tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67317660206257250862012-01-08T14:08:02.041-05:00Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.comBlogger611100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-49423537615739811432011-12-23T09:52:00.004-05:002011-12-23T15:09:54.700-05:00

Harry Nilsson: Son of Schmilsson (RCA, 1972); composed by Harry NilssonThis album’s predecessor, Schmilsson, was a great one because it instantly made tangible the frank desperation that powered what had often seemed like overly whimsical craftsmanship in his previous music, but never was. This self-mocking sequel took this process further, which is why some of it makes no sense, in both good and

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-10451907034554750842011-12-20T07:56:00.004-05:002011-12-20T09:17:12.018-05:00

Composed by Billy Strayhorn; first performed publicly in 1948“Lush Life” is one of the most beautiful songs in the American “standard” canon, and not coincidentally it contains a rhyming couplet so abysmal (“awful” paired with “trough full” – full "of hearts," no less) that one has to assume that Strayhorn, who composed the song over a period of years starting when he was sixteen (sixteen!) and

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-90249497037657912312011-12-19T08:01:00.003-05:002011-12-19T16:16:05.599-05:00

Earth, Wind & Fire: Gratitude (Columbia, 1975); composed by Clarence ScarboroughI have loved this group to pieces ever since “Shining Star” hit and never once worried about whether they were just all too smooth and cosmic. Sure – pretty heavy on the astrology and other such Reasons for playing the Love Game – but their sound was unique and that is even more obvious now. Their groove was The Funk

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-84953514127050777612011-12-18T22:10:00.004-05:002011-12-20T09:19:03.666-05:00

The Plastic People of the Universe: Egon Bondy’s Happy Hearts Club Banned (S.C.O.P.A.-Invisible/Boži Mlýn, 1978 [recorded 1973-74]); composed by Egon Bondy, Vratislav Brabenec, Milan Hlavsa, Josef Janiček, Jiří Kabeš, and Jaroslav VožniakThis first album by the rol-a-rok heroes of the post-Prague Spring crackdown has never been more than barely available since it was secretly recorded in an

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-10262483732691418872011-12-17T09:28:00.002-05:002011-12-17T09:31:04.893-05:00

The Mamas & the Papas: The Mamas & the Papas (Dunhill, 1966); composed by John PhillipsThis song used to scare the bejeezus out of me when I was about six, well before I could make out the words, and only slightly less so years later when I did. Most of this group’s hits were on its first album and this second album was painfully pieced together amidst affairs, break-ups, business hassles, and

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-66425738363087275662011-12-16T05:38:00.004-05:002011-12-20T09:18:18.939-05:00

Erykah Badu: Mama’s Gun (Motown, 2000); composed by Erykah Badu, Vikter Duplaix, and James PoyserDespite the lengths she and her collaborators went to make this album sound like a throwback of sorts (not counting the scratchy-78 put-on that opens this track), Badu’s second album is very much the opposite, and one of its great pleasures is how it unassumingly obliges you to catch up to it well

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-14618557494227753152011-12-15T06:05:00.002-05:002011-12-15T06:09:24.929-05:00

Merle Haggard & The Strangers: The Legend of Bonnie & Clyde (Capitol, 1968); composed by Merle Haggard and Bonnie OwensIn a market where singles were everything, it is remarkable that what may be Merle Haggard’s best song was never released as one, which has allowed it to escape too many anthologies. “Today I Started Loving You Again” occasionally gets confused with George Jones’

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-29468947748413013832011-12-14T06:10:00.002-05:002011-12-14T06:12:25.293-05:00

The Carter Family: “There’s No One Like Mother To Me” / “No Depression” (Decca 5242, 1936); composed by John David VaughanEven if you could imagine hearing this song when it was first released as a 78, it is difficult to make any sense of it – and utterly impossible when anyone else performs it – because its operative religious sensibility is as obscure to us (and by “us,” I also mean our “

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-72807071435087120352011-12-13T10:55:00.007-05:002011-12-13T11:51:06.987-05:00

Composed by Richard Strauss to a text by Joseph von Eichendorff, from Vier letzte Lieder, Op. Posth. (1948); as recorded by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf with George Szell conducting the Radio-Symphonie-Orchester, Berlin (EMI, 1966)Although it is not clear that Strauss really intended them to be a set, this is the fourth (although first-composed) of Strauss’ “Four Last Songs,” the last compositions he is

