People have been getting off on the "My Heart" song and one person even said it's 'very beautiful' but there's a wee bit of a translation problem. (Blog: Relax, It's Not a Tribute to Prince)
The song isn't me but rather what I do with orchestration to change a MIDI file to make it palatable. HAL 9000 could do that and it would come out the same. That was the point of it because that kind of music isn't what I do so I can make these things but generally choose not to do it. It's entertaining to screw around with songs that way but it doesn't mean anything and is about as emotional as geology.
That general thinking regarding electronifying music is getting wider as it seems it's not done anything more than empowering the Supreme Soloist rather than encouraging musical interchange between people. It's not that things must be done in the Old Ways but rather there is substantial value in that interchange for the betterment of music. In this moment, the biggest stars are almost entirely soloists with their little monkey musicians out of sight.
"My Heart" is an obvious cover but it's a book cover and doesn't stray from the known course of the song. If you want to do something nervy, make it hip hop or do a reggae version. So "My Heart" is pretty but, to my taste, empty. That it gets attention when original stuff does not is one of the supreme ironies of my time.
Don't read regret into that as it's likely some consider my life a failure but that would only have been true if I had never tried. Some guy was talking about how he is a failure so I reminded him, man, you play a guitar, you learned how to sing, and you learned how to perform. All of these are successes and you bring joy and happiness to people when you play. That's never failure. Few can do such things so either they failed or you succeeded and they didn't fail, they simply had other interests, yet they come to hear you play instead. Make them happy, Bluesman.
If you measure your success by the size of the crowd rather than the quality of the music you can make, it's not likely you will, in your eyes, ever succeed because the crowd will never be big enough to satisfy your megalomania. That instantly sets loose the mind weevils because whatever you do won't be good enough.
However, if your success is measured by the ability to make the best music you can achieve, the size of the crowd won't matter because attendance by anyone is vindication it's a good sound. That not everyone gets it is something you understand by that point is always in the territory in music.
The performance side of things is hitting the rocks and the biggest killer in selling the Galaxy Guitar is what if it's some shredder who buys it. The Galaxy Guitar would hate that as shredding is an abomination against the emotion and soul of music. It's not absolute the music is finished but it's extremely difficult to play.
As to shredding, way back, my wife and I took up square dancing for a while. It's pleasant and colorful with good people. I sucked as a dancer so my wife figured, well, maybe at least that two-left-feet bozo can do this. That worked out fine and it was a pleasant time.
To make square dancing a horror movie, introduce competition. The tempo for the dances goes up and the tension in the room goes stratospheric. The feeling of Americana in the square dancing is blown right out the barn door and it's just a deadly vibe of I must win.
How about hitting you with a hammer so you get the point of that li'l scribe.
Note: I'm aware square dancing isn't really American but is one of the oldest forms of dance but this is the American flavor of it and this aspect is unique.
In fact, shredding is precisely the kind of reason Krautrock was invented in the first place: German musicians were so fed-up with English / U.S. guitar bands. That was part of the genius of Prince in that what he did was always more than a guitar band. Given his immense skill with guitar, it's remarkable to see his restraint in how little he really opens it up and Let's Go Crazy. Prince was huge in Germany and Cat has seen his shows four times.
The song isn't me but rather what I do with orchestration to change a MIDI file to make it palatable. HAL 9000 could do that and it would come out the same. That was the point of it because that kind of music isn't what I do so I can make these things but generally choose not to do it. It's entertaining to screw around with songs that way but it doesn't mean anything and is about as emotional as geology.
That general thinking regarding electronifying music is getting wider as it seems it's not done anything more than empowering the Supreme Soloist rather than encouraging musical interchange between people. It's not that things must be done in the Old Ways but rather there is substantial value in that interchange for the betterment of music. In this moment, the biggest stars are almost entirely soloists with their little monkey musicians out of sight.
"My Heart" is an obvious cover but it's a book cover and doesn't stray from the known course of the song. If you want to do something nervy, make it hip hop or do a reggae version. So "My Heart" is pretty but, to my taste, empty. That it gets attention when original stuff does not is one of the supreme ironies of my time.
Don't read regret into that as it's likely some consider my life a failure but that would only have been true if I had never tried. Some guy was talking about how he is a failure so I reminded him, man, you play a guitar, you learned how to sing, and you learned how to perform. All of these are successes and you bring joy and happiness to people when you play. That's never failure. Few can do such things so either they failed or you succeeded and they didn't fail, they simply had other interests, yet they come to hear you play instead. Make them happy, Bluesman.
If you measure your success by the size of the crowd rather than the quality of the music you can make, it's not likely you will, in your eyes, ever succeed because the crowd will never be big enough to satisfy your megalomania. That instantly sets loose the mind weevils because whatever you do won't be good enough.
However, if your success is measured by the ability to make the best music you can achieve, the size of the crowd won't matter because attendance by anyone is vindication it's a good sound. That not everyone gets it is something you understand by that point is always in the territory in music.
The performance side of things is hitting the rocks and the biggest killer in selling the Galaxy Guitar is what if it's some shredder who buys it. The Galaxy Guitar would hate that as shredding is an abomination against the emotion and soul of music. It's not absolute the music is finished but it's extremely difficult to play.
As to shredding, way back, my wife and I took up square dancing for a while. It's pleasant and colorful with good people. I sucked as a dancer so my wife figured, well, maybe at least that two-left-feet bozo can do this. That worked out fine and it was a pleasant time.
To make square dancing a horror movie, introduce competition. The tempo for the dances goes up and the tension in the room goes stratospheric. The feeling of Americana in the square dancing is blown right out the barn door and it's just a deadly vibe of I must win.
How about hitting you with a hammer so you get the point of that li'l scribe.
Note: I'm aware square dancing isn't really American but is one of the oldest forms of dance but this is the American flavor of it and this aspect is unique.
In fact, shredding is precisely the kind of reason Krautrock was invented in the first place: German musicians were so fed-up with English / U.S. guitar bands. That was part of the genius of Prince in that what he did was always more than a guitar band. Given his immense skill with guitar, it's remarkable to see his restraint in how little he really opens it up and Let's Go Crazy. Prince was huge in Germany and Cat has seen his shows four times.
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