 |
|
|
|
What's your reaction to these
choices? Do you like any of these
songs? Discuss with Bob on our MESSAGE BOARD
Also From Modern Humorist: Colin Powell's Pop Pals Dear Dick: A Letter From George W. Boredom in the Court Behind the Music Napsteropoly Macdonna's Wedding Box Set of the Year Rock 'n' Roll Factory Worker Phish Fan Resume |
|
Today's Top Five by Bob Lefsetz Hi, I'm Bob Lefsetz, and I want your vote. No, that's not it whatsoever. I write "The Lefsetz Letter," an industry tip-sheet that anybody who's anybody in the music business subscribes to. Everyone from Roger Ames, CEO of Warner Music, to Steven Tyler of Aerosmith to Rob Glaser, CEO of Real Networks. Each week in this space I'm going to put down what's on my mind. About Napster, AOL, love, life. Tune in. Participate in the message thread. I may be an authority, but I want to hear from you. For we're all in this together. 1. Lenny Kravitz: "Again" The video makes me feel completely inadequate. Do I need to be reminded we live in a looks-based society once again??? God, I haven't worn a muscle tee in my LIFE! Figuring everybody would laugh. Never mind those sunglasses that aren't far from what the King wore in his Vegas days... God, I hate tattoos, but on Lenny they look COOL! That's just my problem. Sleeping with Gina Gershon, dreaming of the waitress in the luncheonette who played tongue hockey with me. God, when I come back again, I want to come back as a hunk. Just to see what it's like to have the women pursue you. It's completely foreign to me. I've got to whip out my A+ personality. Treat them with TLC, and STILL they're looking over my shoulder at the undereducated drug addicts. I wax and wane on Lenny. Loved "Believe." Didn't really get "Fly Away." But I'm hooked on "Again." I'm a sentimental dude. I think about EVERY woman I've ever connected with. Wondering if they still think about me. Contemplating if I'll ever see them again and what it would be like. Meanwhile, be sure to download the live version of this track off Napster before the feds shut it down. It's even more intimate. Even more meaningful. 2. A3: "Too Sick to Pray" Hell, just for the female backup singer wailing in the background. Haven't heard something like this since the Stones' "Let It Loose" off Exile on Main Street. This is the same band that cut the riveting theme song from The Sopranos, "Woke Up This Morning." That track came off Alabama 3's (like anybody would confuse them with that lame country act, forcing them to change their U.K. name) debut, Exile on Coldharbour Lane. But since Coldharbour Lane languished for two years in the dustbin before David Chase rescued it, Alabama 3 have become trepidatious. Instead of the wild amalgamation of Coldharbour Lane, the raps, the country influences, La Peste is much more streamlined. Mainstream. Makes me crazy. If a band don't have instant success, they change direction, thinking the problem is THEM instead of the AUDIENCE (or the label marketing machine). There's magic on La Peste. Just not enough for me to tell you to run out and buy it. For fear you'll track me down and beat me up. But the first four cuts. They're reminiscent of the peaks of Coldharbour Lane. And when you've been without your aural dope for years and hear a reasonable facsimile you go WILD! As I did, when I first heard and continue to hear "Too Sick to Pray," La Peste's opening track. 3. Rochester Yellowjackets: "Sweet Home Alabama" Hell, they've even got the "TURN IT UP" in the beginning. I discovered this on Napster searching for an a cappella version of some major-label band. And now I'm a member of a subculture. Turns out seemingly every college has got an a cappella group. Singing totally vocal versions of the hits of the past few decades. There's Matchbox Twenty's "Push." Tons of Alanis stuff. Train's "Meet Virginia." Actually, my absolute favorite is the Tufts' Amalgamates doing Paula Cole's "I Don't Want to Wait." You know, the theme song from "Dawson's Creek." Without the instrumentation, it's even MORE meaningful. Type "BOCA" in the Napster artist field (it stands for "Best of College A Cappella"). Or "a cappella" in the title field. (Hint: one of the best groups is the UVA Hullabahoos.) Sure, there are some dweebs out there still infatuated with musical acts. But between Behind the Music and the tabloids, almost all specialness has been drained from the performers. It's now all about the song. (Which is why the boy bands outsell the bands you hear buzzed about; their SONGS are better!) Denuded of the studio gloss, standing pristinely alone, great songs deliver a warmth in your heart and soul akin to meeting the girl or boy of your dreams. If someone would just put some money behind these acts, forming a national tour with some publicity, the whole scene would blow up. We'd have teenagers harmonizing on street corners once again. (Nah, no one hangs outside anymore ... everybody's home in front of the computer screen.) |
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
