Bill's Blog
Periodically, I'll write about music, language, photography, and other topics.
Noise
The longer excerpts I've heard of "11,000 Strings" sound, at times, symphonic, but this clip is what excited me. It verges on noise.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBnl38y-awA
To a greater or lesser extent, music is noise that is carefully arranged for a pleasing effect. We are evidently hard-wired to respond to such arrangements. Some of our fellow animals are also hard-wired to appreciate certain types of music, and some, most-notably songbirds, make music. I've long been a fan of what is generally labelled as "techno music," which explores the boundaries of what we perceive to be music. This is a piece of current music I've enjoyed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbAndKIZJO0&list=RDHbAndKIZJO0&start_radio=1
Of course, The Beatles were playing around with this stuff long ago. From Revolver.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O58ouPdjgo0&list=RDO58ouPdjgo0&start_radio=1
End of the Line
The song, "The End of the Line," came out in 1988. Somehow, I missed it. The song kept hanging around, though, showing up in ads, movies, TV shows, and radio station rotations. So, I gradually became aware of it. Recently, it showed up on an "Upbeat Mix" playlist on Spotify along with more current works. I've listened to it many times now, and I'm still not tired of it. I hear it when I'm walking around. So, 37 years after its release, it's still hanging around. Maybe, it's an example of enduring literature. During the time of Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Ben Johnson were also famous playwrights. If you lived then, you might have viewed them all as of similar stature. It's only with the passing of time that Shakespeare became dominant. Likewise, Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos were contemporaries and rivals. Its only with the passage of time that Dos Passos faded.
"End of the Line" by the Traveling Wilburys features Tom Petty singing the verses and George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, and Roy Orbison singing the choruses. Bob Dylan provided backing vocals. It is described as folk rock or country rock. Roy Orbison died after the song was recorded but before the video was made. Jim Keltner played the drums and percussion. He was a highly respected session drummer who played with artists such as Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, and the Beatles.
The term "upbeat music" implies a happy, optimistic feel, but the technical upbeat/downbeat stuff is beyond me.
Check out the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMVjToYOjbM&list=RDUMVjToYOjbM&start_radio=1
Pop Music
Recently, I've been listening to a "Pop Music" playlist on Spotify. Certainly, many of the artists I've liked over the years were "popular," but "Pop Music" implied, to me, something thin, like a watery soup. Surprise. I'm still enjoying the playlist. After the second Sabrina Carpenter song in the rotation, I felt a little weary. Then they played a REYSHA RAMI song. AI defines "Pop Music" thus (or is it thusly): "While originally a broad term for any popular song, "pop music" has evolved into a distinct musical genre since the 1950s, characterized by catchy melodies, simple structures, and the incorporation of musical elements from other contemporary popular styles." According to the AI, REYSHA RAMI is an electro-pop recording artist "who blends and bends genres like dance/electronic, house, alternative hip-hop, and industrial dance." I like the way she uses rap (talk) in a melodic mix . I also like the heavy drum (four on the floor) and the upfront bass guitar. Link to song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRByklDUno8&list=RDWRByklDUno8&start_radio=1
Messy Vs. Lie Down
Recently, I've been listening to two reasonably current songs. They have different appeals to me. "Messy" by Lola Young is more about the story. The singer is in a dysfunctional relationship and everything she does is wrong. The cake shows up as a metaphor both in the official video and in this clip. "Lie Down" by Saya Gray is, to me, more about the sound, starting with the guitar riff, which begins quite simply on two strings, and then blends other instruments and backing vocals. I should add that "Messy" has an interesting sound and "Lie Down" has interesting lyrics. AI describes Young's music as "a blend of soul-pop, 80s-inspired pop-rock, and 90s hip-hop with a folk-influenced lyricism." AI describes Gray's work as "indie-folk, alt-pop style with elements of psychedelic synth-pop."
Lola Young:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogBmPeZ73CQ&list=RDogBmPeZ73CQ&start_radio=1
Saya Gray:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0TAaRZdOAI&list=RDX0TAaRZdOAI&start_radio=1
Footsteps
My footsteps in loose dirt. If it had been muddy, there might have been a chance that the mud would dry hard, preserving my imprint, and a much smaller chance that more mud would cover and preserve my tracks, and a much, much smaller chance that after eons the footprints would turn to rock and be found by someone. What could they learn about me? That I wore boots, probably. Possibly guess my weight? They might be able to roughly guess what years I lived, say a span of time from 1700 to 2300. They might have a rough idea of what happened in Corpus Christi during those years, and they might be able to overlay the scant evidence over the known events. As it was, my footprints were in loose dirt, which crumbled under me as I walked. See more of my photos.
