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Amazon.com And The Burgeoning Adventures Of The Aspiring Music Reviewer
What are seeing is not a defect in this website. As a matter of fact,its really the entire root of this blog to begin with. Today I’m going to tell you something that delves just a little into my private life-something I don’t do too often here. In the years after 9/11,I was living in an end of the city of Bangor which was likely the closest thing it had to a skid row. Don’t know how I got there,but somehow I managed to “live just enough for the city” to keep my nose as squeaky clean (even if flat busted broke) as I’d always been. While my partner at the time was at work,I would walk a good mile or two down a rather steep hill to the local Public Library where they had public computers. Due to abuses from often mentally ill wanderers in town using the computers to visit adult websites,the computers each had a limit of one hour after you punched your library card number into it as a password. I learned a lot technically about the Windows XP era PC this way. But also something else that was very important. Also want to apologize for the amount of “I,Me,Mine’s” you’re about to see in this article. Its not out of egoism. By virtue of this subject matter its simply unavoidable
During my first years of rising adulthood,I ended up with a sudden great urge to beginning writing about the music that I was digesting between regular meals daily. There was also a lot of literature coming my way regarding the topic of the critical assessment of music such as the works of Rickey Vincent,Nelson George-as well as the more generic volumes such as MusicHounds Guide To Rhythm & Blues and of course the AllMusic Guide. In those pre-computer days of my life,just about every loose leaf notebook that came my way (and there were tons from all directions it seemed) I would review the music that I listened to. These all are probably still in existence in dingy plastic container in the family basement or stuffed into shoe boxes in some other secret somewhere. However a lot of them might’ve been recycled by yours truly because,at the time of writing them,I really didn’t have any individual framework in which to set up these reviews I wrote. So many of them were simply cut-n-paste jobs of the sarcastic and often mean spirited rhetoric of “professional” critical assessment of the mid/late ’90’s.
As the new millennium arrived these hand written,and by this time often word processed,music reviews I was writing were starting to take on a far more professional field to them. At the same time I had no intention of becoming a professional music writer. It seemed,particularly at that time,that working in such a field-while it seemed ideal for someone of my emotional type,would simply be making money by shattering someones artistic hopes and dreams. Not only was that a contradiction in terms to me,but also went against my individual type. After all,as Sly Stone might have said it was definitely “time for living” at that point. Reality had set in hard,and it was mandatory participating. When I first began using those limited library computers during 2003, it became apparent that I’d have to find some way of using the computer to maintain my creative skills-in order to keep my heart and mind from becoming unimaginative,cynical,weak and helpless. It was during this time that I discovered Amazon.com. At first it presented itself as just another online shopping website. Then a very exciting moment occurred when I discovered that Amazon.com had something I’d been looking all along without realizing that I was: a customer review area that could be used for music.
Since listening to music was often the only level of happiness for me then,as it is so often with those forced to live through austere times,there was now a way in which I could consistently improve my skills as reviewing music and,best of all share them with the online public all across the world with the touch of a button. It was such a fulfilling and liberating experience. It actually bought me out of the skeptical and even anti cyberspace frame of mind I was in. The concepts we now know as YouTube and social media sites such as Facebook began to dance around in my head like sugarplums. My initial Amazon.com reviews were far inferior to my earliest hand written ones from the late 90’s. And luckily an site glitch forced me to abandon that original Amazon account,which still exists today in theory and open up the one I use today in 2005. Also through Amazon.com I had the opportunity to learn about little known artists through their customer recommendations. I even met my friend (and blog inspiration) Henrique Hopkins via his interest in my Amazon.com reviews. Suddenly I was discovering new music and reviewing as I heard it. And actually the idea of being,as it were a volunteer music reviewer as opposed to a paid critic was very appealing.
