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The latest from here....
August, 2010:
Hollywood Movies, Anyone?...
Got into an interesting, indeed revealing, conversation the other day -- about movies.
Three solidly blue-collar guys and I were just killing time, talking about our weekends just past. I would guess the ages ran from around 22 to around 55 or so, probably none had any college education of which to speak, but (as we all know) education is no sine qua non of intelligence....
One guy mentioned that he'd seen a great movie over the weekend. He rents DVDs, and apparently will often simply pick one up based on the cover or title -- or simple whim -- essentially taking a flyer on a completely unknown commodity.
He said this one film had actually "touched" him. He reported in a soft voice that it had got to him so deeply that afterwards he'd phoned a good friend to tell him about it as well. It had nearly brought this macho Latino workingman to tears, he admitted to us. (That revelation in itself, in this kind of company, can easily open one to ridicule. But we were caught up in the sincerity of the emotion he showed, and held off on the cheap shots.)
One of the others, upon hearing him speak so respectfully about the film, asked if it simply "hit home" on some events in his own life. But he said no, that wasn't the case at all; it was just that the story and acting was so "real" and "honest" -- his words -- that it deeply affected him and made him think about life.
My own comment was to note, "Well that's not a Hollywood movie"
To which he responded, "It's not?".
"No."
"Where is it from?"
"Damned if I know," I answered.
They all looked at me quizzically.
"I mean I don't know the movie, or anything else about it," I continued, "but it's not a movie made here in Hollywood."
The guy who'd seen it asked, "How do you know?"
I paused before responding, to give full force to my words. "Because it touched you", I answered. "Because it actually affected you. Hollywood movies don't do that."
They each were silent for a moment, before all three nodded in unanimous agreement.
The name of the movie we were talking about isn't important. (And, for the record, it indeed isn't a Hollywood film.)
But the insight we unfortunately all recognized as true is....
July, 2010:
Myspace/Yerspace, Twitter Twaddle, Face Book and Spamo-rama
I signed up fer all o' them things -- just so's anyone stuck with my name elsewhere won't hafta worry himself (herself?) about getting mixed up with me.
But I'll be damned if I'm a-gonna actually INFLICT these presumptuous things on people. Oh, sure, when there's actually something potentially interesting I'll send out an email -- and the email list I've gathered over the years is right around 5,000 names long.
But "social networking"? As they say in Hollywood -- where everyone DOES social network and nobody has enough cajones to say "yes" or "no" -- I'll just "pass".
Just ain't real crazy about bein' a self-appointed "star" whose every fart or trip to the laundromat merits anyone else's attention.
Maybe that'll change when one o' my ships does come in, though -- so fair warning to everyone. And I got a whole fleet of boats out there right now, as a matter of fact, headin' back into harbor.
Names?
Well, there's the Exxon Valdez -- that's one o' my ships that's a-comin' in. And the Titanic -- gonna make a bundle when she docks, that's fer sure. There's the Edmund Fitzgerald. And believe it or not, I'm actually the major backer of the Battleship U.S.S. Maine! And there's the Lusitania -- got a lot of money invested in her, I'll tell ya....
So when they all start a-comin' in, prepare yerself for me to begin spamming everyone to death....
June, 2010:
My Acquiescent New Partner an' Me
Just finished writing a new song -- with my new songwriting collaborator! Yep, that's right -- I collaborated! My partner on this one is named Billy B. Yeats -- although you educated folks might know him better by his full name, William Butler Yeats, born 1865, died 1939; winner of the 1923 Nobel Prize in Literature. I adapted a poem of his entitled "He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" into a song -- and he was really easy to work with, too. We agreed on pretty much everything.
All smart-alecky humor aside, the effort brings up interesting points -- matters I've been discussing with friends yesterday and today. (First off, understand that the poem is in the public domain -- meaning the copyright has expired, and so it can indeed be legally worked with. That's not an issue.)
But how much fidelity must one -- should one -- maintain when adapting an extant work -- especially a work by one of the true great lions of literature?
"You imply you altered his words, Michael?!?"
