This is a forum in which readers can express their thoughts on new or old albums and particular musicians. If you'd like to submit a review, contact Paul Szpunar ahvia@umich.edu.
Reviewed by Paul Szpunar
1994 was a successful year for Collective Soul. Based largely on the success of the single "Shine" their debut album hints allegations and things left unsaid was a big hit, they won a gig opening for Aerosmith in the summer, and they were invited
to play at Woodstock '95 to a very supportive crowd. Still, many people have still not "heard" of this band.
Their self-titled followup album should win over a large number of fans; it is a solid effort from top to bottom. Immediately obvious is the improved quality of production over the debut album. hints was literally recorded in a basement and Atlan
tic Records released it without polishing it up very much. After the success of the debut Atlantic evidently spent some money to ensure high quality production on the the new record, and it shows. The rhythmn section is crisp and punchy; the overall sou
nd is spacious without sounding hollow, particularly on the moodier, more laidback tracks.
The songwriting continues in the style set on hints; there are no big surprises. Although they don't break any new territory, the songs are well done and thoughtful. Their influences include such artists as the Beatles, older Fleetwood Mac and
John Lennon's solo work. The songs range from upbeat rock ("Simple", "Gel") to introspective ballads ("Reunion", "December").
Perhaps the most entertaining aspect of the album is the creativity of the individual performances. Roland possesses a dynamic voice and he changes the tone, range, and overall sound of his voice to create particular moods and auras, blending well with t
he accompanying music to create an effect that is nearly hypnotic. Lead guitarist Ross Childress performs the same feat with his guitar work, experimenting with different tones, effects, and chord structures. His solos are not blazing examples of finger
exercises, but instead are carefully crafted pieces that embellish the songs without sounding out of place. His solo on "She Gathers Rain" is his best effort, a passionate, tension laden composition in itself.
Collective Soul is currently (March, April, May) on tour with Van Halen, an opportunity that should expose them to new fans. Collective Soul is an extremely good album by a talented young band, and is certainly worth checking out.
Granados
by Peter Saint-Andre (psaintandre@mcimail.com)
first published in Full Context, May 1994
Melody. Lyricism. Passion. If these are some of the qualities you look
for in music, I recommend to you the music of Enrique Granados, in
my opinion the greatest of the Spanish Romantic composers.
Granados is one of those great masters of his art who had the
misfortune, at least as far as criticism goes, of having lived and worked
near the end of the Romantic era. These creators, the ranks of whom
include the likes of Edmond Rostand in drama, Joaquin Sorolla in
painting, and Daniel Chester French and Augustus Saint Gaudens in
sculpture, have been cruelly ignored by twentieth century critics, who
have exulted in the triumph of non-representational painting and
sculpture, serial music, free verse, and the anti-hero, and who have
spurned all art that does not fit with their vision of modernism as the
historical telos of art. Yet there was great and worthy art created in the
decades before things really fell apart after World War I - decades that
concided with the rise of modernism, and that therefore are most
subject to modernist art-historical revisionism of the kind the
Communists used to inflict in politics (even up to the literal erasing of
characters from the historical record). Granados was one of their
victims.
As a composer, Granados dedicated himself almost exclusively to the
piano, as Chopin had done before him. Indeed, Chopin was a great
hero to Granados. And there is some truth in calling Granados "the
Spanish Chopin", for his music possesses a Chopinesque passion and
tenderness, as well as some of the same virtuosity. But Granados
brings something new to music: a specifically Mediterranean joy in
living, a musical analogue of the kind of sunshine that you can see in
paintings by Joaquin Sorolla. For me, the music of Granados, even
when tinged with melancholy, is a music of almost pure joy. Granados
did not express this joyous sense of life with the raw directness of
Spanish folk music, however: he sublimated it, worked it over and over,
and through his prodigous art forged it into something deeply refined.
We are fortunate in our day to have an pianist who is the interpretive
equal of this aristocratic music in its compositional color and sense of
life: the Spanish pianist Alicia De Larrocha. What Artur Rubenstein
was for Chopin, De Larrocha has been for Granados (and for the
music of the Spanish Romantics generally): the one who saved the
composer from his interpreters, who showed that the pieces were not
salon trifles but compositions of rare depth and power. My
recommendation to you, if you want to hear the music of Granados at
its best, is to listen to the recordings of his music made by Alicia De
Larrocha, many of which are readily available.
You might start with the "Danzas Espanolas", four sets of dances that
are quite immediately accessible. Other beautiful collections include
his "Seis Piezas Sobre Cantos Populares Espanoles" and his
"Escenas Romanticas". Probably the one consistent virtuoso favorite
from among his works is the "Allegro de Concierto", a fiendishly
difficult piece that nonetheless is available in many recorded versions.
Granados' crowning achievement is his suite "Goyescas", written in
the period 1912-1914 and inspired by his lifelong love of the paintings
of the Spanish painter Francisco Goya. On completing this
extraordinary suite he was just beginning to find his true voice in
music, and soon afterward was quoted as saying "I have a world of
ideas. I am filled with enthusiasm to work more and more."
Unfortunately for us, he was to create very little else. On a visit to
America in 1916, he was asked to stay on and play for the President.
