In recent interviews, the new American Idol, David Cook, has been predicting that his first CD will be “anthemic”. This week he talked to John Melendez of the Jay Leno show, after Cook says that his CD will be a rock record, Melendez asks him about playing with ZZ Top on the AI finale and asks:

is it going to be more that kind of rock, like a bluesy-based… ?

Cook replies,

Nah, It’ll be still kind of anthemic, I think for me, it’s just gonna be a matter of putting out songs that have something to say..

David Cook Tonight Show Interview

Is that an actual genre of rock music? Why does it give me visions of hair bands in large arenas full of my male classmates who thought that “2001: A Space Odyssey” was deep, their bics alight..

In more recent years, think U2, possibly the most pretentious rock band of all time. Or Spinal Tap.

Here’s a definition that doesn’t give me a lot of comfort:

Music is a pretty manipulative art-form at the best of times, but even so, Anthemic Rock is a particularly manipulative musical genre. The whole point of Anthemic Rock is to tug at the guts of the listener: to instil in him or her a peculiar sense of yearning for something that can’t quite be defined. It’s a stirring feeling, but also a slightly queasy one if you stop to think about it too much (as is my wont). But perhaps the most disturbing aspect of Anthemic Rock is the fact that, when you actually stop and listen to it, the lyrics are so often working at cross-purposes to the music: while the music of Anthemic Rock is, by definition, designed to be played loud, through speakers, and heard by large groups of people at the same time to create some kind of communal experience, the lyrics are often, in fact, about cutting off the listener from the rest of the world.

Yelling About Music

I thought some more about what makes a rock song anthemic:

Accessible melody, sing-a-long chorus “We Don’t Need No Education”, “We Are The Champions” The simpler the lyrics, the easier the chorus is to learn, the more likely the band will create the massive communal experience that only loud familiar music and lots of beer and/or secondary inhalation of illegal smoke inspires. Power chords and an insistent 4-4 beat are a must.

The lyrical theme must be Serious. No little deuce coupes, endless summer nights or honky tonk women.

Living on a prayer, and Not getting fooled again are fine themes. It’s also fine to sing about “Only Rock & Roll”, “I Love Rock n Roll”, “Rock and Roll All Night” or “Old Time Rock N Roll”.

If it’s a song you danced to at weddings, or made out to in high school, it’s probably not anthemic rock. However, a rock anthem may well have been your prom theme in the 1980s:

If your neighbor played it every night in the dorm while you tried to sleep or study, then it probably is anthemic rock.

I love the communal aspect of rock music. The thrill of classic rock concerts is sitting in a hockey rink with 18,000 of your closest friends, Paul McCartney in the Garden, “Back in the USSR” with that driving beat hardwired into our collective brains, and for three minutes he was just seventeen, if you know what I mean… and so were we. At the beginning we really did think rock music would change the world, because it made us feel like we could.

While I usually like my music with sophistication, funk and groove and soul, or at least an awesome beat, I respect the power of anthemic rock. A few years ago I finally got to see one of my favorite late 60s bands, the Guess Who, with its founding members Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings. Mr. Bachman was also in another major band, Bachman-Turner Overdrive. So naturally the concert included a few of BTO’s big hits including this:

Since TCB was not one of my favorite songs, I didn’t have a personal emotional connection to the song, but a good portion of the crowd certainly did. I couldn’t help but get swept into the party.

I say you can be anthemic without sacrificing the beat and the groove. These are tunes that make you want to dance the night away and kick some butt all at the same time..

So to the Newest American Idol I say, go write some rock anthems, and bring us all together with raucous glorious noise. But remember the words that Emma Goldman didn’t actually say, “If I can’t dance I don’t want to be in your revolution.” Power chord ballads have their place, but you can’t find redemption without a saxophone:

The Greatest Rock Anthem Ever

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It’s that time of year again, when the auditions, the hype, the scandals, and a few shock eliminations have come down to three people with a chance to win America’s favorite singing contest, American Idol. Or as my all-time favorite guest mentor, and original teen idol Peter Noone said so aptly “it’s a voting contest!”. While I can shake my head and lament about the artists that I might have preferred, there is one remaining contestant that has caught my interest and will get my votes, the young Midwestern rocker and crossword-puzzle-solver David Cook.

