From: MHB@MITVMA.BITNET (Michael H. Bloom)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.allmusic
Subject: Knirps for moisture (yes, this *is* a Zappa lyric)
Date: 15 Oct 92 19:16:17 GMT
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU

From:         Sonia Kovitz <skovitz@MAGNUS.ACS.OHIO-STATE.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Slainte Mhath

> For starters--the subject of this post went right BY me--this time it can't be
> a Zappa lyric so what else am I totally ignorant of???

It's an Irish toast, used by Marillion as a song title on _Clutching at Straws_.
Nice song, reminiscent of Jethro Tull's quasi-medieval _Songs from the Wood_
period IMHO.

> It's as if (in my mind) a true heavy-metal band is one that grasps what most
> people THINK "power" is and then they play with that idea of power, turning
> it around and upside down and above all playing with your MIND--
> they can't take themselves TOO seriously and still be a serious metal band...
> is the way I see it..

I like this analysis! Of course, I like humor in music too. As Lester Bangs
once said, "I live for laughs, which is why I love Lou" (Reed, of course).
Obviously somebody who comes off as Conan the Barbarian without a shred of
self-parody is gonna be seen as a dork most of the time, even by his fans.
At the other extreme, you have GWAR, a walking, talking, thrashing cartoon--
or the original implementation of Kiss, for that matter.

I may say no more, as I'm already getting out of my depth-- my knowledge of
metal is perceptibly out of date, by rather more than a decade. I hope our
resident Queensryche fans will contribute to this thread.

> Please recall that many of us poor loons out here are on FEROCIOUSLY primitive
> systems--a circumstance which is BEYOND OUR CONTROL, I assure you!

Can't imagine a system more primitive for network purposes than VM/CMS, but I
do think XEDIT is a nice, versatile editor.

>                             ...   Occasionally some operatic singing
> passes muster but most of it makes me CRINGE.... why is this???

Artificiality. The easiest thing to pick on is the vibrato, but standards of
pronunciation make it impossible to recognize texts in languages you thought
you knew, etc.


From:         Ken Koester <MAINT2@ERS.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: Slainte Mhath

> Ricemail--but I bestirred myself to finally trying a few XEDIT commands to
> speed things up.  Much better--though I still haven't worked out an acceptably
> good way to quote multiple texts.  I can think of a sleezy way, but can't help
> hoping I've missed something to simplify that.  Please don't tell me that you
> actually -reply-/-suspend- each note, then -get- each one back into your main
> response (or -move-, or -forward-, or -whatever-).

No, nothing that slick. I read all the mail I'm gonna reply to into a notebook
and massage it with XEDIT, then initiate a mail message and read in all that
text. So as I write this I am not in MAIL. I too wish for a more versatile
MAILer, but this technique works for me. (Sorry about the lack of OMC here.)

> As for the top 10--what am I to do?  I've got a top 100 or 2--my poor head
> would be filled with numbers all day long--and Vivaldi has 2 sets of numbers,
> if memory serves.  And as for Telemann--heck they haven't even catalogued it
> all yet.  What I need is a direct interface to an online musical catalogue
> database. . . .

Now there's a good idea. Maybe these virtual-reality visionaries can figure out
a way to retrieve useful information out of their fantasy world, rather than
just playing bigger and noisier video games...

From:         Ken Koester <MAINT2@ERS.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: classical training,improv,heart

> career.  That, in fact, is the long-standing rap against Michala Petri,
> although she is a technically wonderful recorder player.

Yeah, I can see her career's so hosed that you have trouble recalling her name.
Jazz, and rock, and their various fusion by-products, have all endured numerous
examples of players who are alleged to be all chops and no heart. And I can't
give a good snappy answer-- I try to judge on a case-by-case basis. I do think
Allan Holdsworth is into an interesting new way of thinking about scales, while
I think Al DiMeola is just into spewing them faster than I can.

I do note that a number of the players that get the "technocrat" label hurled
at them are favorites of mine, or people that I have a lot of respect for. It's
obvious that there's an anti-intellectual bias built in to rock'n'roll that's
often behind this particular complaint-- which is why I bristle so at L.W. and
his misguided notion that blues is inherently purer more moving than whatever
I'm listening to at the moment. Intellect is not anti-feeling, folks; I think
if you know what you're talking about and what you're doing, you can express a
lot more subtlety of emotion than you can if you're drinkin' whiskey out of the
bottle cuz yo' baby done left yuh... of course, if you really think inchoate
fury is the pinnacle of human experience, then by all means, play the blues!

From:         DMetcalf%IC-LOG@WALKER-LTT.ARMY.MIL
Subject:      RE:  Classical/Improv

> but the SPIRIT of improv sort of demands (in my way of thinking, anyway) A
> NON-dedication to 'training' or 'rightness'... no reason why good improv has
> to be all WIERD, either...

How the good improviser uses training is by not thinking about it-- by not
*needing* to think about it, because he's woodshedded so hard in his training
that the rules have become second nature. This can include "muscle memory,"
but there ought to be more to it than that-- an inner harmonic compass, that
tells you where you are in your scales or tone rows, and where you can go from
there, and what may happen to you at the next juncture. One of the best texts
you can read as an improviser is that Robert Frost poem: "I took the road less
travelled by, and that has made all the difference."

