Lou Reed: Walking on the Wild Side

As most people probably have heard by now, Lou Reed died on October 27, at the age of 71. His unique, monotone voice and his lyrics about outcasts, drug addicts and others on the fringes of society made him one of the most important and influential artists of his day, though commercial success mostly eluded him. There was a time many years ago when the only song of his I knew was his 1972 hit "Walk on the Wild Side", which used as the closing track on the original version of my compilation A Generation Lost In Space - Rock Classics of the Psychedelic Era that I put together in college. It wasn't until many years later that I borrowed the Velvet Underground boxed set from someone and had the chance to listen to all of their music, eventually acquiring their debut and a selection of other tracks. The Velvet Underground, of course, were the seminal 1960s band that Reed was the chief songwriter and primary vocalist for. The group was a commercial failure but went on to become incredibly influential, with their debut album The Velvet Underground and Nico now being regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time, and their other three albums before Reed's departure being almost as highly rated. It didn't take much listening for me to appreciate the band's originality and the high quality of Reed's writing. As for his solo career, I still can't claim to heard many of his songs other than "Walk on the Wild Side", but I recently acquired The Very Best of Lou Reed and so have made a start at familiarizing myself with his post-VU work. Still, the following selection of songs is necessarily heavily slanted towards Reed's VU songs, because they are what I know best. I also stuck to songs Reed wrote on his own, which meant leaving out songs like the VU's "Sunday Morning", which he co-wrote with John Cale. [Update: Having had the opportunity to listen to a little more of Reed's solo work, I've added a few songs to the list.]

Songs by Lou Reed (1942-2013)
I'm Waiting for the Man
Run Run Run
All Tomorrow's Parties (vocals: Nico)
Heroin
White Light/White Heat
I Heard Her Call My Name
What Goes On
Pale Blue Eyes
Beginning to See the Light
Sweet Jane
Rock & Roll
Walk on the Wild Side
Satellite of Love
Vicious
Caroline Says (II)
Coney Island Baby
Rock and Roll Heart
Street Hassle
The Blue Mask
Romeo Had Juliette
Dirty Blvd.
Perfect Day (vocals: Lou Reed and many other artists)

Music News Brief: New Albums from Sting and Paul McCartney

In the past few weeks, two of my all-time favorite singer-songwriters have released new studio albums of original songs. In late September, Sting released The Last Ship, his first new album since 2003 to be made up entirely of original material. The songs were apparently composed for a play of the same name that Sting wrote (the play is supposed to debut on Broadway next year). The play is said to have been inspired in part by Sting's childhood in Newcastle, England, and by his earlier album The Soul Cages. Also, in the past few days, Paul McCartney released his first new album of original material since 2007, entitled, ahem, New. He has been fairly active in promoting it, with a release party performance being broadcast by Yahoo! just last night. While I haven't gotten these albums yet, I intend to do so in the near future, and eventually I hope to review them properly. I did listen to The Last Ship once online, which was enough to hear that there is a definite relationship to The Soul Cages (one song even mentions "the soul cages"). Since the songs were written for a play, there is a particular emphasis on the lyrics, which in places are often spoken as much as sung. Though the result is material that seems less immediate than his work with the Police or even some of his earlier solo material, it seemed to be up to his usual high standards, and he didn't neglect to include some good musical hooks. Certainly it struck me as being worth repeated listening. As for McCartney, I've only listened to two songs from New, the title track and another song called "Queenie Eye", and both sounded excellent. If they are a fair indication of the quality of the album, Paul will have managed to keep up his streak of good to great studio albums that he's been on since Flaming Pie way back in 1997.

Album Review – Selling England by the Pound by Genesis

Album Title: Selling England by the Pound
Artist: Genesis
Release Date: October 12, 1973

Side One
Dancing with the Moonlit Knight (Music: Gabriel/Banks/Collins/Hackett/Rutherford; Lyrics: Gabriel)
I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) (Music: Hackett/Banks/Gabriel/Collins; Lyrics: Gabriel)
Firth of Fifth (Music/Lyrics: Banks)
More Fool Me (Music/Lyrics: Rutherford/Collins)

Side Two
The Battle of Epping Forest (Music: Gabriel/Banks/Collins/Hackett/Rutherford; Lyrics: Gabriel)
After the Ordeal (Music: Hackett/Rutherford)
The Cinema Show (Music: Rutherford/Banks/Collins; Lyrics: Rutherford/Banks)
Aisle of Plenty (Music/Lyrics: Gabriel?)