Today of course my online life is so much broader. There are now far more similar websites online on which to sort,rate and review ones music. Somehow Amazon remains my favorite,perhaps because I’ve grown online with it. The site itself is far from what it used to be. Continually difficult economic times have forced the site to continually pare down it’s features. For example,meeting someone such as Henrique wouldn’t be possible anymore since the social networking end of Amazon was eliminated several years ago. Also their reviewing system on the site seems to be evolving to more closely accommodate internet tablets/iPhone’s rather than notebooks and other more stationary computers. The only thing I hope for is that Amazon.com will never,ever abandon its customer review section. Nor would I want it to happen to any other website that does this. It would be satisfying to know that a young person stepping into an unknown new undiscovered country of their lives-entering their early 20’s in 2014 might be able to go to Amazon,RYM or any other music review site and be able to connect with others and share their views on the music they love. Making peace with the art we create is a wonderful way to start making much needed peace among each other. And sharing musical viewpoints,as I did over a decade ago,was a wonderful step in the right direction in terms of the most positive aspects of the internet.
Link To My Amazon.com Profile. Please Read,Comment & Enjoy!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A3HU0B9XUEVHIM?ie=UTF8&ref_=sv_ys_4
Critics,Creativity & Conundrums
In many of the article I’ve written here, the concept of musical criticism comes up a great deal purely in reference to artists. Yet not the concept of musical criticism itself. One reason that’s important to realize is that the subject is generally almost too vast in scope to discuss in depth. Of course modern musical criticism drew out of literary criticism-a practice that existed for centuries before there was a music industry. Literary criticism was generally divided into two separate schools-a liberal and a conservative one. Therefore right from the start,the criticism of cultural offerings has been inherently political in nature. Of course over the years the views on how close the personal and political ethics really are have changed heavily over the years. Now maybe its easy to understand how difficult a subject this is to broach. So all I can do is double back yet again on my old standby mode of discussion of these matters: draw from personal experience.
Speaking for myself I can say that my enjoyment of music was completely diversified and guiltless between the ages of 3 and 12. It might be for a lot of people. In general soul,jazz,funk and all combinations in between were the music’s I was most exposed to. At the same time I loved almost everything that was heard,in many cases still do. I still accept “We Built This City On Rock ‘N Roll” and “Rock Me Amadeus” without any irony, with genuine love and zero 80’s music intolerance so stereotypical of my particular generation. My own personal experience with any critical thought of my own happened when my father played me Harry Connick Jr singing “If I Only Had A Brain”. Today I admire and respect Harry’s devotion to funky New Orleans jazz,especially his singing. Though some of my thoughts on this related to my appreciation of “If I Only Had A Brain” in the context of Ray Bolger in The Wizard Of Oz, even at 8 years old when I heard it I didn’t enjoy Harry’s interpretation at all. Then I didn’t know any descriptive words to explain this. Today I’d say I found his vocal take of the song overly effected, which is a typical critics word really.
It was during my adolescence that,as with most people I’m sure that any interest at all in the critical assessment of others developed. Of course in was in the mid 1990’s- a time of enforced critical negativity. And one either towed that line or were shunned by the world. At the age of 15 for example I was still deeply interested in synth pop and New Wave. For the first time ever though, when I went to a music store and talked to anyone who worked their for example,I felt enormous guilt in mentioning this because…all one had to do was look in a magazine to see the adulation and worship leveled by critics to the likes of Pearl Jam, Soundgarden or Courtney Love’s Hole to see where the pendulum of musical criticism had swung. Personally I was moved by cleaner musical sounds. Noisy sometimes maybe, but a more instrumental elegance. From that time on I notice that music lovers of all ages have accepted rawness,noise and “simplicity” as the highest standard of music. Only with the advent of the internet did I notice any return to a more balanced and well rounded level of musical criticism.
