Newsgroups: bit.listserv.allmusic
Date:         Mon, 14 Sep 1992 10:32:59 EDT
From:         "Michael H. Bloom" <MHB@MITVMA.BITNET>
Subject:      Wars and rumors of wars

From:         G_SWANK@TWU.BITNET
Subject:      Television (the band)

> I read in the Oct. issue of Request magazine that Television, one of
> my favorite bands of all time, is back together and recording an album.
> Does anyone out there know anything more on this. When's it coming out?
> Are they going to tour?

They toured Europe this spring/summer and were supposed to be recording a new
album thereafter. It got a mention in the latest Tower Pulse; I think it was
said that they're going back on the road soon. I hope it's as good as the old
days.

I never really warmed to Verlaine's solo stuff-- I have only _Dreamtime_ and
that recent instrumental one on Ryko that sounds like the Ventures :-) Still,
even his worst was miles above the Richard Lloyd solo dreck.

From:         Balakrishn Nair <v107smub@UBVMSB.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Subject:      Black Cat: is she the fastest guitarist around ?

> Heard that Black Cat.. a woman who is supposedly a violin and
> guitar virtuoso and also plays speed metal versions of classical
> pieces by Beethoven and others.. in a speed metal band.. is the
> fastest guitarist around.  Is this true.?

She's called "The Great Kat," and there's an album on RoadRacer or some such
metal specialist label called _Beethoven On Speed._ She was a conservatory
trained violinist who decided (correctly IMHO) that the performance standards
in rock'n'roll were considerably less stringent than those in classical music.

From:         Titivillus <T9AA@SDSUMUS.BITNET>
Subject:      Black Cat: is she the fastest guitarist around ?

> I have heard of someone named Cat or some such who did a metal version
> of "Flight of the Bumblebee."
>
> That feat alone would make her one of the fastest.

Yup, she does, and she plays guitar arrangements of several other warhorses--
two different versions of the theme from the first movement of Beethoven's 5th,
one at breakneck speed, the other optimized for aggressive moshing. It's silly.
Also it sounds to me like the tape has been sped up, like she's not really as
fast as she claims. I do recommend this record just for humor value-- the rant
in the liner notes is priceless, and Kat looks rather fetching in lingerie and
machine gun bandoliers :-)

Me, I'm waiting for the metal guitar rendition of Messiaen's "Dance of Fury for
the Seven Trumpets," the 6th movement of the _Quartet for the End of Time_.

> However, considering the fact that you can't get a decent tone off
> a guitar when you are playing 32nd and 64th notes...

Don't the real metalheads have a whole raft of boxes to take care of the tone?
I got to do a recording project with some friends who veer rather closer to
what America is listening to than I do, and they had a huge rack mount device
with a zillion buttons on it. The buttons weren't, but could have been, marked
with guitarists' names: The Tom Scholz Sound, The Brian May Sound, etc. I did
my rhythm parts in a Genesis-like chorus/doubling patch, and my screaming lead
in a kind of tinnier Alex Lifeson.

> If Jimi Hendrix knew what he started, he'd roll over in his grave.

I don't think Jimi had anything to do with the Cult of Multitudinous Notes.

> If you're in such a race to get to the end of the song, it must suck.

Good point!

And, speaking of...

From:         Balakrishn Nair <v107smub@UBVMSB.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Subject:      Jimi Hendrix: origins and family history ?? anyone?

> Was wondering if Jimi Hendrix was American .. and if he was
> ever married .. if so, does his wife and kids have rights
> over his records ?

Never married. There were several paternity suits lodged against him, of which
at least one was decided in the mother's favor, a woman in Sweden. Of course,
she's probably not having much luck collecting from his estate in the USA.

From:         THERESA BLACKWELL <TBLACKWL@USMCP6.BITNET>
Subject:      HENDRIX

>  IF JIMI WAS MARRIED, THEN HIS WIFE has the rights to his songs
>  for 50 years AFTER his death.
>  UNLESS of course, the publishers wanna be pains in the rear.

As far as I know, all the rights to all of Hendrix's material belong to Allan
Douglas, who convinced a judge he had the latest valid management agreement
with Hendrix-- and who made himself an object of derision by releasing some
posthumous records made from studio demo tapes with added session geeks.

(I once heard a weird European quasi-bootleg record that included the original
guitar track for "Electric Lady Land" by itself, with none of the overdubs and
processing. It made a delightful guitar instrumental, and it also proved that
Jimi didn't need these additional players.)

>  This is stated in the Copyright Law of 1976.
>  This law stands now.

Does this law apply to someone who had been dead for years when it was passed?
Or is he still governed by the old rules?

>  The stipulation on Copyright is this:
>  Author's life + 50 years.
>  If someone dies this year, then his song will still be protected
>  50 years from now.

That's correct. One of the interesting facets of that is what happens in the
classical revival field-- since concert music presumably retains its value
longer than pop songs, right, Tim? Bela Bartok died in 1945, and I therefore
confidently predict a huge Bartok revival in three years, when his oeuvre
enters the public domain. Somehow I don't think it's gonna work for Webern.

>  I think that's neat, that a writer can have that much protection
>  over his creations.

I kinda think that's a little too long. Guy writes a hit song in his 20s, lives
till 80, his great-grandchildren who never knew him even as a codger, let alone
what he got famous for, get to sponge off his royalties... bad policy IMHO.

But I admit I don't know where the right cutoff point is. If you made it until
the author's death, you could conceivably encourage more assassinations of rock
stars-- somebody snuffing the next John Lennon just to force his songs into the
public domain, there's a sick notion... I think instead of Life plus 50 years,
a term of life *or* 50 years (after the publication date) would be fair: this
protects the composer for as long as (s)he needs the protection, and his/her
heirs and assigns if (s)he OD's or suffers a plane crash or gets blown away by
a fruitcake fan, and leaves young dependents behind.

But of course Yoko doesn't have these rights to at least some of John's stuff,
i.e. she can't keep "Revolution" from being used to sell running shoes :-( I
don't remember quite which clause in the copyright law allows publishers to be
pains in the rear, but it's certainly operative here. (Maybe this is what truly
makes Michael Jackson _Dangerous_.)
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