Note on Song Authorship: Credit is given based on what members of the band have revealed in interviews about the writing of the songs and may not be complete. In most cases the primary writer(s) of the music are listed first, though in the case of “I Know What I Like”, Hackett just came up with the riff the song was built upon, while the others wrote different parts of the melody. In some cases, deduction or guesswork are involved, such as in the case of “Aisle of Plenty”, which is musically a reprise of the opening section of “Dancing with the Moonlit Knight”, which was written by Gabriel. On the original album, all songs were credited to the entire band.

Few bands had as long and varied a career as Genesis. After starting out as a sort of songwriting collective writing slightly quirky pop songs, they quickly morphed into a progressive rock (or “art rock” as it was often called then) band before slowly evolving into a very popular pop rock band with a progressive edge. They also went through quite a few personnel changes in the process, particularly the departure of original lead singer Peter Gabriel and then guitarist Steve Hackett, reducing the band to the core of keyboardist Tony Banks, guitarist/bassist Mike Rutherford and drummer/vocalist Phil Collins. While as I explained in my review of the group’s 1983 album Genesis, I like the later pop incarnation of the band as much as the earlier progressive one, there are many fans with a decided preference for the “classic” five man lineup, and I would not deny that they produced some great music which has virtues that that the more concise and direct later songs lack. A good place to hear what the early Genesis sounded like is the 1973 album Selling England by the Pound, which contains some of the best music recorded by the five-man lineup of the group.

Interestingly, even though there are quite a few fans and critics who consider Selling England the best album Genesis ever released, the only member of the group who seems to consider it their favorite is Steve Hackett, though Phil Collins has said it was enjoyable to record. Peter Gabriel unsurprisingly seems to prefer The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, while Tony Banks (who has named Foxtrot as his favorite early album) and Mike Rutherford were slightly disappointed with it. Banks has said that he thinks the material was slightly uneven, with a few great songs and a few that are not so great. I can see his point, since while “Firth of Fifth”, “The Cinema Show”, and “Dancing with the Moonlit Knight” are among the band’s very best songs, some of the others don’t work quite as well. In terms of the average quality of the songs, Foxtrot may be slightly stronger. But Hackett and to lesser extent Collins also rightly feel that the album features some of the group’s best playing. This in part explains the differing opinions about the album expressed by the band members, since for Banks and Rutherford (and Gabriel as well) songwriting was always the most important thing, whereas Hackett and Collins placed more emphasis on playing, particular in those days.

For myself, though I agree with Banks and Rutherford that good songwriting is ultimately more important than virtuoso playing – which is why I like Genesis better than Yes or Emerson, Lake and Palmer – the crisp sounds and excellent performances on this album make even the lesser tracks sound good, and make the best ones sound outstanding. While there may be times when I prefer Foxtrot or The Lamb or even Nursery Cryme, to speak only of the Gabriel-era albums (and I should emphasize that I like several of the later albums as much as any of these), Selling England is almost always near the top of my list of favorite Genesis albums, and if I were to recommend one album from this period to someone who’d never heard the five-man lineup of Genesis, chances are it would be this one.

Selling England by the Pound Song by Song

Dancing with the Moonlit Knight: The album’s opening track begins with a line sung acapella by Gabriel. The instrumentation slowly builds through the first few minutes of the song, centered on a repeated riff. Eventually it goes into an instrumental section featuring some great playing by the band before reprising the vocal section and concluding with another instrumental bit. The music for the first part of the song was written by Gabriel (who wrote the lyrics as well), though the entire band contributed to the instrumental sections. This is definitely one of the stronger tracks on the album and a great opening.

I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe): This quirky, slightly Beatlesque song was the first Genesis song to make the pop charts in the UK, narrowly missing the top 20. It was developed from a riff Hackett had come up with, while Banks wrote the chorus melody and Gabriel and Collins wrote the verse melody. While it’s not quite the equal of the songs before and after it, it’s a fun track that pointed the way to the band’s future pop success, and it remains one of the best known songs from their early days.

