Taylor Swift in 1989. Miles Davis in 1969. The Emperor’s New Clothes. Hypothermia. Why there is no new music. And why we like it that way.

Roger CortonSo you had a letter printed in Time?

JCHWell, a snippet. I wrote one of my rants about the recent cover story on Taylor Swift.

RCWith all that’s going on in the world, why get worked up about some pop star?

JCHShe ain’t ‘some pop star’. She’s the pop star. And, as you may know, the title of the record (1989) is her birth year. The gag is that it’s supposed to be a summary of all the influences throughout her life.

RCBut it doesn’t sound like 1989. At least, not the music I remember from 1989.

JCHExactamundo. EDM wasn’t around. If the beats sound like 1989, it’s a porn soundtrack from 1989.

RCAll EDM sounds like a porn soundtrack.

JCHIt’s true. Anyhoo, I had this realisation: I can’t think […]

Although this movie has been well received critically, I’ve noticed a lot of negative comments from musicians.

First off, it’s a very cool movie and I give it a very high recommendation. In fact, it feels like the most real movie I’ve ever seen about the music business… from the boy’s POV. The combination of fear, obsession, self-absorption… and the willingness to completely self-destruct for ‘the dream’ is 100% accurate.

Second, I have never, I mean never seen anyone literally bleed like that from practice. Or sweat to ‘force’ themselves to play faster. Doesn’t happen. This was cinematic license. Real practice isn’t cinematic. It’s simply boring repetition that takes months and months and is definitely not montage-worthy. However I’ve seen plenty of guys physically damage themselves from over-practice or bad practice. And worse, I’ve seen plenty of guys go just plain NUTS. I mean like, jump off a building or sell all their clothes and join an ashram.

Third, I’ve never seen a physically abusive director like that. Again, cinematic license. That said, […]

It’s raining books up in here. What makes physical content like CDs worth having (let alone paying for)?

Roger CortonSo I hear you had a bit of an accident?

JCHPretty freaky. So I’m sitting at one end of the house and I hear these sounds coming from the living room.

RCSounds?

JCHI thought I was at a bowling alley. I heard this rumble, snap, rumble, snap and then BLBPOWLBLBLAMBLAMPPPOOOWOWW… followed by an after-rumble.

RCEarthquake!

JCHWindstorm. The house shifts just a few millimeters and that’s all it takes. During which, this six foot bookshelf collapsed, spilling a few hundred books everywhere.

RCSo no one hurt?

JCHNo. And that’s the minor miracle. Directly underneath I had my double bass and three acoustic guitars. And, I dunno how, but… not a scratch on any of them. They were surrounded by books, buried in books. Big books. Tomes one might say. But no musical instruments were harmed in the course of […]

I originally wrote this rant in November of 2014 but left it unpublished.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer recorded the album Tarkus in 1971. But since they disbanded many years ago, I think I’ve seen enough ‘solo versions’ of Tarkus for a Jon Stewart montage. Keith Emerson with a big band. Keith Emerson with an orchestra. Keith Emerson unplugged. Keith Emerson with some young guys. Keither Emerson with some old guys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKNOlDtZluU

Look, Tarkus is a great piece of music. I don’t mean ‘for prog’, I mean of any kind of music. It may be the best instrumental piece of the entire genre. In fact, it may be one of the best pieces of music of any kind composed in my lifetime. It’s way better than almost any of the pretentious concert music I can think of at the moment. It sounds as fresh and challenging today as it did when Keith wrote it in 1971. But guess what? Tarkus was done in 1971. Complete. Fin.

The thing that irks the living crap […]