In 2003 I discovered Amazon.com, which allowed for customer reviews of the media they offered-including music in all formats available. Though my first Amazon profile succumbed to a computer virus, the second one I have has continued to thrive to the point where its part of the sites Top 1000 Reviewers column-perhaps not a big deal for some, but meaning much to myself. I’ve learned a lot from reading the opinions of music critics over the years-both what to do and what not to do. I’ll admit freely that my opinion on the 1990’s alternative music scene embodies the most ugly stereotype of closed minded music critics. It should be said however that I do state this opinion mainly to point out the arrogance and pretentiousness of that decade-especially when overt negativity and violence is projected in the given music. Even in anger, I feel music functions best with a level of sensitivity and caring. And would say the same for any undeservedly musically self righteous musical decade-regardless of the high quality of some of the music itself. So its critics I am criticizing as opposed to the music. More people should do that and many now do thankfully. All musical art comes from a sometimes difficult process and doesn’t deserve to be beaten down too harshly. By focusing primarily on music I enjoy on Amazon in terms of my reviews there than what I dislike, my emotional attitude towards music pretty much speaks for itself.
Gino Vannelli-The Legacy Of An Unheralded Funk/Jazz Icon
Today, Gino Vannelli will be celebrating his 61st birthday. As with the majority of others, the only songs of his that I knew for years were “I Just Wanna Stop” and “Living Inside Myself”, both songs I enjoyed and found to be very unique and elegant. If most of us are honest with ourselves, we listen to music through some type of outward filter. The filters of our family’s,peers,radio or even a song we hear on television or in a film. One day while doing a search for Steely Dan and the Crusaders on Amazon.com, I noticed a few albums by Gino Vannelli that I knew nothing about that were in the “recommended for you” column. By the time I had done this I had learned via the Doobie Brothers,Steely Dan and Edgar Winter that some wonderfully soulful and funky music disguised itself in what is known alternately as the “soft rock” or more pejoratively “yacht rock” sub-category of music. This tends to be a highly segregated musical area-considered completely “illegitimate” territory for any “genuine” rock and roll admirer. And that is the domain in which Gino Vannelli is categorized: one that is seldom taken seriously. But with no credibility based prejudices, Gino Vannelli is one of the most vitally important creative forces of the funk era.
The Montreal native was born in 1952 to a former big band jazz musician. During his teens he dreamed of being a musician as well. After studying music formerly at McGill university Gino and his keyboardist brother Joe began to scope around NYC looking for a record deal to the point of becoming close to starving artists. After this period of serious dues paying Gino was signed by Herb Alpert to A&M records and recorded his debut album Crazy Life that same year. With the release of his second album Powerful People he had his first hit record with “People Gotta Move”, which set the musical pattern for his next three albums: a heavily reverbed mixture of multi tracked synthesizers along with Gino’s singing and songwriting-both of which drew heavily from jazzy,Broadway show tunes and the polyrhythmic possibilities of the funk/soul music. On his 1978 album Brother To Brother he added heavier guitars to his music and proceeded to create a sound that was more attuned towards commercial success. And he got it-even after a contract dispute with A&M records forced him to stave off recording until his come back in 1985. Today he has left the pop world almost totally behind and focuses primarily on jazz.
Musically speaking he is very much the Italian/Canadian equivalent of Stevie Wonder. His love of rhythm,melody and harmony have allowed him to create a unique sound blending many of the livelier music’s of his era together and gain a measure of success in doing so. Lyrically he shares a similarity as well. Gino Vannelli’s music has a far pure and intense level of emotional expression that went perfectly with the 1970’s. On his 1975 release Storm At Sunup, he fashioned a concept album of sorts with the lyrical theme dealing very intellectually with the emotional,romantic and sexual insecurities of an adolescent growing into a man. Rather than taking the painfully regretful tone Brian Wilson often did with the same subject, Gino chose to question manhood and the general idea of what he and others valued about masculinity-even to the point of addressing romantic. infidelity as a form of self torture. On his 1976 release Gist Of The Gemini he took on his own generation as the counter cultural ethic was beginning to erode on America’s bicentennial.