In the first audition out of Omaha, I did take notice of the kid with a geeky argyle sweater and odd spiky streaked hair who sang Bon Jovi and confessed to being a Daughtry wannabe — thinking at least his voice was less annoying than Daughtry’s, which I find merely abrasive when loud. In the early rounds, I smiled at a video package where Cook revealed he was a “word nerd” who did crosswords to relax, and Simon Cowell glowered at how “uncool” a pastime this was. Simon, Simon, what you don’t understand is that all the rock-loving librarians and bookstore girls just fell in love.

Then Cook kicked the door down with change-ups of Lionel Richie’s “Hello” and Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean”, and we all took notice. Who cares whether the arrangements were original, who is this guy? Apparently just about the only one who got the memo that the “challenge” of American Idol 7 was to take the hoary songlist of 70s and 80s that had long passed their sell-by dates and make them sound like something on a current ITunes playlist. Several very good singers who were expected to do well, particularly Michael Johns and Carly Smithson, got panned by the judges when their 80s covers sounded like 80s covers, and so got voted off the island.

Meanwhile, the hair and wardrobe people did their thing with Mr. Cook, and he evolved from “kinda cute in a dorky way, with impossible hair” to rather presentable. No one has yet been able to determine if this has involved the use of the Official American Idol Hair Extensions that volumized the luscious dos of Kat McPhee and Haley Scarnato, or just a skillful hand with scissors and gel. As a performer, Cook displayed a quiet and grounded confidence, sometimes mistaken for smugness.

As an American Idol rocker, Cook has far more versatility than Chris Daughtry. While both have the rocker’s rasp and power, Cook’s voice has a luscious warm, sandy tone that will serve him well when he starts making records for mass consumption. His interpretations are intelligent and compelling. His take on “Always Be My Baby”, which should be released to radio NOW, is a rich dark chocolate-caramel-cappucino confection (not to be confused with saccharine, none of that at all.. ) of quiet urgency, a thinking girl’s guilty pleasure pop masterpiece.

David Cook – “Always Be My Baby”

The boy now had my attention, clearly the smartest and most interesting guy in the competition. As Andrew Lloyd Webber week approached, it was apparent to me that in order to break out the pack and make American Idol history, Cook had to expose his inner theater geek, bring his best Michael Crawford and show us that he really can sing anything. Fortunately, he listened to me, and performed “Music of the Night” with sensitive phrasing and impeccable vocal control, and proved that he is a very very good singer.

My ITunes collection of the studio versions of the American Idol songs has become sorted in alphabetical order, so I hear “Little Sparrow” from Dolly Parton night immediately before “Music of the Night”. For the first song, Cook knows exactly how to use the rasp in his voice to create a perfect “Oh Brother Where Art Thou” sound. The final verse is gorgeous, searing, raw a capella. ITunes segues right into the strings and piano of Andrew Lloyd Webber, and I melt into the deep cushion created by this lush voice. Oh yes, this is the reason you watch this ridiculous show, to hear the voice that makes you melt.

But what happens if David Cook wins American Idol? Or even if he doesn’t win, and gets signed by the 19E Music Machine? Will the money changers label him Daughtry 2, and load him up with yet another album of Nickelback clone songs?

Looking at Cook’s pre-Idol music does not alleviate the fear I have. Like previous Idol contenders, including Taylor Hicks, Cook has independently-produced music available, with prior bands, and a fairly recent solo album titled Analog Heart. I don’t know if Taylor was the first to use this strategy, but it’s a brilliant one. Anyone who found Taylor’s original songs and concert performances discovered he was a creative, dynamic performer, and a sensitive songwriter. Any serious musician who contemplates the Idol experience should make sure to have music and performances available through Youtube and streaming sites, so that potential fans can check out original product and get some idea what sort of music the future Idol would produce.

For a while “Analog Heart” could be downloaded from Amazon, but that must have been too brazen to suit “The Powers That Be” in the American Idol machine. The CD can still be pre-ordered from the Amazon site:

Pre-Order “Analog Heart” by David Cook

“Analog Heart” consists of ten radio-friendly rockers, mostly following the formula of Verse, Chorus, Verse Chorus, and repeat chorus till you fill 3 minutes. The songs seem to be about the personal angst and heartbreak common to male songwriters in their early twenties. It’s all so earnest. I don’t usually listen to this type of rock music. I want my music to have style, groove and the promise of redemption. Give me a growling saxophone or a bluesy harmonica, something I can sing, clap or dance to. Do you believe in rock n roll, can music save your mortal soul, and can you teach me how to dance real slow, that’s my motto.

