A&M @ the big 4-0

[jimac51]

The recent discussion about the 25th Anniversary Classics series got me wondering about another label's anniversary celebration. When Elektra turned 40 in 1990,Bob Krasnow(founder of Blue Thumb label) and Lenny Kaye(compiler of the original Nuggets album)put together "Rubaiyat", a two disc set which had then current label stars(Metallica,Cure,Pixies,etc.) performing songs from the early days of Elektra(Doors,Eagles,Warren Zevon). What a cool idea and it was surprising how it really worked. With the few handful of A&M artists signed today(and they could become Interscope artists overnight without warning)it obviously couldn't be done today,but imagine cross-pollentating the A&M roster? Joe Cocker doing a Quincy Jones song? Joe Jackson with a Burt Bacharach? The Baja Marimba Band doing "Song of Joy"?(Hey,Herb did "Jesu,Joy of Man's Desiring"). Mac

 

[DAN BOLTON]

How about Steely Dan doing "Spanish Flea"?

Dan

 

[Captain Bacardi]

The recent discussion about the 25th Anniversary Classics series got me wondering about another label's anniversary celebration. When Elektra turned 40 in 1990,Bob Krasnow(founder of Blue Thumb label) and Lenny Kaye(compiler of the original Nuggets album)put together "Rubaiyat", a two disc set which had then current label stars(Metallica,Cure,Pixies,etc.) performing songs from the early days of Elektra(Doors,Eagles,Warren Zevon). What a cool idea and it was surprising how it really worked.

It's an interesting idea, but I think the problem with doing that today is that a lot of these so-called "artists" today don't have a clue how to play an instrument. They sure as heck don't know anything about chord changes. I was eating lunch in a Subway this afternoon, and the girls behind the counter had this Top 40 station on, and I swear it just sounded like the same song over and over and over. It was just the same beat-of-the-week rhythms, some samples, and and the vocals consisted of a bunch of "Whoa-oa-oa"s and "Oooh-oa-oa"s. It wasn't rap or anything bad like that, just redundant. The girls behind the counter were just swaying and saying "This is bad-assed". I couldn't help but just roll my eyes.

But since this will be A&M's 40th anniversary, I half expect something to be released to commemorate the occasion. What would be really neat is a video documentary of some kind. Maybe photos, movies and/or interviews of the people & musicians who were there from the beginning. But knowing Univer$al, they'll just release another Millenium Collection or something trite like that.


Capt. Bacardi

 

[DAN BOLTON]

What would REALLY be great would be a TJB box set, or even a reisue of the previous sampler albums of the past..


Dan

 

[Rudy]

It's an interesting idea, but I think the problem with doing that today is that a lot of these so-called "artists" today don't have a clue how to play an instrument.

I don't even think a lot of them have a grasp on music, period...just sing what the vocal coach tells you, and try to follow the beat. Or you'd get some obnoxious Gen-X alternative rocker who hates the music who would just make a trashy drone out of it. Can't recall the last time I heard a good tribute album. There's usually one or two good tracks, and the rest are often barely recognizable versions of the original.

I was eating lunch in a Subway this afternoon, and the girls behind the counter had this Top 40 station on, and I swear it just sounded like the same song over and over and over. It was just the same beat-of-the-week rhythms, some samples, and and the vocals consisted of a bunch of "Whoa-oa-oa"s and "Oooh-oa-oa"s. It wasn't rap or anything bad like that, just redundant.

All just synth-based programmed/sequenced garbage. I've been subjected to the same, also in a local Subway, or at "teeny" stores in the malls. And it was probably interspersed with that horrible "have it yoa waay hav it hav it yoa waaay" Burger King commercial (that has made me swear I'll never poison myself with their "food" any time in the future).

It makes me think that some "next big thing' in music is just around the corner...a year, five years (?) from now. We're due.

But since this will be A&M's 40th anniversary, I half expect something to be released to commemorate the occasion.

A&M/Interscope/UMG could obviously care less about anniversaries or label heritage. It's "just another profit center in the annual report" to them. At least in Japan they're releasing some of the old classics (Chris Montez, for one) with a small "40th" logo, much like they celebrated Bossa Nova. Univer$al would rather rape the A&M catalog for more trite 10-song compilations. :|

We are really overdue for a good book about A&M. I remember Herb Alpert commenting that an autobiography was like an "end of career" type of project. IMHO, with both A&M and Almo Sounds in their current dysfunctional states, their own era has long passed and we could use a good book about the label and all its artists...at least up through 1989 for A&M, when the label was sold. (Almo Sounds wouldn't rate much more than a chapter at best.)

Wonder if Alpert and Moss are going to call Vivendi to the carpet over that deflated stock price? Certainly hope so.

-= N =-

 

[Jay Maynes/Juan Oskar]

I remember people in da 70's were wishing the music was like in the 40's. Now we are wishing da music now was like in the 60's. I hope we haven't become relics...later amigos...Jay

 

[stefandaystrom]

AT BEST, I would only expect an A&M 40th tribute album by current artists UMG puts together to be like IF I WERE A CARPENTER (on which I only find one track either interesting or worth listening to a second time -- Sonic Youth's "Superstar").

 

[Rudy]

If I Were A Carpenter comes off more as a mockery than a tribute, IMHO...only a few songs are worthwhile. "Superstar," yes, is my favorite also, but IIRC, it was recorded by others before Carpenters covered it.

The Led Zeppelin tribute, Encomium, was only marginally better. Last thing I need is the overwrought shrieking of 4 Non Blondes to open the CD. No better luck with Steely Dan, either: there was a $mooth Jazz CD out that was pretty much a lifeless runthrough of the Dan's classics...and the Me, Myself & Irene soundtrack featured artists covering Dan tunes, most of them having no idea what to do with the songs once they got ahold of them. (Setzer's version of "Bodhisattva" is probably the best, since it keeps the flavor and just adds the big band spin to it.)

One neat tribute was the "surf" CD that covered TJB tunes...Surfin' Senorita...it is just fun to listen to.

Lesson I learned: stick to the originals. Tributes, for the most part, suck.

-= N =-

 

[Captaindave]

I'm sure ready for something new to come along. Sorry,but I haven't heard much of anything I really like since about 1969 or so.I guess we tend to be and like what we grew up with and I'm a product of the sixties - graduated from high school in 1969...
What do we have now or have we had in the past 30 years or so that is anything like Herb Alpert and the TJB,Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66,Baja Marimba Band,etc?I don't hear anything that is interesting,new,creative,and especially well-done.I'd love to hear some great instrumental music again like we had back then.Stuff that was fun to listen to.Someone who could play an instrument was really doing it.One of my favorites was "Soulful Strut" by Young-Holt Unlimited.What ever happened to that type of music

 

[Rudy]

Gads..."instrumental" music as we knew it pretty much died in the 60's and just stayed there, didn't it? That's the reason I started branching out so much in my own listening. When GRP Records was still in business (not Univer$al's whored-out version of it today), they were another good label that had a consistent style to its products. They had a lot of good "contemporary jazz" (not $mooth Jazz) played by musicians who had actual talent. Over the past several years, I've managed to tune into the Pat Metheny Group, as well as Pat's solo recordings. At the time I started discovering the music, it filled a need I had to hear something that had good playing but didn't bury the listener in endless jazz licks or noodling.

So...I'm listening to Ray Charles right now. Go figure.

-= N =-