Lif Strand: Putting it out there

Lif Strand: Putting it out there: It seems to me that the more you put your wishes out into the world, the more likely they are to come true. Can't hurt, can it? Besides...

Real music, real Magick

A lot of music today … [the] living energy has become sanitized.
~ Jimmy Page, 2009 interview with Neil McCormick

One of the characteristics of stage magic is the use of distraction so you won’t see what’s really going on. While the coin is being retrieved from an ear or a woman is being sawed in half, the magician’s hands are constantly moving, cards are being flipped from a distance to fly through the air, the sexy assistant moves things around the stage. The stage is set in deep shadows and bright lights. Swirling capes and smoke and mirrors mask and distort what you see so that you only see what the magician intends for you to see.

The idea is to misdirect your attention. You aren't supposed to notice that there is engineering used to create the trick that leads to the "magic".

There is nothing Magick about it, of course.

Now consider this: How much of what I have just described would also describe today’s music performances, onstage or video? Spotlights and smoke, explosions and flashing lights. Bizarre hair and makeup, risqué costumes and stage sets that mask and distort. Giant display screens to make sure you are looking at exactly what you should be, so that your attention is directed away from the music itself.

At the very core of this phenomenon is the sorry fact that there's very little Magick to most of the music out there these days. Oh, it's entertaining all right. There might even be some catchy tunes. But is it great music or is it the aural equivalent of junk food?

The full quote from the Jimmy Page interview of 2009 is this: " A lot of music today, they work electronically, tidying everything up, but that living energy has become sanitized. In Led Zeppelin we managed to do some of those major albums in three weeks. People today can't understand that. It's beyond them."

When it comes straight from the soul, creativity can flow from the musician with no need for the help of visual diversion. When you, the audience, eliminate the bells and whistles, the lights and distractions, does the music you listen to have the living energy - the Magick - that will make it worth listening to for the next fifty years?

A steady diet of junk food will eventually kill you. I'm pretty sure a steady diet of sanitized, junk music will eventually shrivel your soul. How's that for food for thought?

Neil McCormick interview of Jimmy Page 2009

Neil McCormick in May 2014:  Do you really need me to tell you how good they are? We’ve been listening to this music for more than 40 years and it never gets old.

Rant: Is it fact or is it mindlessness?

Develop your own character in your creation...
~ paraphrased from Jimmy Page's 2014 Berklee commencement ceremony speech

I do a good amount of research for my writing, and one of the biggest frustrations I have is sorting facts from most of the crap that's out there in the world.  It is my aim to convey my own conclusions rather than regurgitate someone else's when I write, so when I read articles like http://ultimateclassicrock.com/led-zeppelin-champagne/ I can't help but grind my teeth at yet another article written by someone who apparently has no thoughts of his own and therefore dares not actually write about anything useful. Jeff Giles' piece is an example of what makes me crazy about media these days.

I call it mindless pap. It's the kind of media output that does not require the engagement of brain cells.

In this article, Mr. Giles describes how "Zeppelin’s backstage behavior painted them as profligate prima donnas", yet the only backstage behavior he describes is that of "the manager", who is never named.  That aside, if the article was about how poorly behaved the band was wouldn't it have been more to the point to talk about the band itself? Were any of the four musicians actually in the room when the unnamed manager had his tantrum?  If we only had Mr. Giles' article to learn from, we'd never know, would we?  If any of the band members -- the prima donnas -- were present, wouldn't their response to the champagne throwing (not spilling, I'd say) be more to the point of the article than what Peter Grant was doing? Didn't even one of the supposed prima donnas snag a bottle to drink for himself?  It boggles the mind to think they were all standing around not noticing what was going on.

Mr. Giles never did come up with any example of the band's alleged prima donna behavior.  In fact, Mr. Giles only describes the band's onstage behavior -- which he presents in a manner that leans more towards level-headedness than anything else, not to mention the quite realistic acknowledgement by Jimmy Page of the source of the money that was paying for everything: the fans.  

I don't mean to imply that I think that Led Zeppelin were saints because would be absurd. My beef is that an article about Led Zeppelin as prima donnas would have been interesting -- but that's not what this one was about. And thus my teeth gnashing: As with so much these days that passes for news or factually based infomation, what we get is little more than mindless copy-and-paste of other mindless non-information.

As basic reporting, the article sucks. As research, it sucks, too. Even as fiction it sucks. Not that I have a strong opinion about it, mind you.

Now I'm going to go back to listening to music. I'll feel better in a moment, thank you.

A big little dream

“…when you've discovered your true will you should just forge ahead like a steam train.”
~ Jimmy Page, 1977, quoted by George Case in Jimmy Page: Magus, Musician, Man: An Unauthorized Biography

Hey, a girl can dream, can't she? In fact, she should.

No. Just... no.

"Field Day organisers start petition to get Jimmy Page to perform with Run The Jewels"

That's the headlines on NME News today and it makes me cringe for so many reasons.

It's all about money on Field Day's part, isn't it? It's not about good music or a super group is it? It's about raking in the bucks. For Field Day.

It's not about music, I repeat. A real "super group" isn't just made of big names. It's made of super musicians who have proven themselves through superior performance over time. Run The Jewels hasn't earned their stripes. They're only two years old, babies in the world of real music. Heck, one of them isn't even really a musician, in my book.

Then there's this petition business. If all it took to get Jimmy Page to perform on stage was a petition, I say let's start one to get him to record an album of his own work and go on tour by the end of this year, as he's been teasing us with. Now that would be worth collecting signatures for.

But wait - I've got a better idea! I'm going to start a petition to get Jimmy Page to perform a concert in my living room. Why not?

Petition Jimmy Page to do something he hasn't decided to do on his own? It boggles the mind.

Let The Master Be Your Music

Because why not.

Physical Graffiti: Houses of the Holy (remaster alternate mix)

Ear-worms, Redux

I often wake up in the morning with music in my head. I don't always notice it right away.  I can go for hours with music on replay in my head before I realize what I'm doing.  Sometimes I also realize I can't identify what I've been hearing and let me tell you, that drives me nuts.

You would think that if it's a Led Zeppelin song - which it generally is - that I would immediately recognize it. But sometimes it's just a short musical phrase that's become an ear-worm through repetition. Sometimes there are no lyrics involved and I just cannot for the life of me pinpoint which song it's from. Not that lyrics would help.

I've said it before: I'm not into lyrics (I'm not into poetry either and I don't apologize for it). Not only do I not pay attention to the words of a song, I usually don't even understand them when I do pay attention. When it comes to music, words are simply musical sounds, like the notes of a guitar. This means that even if what I'm hearing in my head over and over and over has got a vocal line, I still don't always know what the words are.

I know, craziness. But truly, I hear the words as musical sounds, and I just can't put meaning to the words unless I really work to reconstruct them.

It would be so much easier if I could carry a tune. I've tried singing the melodic streams out loud. The dogs howl. The horses flee. Heck, I don't want to listen to that noise. 

I don't really care, anyway. There just doesn't seem to be a cross-over for me between music and words. Music communicates in a different way than words do. These ear-worms really bring home to me how the two come from different places in the brain - and the soul.

Meanwhile, when I stopped fretting over it the name of the song popped right into my head.

Ten Years Gone
Jimmy Page and The Black Crowes, Live at the Greek