Firth of Fifth: This nine and a half minute song opens with a very cool minute-long piano solo by Banks followed by the main vocal section, then a lengthy instrumental featuring flute, piano and guitar in turn, and finally another vocal section. The music, all of which was written by Banks, is brilliant and performed very well by the band. Hackett’s guitar solo, which is basically his interpretation of the flute melody, is justly praised, though credit for writing the melody itself goes to Banks. The lyrics, which were mainly written by Banks (though some sources claim Rutherford helped) have been criticized, even by Banks himself, but while they are certainly not the best he ever wrote, they aren’t all that bad except for one or two weak lines. In any case, the music alone makes this the best song on the album and one of the best songs Genesis ever released.

More Fool Me: In a complete contrast to “Firth of Fifth”, this is a short, gentle acoustic song sung by Phil Collins with only Mike Rutherford’s guitar as accompaniment. Many of the “fans” with a pathological dislike of the 1980s incarnation of the band also hate this song, because they see it as a harbinger of the future. I would say that while it may not be anything spectacular, it’s a pleasant song that makes a nice break from the lengthy, heavily arranged tracks that surround it.

The Battle of Epping Forest: At almost twelve minutes in length, this track is the longest on the album (though since “The Cinema Show” segues directly into “Aisle of Plenty”, the two together could be considered longer). The music was written mostly by Banks and Gabriel, and the lyrics, a long, elaborate tale about a gangland fight, were written by Gabriel. Both the music and the lyrics have a lot to recommend them, but as Banks, Collins, Rutherford and even Gabriel have said in interviews, the song is far too busy, with the dense lyrics clashing with the music. As a result, though the song is interesting and even fairly entertaining, it doesn’t work nearly as well as the other long songs on the album.

After the Ordeal: This classical-flavored instrumental was mainly written by Hackett, with a little help from Rutherford. Banks and apparently Gabriel as well disliked it and wanted to drop it from the album, though Banks once admitted that one of his objections to it was that he thought his own playing on it was poor. I’d say it’s a decent piece of music, though perhaps not the most successful instrumental bit on the album.

The Cinema Show: The guitar-based song that makes up the first few minutes of this eleven-minute track was written by Rutherford, with help from Banks on the lyrics (Gabriel also made a few suggestions lyrically). The second half of the song is an instrumental written by Banks, Collins and Rutherford and featuring a lengthy solo by Banks. The song part is one of Rutherford’s best compositions, and the instrumental part is one of the strongest Genesis ever did, one that they were still playing live decades later. The lyrics are also quite good. The combination of these elements makes this one of the band’s best songs, though I would give the edge to “Firth of Fifth” as the best track on the album.

Aisle of Plenty: “The Cinema Show” segues directly into this short song, which musically speaking is basically a reprise of the first part of “Dancing with the Moonlit Knight” and so can be credited to Gabriel, who presumably wrote the lyrics as well. By returning to the album’s opening musical theme it brings the listener round full circle and so makes a good closing number.

Two Books on Music

I recently acquired a pair of books on music-related topics, both of which I thought were worth commenting on.


The Book of World-Famous Music: Classical, Popular, and Folk by James Fuld

This is a very interesting book that contains a lot of information about some of the world’s best known songs and compositions. Fuld’s focus is on the earliest publication of the various pieces of music he discusses, primarily in the form of sheet music. He seems to be an avid collector of sheet music, and indeed seems to have an enormous collection of rare, early editions of the sheet music for many songs, but in the process of compiling the information for his book he also examined numerous archives around the world, such as that of the Library of Congress, and consulted with many other music historians. Flipping through the book, I learned a lot of things that I hadn’t known previously about the origins of such songs as “Auld Lang Syne”, “Away in a Manger”, “Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly” (“Nos Galan”), “Dixie”, “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” (“Malbrouk”), “Go Down, Moses”, “Home Sweet Home”, “Jingle Bells”, “L’Internationale”, “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”, “Three Blind Mice”, “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” (“Ah! Vous Dirai-Je, Maman”), “We Shall Overcome” and many more. Just to take a few examples, while I had read about the French origins of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”, I hadn’t known that “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” was originally French also, or that “Deck the Halls” was originally Welsh, or that “Three Blind Mice” dates back to 1609, or that an uncle of the the banker J. P. Morgan wrote “Jingle Bells”. The book also contains information about the first publications of many famous classical pieces, a number of Stephen Foster songs, and 20th century popular music by songwriters such as George M. Cohen, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, and George Gershwin.

