Music About Music Part 2 - 60s Cali

Mamas & The Papas sing about the 60s Cali scene although weren't they originally from New York? It's really hard to watch John Philips now since he's become a rotten scoundrel in my mind after finding out about the alleged incest he committed to his daughter. I can get past these sort of things usually with the music but I think it's seeing him and the image he projects ie. a sort of innocent non-threatening lame yet money hungry hippie. Hey the rock world is full of scoundrels (cf The Stones, Led Zep, Gary Glitter etc). The thing with someone like Gary Glitter he seemed so mental it wasn't such a stretch what he got up to. Anyway innocence is very questionable in rock innit? It seems the more you project innocence, the more you are hiding how fucked up you are (cf. The Beach Boys, The Cocteau Twins).

The Beach Boys sing about an earlier version of themselves. How LA is that?

Love/Sex as music or is it the other way around?

How fucking good is Carl Wilson's voice! How much do you wanna punch Mike Love in the face though? Better than The Ronettes version, I reckon. No Brian in the clip. The other dude is Bruce Johnston. He wrote some fine Beach Boys songs like Disney Girls, Tears In The Morning etc. In the 70s he ended up collaborating with Elton John a fair bit. He even sang backing vocals on Pink Floyd's The Wall.

Oh...................how could I forget?

'For the Music is your only friend/Dance on fire as it intends/Until the end'

*What a unit! What A performance! Jim's Swagger! Fucking funny too.

Musicians are not Film Makers!/Martin Scorsese's life is too short to waste time on watching films

*I don't really watch video clips. I put them on my blog just in case you need a reference point for the music I am discussing.  In fact a lot of the time film clips detract from the music. That Ducktails track I loved the other day was almost ruined by the crappy video that went with it. People (er...musicians) aren't as careful with images as they would be with sounds. A group might be very careful not to use/or use specific sounds, structures, textures or techniques in their music but can be quite willing to use images without a thought of their aesthetic qualities and the effect they will have when coupled with their music. Fuck me I'm onto something here. Music has been with us humans forever in one form or another since we crept out of the cesspool, so musicians are quite instinctual when it comes to their art. The filmed image however has only been around 100 years or so, so how sophisticated/instinctual can the art form be to most of us? 

For many years now I've had another idea in my head about how popular/unpopular music, has been culturally successful and the motion picture has not. I've told the Mrs many times there is a great theory there and one day I will write about it seriously.

Do you like my beard ladies?

Martin Scorsese may well be the unlikely catalyst for this article eventually getting written.  The other day in a doctors waiting room I was reading a magazine and he was asked 'Do you watch many new movies?'  He said he tried but they are too long (pot-kettle) and he's getting old so there is not enough time to waste (on a shite 2 hour+ film).  He will give a film 15 minutes then it's either on or off.  I am exactly the same, maybe 11 minutes sometimes.  The interesting thing is: He is a massive music lover and has made many films about the success of such an art form on himself and the greater public. One of the greatest filmmakers ever is supporting my theory. Thanks Marty. The Ronnettes get three minutes to prove themselves and they do.  Thus being a perfect pop culture success. Wes Anderrson gets two hours and fuck me I want those hours back along with a written apology from the turd. There are so many great pop songs and so few great films.  This argument seems so obvious why am I even bothering.  I can see Marty gettin' off on Midnight Rambler or Tommy Gun, I can't see him walkin' out of the 2nd last Harry Potter film goin' 'Shit Yeah! That's what it's all about!'