Chasing the Algorithm
At my advanced age, it's hard to keep up with popular music. I was seated next to a metal band at a restaurant and stopped at their table, hoping to have a brief conversation about musical influences, or some other esoteric topic. They looked at me like I was crazy. Fortunately, the Yahoo and Google algorithms don't think I'm a weirdo. They keep feeding me articles about music. From one recent article, I started a Spotify playlist with several Charli xcx songs. The algorithm quickly filled in the playlist, but it felt like a top 40 list with no curating. So, I tried their AI DJ, a cool, urban-sounding dude. He had me figured out, adding older songs and songs I'd never heard of. It was a very pleasing experience, although the AI was a bit patronizing. Recently, however, I shifted to playlists of classic jazz and 1940s music. I haven't dared go back to the DJ. Will he be mad at me for veering from current music? How will the algorithm reconcile "Apple" and "Mairzy Doats?"
Charli xcx:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPWxExGk7PM
Mairzy Doats:
In Search of the Vertical
The world used to be horizontal. Televisions were slightly wider than they were tall, and then they became even wider. Computer screens followed the same pattern. Movie screens had a more convoluted journey, starting out much like a television: slightly wider that they were tall. They got wider and then very wide. Some screens were more than twice as wide as they were tall. With the advent of HDTV, movie screen sizes began to match TV sizes.
Then things changed. The smart phone appeared. Close to two-third of internet traffic is on the phone. This is a vertical format: taller than it is wide. Text remains unchanged. It simply flows like water to conform to screen sizes. But images are a problem. You can certainly turn your phone to get a horizontal image to full screen, but vertical images are ascendant. Optimum Facebook reels are 9:16. So, I guess, life has a lot to do with the vertical these days.
May 1, 2025. I've been compiling a playlist of female singers/groups going back to the 1930s with Gracie Fields and up to current artists like Charli xcx. "Material Girl" by Madonna is on the list. It's often described as a "satire on materialism." I tend to disagree. Despite the opening and closing scenes, I think she means what she says. True love is a bit of a fiction. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p-lDYPR2P8
I've been listening to 40s music. The US was leaving the Great Depression and entering a world war. The decade would end with world power. Change was afoot, not yet explicit, but telegraphed within much of the music. My favorite song is "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" by the Andrews Sisters. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8of3uhG1tCI
January 21, 2025 HOW DO YOU PRONOUNCE "HOMAGE"
For most of my life, I pronounced "homage" as "AH Mig" with "H" silent and the accent on the first syllable and a hard "g" as in "gee" at the end. Suddenly, a few years ago, I heard someone pronounce it "OH mag" with more of an equal stress on the syllables. At first, I thought it was a mispronunciation, falling in with grammatical errors like using "lie" when "lay" was correct. I said nothing. You can't go picking fights over these kinds of things, no matter how grating they are. A funny thing happened. I kept hearing the new pronunciation. I finally realized that this was a French pronunciation. The puzzling thing is, why was there a sudden shift? I say this with all seriousness. Did the literati decide to shift? If so, did they send out a memo? Was I not on the list? Or did nothing at all change? Were people always using different pronunciations, and I never heard the French pronunciation, either by chance or by closing my mind to different pronunciations? LISTEN ON YOU TUBE
(January 13, 2025) BIG MOMMA THORNTON.
Elvis Presley's version of "Hound Dog" was released in 1956. It sold ten million copies. However, the song was written for, and first released by, Big Mama Thornton in 1952. It is considered a significant song because it bridged the world of blues and rock-and-roll. It was also one of the first songs in which the guitar was the dominant instrument. It was at the center of controversies and lawsuits over authorship, royalties, and copyright infringement. Big Momma Thornton received little or no money in royalties or residuals. At her peak, she earned only $50 a night for her gigs. Destitute when she died, she was buried in a pauper's grave. There is some effort to erect a marker for her. All that being said, Presley had a remarkable voice. Like bands such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, he came along when people wanted to hear white boys sing the blues.