Though the book covers a wide variety of songs and compositions, there are still a lot of well-known ones missing. Fuld does address this issue in the introduction, pointing out that he couldn’t include everything, and he states that the book is intended to present “a fair-sampling of well-known melodies”, which is reasonable enough – though I still can’t help wishing songs like “Amazing Grace”, “House of the Rising Sun”, “Maple Leaf Rag”, “Ten Little Indians”, “This Land Is Your Land” and “You Are My Sunshine”, among others, were also included in the book. There is next to nothing from the rock era; there is one Beatles song, “Michelle”, (which while a very good song, would not be my first choice as the sole representative of their oeuvre), the Burt Bacharach/ Hal David song “What’s New Pussycat”, and a reference to “Love Me Tender” in the entry on the song from which it was derived (“Aura Lea”), but that’s about it. This is perhaps understandable, given that the first edition of the book was published in 1965 (he states that “more old than recent compositions [were] included”, quoting the remark by Brahms that “a piece of music that is still alive after fifty years is immortal”). However, though perhaps simply updating previous entries was a sufficiently major task, it might have been nice to see a few more songs added to the later editions.

Since Fuld’s main focus is on sheet music, he doesn’t always delve deeply into debates over authorship. In many cases he settles for letting the published credits speak for themselves, which is reasonable enough absent other evidence, but for me personally learning the true origins of the songs are the most interesting aspect of their histories. In fact, relying solely on sheet music can lead to errors in attribution; for instance Fuld mentions that “Aura Lea” was rewritten as “Love Me Tender” by Vera Matson and Elvis Presley, when actually it was Ken Darby who rewrote the song and signed over the rights to his wife (Matson), with Presley also getting a credit despite not doing any of the writing (though he did do a lot of the arranging). Fuld does sometimes mention cases where the published credits are questionable due to additional information, and for some songs he even spoke to the writers himself.

Though Fuld is generally quite cautious in making definite attributions, which is very sensible, there are still a few questionable statements in the book. For instance, under “Adeste Fideles” (“Come, All Ye Faithful”), he mentions that the earliest written appearance of the music and Latin words were in manuscripts by John Francis Wade in about 1750, and yet, while dismissing several claims about the song, he says that a claim that “John Reading…composed the melody in 1780 cannot be ruled out”. The latter date is clearly an error, though perhaps it is merely a typo (there were two John Readings, a father and son, the latter of whom died in 1764). Also, under “When the Saints Go Marching In”, he states that the words and music of J.M. Black’s 1896 composition “When the Saints Are Marching In” are “quite similar” to the latter song. However, there is a midi version of the latter on a website that also has the words, and while I don’t agree with the website that the two songs are completely dissimilar – the melody of the title phrase is somewhat similar, and as Fuld says the echo is present – they are otherwise quite different. The impression Fuld gives is that they are substantially the same song, but if the website version is correct, the older song at best influenced the composition of the later one. However, this is a rare lapse on Fuld’s part. Generally, if anything, he is very reluctant to accept claims that a song is based on another, and he dismisses many such claims rather forcefully (he is particularly scathing about suggestions that Stephen Foster got his melodies from prior songs, as he reasonably objects that there is no actual evidence for this).

Overall, despite the points I mentioned above and Fuld’s slightly odd prose style, this is a great reference book for anyone interested in music history. Indeed, anyone who is familiar with the songs and melodies in question – which is almost everyone – will probably find at least a few interesting facts within. Certainly for anyone with a serious interest in music, whether as a musician or a fan, it is worth having around.


Randy Newman’s American Dreams by Kevin Courrier

I got a used copy of this account of Randy Newman’s career in music from an online bookstore for basically the cost of the postage, so it was sure to be a decent value unless it was really terrible. As it turned out, it is pretty good, though it has its flaws. Courrier covers Newman’s career fairly well, going through all his albums up to the retrospective The Randy Newman Songbook, Volume 1 (2003). Though he doesn’t talk about every song Newman wrote (there are at least a few early ones he doesn’t mention), he does at least touch on most of them, including a few Newman songs or covers of Newman songs that I hadn’t been aware of. He also provides some bibliographic details, particularly about Newman’s childhood and youth.

Courrier is quite opinionated, and while he is obviously a fan of Newman’s work, there is still plenty of it that he is negative about. For example, while he speaks positively of some of Newman’s soundtracks and movie songs, overall he is fairly dismissive of much of Newman’s movie work. He also doesn’t think much of Little Criminals or Randy Newman's Faust (though he is hardly the only critic to consider them among Newman’s less successful albums), and there are a number of other songs from throughout Newman’s career that he doesn’t think much of, including some fairly popular ones. I tend to agree with him more often than not, but almost inevitably there are songs that I am quite fond of which he dismisses, and a few he likes that hadn’t really made an impression on me. Courrier is similarly opinionated about covers of Newman’s songs by other artists, being fairly critical of many of them. Again, he is far from the only critic to assert that many who perform Newman’s songs miss the irony completely, a criticism which I can appreciate. However, for my part, I can still get some pleasure out of Three Dog Night’s version of “Mama Told Me Not to Come”, Judy Collins’ version of “I Think It’s Going to Rain Today”, or Joe Cocker’s version of “You Can Leave Your Hat On”, even if they do miss the point.

Another point worth noting about the book is Courrier’s tendency to go off on tangents about other artists or non-musical topics, especially movies (the latter particularly when discussing Newman’s soundtrack work). To be sure, he connects all his tangents to Newman and his work in some way, but in some cases the relationship is rather distant. I don’t really mind this myself, as much of what he talks about is interesting, but it does mean that anyone expecting the book to be entirely about Newman will be disappointed. Of course, he is fairly opinionated about these other things he discusses as well (he is a film critic, so it is not surprising that he has definite opinions about movies), though again I don’t agree with him on everything.

Finally, it should be mentioned that while many of Courrier’s interpretations of the meanings of Newman’s songs are based on quotes from Newman himself or are at least backed up by the opinions of other critics, in some cases they seem to be entirely his own and thus should be taken with the usual grain of salt. Regrettably, he apparently never interviewed Newman himself (whether he didn’t attempt to contact Newman for an interview – perhaps in order to maintain some distance from his subject – or tried to and was turned down, he doesn’t say), so his quotes from Newman, which are still fairly numerous, are all derived from interviews done by others. Perhaps a more obvious flaw is that in several places his chronology seems confused. Despite these drawbacks, however, the book still has plenty to recommend it. Considering that Newman is one of my favorite artists and I didn’t pay much for the book, I definitely regard it as a very worthwhile purchase.

Album Review – Ten Summoner's Tales by Sting

Album Title: Ten Summoner's Tales
Artist: Sting
Release Date: March 5, 1993

If I Ever Lose My Faith in You
Love Is Stronger Than Justice (The Munificent Seven)
Fields of Gold
Heavy Cloud No Rain
She’s Too Good for Me
Seven Days
Saint Augustine in Hell
It's Probably Me (Sting, Eric Clapton, Michael Kamen)
Everybody Laughed But You
Shape of My Heart (Sting, Dominic Miller)
Something the Boy Said
Epilogue (Nothing 'Bout Me)

All songs written by Sting except where otherwise noted

As most music fans know, Sting first came to prominence as a member of the Police. While Andy Sumner and Stewart Copeland are great musicians and played important roles in the group, Sting was clearly the main force behind their success, as, aside from being the group’s vocalist and bassist, he wrote the vast majority of their songs and every one of their hits. While there are many who still consider the music released by the Police superior to anything that Sting has released as a solo artist, I don’t agree. While I do sometimes miss the compact, hard-hitting sound that the trio generated even on later, more sophisticated albums such as Synchronicity, I think that the very best of Sting’s solo material is by no means inferior to what he did with the Police. One album in particular stands out as being his best overall effort since the Police broke up, and that is Ten Summoner's Tales, which he released in 1993. While many of the songs I’d rate among Sting’s very best – such as “Fragile”, “All This Time” and “Fortress Around Your Heart” – are on other albums, Ten Summoner's Tales (the title refers to Sting's family name, Sumner, and the summoner's tale in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales) is his most consistently excellent release.

Ten Summoner's Tales Song by Song

If I Ever Lose My Faith in You: The opening track on Ten Summoner's Tales was also the first single from the album. I was not overly impressed with it at first, perhaps because it fell short of the very high standard set by “All This Time”, the lead single from Sting’s previous album The Soul Cages. The song grew on me, however, particularly its well-written lyrics, and I think it makes a very good opening track. I still like several other songs from the album better, however.