I sure did. Not many, of course -- if I'd thought it'd require major surgery the notion of adapting it would've never occurred to me in the first place. But a few minor alterations were warranted -- in fact, I (perhaps arrogantly?) assert, arguable improvements. Certainly to the end of making the material work as a song. So there.
"Well, you can't do that! How dare you!"
That's pretty much the reaction -- friendly reaction, because I was talking with friends, after all -- I got from most (though notably not all) folks with English literature degrees.
My musician and songwriting friends were much less alarmist, however. Indeed, they were more puzzled at my concern -- implying both that they trusted my taste and ability AND that they were nonplussed there should be any real trepidation on my part.
Ultimately, though, it comes down to the quality of the work, doesn't it? I mean, an adaptation means exactly that, doesn't it? One is adapting an extant work from one medium into another. And, in this case -- because many people mistakenly think that poetry and song lyrics are one and the same -- an extra layer of suspicion is easily imputed to an effort that doesn't retain the exact language of the source material. "Why not just use the poem exactly as written?" (Of course, that's pretty much the avenue always taken by those turning extant poems into "art songs" -- this poem by Yeats has been adapted to that end at least 19 times in the past 111 years (!) -- but frankly, to my thinking that approach is one of the things that usually renders such material rather anemic.)
The answer (again) is that poetry and lyrics are not, in fact, indistinguishable -- lyrics that sound good in a song often read like lead-footed doggerel. And poetry simply piled on top of a score usually ends up so UN-musical -- think airy "parlor song" -- that any real guts inherent in the text, potential or realized, have been completely obliterated. Nothing is truly sacrosanct -- if it is, it becomes ossified (cf "opera"....)
So does my work with Billy Yeats measure up? Have I maintained fidelity both to the intent and insight of the poem AND the simple poetic musicality of the writing -- indeed, further, have I actually ADDED to them? Have I turned William Butler Yeats' poem into a legitimately affecting and intrinsically meritorious song?
My simple answer is a firm "yes". I certainly believe so -- and less confidence in the resultant adaptation would be cause for concern and re-thinking the undertaking. But you can decide for yourself when "Ashmore's Store" is finally a finished CD. (Hey, maybe I AM clueless -- if so, this'll give ya evidence!)
"The Cloths of Heaven" is a very short song, playing just shy of 1:20 long -- in the first-draft, scratch-track version that is. (And writing it coming right on the heels of 27-minute long "All in the Timing", too! Hmm, I wonder if there's some kinda "middle ground" in between there somewheres....)
May, 2010:
"All in the Timing: A Hollywood Romance in Seven Chapters"
Yesterday we finished recording a scratch track version of a song I wrote a while back called "All in the Timing: A Hollywood Romance in Seven Chapters". And it times out to be 26:45 long. That's right, twenty-six minutes and forty-five seconds. That's without any instrumental break or extended jam or whatever -- no, just cram-packed with lyrics: ideas, observations, references, allusions, questions and digressions. It's in 6/8 time (which for non-musicians means it's a somewhat unusual -- not at all rare, understand, but unusual -- time signature) in the key of E, with two key changes (to F# and to A) along the way.
Almost five-hundred lines of lyrics -- down from an original, first-draft of over a thousand. Wrote it up over several days in a cheap Paris hotel -- well, as "cheap" as a hotel in Paris can be, anyway.
I don't believe anyone's ever written anything quite like this before -- though admittedly, what the hell do I know? (And if not, maybe there's a REASON no one's ever written something like his before, eh?...)
There's references and allusions to everything from Isaac Newton's Third Law of Motion to blackface minstrelsy to the French Foreign Legion to the failed invasion of England in 1588 by the Invincible Spanish Armada; from Marty Robbins' great song "El Paso" to the operas of Giacomo Puccini to Buck Owens' great song "I've Got a Tiger by the Tail"; the films "The Gods Must Be Crazy", "La Ronde", "The Lady from Shanghai" and "City Lights"; historic and mythic personages from Plato to Muhammad Ali to Diogenes to the Lone Ranger to Ulysses to Albert Einstein -- and from Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire to Ferdinand and Isabella to Barbie and Ken; the poems "Evangeline", "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" and "The Charge of the Light Brigade", painters from Heironymous Bosch to Andy Warhol; books from "One Hundred Years of Solitude" to "The Little Engine That Could". And all kinds of show-biz insider jargon, of course -- I mean it's subtitled "A Hollywood Romance", after all....
But of course, this is a song, not a novel -- most of the allusions are just that: quick passing references used to illustrate points being made.
We'll record an old friend of mine, the brilliant drummer Roy Blumenfeld, who used to be in the bands the Blues Project and Seatrain back when, up in Marin County in early June. I'm really looking forward to getting with him and putting his sure-to-be-exciting efforts on this unusual song.
Not sure what the final instrumentation will be on this behemoth -- and when yer dealing with a song this long, it's really pretty much uncharted territory. Bob Dylan's longest songs, for instance, all turn out to be under 12 minutes -- and those are all slow ballads: "Joey", "Desolation Row" and "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands". This song, "All in the Timing", just races along like a freight train. So it's a-gonna be interesting!
April, 2010:
Fightin' 'Em With Yer Wallet
I have a "Principled Boycott List" of six companies I simply WILL NOT patronize under ANY circumstances. I'll pass along the idea here, and maybe folks clicking by can consider doing likewise themselves.
The point is that for anyone to actually function in America, this selfishness-run-amok land that continues to drift farther and farther to the right and make life tougher and tougher for honest working people, we can't just boycott ALL the slimeballs and criminals who are destroying the country. But we CAN each pick a few who are the worst offenders -- our "Principled Boycott List" -- and never make a single exception to our promise to never spend a single penny there, no matter what the circumstance.
But my "rules" are that ya can't just pick places you'd never go anyway. No, that's not fair. There has to be some actual determination displayed in adhering to your personal principled list. And the list has to be written in big flaming letters in your mind and heart, so you don't slip up or forget.
So who's on my list? Number One is easy, of course: Walmart. (Can we all just shout out together here, on the count of three -- one, two, three: FUCK WALMART! Feel better? Me too.) But there ain't no Walmart near me, so it doesn't take any extra effort for me to avoid 'em.
Some of the others do, though. Filling out my own Principled Boycott List are Home Depot, McDonald's, Starbucks, Whole Foods and Guitar Center. (The two closest supermarkets to where I live now, for instance, are BOTH Whole Foods. And I refuse, even if to buy an emergency quart of milk, to set foot into either one of 'em. Guitar Center, the most rapacious musical instrument marketer around, is also the closest music store to me. But they don't see my face, either -- even for a set of strings.) Every one of these companies is not just mildly, but VIRULENTLY anti-union, for starters. And most all of them operate in ruthlessly, predatory and monopolistic fashion. These companies are NOT helping to build a better America -- they want an America of a few very rich and everyone else forced to buy at the company store. Some, like Home Depot and Whole Foods, don't even hide that they're run by profound and vocal right-wing extremists.
So boycott Starbucks! Go to the mom-and-pop coffee shop down the road -- and if there isn't a family-owned place, choose a smaller corporate competitor. Sure, the competitor may indeed be just as politically pernicious as Starbucks, but they're smaller.
Got the picture? Good. If you like the idea and are so-inclined, email me your own Principled Boycott List. Pick five -- and never ever give in. NO EXCUSES! Just put it in your mind that they don't even exist -- that they aren't an option under any circumstances. I'd love to learn who in other folks' minds are the Worst of the Worst. We can't stop fighting the reactionaries, scumbags, racists, homophobes and anti-union exploiters -- and every day, with every penny, we collectively have the power to eventually wear 'em down and crush 'em.
March, 2010:
Sisyphus Pushes the Rock
Work continues on this seemingly never-ending recording of songs for the next album, "Ashmore's Store". But we are (believe it or not) getting into the home stretch. In fact, we have too many songs -- most all of 'em originals I wrote up over the past several whenevers. Gonna hafta pick and choose which and what to put on here -- could make two whole albums with the songs we've got in various stages of completion. Not sure if that's what ya call "an embarrassment of riches" or "a mess"!....
February, 2010:
"Wildwood Flower"
I recorded three abbreviated versions of that country and bluegrass standard known to most as "Wildwood Flower", written by Alvin Pleasant "A.P." Carter of the Carter Family o my first album, Red River Redux. But I didn't pay one penny in royalties to Peer International Music, the holder of the copyright to Carter's song.