He cancelled his return passage and arranged for later travel. After
safely crossing the Atlantic, he boarded the S.S. Sussex for passage
across the English Channel. En route, the Sussex was torpedoed by a
German navy boat. According to witnesses, Granados did make it
onto a life raft, but saw his wife struggling in the water and leapt in to
save her. He drowned in the attempt to save his highest value, and the
world lost a great composer. Despite his cruel demise at an early age
(all too often the fate of great composers, it seems), we at least can
appreciate the works he was able to create in his lifetime, and marvel at
what more he might have written. Listen and enjoy!
Songs of Freedom
by Peter Saint-Andre (psaintandre@mcimail.com)
first published in Full Context, September 1993
The rock group Rush is the most famous libertarian band in the
world, and justifiably so. Their drummer and lyricist, Neil Peart, was
heavily influenced by Ayn Rand, they recorded a song entitled
"Anthem" and an album (2112) not so loosely based on Ayn
Rand's Anthem, and their records even get reviewed in Objectivist
publications such as Full Context(1/90 and 6/92). But there are
other popular musicians who sing songs of freedom, one of the best
of whom was the Jamaican reggae singer Bob Marley, who died in
1981. He was probably the most famous popular artist to come out
of the Third World, and almost certainly the most consistent in his
celebration of freedom. The recent release of a four-CD retrospective
of Marley's career -- entitled, appropriately enough, Songs of
Freedom -- gives us the opportunity to evaluate his life's work.
As with most popular singers, Bob Marley's songs cover many
subjects (especially love, of course), but one thing that distinguishes
Marley from the others is his many overtly political songs (he is
similar in this respect to Bob Dylan). Another distinguishing
characteristic is that much of Marley's music and thought is bound
up with the religion of Rastafari. However, the essence of Rasta
(which Marley once said means "righteousness") is substantially
political, so that the themes of Rasta and politics are often intertwined
in Marley's music.
Marley's earlier political songs are mostly protests against the
system. Consider these lines from the song "Slave Driver": "Every
time I hear the crack of a whip my blood runs cold/I remember on
the slave ship how they brutalized the very souls/Today they say that
we are free/Only to be chained in poverty". Or these from "Concrete
Jungle", a song about life in a government housing project:
"Concrete jungle, where the living is hardest/Man, you've got to do
your best/No chains around my feet but I'm not free/I know I am
bound here in captivity". Or these from "Rebel Music (Three
O'Clock Road Block)": "Why can't we roam this open country/Why
can't we be what we want to be/We want to be free".
Another of Marley's early protest songs is "I Shot the Sheriff",
which is probably the most famous reggae song ever written (Eric
Clapton's cover of the song hit number one on the U.S. charts in
1974). Despite the title, the song is not a musical ancestor of trash
like the rap tune "Cop Killer" -- instead it's a cheeky song about a
killing done in self-defense, whose refrain runs "I shot the sheriff,
but I did not shoot the deputy". And even though the lyrics make it
clear that the sheriff was the aggressor, Marley still takes
responsibility for the deed by proclaiming "If I am guilty, I will
pay!"
Later in his career, Marley's songs became more than mere protest
songs, and even evidenced an understanding of the causes of political
problems. In "Revolution", he sings: "Never make a politician grant
you a favor/They will always want to control you forever". In "War",
he expounds on why the world is filled with conflict: "Until the
philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is
finally and permanently discredited and abandoned/Until there are no
longer first class and second class citizens of any nation/Until the
color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his
eyes/Until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all
without regard to race/There's war". Yet Marley is not anti-Western
in his denunciation of injustice -- he explicitly mentions "the ignoble
and unhappy regimes that hold our brothers in Angola, in
Mozambique, South Africa", which must be "toppled" and "utterly
destroyed" if war is to vanish.
One of my favorite Marley songs, and one expressing his belief in
human rights for all, is "Get Up Stand Up" (which Amnesty
International uses as its unofficial anthem). What I like about it is its
secularism, and at the same time its insistence that you demand your
rights. Here are some representative lines: "Most people think great
god will come from the sky, take away everything and make
everybody feel high/But if you know what life is worth you will look
for yours on earth/And now when you see the light, stand up for
your right/Get up stand up, stand up for your right/Get up stand up,
don't give up the fight/Life is your right, so don't give up the fight".
Another of Marley's paeans to freedom is "Redemption Song",
which is unique for Marley in its use of simple acoustic guitar and
voice. In it, he sings "Emancipate yourselves from mental
slavery/None but ourselves can free our minds/Have no fear for
atomic energy/'Cause none of them can stop the time". The chorus
continues in the same vein by exhorting the listener: "Won't you help
to sing these songs of freedom/'Cause all I ever have, redemption
songs, these songs of freedom".
As my references to Rastafari indicate, Bob Marley was certainly no
Objectivist. He believed that the Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia
(whose original name was Ras Tafari Makonnen) was god incarnate.
In accordance with Rastafari, he smoked liberal amounts of ganja
(marijuana), which is probably why he died of cancer at the age of
36. He sang songs like "Thank You Lord" and "Jah [God] Lives"
and "Natural Mystic". But at its best, Bob Marley's music celebrates
and argues for freedom in what I find to be an uplifting and inspiring
way. Of course, music is a very personal matter, and not everyone
appreciates popular music (and even those who do don't necessarily
like reggae or Bob Marley's style). But if this review has caused you
to be intrigued about hearing some of Bob Marley's songs of
freedom, I would recommend to you his albums "Natty Dread",
which I consider to be his best recording, and "Legend", a greatest
hits anthology that includes many of the songs referred to above.
Collective Soul
Collective Soul
Atlantic Records
1995
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