Love Is Stronger than Justice (The Munificent Seven): This is a clever, tongue-in-cheek tale modeled on the western The Magnificent Seven (which was in turn a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai). In Sting’s version, the seven gunfighters are brothers who are asked to save a town in return for brides for each of them, and when they learn that there is in fact only one bride, the narrator (the seventh brother) bumps off the others. Musically and lyrically, it’s one of the high quality album tracks that help make this Sting’s best album.

Fields of Gold: This was the second single off the album and is probably the most popular song on it, except perhaps for “Shape of My Heart”. It has been covered many times, including versions in many different languages. My initial impression was that it was good but not great; however it grew on me and now I’d rate it among the best songs on the album, though probably not my absolute favorite. It also has an excellent music video.

Heavy Cloud No Rain: A humorous track in which a variety of characters in desperate situations pray in vain for rain. Like “Love Is Stronger than Justice”, this is a good album track that shows Sting’s writing was at a consistently high level for this album.

She’s Too Good for Me: This song is even more humorous than “Heavy Cloud No Rain”, with some lines that are downright hilarious. I also like the dramatic contrast between the quiet bridge and the rest of the song, which is much heavier. This is one of my favorite songs on the album.

Seven Days: Another great track, and one that received considerable airplay (it was released as a single in some places and has been included on some greatest hits compilations). Like the songs preceding it, it has witty, humorous lyrics (Sting was seemingly in a cheerful mood when he wrote much of this album, in contrast to the much darker mood seen in his songs on The Soul Cages), and these clever lyrics combined with a very good melody and a great arrangement make it perhaps my favorite song on the album, though there are a few other contenders.

Saint Augustine in Hell: This is another one of my favorites. Like “Mad About You” from The Soul Cages (which was based on the story of David and Bathsheba), it tells of the lustful side of a famous Judeo-Christian religious figure. It features an excellent arrangement, performed to perfection by Sting’s band, and the break in the middle with the Devil enumerating the inhabitants of Hell – including of course music critics – is great (the music playing in the background of this part is the bridge section from "I Miss You Kate", an instrumental B-side to "All This Time").

It's Probably Me: This song had been previously released on the Lethal Weapon 3 soundtrack in version featuring Eric Clapton, but Sting rerecorded it for this album. It’s not clear what Clapton and Kamen’s contributions were to the writing of the song, but the lyrics were probably mostly or entirely Sting’s. It’s a very good song regardless of who wrote what.

Everybody Laughed But You: This song was apparently not included on the original North American release of the album, though it was on the later reissue. While it can’t equal the tracks that preceded it, it is nevertheless a solid album track. Sting wrote an alternate set of lyrics to the same music and released that version as a B-side on two singles from the album under the title “January Stars”.

Shape of My Heart: This song, along with “Fields of Gold”, has become the best known song from the album, with numerous artists doing covers of it. It has also become a popular sample in hip hop and what’s known as “contemporary R&B”. Ironically, the music for this song was not written by Sting but by his guitarist Dominic Miller, though Sting wrote the excellent if slightly abstruse lyrics. This is another one of my favorites from the album.

Something the Boy Said: This song tells a very dark tale about an expedition that was slaughtered as prophesied by the son of their captain. While quite different in mood from the songs that make up the bulk of the album, it fits in quite well after “Shape of My Heart” and makes a solid album track.

Epilogue (Nothing 'Bout Me): The final track on the album is a brilliantly written riposte to all the critics and writers who try to analyze Sting (and for that matter anyone) on the basis of his work and other publicly available information. The dry wit of the lyrics is matched with an excellent, upbeat tune. This track is another contender for my favorite on the album, with only “Seven Days” and possibly “Saint Augustine in Hell” and “Shape of My Heart” equaling it. It certainly closes the album on a high point, and along with “Fortress Around My Heart” (from The Dream of the Blue Turtles) and “Brand New Day” (from Brand New Day) is one of the best closing tracks on any Sting album.

Some Comments on Taiwan's Golden Melody Awards

Recently Taiwan held its Golden Melody Awards, which is the Taiwanese equivalent of the Grammies. I have to admit I haven’t been following current popular music in Taiwan closely because I’ve been too busy researching the older stuff. I was familiar with many of the artists and musicians nominated, but there were many I didn’t know as well. I have the albums that several of the aboriginal artists were nominated for, and I’ve heard some of the stuff that was nominated in other categories, but not really enough to pass judgment on most of the awards, though I can recommend the albums by Suming (舒米恩), Ado' Kaliting Pacidal (阿洛．卡力亭．巴奇辣), Sangpuy (桑布伊), Takanow (達卡鬧) and Kao Chou Ching (拷秋勤), though I've only heard a few songs from the latter two's albums. When I have the chance, I will listen to more of the nominated music (and hopefully at least some of the better music that didn’t get nominated), but until I do so, I can’t really say if the ones who won are the ones I would have given the awards to.