Mr. Cook doesn’t answer that question in “Analog Heart”. The noisy guitar rock arrangements don’t do justice to his marvelous vocal instrument. Maybe he’s only just now learned how to use it. If I was cruising the radio dial, I don’t know that I’d switch the station when these songs came on, but I don’t think anything would grab me. A couple of songs stay with me after frequent listening, notably the closing number “Silver” with its Coldplay-style piano intro, and prescient chorus that makes you wonder if Cook had been planning his current project for some time:

So take this small confession as my price to pay
I’ve never been the kind to let go
But before you up and walk away
I’m miserable without you, you know
This silver leaves me longing for gold
Second place has never carried me home
Second place has never carried me home

You think the boy wants to win? I’m quite okay with that. I hope that one thing he’s learned in the past few months is that he has the talent and savvy to stretch the boundaries of genre and make some damn fine music.

David Ford strikes me as a man with better things to do.

Perhaps not at the moment I was talking to him. He was on the road in Idaho, en route to a show in Salt Lake City, when we battled our way through cell phone connectivity issues and spent a few moments discussing music and all the things that seem to come part and parcel with today’s music industry. But like I said, he’s got better things to do. Like, say, writing and performing music.

Ford’s been a working musician in Great Britain for more than a decade, and has even seen some measure of success as part of the band Easyworld. Since 2004, he’s been a solo artist, and has been steadily gaining fans in the United States, among them Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen. He has toured with Ray LaMontagne, Suzanne Vega, Sara Bareilles (in April 2008) and Augustana (this month), and in June will be touring with Aimee Mann. (All of his summer tour dates are available in the OFTV events calendar.) His latest album, Songs For The Road, was released last year and is available for download on iTunes.

I first heard of Ford thanks to Kired over at Cursed Monkey Paw, and I was immediately struck by the honesty and sheer musicality of his songs. No pop songs, these, although they could easily do well in a better musical atmosphere than the current music industry. Therefore, I thought he’d be a perfect fit for our readership here — we’re all tired of the current music industry, yes?

Here is the utterly enjoyable and admittedly most “pop” song from Ford’s Songs For The Road, “Decimate”. As Ford says, “It’s a positive song about inviting someone to lay all their problems on you, to take their hardships and lighten their load, wanting everything to be OK. It’s kind of like a love song.” The video, I think, is also the most “pop” of the videos I’ve seen.

More representative of both Ford’s music and his videos is “State of the Union”. The video was shot live, in one take, with one camera. “It’s a challenging thing to keep it interesting without relying on clever editing and cuts,” he says. “There’s a sense of realness as well, you’re actually watching a moment in time that happens as you see it.”

(Continue Reading …)

I was going to write about a different song tonight, but my brain got hijacked, and ended up here.

I was cruising some of the blogs in my bookmarks, and stumbled across a video of Paul Revere and the Raiders on one of those 60s dance shows, either Shindig or Hullabaloo, with the go go dancers, Mark Lindsay staring soulfully into the camera. It reminded me of Where the Action Is, which was Dick Clark’s after school show, and the Raiders were one of the house bands. In my junior high years, I faithfully watched the lip-synched location performances. Our version of MTV Spring Break.

And when I think of Where the Action Is, I think of the most (and no doubt only) amazing thing I saw on the show. A video (and we surely did not know to call them that then) featuring a young woman with dark ethnic features, and a long dark dress, she totally blew my 7th grade small-town Wisconsin mind. I think she was at an amusement park, or on a carousel. This would have been late 66, early 67, before the Summer of Love, when we all learned what Hippies were. She sang “Wedding Bell Blues”, and while I wasn’t ready to understand what I was seeing, I never ever forgot it.

This is the music I heard:

Laura Nyro Wedding Bell Blues – Song – MP3 Stream on IMEEM Music

It was eventually a Number One hit for the 5th Dimension in 1969, who had already had hits with Nyro’s “Stoned Soul Picnic” and “Sweet Blindness”. I grew to love her soul-tinged melodies and chords, sensuous mysterious lyrics and her song book was one of my prized possessions. And it all started with a video on a shlocky lipsynch music show.

I can’t find that video online. But I found this amazing story

Laura Nyro’s father tuned my piano yesterday.

* * *

It took him an hour to complete the job. When he finished, I pulled out my Laura Nyro songbook, the one with Eli’s Coming, Wedding Bell Blues and Stoney End. A thick slab of white medical tape holds the binding together. Growing up, I played from the book constantly, until it was in pieces. He seemed pleased to hear of my great admiration for his daughter.