Interestingly enough Gino Vannelli’s almost Adonis-like facial intensity, bear chested and testosterone fueled body and his trademark mane of curly black hair puts him image wise as very influential on the big haired ethic of the 1980’s-more associated with the harder level of rock n roll. His music however, tells a different story. While commercially popular via a select number of songs, the best work of his career (which incidentally came out during his hit making prime) doesn’t receive the sort of commercial recognition that it should today. Since the late 1980’s, individuals love of music has tended to be bound by very strict musical categorization. Are you a rocker,a jazz man,a country boy or a funkateer? These are examples of the way male music lovers still tend to approach one another. Gino Vannelli’s music doesn’t necessarily defy categories. But it doesn’t deliberately endear itself to them either. Which is why,ironically for such a male focused artist, Gino’s music has had a largely female (and apparently homosexual male) audience as well. Yet his entire musical oeuvre is one to be greatly admired. And I would like to wish this wonderfully creative soul the happiest possible of birthday’s today.
Remembering The Music In Our Lives-A Tribute To Leroy Sugarfoot Bonner
Recognize this man? Well if your a fan of 70’s funk or the Ohio Players you do instantly. He was Leroy Sugarfoot Bonner-lead singer/guitarist for the Ohio Players. Visually famous for his enormous Afro hairstyle and double necked guitar,his band also bought us many hit songs we know today such as “Love Rollercoaster ,”Fire” and “Skin Tight”. On the other hand there was also another side to the mans musical legacy. In the same band,during the same decade he also produced other lesser known songs such as “Sweet Sticky Thing”,”O.H.I.O” and “Funk O Nots” . One thing that stands out in my mind about them is that the Ohio Players also produced an excellent electronic jazz/funk fusion type soundtrack recording in 1977 called Mr.Mean,which has been somewhat forgotten and was voted for years as their worst album. This actually somewhat points to some of the issues that the sad passing of an important musical figure (at least in my life) has pointed out to me about the place of music in society in general.
A few days before this writing,I did a YouTube tribute to Sugarfoot. While it’s gotten 400 views during that time,it’s still hard to get away from my own unlikely cynicism that the majority of those views come from the basis of the word “SEX”,written that way all in capital letters,before the rest of the title of the video. It points to the fact America,if not the world,has become a far more sensational and less of an implicit culture. Funny thing is,with their sexually liberated album covers featuring naked female models,the Ohio Players aggressively championed the sexual revolution (as a thing of beauty) in their heyday. Still the idea that the name of a musician alone cannot sell viewership on a heavily trafficked website like YouTube still tells the same story. I’ve talked a lot to people online and even in public. And at the end of a long day at collage or at work,it would seem music is merely what comes from their car stereo on their way home. When they return there,they tend to be inclined to either read a magazine,watch television or a movie. If that isn’t an example of a societal turn from the aural to a visual aesthetic I’m not sure what is.
That’s not to say there isn’t relieving ironies about this. MTV and VH1 have been televising music through videos and other methods for decades now. And with the advent of the internet MP3’s,YouTube and even highly controversial methods of information exchange such as file sharing/downloading have made music more accessible. The Ohio Players are actually not a bad example in this regard either. There many albums,including Mr.Mean for example,were not too long ago nearly impossible to find on CD in ones local record stores. Today Amazon.com and iTunes both offer such albums as MP3 downloads. So the music actually is there for those who want it. And whenever I am doing my acrylic/watercolor painting,music is much more often played in the back round than the drone of television audio. So with the passing of Leroy Sugarfoot Bonner,for example if your coming come from an odd date instead of watching another romantic comedy DVD go online and listen to an Ohio Players song called “Good Luck Charm”. There’s a list I recently saw in a magazine of how certain rock songs can stimulate chemical reactions that enhance certain moods. And in terms of funk,as George Clinton once said, it not only moves but removes. As for Sugarfoot,I’ll never forget the man and his music.
The Rhythmic Nucleus 