However, the little bit that I’ve seen of the award ceremonies and related reports and commentary have recalled to mind some general issues about these music awards, and for that matter those in other countries, such as the Grammies in the US. For instance, one ignorant reporter named 陳于嬙 complained about too much of the ceremonies featuring “non-mainstream” artists and claimed that the ceremony only got interesting when pop idol Jolin Tsai won an award. This reminds me of complaints in the past from some fans when the awards were won by less well-known performers, instead of the usual pop superstars. What people like this fail to understand is that the point of music awards is to recognize the best music, not the most popular. Of course which one of a given batch of songs or albums is the best is always going to be somewhat subjective, but it is possible to objectively show that many mainstream pop songs are highly derivative and unoriginal, and so not deserving of recognition as the best in their field, no matter how popular they are. In any case, when it comes to judging the relative merits of different songs, albums, or artists, it is necessary to listen with an open mind, rather than dismissing some music out of hand because it is not “mainstream”. Anyone who does that isn’t qualified to have an opinion on the awards and they certainly shouldn’t be paid to write reports on them.

This year’s Golden Melody Awards were also notable for numerous artists taking the opportunity to express their opinions on various social issues. Several artists expressed their opposition to nuclear power, and when the award for Best Aboriginal Singer was given out, all the nominees went onstage together and Sangpuy (桑布伊), the winner, gave a speech in which he talked about several issues of concern to the aboriginal people of the Taidong area, such as the Taidong government’s attempt to move the graves of his people to make way for commercial development, the use of the island of Lanyu to dump nuclear waste, and the building of a resort on one of the best beaches in the Taidong area despite local opposition. His fellow nominees held signs with slogans relating to these issues while he spoke. Many people commented positively on their actions, but others, like the same idiot reporter mentioned above, complained that award ceremonies were not the place for political activism. While there are reasonable arguments both for and against an artist incorporating a lot of political activism into their music, it has common for artists and actors at award ceremonies such as the Grammies and the Academy Awards to raise political and social issues that concern them in their acceptance speeches, and there is no reason for Taiwan to be any different. This is all the more true for aboriginal artists such as these nominees from the Taidong area. While most Taiwanese are aware of the nuclear issue, many don’t know anything about what is going on in Taidong. If your home was being ruined by out of control development and bad government policies, then of course you would seize such a great opportunity to publicize your plight.

The article in which the reporter made these ridiculous criticisms irritated me enough that I intended to leave a comment. However, like most other news websites, this one requires you to register in order leave a comment. I wasn’t interested in registering, so instead I’m pasting my comment below. It’s in Chinese (probably less than perfect, though at least understandable, Chinese), but the main points are the same as those discussed above.

這個記者真是無知，還講「反核、拆美麗灣及捍衛東海岸等訴求數度出現在金曲獎的紅毯及舞台上，把紅毯當成凱達格蘭大道，把舞台視為宣示場合，保護台灣、訴求環保的立意良好，卻忘記對本應滌淨心靈、超越政治的音樂殿堂的尊重。」這種話。如果有人來摧毀妳的家鄉，難道你不會全力反對，用每一次發言機會讓人知道這個事情嗎？美國、日本長久一來有藝人用這種頒獎典禮當作針對社會議題發言的機會，台灣為何不行？基本上記者的意思是藝人不該關心社會發生的事情，要「乖乖」唱歌就好。這是什麼邏輯？

其實看得出來這個記者也不懂音樂，一直講什麼「主流」，抱怨什麼「冷門」。金曲獎主要的目的應該是鼓勵好音樂，不是頒獎給最「主流」的音樂。「最佳流行音樂」不等於「最流行的音樂」，關鍵字是「最佳」才對。如果獎只是要給「最流行的音樂」，就不用評審，可以直接頒獎給賣最多專輯的人。

Album Review – A Day at the Races by Queen

Album Title: A Day at the Races

Artist: Queen
Release Date: December 10, 1976

Side One
Tie Your Mother Down (May)
You Take My Breath Away (Mercury)
Long Away (May)
The Millionaire Waltz (Mercury)
You and I (Deacon)