“Do you want to see a video of her at age 19 singing Wedding Bell Blues?”

“Sure,” I said, hardly believing that he would carry around the video in his bag.

“Do you have a – a – what do you call it?”

“A VCR. Yes, I do,” I said and led him into the room at the other end of my apartment. I felt slightly awkward inviting this stranger into my bedroom, but he stood politely at the foot of my bed, while I popped the tape into the machine and pressed play.

“This was taped in San Francisco. I’ve never seen it, can you imagine? Someone told me about it and then I contacted the Columbia Records people and they found a copy. They just sent it to me.”

Laura Nyro appeared on the screen, dressed completely in black, with a wide-brimmed floppy hat, like the one in the Cat in the Hat book. Her pale skin contrasted with her dark hair and eyelashes. Soon I heard the familiar Wedding Bell Blues.

“It’s dubbed,” he said. “To the record track.” I felt amazed to see this early MTV-ish version of Laura Nyro singing the song that later became one of the Fifth Dimension’s biggest hits.

http://www.lifechallenges.org/people/MeyerJ.html

Certainly that was the video I saw on Where the Action Is. I wonder if Clive Davis has a copy in his packing crates.

Welcome to the Vault!  As part of an ongoing feature of our new music blog, we’ll be bringing you band/artist/crew “spotlights” and interviews.  Names I’m sure you’ll find familiar if you follow the music and career of Taylor Hicks!

Our first spotlight is on the band SPOONFUL JAMES based in Auburn, AL

After a journey that included three cds and opening gigs for the Allman Brothers Band,  Little Feat,  Gov’t Mule,  Buddy Miles, and The Jerry Garcia Band, unfortunate circumstances forced Spoonful James to make the tough decision to split up.  Lucky for us,  they found their way back to each other.  This is the story of how the current band came together. 

Wynn Christian, Taylor Hicks, Quinn Borland and Patrick Lunceford. Photo courtesy Elizabeth Borland.

 PART ONE:  The story of Spoonful James

Spoonful’s history from bass player Quinn Borland:

The band is myself, Wynn Christian (lead vocals/guitars), Eric Baath (piano/organ), and Patrick Lunceford (drums).  The band started back in 1996 with  Wynn Christian and me.  We were actually in a band in high school called  “March of the Fishers Wives”.  Terrible name, I know.  We had a real brainy guy in the band and he’d just read some Russian revolt story or something.  Anyways, we both ended up going to Auburn University and started playing acoustic for a while, until we had some original songs under our belt.  We formed Spoonful as a trio, adding Lee Vartanian on drums.  We cut our first album (self-titled), in 1997 and it is currently out of print and vaulted (for good reason).   All I can say is, it was a good stepping stone for us.

After this, we started touring around the southeast for a few years and this is about the time we met Taylor Hicks, Clay Connor, John Cook, Bill and Wes Williams and the whole crew you know and love today.   We all became friends fairly quickly and would stay up ’til the wee hours watching my collection of old concerts.  Rick’s Music in Macon had a HUGE archive of old footage, and for $20 you could get 120 minutes of any concert you wanted.  Needless to say, we spent everything we made every time we played in Macon.  This is where Taylor got to see Sam & Dave/Otis Redding for the first time live on video.  He still asks me for copies of that.

We started gaining popularity and cut our second album in Hueytown, AL, titled “Leave That Door Open”.  We had just opened for Buddy Miles of the Jimi Hendrix Band of Gypsys in Tallahassee, FL and during our set Buddy liked our music so much,  he made security keep his door open so he could listen, hence, “Leave That Door Open”.  Eventually we became great friends and got him on our next album, ”7 Mile Breakdown”.

We had met Patrick when he was with Taylor’s band, Passing Through.  At the time we had Jay Knorr on drums, who recorded on “Leave That Door Open”.  We parted ways with Jay after the album and picked up Patrick.  Lucky for us, Passing Through was dissolving at the same time, so it worked out for everybody.  I must say, Patrick is hands down the best drummer I have ever palyed with.  

At one point, we and some of Passing Through, Iratowns, and Highly Kind formed the supergroup known as “Fletch Lives”.  Taylor sang lead, of course, and at one point people started paying us outrageous amounts of money, even though combined we only knew about 8 songs.  With 8-10 members, we knew it couldn’t last too long, and due to previous band commitments we were only able to keep it together for a few months.  Our proudest moment came at the Florabama,  when the managers told us to stop playing or we would start a riot.  Good times!

After this we picked up a few different organ players and eventually got back in touch with Eric Baath.  I knew him from my freshman year at Auburn, where I was a member of his band, “Soul Patch”,  before Wynn and I started writing together.  This guy is awesome.  He actually flew back from Germany to do the opening gigs for Taylor’s last tour.  Total dedication, great guy.  Our music has been coined “Southern Fried,  hard driving, original rock & roll.  That kind of stuck and I like it!

Eric Baath. Photo courtesy Wes Williams.

Check out Spoonful James at www.Myspace.com/Spoonfuljames and at www.cdbaby.com

 Coming soon……Part 2 :  Interview with Quinn Borland

Photo Credits: Spoonful James and Taylor Hicks courtesy Elizabeth Borland; Eric Baath courtesy Wes Williams.

New England Soul Patrol has a weekly feature called New Music Tuesday, where we highlight some of the more interesting new music releases for the week. If you click on the nifty Amazon boxes, you can usually sample the music. If you like it, buy it and your Amazon purchase will help defray the costs of NESP and OFTV projects. Many albums can now be downloaded directly from Amazon — no shipping (yay!), no waiting (yay!!) and frequently cheaper than the physical CD. Individual songs can be downloaded as well.

This week’s blurbs are all written by Alicia (ain127 on NESP). She’s great at finding what’s fun and current. If you want to write a CD blurb, send an email to margaux@oneforthevault.com with the Amazon link and your blurb, and I will consider it for an upcoming edition of One for the Vault.

Let us know in comments if you find something you like in our suggestions.
Margaux

Given my admiration for James Taylor and Cat Stevens, it probably is not surprising that I’m also a fan of Carly Simon. 

As a singer/songwriter, she paved her own way in the early 70’s and was able to almost seamlessly achieve and blend critical and commercial success – not an easy feat.  Of course, her success is even more impressive given that she’s rarely toured, suffering through bouts of debilitating stage fright throughout her career. 

Interestingly, when I listen to Carly’s music, it sometimes doesn’t feel right for the stage anyway; her delivery and lyrics are so intimate and personal, often, that it feels more like you’re sitting across the table from her sharing a cup of coffee and that she’s not really singing so much as speaking to you – not some generic audience, but YOU – with her carefully crafted words.

While she, indeed, possesses a distinctive voice – you know it as soon as you hear it – Carly’s gift isn’t necessarily her vocals per se, but her ability to tell stories through her songs, stories that draw you in, but always remain open to interpretation, and never offer an easy resolution.  I love that about her music.  That 30 years after the fact, people are still guessing the mysterious subject of her hit, “You’re So Vain,” is a testament to her ability as a storyteller. 

Many artists sing about relationships gone bad, or cheating lovers, but there was something about Carly’s composition and delivery of this song that raised the stakes somehow – people just HAD to know, and they still want to know.  “You walked into the party, like you were walking onto a yacht…” — one of the best opening lines of a song ever.

Speaking of opening lines, while each of her songs, as a whole, tells a story, her brilliance as a songwriter is showcased in the power of her individual lyrics to tell stories of their own, apart from the larger narrative of the song.  I’ve been moved sometimes by a simple lyric – a phrase or two that plays over again in your mind and evolves and becomes imbued with new meaning each time you hear it. 

One of my favorite songs of Carly’s is one of her earliest hits, “Anticipation,” a song that she wrote (no lie) while getting ready for a date with Cat Stevens (yes, this all geeks me out).  The song is interesting because given that it was written by a songwriter in her early 20’s,  it’s so smartly reflective about love, lust, the angst of dating, and the heady mix of elation and insecurity one often feels in the early stages of a relationship.  The line I love best in this song, though, is the last line of the final verse:

And tomorrow we might not be together
I’m no prophet, I don’t know nature’s way
So I’ll try to see into your eyes right now
And stay right here, ’cause these are the good old days.

Normally, you hear mature songwriters pining away about the stolen days of youth or the innocence they lost along the way – if they’d only have known then, what they know now, they would have appreciated those “good old days.”  But it seems like Carly always knew, and this is what makes her so special.

One of my favorite songs by two of my favorite artists:

Here’s another of my favorite Carly songs, that she wrote about her children, featuring her son Ben in the video: