight as the vocal chords on the one singer who can't seem to stop screaming (I honestly have no clue which guy it is but he is now leading the audience in singing out "The Lord" in yet another piece that I can't recognize).

For those of us that have performed Messiah, or parts of it, know that it's a challenging piece. It isn't all about getting the breaths in the right place, or hitting the right notes, or even saying the text correctly and in a manner to convey the emotion behind it. It's about getting all three right and making it look easy, which it isn't because in many areas it is a very technically challenging piece. The runs are long and hard to navigate and require a singer to have great breath control; it also requires a singer to convey a range of emotion and keep their energy alive for over 90-minutes of music. And then this happens. This amazing feast of music for the performer and the listener, is turned into a rock n' roll cluster f. I just heard someone say that they fully believe that the fans of Messiah will enjoy searching for the "Handel" in the new interpretation. REALLY?? I don't know about any one else but I'm not in the mood to put on my Sherlock Holmes hat and do detective work when I listen to Messiah. It's a holiday season favorite and I like my holiday season favorites in their original, beloved, allbeit predictable, form.

Finally they get to "Hallejuah Chorus" and they actually didn't deviate from the original too much. I could actually sing along....with the belting singers, the very loud electric guitar, pounding bass drum (almost Metallica-like, I must say), oh and did I mention the light show? Of COURSE there's a light show. A rock show is nothing without it's light show. (I just saw fist pumping to "King of Kings" and head banging to "Forever and ever". I think I'm going to start pumping my head into the nearest wall.)

It seems like these days, there are so many recreations of great pieces of work and I don't understand why the original isn't good enough for our culture any longer. From movies to music, nothing seems to be impervious to the hands of the "modernists" that have to take what's old and make it new again. I hope that some "modernist" doesn't get their hands on me....hell, I'm not exactly a spring chicken anymore at 35 but I like the way I look and sound. If handed over, I'd probably end up looking like some Japanese Anime girl with HUGE boobs and even bigger eyes, and my hair wouldn't be nearly as cool as it is in real life. : )