Saw an improv band last night; they called themselves 3rd Ear (there already
was a Third Ear Band in Europe, also free improvisers; wonder if these guys
knew about their predecessors?). Flute, cello, and drums. They did a couple
things that sounded deliberately "out" without being real compelling (one
sounded to me exactly like some computer-generated compositions I've heard),
and the rest of the time they lapsed into archetypical jazz trio routines,
with the cellist playing pizzicato like a double bass. I thought it was
lame. (I admit to being a little hostile to jazz flute, though.)

From:         Paul Heroy <HEROY@LSUVM.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: Tonight Show

> the message Branford's trying to send getting out? CAN the message be received
> by the American public? (As someone once cracked, "Nobody ever went broke by
> understimating the American public")

Give credit where credit is due-- in this case, to the notorious newspaperman
and gadfly, H.L. Mencken. And the full text is, "Nobody ever went broke
underestimating the *intelligence* of the American public," which is
something distinct from taste, no matter how we might wish it otherwise.

Who, me cynical?

I admit to also thinking that a Marsalis lecturing America on music has more
than a little in common with Barbara Bush lecturing America on family values--
no, I don't think Babs is as mendacious as the rest of that crew, but she's a
little out of date, wouldn't you say?

From:         WEINDAN@HWS.BITNET
Subject:      Subscribe to metal/thrash list...

> I demand a reply or my fierce rage will be squandered on you, mortals! >:-)

You and what Kiss Army? See remarks above on sense of humor. (Good job,
actually.)

From:         "(Jinn S. Yang)" <v30yjs@V0SUN2.CCL.ITRI.ORG.TW>
Subject:      Why don't they put Lyrics in CDs ?

> Hi. Could somebody out there kindly tell me :
> Why don't they include the lyrics in CDs ?

Embarrassment :-) Actually, one of the supposed results of Tipper Gore's
attempt to repeal the First Amendment via the PMRC was supposed to be easier
access to lyric sheets, either to include them by default with recorded
product or to provide an address where you can write to get them.

Some of the lyrics you get on imports are quite laughable, because they were
often transcribed by some non-native speaker of the language in question, who
simply didn't have a clue. Did you ever see the Japanese editions of Hatfield
and the North's albums? Uproariously funny!

From:         "alt.wasted.time" <TIFFANYDE@URVAX.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: Metallica, Metal, and a few run-ons

> So putting out lots of videos = selling out?

Certainly, if you'd said you weren't gonna do it. And maybe even if you didn't
say anything of the sort, but your stance includes the usual disclaimers vis a
vis "the industry." It's hardly a trade secret that the major labels figure a
video to be one of the paramount promotional tools in moving the product, and
they're the ones who put pressure on artists to make them; surely you don't
think some poor hapless VJ from MTV was calling up Metallica and begging them
for a clip to air, five times in a row?

I'd like to make a video too (well, Urban Ambience did, but it was a live-in-
the studio shoot that we later doctored considerably; I'd some day like to
record a song with lyrics, and then shoot a video that elaborated on it), but
on the other hand, maybe my talents don't lie in that direction. How come we
expect people who play bitchin' guitar to also be profound on camera? Are the
kinds of talents involved really that similar? I think not.

> Now, If they have changed their music to get MTV airplay, then that might
> be selling out.

The thrust of the discussion seems to be that they did this too.

From:         Scott Hammer <SCOTH@WMVM1.CC.WM.EDU>
Subject:      Battle of Hastings (little/no OMC)

> For anyone who cares, today is the 926th anniversary of the Battle of
> Hastings, where King Harald was defeated by William the Bastard (Later,
> Conqueror)...
>
> OMC:  Most everything, including music, would have been way different had
>       this battle turned out differently.  For one thing, the English
>       language wouldn't have gotten so Frenchified.
>
> BTW, during a 500 Years of Genocide/Anti-Columbus Day rally in San Francisco,
> observers spotted numerous protesters carrying signs reading: "U.S. Out Of
> North America."  In keeping with this sentiment, and in honor of the Battle
> of Hastings, I therefore propose that we form the ALLMUSIC Quixotic
> Crusade, Chowder, and Marching Society, travel to England, and march around
> with signs reading: "Normans Out of Wessex/Anglia."  Then we could go to
> Southern France and try to get the Romans out of Gaul.

I once helped some friends in a Bastille Day re-enactment. We stormed the
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston with rakes and similar implements (I carried
a shitty acoustic guitar that had long since lost all its strings). The only
reason we're not all in jail was because it was a Saturday :-)

From:         MIKE VAN VONDEREN <VANVMIKE@VAXA.CIS.UWOSH.EDU>
Subject:      Re: discussions on all forms of music?

> > If you had the run of a radio station, what would be your playlist?
> All alternative.  That's what the "college kids" really like now, so...so
> do I.  (Seeing since I'm a college kid)

Jeez, what a dreadful way to define your musical tastes. C'mon, dude, show some
individuality! Listen to something you weren't told to like by the College Music
Journal!
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU