Posted on 03/26/2010 12:44:27 PM PDT by a fool in paradise
Doolittle: yes please. Metal Machine Music: no thanks. The current vogue for "heritage" acts delivering their best albums live, in their entirety, is a double-edged sword, says Martin Aston.
NEXT WEEK, THE WHO (or Who's Left anyway) perform Quadrophenia at London's Royal Albert Hall for the Teenage Cancer Trust charity, while Primal Scream revisit Screamadelica at Olympia in November. At this rate, it's quite possible that every single famous act will have showcased their undisputed "classic" album by the end of 2010. Should we be worried? When I read the headline "Lou Reed Brings Controversial Metal Machine Music To Life" I certainly was.
Actually, Reed's shows aren't exact reproductions of his four-sided electronic squall mass from 1975 (thank f__k). Rather, it's an evening of what Reed terms "no songs and no vocals" under the title Nights Of Deep Noise, with his demonic-sounding colleague Sarth Calhoun on "live processing and Fingerboard Continuum" (oh, yummy). But he's been here before, touring the entirety of Berlin (1973) in 2007 with a large ensemble that swamped much of the original's fragility and opulence.
Does the 'classic album live' phenomenon, initiated by Arthur Lee's Forever Changes and the Don't Look Back series in 2005, deliver less than it appears to promise? Shudder To Think's Craig Wedren argues that "there's something wax-museum, mausoleum-esque," about the experience. Milwaukee writer Keith Brammer, anticipating Steely Dan's performance of Aja and The Royal Scam last year, added, "I don't want to see some cobbled-together band with a substitute bass player and drummer. I don't expect to see it replicated exactly. Why see the band live if they're up there sort of miming to the record?"
Critics and fans like their artists to look ahead, and to be spontaneous, but we also like them to play their hits, so why not their hit albums? Surely, some albums are so structurally sound and filler-free that brand-new live versions can only amplify their magnificence? And with the perceived value of recorded music plummeting so drastically of late, it's as if music fans would rather consume their classic albums at a gig than in their sitting rooms.
Ironically, former Reed cohort John Cale's recent orchestral version of Paris 1919 (all 30 minutes of it!) was a joy. The Stooges' Fun House and Pixies' Doolittle shows were incendiary experiences; Sparks' canonical 21-album canon run in London 2008 was an unrivalled event - and a ton of fun. Forever Changes and Brian Wilson's Pet Sounds brought tears to my eyes and raised the hairs on my neck.
And yet there are other records so inimitably set in aspic that reproduction is far too risky. Take Van Morrison's Astral Weeks. Its autumnal fug is so site-specific, its narrator pitched so exquisitely between spiritual agony and sexual ecstasy, that one daren't imagine the music's now sixtysomething creator overhauling it for stage purposes (the trailer looks painful enough). Likewise, ABC's Lexicon Of Love live show may have shone light on a record that even fans have in mothballs, but did we really need Martin Fry's turn as a holiday camp entertainer?
The fact is, for various reasons, some classic albums should be left well alone. Would Yes's Tales From Topographic Oceans be endurable in one dense sitting? Could every single song from The Magnetic Fields' sublime 69 Love Songs be bearable? There are even bits of Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation you could live without (although not this bit, obviously)?
And while some albums are too long, too complex, or simply too rubbish to tolerate live, others just wouldn't fit the environment. For instance, while Bruce Springsteen may have played Born To Run and Darkness On The Edge Of Town in one night (7 May, 2008), Nebraska would never work in an arena - which means he'd have to play 40 club nights to satisfy ticket demand.
Proof that the genre can go too far is encapsulated by www.classicalbumslive.com, a concert series based in Toronto but exported across North America. According to the website, Led Zeppelin II, Abbey Road, The Joshua Tree and Dark Side Of The Moon are among recent recreations - by tribute line-ups, of course.
Over in Australia, a promoter assembled four singers and a 17-piece band to tour The White Album because, like everyone else, he'd never heard his fave Beatles album live. And possibly because he could make money at the same time. Ultimately, the concept is a guaranteed cash cow, giving the audience what they want instead of what they might need and helping musicians feel safer looking back at what helped make them famous. But 60 years after Bill Haley's Rock Around The Clock, is this really where rock'n'roll has found itself? Rocking the clock backwards, into seeming perpetuity?
Speaking of live recordings... does anyone out there have Elvis Costello’s “Watching the detectives” recorded live in Buffalo, NY
www.vuze.com
I’ve only seen a few albums played live (start to finish as opposed to a concert of all of the songs from the new album mixed around)....
on the original tour
Pros & Cons of Hitchhiking
Radio KAOS sort of counts but there were other songs and commentary from Jim Ladd, DJ intermixed into the show
revivial:
Pet Sounds
SMiLE
Dark Side Of The Moon (played by Roger Waters and band)
Ultimately, I think this trend boils down to “something other than a greatest hits show” and since concept albums were at least at one time meant to be heard as a cohesive piece, at some point they should be played live like a concert recital. And because of that (and associated studio musicians who didn’t typically go on the road with the band), the exact lineup playing doesn’t have to match the recording.
I’ve got video of some others played live (like Love’s Forever Changes and the Pretty Things’ FS Sorrow).
Sparks are cool!
Such is the nature of the "concept album", rock as "art", and the decline of the rock and roll component in mainstream "rock music" itself.
I wish I did. If you've got any live Elvis Costello let me know because I would love to get some.
Flaming Lips are touring Dark Side of the Moon now.
There is a dearth of really good rock out there right now. My 21 year old son believes that MTV killed rock n roll. I agree.
No more groups. Just “recording artists” wailing into microphones, backed up by the “session musician collection of the day.”
1. Boston toured after their Third Stage album, and played the whole album.
2. U2 didn't play the whole Joshua Tree album, but they began the concert with the first three songs from the album.
3. Pink Floyd's The Wall at the Berlin Wall in 1990.
-PJ
There are still groups. They typically aren’t on WB, Sony, RCA et al in this country.
Today the industry is about hype which is why rappers boast they “partylikearockstar partylikearockstar”. Facebook et al spread this “selfpromotion” and “look how hype I am” mentality. If you play ball with the labels, they will own your product (and career) for upwards of 20 years (they may not give you support that long but they can tie up your career). In return, they’ll have you as a guest on MTV “remember the 90s” type nostalgia specials (modern artists being interviewed about what they grew up with), put you on the big studios’ soundtracks, get you on the covers of the magazine they own...
There exists a whole world of music that isn’t under that.
The Dap Kings have been around since the mid-1990s. They’ve been backing Sharon Jones (just releasing her 4th album) since around 2000. They back Amy Winehouse for an album and back Jay-Z and THEN they get some whispers of attention. Meanwhile Sharon Jones still gets overlooked.
One singer has a trainwreck of a life that makes good print for the scandal sheets. One is an older black woman who would not rate a “top ten hottest women” list.
The industry is crap. Utter crap. Same as it’s been in every generation.
Saw Steely Dan do Aja last year. Truly great, especially because Deacon Blues is never in their normal playlist (because so much of Aja is already there) and is my favorite of their songs. On that tour they were alternating it with Royal Scam, an album usually left off their playlist almost entirely, I wish Phoenix had gotten both show because I love Royal Scam. Waaaay back when I saw Quensryche when they were “retiring” Mindcrime and played that straight through, it was supposed to be the last time they played any of the album, but of course shortly after that they stopped being hitmakers so they had to dust it off, that was pretty solid.
You're right.
No more groups. Just “recording artists” wailing into microphones, backed up by the “session musician collection of the day.”
It's all about American Idol type stuff. The Beatles wouldn't have a chance today.
There’s a lot of great rock out there, the only thing that’s really changed is the radio is no longer useful for exposing casual listeners to great rock, you need to go find it. A great way to go find it is to go see your favorite dinosaurs on tour, often times they have younger acts opening for them, and usually they have the cache now to pick a good younger act instead of just being stuck with whoever the label is wanting to promote. Pandora is another great way to find new acts, through a similar method, put in a favorite old band then wait to see who it decides is similar, about half of what they put forth is crap but the other half...
Saw Tull at Musikfest a couple of years back. Played all of side two of “Aqualung”.
Awesome.
The Beatles didn’t have a chance in their day either. Brenda Lee tried to get them signed in 1958. And for years they were told by the suits “the guitar group sound is OUT”.
So they were made to record demos of Sweet Georgia Brown, Besame Mucho, etc. which weren’t sought out as “popular standards of the day” by anyone.
George Martin didn’t like their songs much. But he saw them as unique marketable characters. And since he had control of a losing division of EMI (Parlaphone) he was permitted to do as he wished.
Classic rock radio has done as much to kill music as anything else. When the industry still pushes the same 35 year old concert tours at the “sheds” every summer (see Foreigner, Styx, Journey, REO Speedwagon AGAIN!”) there isn’t much opportunity for the NEXT generation to get up there. And “Classic rock” doesn’t posit that music was “just better then” because there are plenty of artists and plenty of cuts that don’t get any airtime from the 70s/80s.
It’s nostalgia. By suits who relish seeing a new day pass.
At least the suits in the 50s and 60s realized that they could make money on rock and roll even if they didn’t personally listen to it at home.
Wrinkling my nose at who the journalist is thanking instead of G-d. Sad.
I saw Queensryche perform the entire Operation Mindcrime album live with full theatical production behind them telling the story. Incredible.
Saw Dream Theater perform the entire Change of Seasons suite with large video behind them telling the story which was amazing too.
I think these types of shows are much more doable and come across better when you have a large screen behind the band which can show videos footage or events to help tell the story of the songs.
But many albums were never put together with the idea the whole thing would be peformed live at one time from start to finished.
Saw The Dan in Chicago (audience choice show). Over the 4 nights, they brought in some of the studio contributors for the albums. Larry Carlton was sittin’ in at the show I saw and he did a fair bit of work for The Dan over the years.
I had heard that they would be using some of their old hands and was kinda hoping that Michael McDonald would show up.
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