Why not? Wasn't I supposed to?
Oh yeah. Legally.
So why didn't I?
Because A.P. Carter DIDN'T WRITE "Wildwood Flower"! And furthermore, the US Copyright office should NEVER have issued a copyright for the song in the first place!
"What the hell are ya talkin' about, Michael?" ya may be thinkin' to yerself.
"I'll Twine 'Mid the Ringlets" was written by Maud Irving (lyrics) and J.P. Webster (music) in 1860. (Truth be told, it's also a better tune than the eventual derivative version recorded by the Carter Family in the famous Bristol, Virginia, sessions in 1927.) I won't go into all the convoluted specifics of the history of the song here -- pre- and post-Webster and Irving -- but suffice it to note that the law makes quite clear that once a song has gone out of copyright -- once the original copyright has expired, the work is in the public domain AND REMAINS THERE IN PERPETUITY.
A.P. Carter? He simply picked up a tune and words as they became known to folks there in the deep backwoods -- handed down and traveled back into the hinterlands -- and claimed it as his own. Perhaps he indeed added to the extant song -- Carter's ability can not be denied and should not be disparaged. The Carter Family were, simply, brilliant.
Webster and Irving's copyright? It had expired years before -- the song and its remnants, bastardized, adapted, re-worked and de-constructed, were free to everyone.
If I see ya around, ask me about the history of this seminal song. I did quite a bit of research on it those couple of years back -- so that even the fellow there at the Library of Congress American Folklife Center asked me to give 'em a copy of the work, since I'd come upon stuff that turned out to be wholly unknown previously.
But if A.P. were still around, hell I'd certainly buy him a beer!
January, 2010:
Another song from the upcoming album:
"A Filled-Out Shirt"
© Copyright 2009 by Michael Koppy. All Rights Reserved.
My Momma came and told me back when I was just a boy,
She said, "Find yourself a rich girl, so a good life you'll enjoy".
But Daddy said, "No, find a gal who sews and cleans and cooks".
Said "And son, that's more important than her clothes or how she looks".
But I just want a girl with a filled-out shirt -- long, long legs and a short, short skirt.
My sister said, "I got a friend, who you just gotta meet".
But dang that gal was homely, from her hair down to her feet.
Now, why does everybody always think they know the best?
They keep on bringin' over Wicked Witches of the West.
And I just want a girl with a filled-out shirt -- long, long legs and a short, short skirt.
My uncle said, "I'm givin' up, you're just too hard to please".
But hell, I'll take American, French, Greek -- or Red Chinese!
If folks'd simply listen, then we'd get this problem whipped.
An' I ain't a-wastin' no more time on gals don't come fully-equipped.
I want a girl with a filled-out shirt -- long, long legs and a short, short skirt.
My teacher said, "Now just hold on, an' I'll give you a tip,
Find a girl with brains, a girl who's smart as a whip".
But who cares if she's smart, or if she's dumber than me?
What gets me titillated ain't no PhD....
My Preacher said, "Now look her, son, I think you're kinda odd.
But I'm gonna introduce you to a girl who's right with God".
I appreciate the offer, sir, but I know where to search,
An' my gal's dancin' in a strip club 'fore she's prayin' in some church.
Yeah, I just want a girl with a filled-out shirt -- long, long legs and a short, short skirt.
Oh, give me a girl who's a-bustin' out her vest -- with sky-high heels and a short, short dress.
December, 2009:
Oh Yeah? Well Merry MoFo Xmas to You Too, Pal....
We shot an "X-mas video card" to email out for 2009, but danged if I just couldn't get around to editing it in time. So who knows, maybe it'll go out around Presidents Day? July 4th? Or hell, maybe NEXT X-mas. (So set yer spam-catcher accordingly....)
November, 2009:
So Where Ya' Actually Playin' AT these Days?...
Not out performing much here in LA -- it's kinda the World Capital of both "pay to play" (meaning you guarantee a certain size paying audience shows up -- or pay the difference to the house!) and of everyone (simply EVERYONE) constantly hyping, hyping, hyping, networking, networking, networking, selling, selling, selling. Then ya add in the requirement for vacuous, smarmy "positive vibes" in return -- and YEE-OWW. Now me, I'm just too demanding a critic -- of my own stuff and other folks' -- to glad-hand everyone who bangs away on a guitar singing their um, "poetry", so we can all, er, "love" each other's work. (Digression: ever wanna find out if someone throwin' ya compliments is sincere or not, jus' ask 'em what they DON'T like an' see if they squirm....)
I mean, good and fine; on balance there's no doubt it's good to see folks tryin' to create new things instead of just home watching TV -- even if most all the "tryin", here in LA anyway, is undertaken solely for the real and steely-eyed objective of attaining "celebrityhood". But that's The Entertainment Industry for ya, right there in a nutshell....
October, 2009:
A song from the upcoming album:
"River"
© Copyright 2009 by Michael Koppy. All Rights Reserved.
River, show me how to float.
The current's strong and I devote
All my strength fightin' the tide;
Though I don't know if I still even want all that lies there on the far side.
River, show me how to float.
Mountain, tell me what you know,
Beneath the mist and clouds below,
Of wrong turns I made but didn't see.
And roads that led astray from bein' the man my momma prayed I'd be.
Mountain, tell me what you know.
Oak tree, teach me one more time
Which limbs to trust and how to climb.
I promise now, if you agree,
To re-ignite the drive that still remains alive here within me.
Please oak tree, teach me one last time.
Woman, remind me how to love.
This patient heart's seen just too much of
Plans that never stood the chance.
Is there still time to find the blessing of sweet divine deliverance?
Woman, if you remind me...
We'll float down this river and break free;
Slowly past the mountain and that oak tree;
And at last into the welcoming warm sea.
Drift out into the wide red-orange sunset;
The laughing waves baptizing our regret;
As dolphins leap into the fading sunlight;
Before the diamond stars cast themselves, shotgunned out, across the night.
September, 2009:
"A Good Bank"
Just finished up some work on a song I wrote a while back -- a tender, sentimental love ballad to the small-town American way of life that don't exist no more. It's called "A Good Bank" -- and what with all the economic hardships this country is in these days -- hell, HAS BEEN IN since that idiot scumbag Reagan and his acolytes sent the nation reeling headlong in the wrong direction -- it seemed to me that I should do more than just be a whiner, and bring some real answers to the table.
The whole title of the song is "A Good Bank: The Financial Institution / Anarchist Solution Talkin' Blues". Yep, a talkin' blues. And extolling the virtues of an actual, honest-god's-truth Good Bank, too.
It could even become a useful tool when one of those "teachable moments" about the economy come up in life -- like when someone realizes they'll never be able to pay off the parasitic credit card debt that keeps 'em enslaved. Or when hard-workin' folks lose the homes they put all their dreams and sweat into.
And anyway, how many songs have ya ever heard that have the pivotal plot point bein' ten sticks of dynamite?...
August, 2009:
` Pedal Steel Guitar with Norm Hamlet
Just got back from Bakersfield, where we recorded Mr Norman Hamlet on pedal steel guitar for three tracks on this when-the-hell-is-it-finally-going-TO-BE-DONE second album.
Norm Hamlet is, of course, one of the pre-eminent pedal steel players in the world, and has been Merle Haggard's band leader for 38 years now. He DOESN'T record with other songwriters -- but I guess we caught him in the right mood, with the right songs.
[He's on the full-band version of "One Great Mornin' (The South's Gonna Rise Again)", among others -- that's the song ya may recall The San Francisco Chronicle called "an ultra-left wing Confederate call to arms."
So I told him this was his penance -- his "atonement", finally -- for playing all those years ago on Merle's "Okie From Muskogee" and "The Fightin' Side of Me"! He laughed good-naturedly.]
It was as much fun just talking shop with Norman Hamlet as it was working out the parts during the session.
The pieces, the tracks, are comin' together for "Ashmore's Store" -- that's the name of the upcoming album. One thing for sure is that it's a-gonna be one hell of a collection of songs, folks -- no filler! The more we get the pieces to fall into place, the more convinced I am that we're building something memorable here. I'll be surprised if most folks won't agree.
Catch y'all on down the two-lane road....
Michael
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