Music Monday: Eldorado, a Symphony by Electric Light Orchestra

Eldorado, a Symphony by Electric Light Orchestra

Now, up until this point, I don't think I've featured any guilty pleasures (well, Omnio is pretty ridiculous). I hope that snobbier music lovers will toss away all their closed-minded stereotypes about ELO. Ignore all those big heads that quickly label them 70's pop crap. Jeff Lynne is one of rock's most dismissed songwriters of the 1970's. Now, it is hard to look past many of the unfortunate stylistic choices he made that seem so dated: excessive vocoders, dense spacey keyboards, and far too much falsetto. For every "Don't bring me down Bruce" though, there is a song like "Can't Get it out of my Head", that is just simply some of the catchiest songwriting since the Beatles.

This album suffers far less of the things that label ELO as "silly", making it a good place to start and for some a good place to stop listening to ELO. Like most classic bands, it with their fourth album that ELO finally found their stride. This was fortunately before Jeff Lynne figured out that he could sell more records if he sang like a girl. They did a flawless job of blending a rock band with an orchestra. Whereas other classics of this style such as Days of Future Passed supplemented their rock songs with short orchestral sections, Eldorado sound like one giant band that happens to have about 30 members. The skillfully dense arrangements are done so well, the more stripped-down songs (if a full rock band with a horn section can be considered stripped-down) such as "Illusions in G Major" just sound weak. That said, this album is strong from start to finish. Easily one of the best albums of the early 70's.

Music Monday: The Low End Theory by A Tribe Called Quest

A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory

This album is proof that hip hop should be considered just as musically artistic as any other style. After their dense, sample laden first album, People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, A Tribe Called Quest stripped down their sound to the bare essentials of hip hop: bass, drums, and poetry. Despite its barren, simplistic sound, it is a melodic, catchy album. Standard jazz samples are mixed with 70's funk and hard rock, all used sparingly to add slight melodic touches that give power to the few hooks of the album. From the opening upright bass line of "Excursions" through to the end, there is not a weak or boring track on the album.

Tribe's primary MC's, Q-tip and Phife dog drop some of their best and catchiest lyrics addressing such issues as date rape, the music industry, street crime, and the artifice of African American style in the early 90's. Q-tip proves that he is the master of riding the beats, choosing to use clever turns of phrase that fit with the groove of the music over speed and verbal dexterity. For those that enjoy such styles, this album also features one of the earliest appearances by a young Busta Rhymes on the hit, "Scenario".

The album seamlessly mixes hip hop and jazz, even enlisting jazz great, Ron Carter, to bass on "Verses from the Abstract". It shows that rap is not a string of profanity over dry boring beats. This is the type of album that can convert hip hop haters to lovers. This may be the greatest hip hop album ever recorded, which is quite a feat considering it is only the second best album a Tribe Called Quest made in their ten year career.

Music Monday: The B-52's

Ah, what joy this album brings. It is hard to praise the artistic merits of this because there is very little. It is an incredibly artistic album for sure. It is just too weird to be anything else. Mixing cheery 60's organ, played poorly, with surf guitar, played poorly, simple drums, with an effeminate man, nasally talking or yelling over the music and two women singing eerie spacey harmonies that just don't quite sound right is some sort of statement...or not. Whatever this is, a work of genius or just the work of a bunch of stoned artists, it is undeniably fun. How could a person not love a song like "Rock Lobster"?

The album should fall apart, but somehow it works and has stood the test of time to be hailed one of the highlights of the New Wave movement. From the avant-garde pop of the opening, "Planet Claire" straight through "Hot Lava" there is not a low point in the first have of the album. Sadly, the second side falls apart as the last few songs lack the infectious catchiness and kitchiness of the first half. A camp masterpiece and definitely worth a spot in any person's cd collection.

All Men are Mortal; Even the Invincible Grisham White

I received the call this morning that was impending for years. After listening to my father's voice mail, telling me there was bad news, I knew from the tone of his voice that somebody had passed away. I wasn't surprised when I found out it was Grandpa White

He was 98 years old, so I can't say as I was shocked by the news. Of course, I am definitely sad about all this. The hardest thing to accept is that I didn't get a chance to see him since I've been back from Australia. I had a couple of chances to make a visit work, but I was always too busy, first trying to find a job, then being stuck in my schedule, trying to make up for all the money I spent over the last year. Since I was for sure coming for Thanksgiving, I wasn't too worried, he'd held on far longer than anyone had expected, so I had no fear that he wouldn't make it another few weeks, long enough that I'd get to spend one more Thanksgiving with him. Sadly, the world does not selfishly go according to ones plans. I'll get over it though; again, I really didn't expect him to live as long as he did.