Side Two
Somebody to Love (Mercury)
White Man (May)
Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy (Mercury)
Drowse (Taylor)
Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together) (May)

While I agree with the general consensus among critics that A Night at the Opera was the best album released by the British rock group Queen, the group had a remarkably good string of albums beginning with their second one and lasting to the end of the 1970s, with several of them coming close to matching A Night at the Opera. Among these was that album’s sequel, A Day at the Races, released a year later and likewise named after a Marx Brothers film. While it didn’t contain anything quite like “Bohemian Rhapsody”, it contained a number of excellent songs and was marked by similarly high quality musicianship, arrangement and production (though in this case the band produced the album without help from Roy Thomas Baker, who had worked on the previous record). In fact, the two albums are something of a matched pair. While some reviewers criticized A Day at the Races for this reason, considering it something of a retread, the band explored some new genres on the album (most notably gospel on “Somebody to Love”) and the variety and quality of the songs make it more than a mere repeat of their previous album. While I would be hard pressed to pick a second favorite Queen album, this, along with other albums like Sheer Heart Attack and News of the World, would be a strong contender.

A Day at the Races Song by Song

Tie Your Mother Down: After an instrumental introduction that reappears at the end of “Teo Torriate”, the album’s final track, A Day of the Races kicks off with this excellent rocker written by guitarist Brian May. The lyrics expressing the frustrations of a young man whose girlfriend’s family gets in the way of their romance are clearly tongue in cheek.

You Take My Breath Away: This ballad by vocalist Freddie Mercury features his piano and layers of overdubbed vocals. It’s a nice tune, though not equal to his previous ballads “Love of My Life”, “Lily of the Valley” and “Nevermore”.

Long Away: This song by May was the only one he sang lead vocals for on this album. With its rhythm guitar and catchy melody, it is somewhat in the vein of “’39” from the previous album. It can’t quite match its brilliant predecessor, but it is very good nonetheless.

The Millionaire Waltz: This composition by Freddie Mercury is the most complex track on the album, and the best song on side one except perhaps for the opening song. There are several key changes and dramatic transitions, and it features some great piano and vocals from Mercury plus elaborate guitar orchestrations by May.

You and I: This is bassist John Deacon’s songwriting contribution to the album, and it’s an excellent one, with a catchy tune and some of the most melodic bass playing from anyone besides Paul McCartney. I even prefer this somewhat to “Your My Best Friend”, Deacon’s song on A Night at the Opera, though this was not a hit single like the earlier song.

Somebody to Love: While no song on A Day at the Races quite matches “Bohemian Rhapsody”, Mercury’s magnum opus from A Night at the Opera, he came closest with “The Millionaire Waltz” and this song, which was the biggest hit off the album and deservedly so. This gospel flavored tune is built around some great piano playing by Mercury and features a stupendous lead vocal from its composer and an excellent gospel choir made up of layered vocals by Mercury, May and Roger Taylor. This is my favorite song on this album and one of my all time favorite Queen songs.

White Man: This straightforward hard rock track written by Brian May is musically solid but not exceptional, somewhat like “Sweet Lady” on the previous album. But lyrically, despite a few weak lines, overall it is very good, with its scathing indictment of the European seizure of America from the indigenous peoples.

Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy: A composition by Mercury in British music hall style (Mercury referred to it as his “ragtime” song from the album), this was the second biggest UK hit from the album. A fast paced, catchy tune, it is very enjoyable, though I slightly prefer Mercury’s “ragtime” song on A Night at the Opera, “Seaside Rendezvous”.

Drowse: This was drummer Roger Taylor’s songwriting contribution to the album, and he sang all the vocals and played rhythm guitar on it. As the title indicates, it has a laidback, sleepy feel; it was the first slow tempo song Taylor had written for Queen. Both musically and particularly lyrically it’s quite good; in fact, I’d say it was second only to “Tenement Funster” from Sheer Heart Attack as the best song Taylor had written for the band up to that point (though admittedly he’d only written five, one on each album).

Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together): This ballad written by Brian May is especially notable for its chorus, which is sung in Japanese as well as English (this was done as a tribute to Queen’s Japanese fans). It is a well-done, almost anthemic ballad with a good melody, and makes a good closer for the album.