Grandpa White was the only grandpa I really ever knew. My mom's father died tragically in his forties before I was even born. Though Mamoes has been with her husband for most of my life, he was younger than my dad, so seeing Carlos as my grandpa and not a good friend was a bit difficult.

Grandpa was not really a typical grandpa. I never saw him as a young or even a middle-aged man; he was the ripe age of 72 when I was born. That said, I never saw him as an old man either for many years. Always working long hours on the farm into his late 80's, Grandpa seemed invincible; he existed as living proof that a man's age has no bearing on a person's life. He was an active, hard-working man for nearly his entire long life. I saw this first hand, waking up at 5AM with him to help feed the cattle and learn about life on a farm.

It wasn't until I was an adult that he actually started aging. These last few years have been hard, seeing him as a tiny old man with a slipping memory. Not to say he ever stopped being Grisham White. A couple years ago when he broke his hip and was to never walk again. I came to visit, expecting to see him stuck in a chair, blanket draped over his legs like FDR. Instead, he bounced out of his recliner, no wheel chair, no crutches, no walker, and gave me a big hug. He was an amazing man and to think that he was in end actually mortal is as astounding as his durability. He's been around for nearly 100 years; his stubborness mixed with modern medicine made me believe that he could live for 100 more. Alas, Grandpa was but a man.

I will greatly miss him. For years, I saw my friend's much younger grandparents pass away while Grisham still stacked 60lb haybails in the shed. Few get to know their grandparents as adults. Few get to have their grandparents live into their late 90's and not have their last memories be of them in a hospital bed connected to tubes. The last time I saw grandpa was like any other time I left Missouri, him waving goodbye from the driveway as we hit the road. And this is how he'll always be for me, that loving man who never let age change his actions. The man who sat at his big desk, doing the book every day to Paul Harvey, finishing just in time to hear "the rest of the story". The man who let me curl in his lap on Saturday nights with a big bowl of popcorn. The man who always had to be a part of the conversation, even when he couldn't even hear what was being said.

Grisham White will definately be missed by many. He has long been a pillar of his church of the community. His seat at the Macon High Football games will sit vacant, without the signature big smile and seed hat. As a White in Macon, it was impossible for me to write a check without the clerk telling me to say hi to Grisham for them. I won't be alone in mourning which is comforting in a way. His death will leave a void in world for sure: I can't be the only one who saw him as being invincible.

With love Grandpa, you'll be missed forever.

Music Monday: Here, My Dear by Marvin Gaye

Here, My Dear By Marvin Gaye

Marvin Gaye's 1978 masterpiece went greatly unappreciated and forgotten for nearly twenty years after its release. After debuting at a lukewarm 26 on the Top 40 Albums charts (his last two albums were #2 and #1 hits, both with top 40 singles), Motown just stopped promoting it and left it out of print until 1994. Thankfully, the world saw their error and this album has finally gotten the recognition it deserves.

It is not surprising that nobody knew what to do with such an album. To follow up two of the sexiest make-out albums of all time with a painful, reflective double album about the disintegration of a marriage was a bold move. Marvin Gaye is supposed to sing about making love, not losing love. It didn't help that his sound was generally the same, only a bit sadder. At times listening to this album, one finds themselves shaking their hips until they notice Marvin is singing lines like, "Pains of love, miles of tears enough to last me for a lifetime."

The album was born from a divorce with his wife Anna, sister of the boss, head of Motown records. As a part of the settlement, Marvin had to give pretty much all profits from his next album to his ex. Originally, he planned to hastily record a terrible album that would not sell, keeping Anna from making any money from him. After a while, the idea of making an album for Anna consumed his mind, so he ended up laying down all of their marriage problems throughout albums fifteen tracks. What resulted is arguably the greatest breakup album all time. A soul masterpiece that's as funky as it is sad. It still didn't sell well and Anna didn't make much money from it.

The primary theme tying the album together is the superb, "When Did you Stop loving me, when did I stop loving you" which is a classic of the genre. Many of the albums best tracks such as, "Here, My Dear" and "Anna's Song" are drenched in the layered harmonies of Marvin's doo-wop past when his marriage began. As the album continues and time goes on, he jumps to the present disco sounds, jumping back and forth, finally finding peace in the marriage of the past and present with the hybrid doo-wop disco of "Falling in Love Again", leaving the possibility that there could be an end to his pain for the future. He ends the album with a outro of the main theme, showing that despite the potential of the future, he will always have the pain there, creeping back to remind him of the past. Soul concept albums are hard to come by, especially ones that work as well as this. It is a difficult, dense, and painful album. It is also arguably the best work Marvin Gaye has ever done.