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-68855018360394609752011-12-12T22:14:00.007-05:002011-12-13T08:23:54.506-05:00

Art Ensemble of Chicago: People In Sorrow (Nessa, 1969 – out of print) [available with Les Stances a Sophie (1970) on Americans Swinging in Paris: The Pathé Sessions (EMI-France, 2003)]; composed by Lester Bowie, Joseph Jarman, Malachi Favors Maghostut, and Roscoe MitchellAnthony Braxton once said that the Chicago musicians who went to Paris en masse in 1969 did so because they were dying. He

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-62813888773032321012011-12-11T14:36:00.009-05:002011-12-13T08:29:01.660-05:00

Sonic Youth: Daydream Nation (Enigma/Blast First, 1988); composed by Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley Many terrific artists who never phone it in nonetheless make records I have not bought in twenty years. If Kim and Thurston’s split finishes Sonic Youth I still have many presumably great albums to catch up on, many of which may be better than this one which some early

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-49492507465219256332011-12-10T07:42:00.003-05:002011-12-10T07:46:25.267-05:00

Miles Davis: Get Up With It (Columbia, 1974); composed by Miles DavisIf Miles Davis had not been so sick and cocaine-addled in the early ‘70s, I can only guess what he would have made of the electric music(s) he developed in the five years between Bitches Brew and the six year seclusion he just barely escaped. Maybe just more of it, but we might see its formative points more clearly. My theory

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-29063972188378543282011-12-09T07:21:00.004-05:002011-12-09T15:14:08.597-05:00

The Shangri-Las: Leader of the Pack (Red Bird, 1965); composed by Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, and George MortonIf the Shangri-Las were just a Svengali-driven pop act, then so were the Sex Pistols. Johnny Rotten did more actual songwriting than Mary Weiss, but copped no more attitude. He certainly understood their commonality and spent many years (and quid) beating Malcolm McLaren over the head

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-1094618740019258352011-12-08T20:41:00.002-05:002011-12-08T20:43:57.575-05:00

The Beach Boys: Smile (Capitol, 1967 - unreleased); composed by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke ParksDespite it being the most famous album never finished, let alone released within four decades of its making, I have nonetheless managed to hear about half a dozen different versions of The Beach Boys’ Smile, not including the behemoth box set version which I may never hear, unless of course I already

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-25922242098628873422011-12-07T18:08:00.006-05:002011-12-08T06:27:50.217-05:00

Missy Elliott: This Is Not A Test! (Elektra, 2003); composed by Missy Elliott, Tim Mosley, and Craig BrockmanThis album was Miss E.’s commercial hiccup although that certainly has nothing to do with why I like it so much (does it?), but the humor might have something to do with both. Even the hit “Pass That Dutch,” cracks me up – not least the sonic booby-traps in Timbaland’s production. Elliott

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-72198728858207413552011-12-07T06:49:00.004-05:002011-12-07T09:12:41.420-05:00

Ástor Piazzolla: Tango: Zero Hour (Nuevo Tango: Hora Zero) (American Clavé, 1986); composed by Ástor PiazzollaOf the many Piazzolla records - and tango records - I have heard since this album opened the genre up for me (and many others), this is still my favorite by far, but I remain uncertain that I have any proper frame of reference for that call. This suggests that this recording was a

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-7462544920210272422011-12-05T18:21:00.004-05:002011-12-23T15:09:00.242-05:00

Al Green - live performance on Soul Train (1975); original studio version on Al Green Explores Your Mind (Hi, 1974); composed by Al Green and Mabon HodgesThis song was never a hit for Al Green, nor is it as attractive as Green’s many very attractive hits. It has always had a cult following because it is very much a cult item insofar as its verses are about sex and its chorus and bridge are about

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-56260680373099496262011-12-04T10:36:00.003-05:002011-12-04T10:38:07.508-05:00

The Velvet Underground: White Light/White Heat (Verve, 1968); composed by John Cale, Sterling Morrison, Lou Reed, and Maureen TuckerOne thing the Velvet Underground did not invent was heavy metal. Although John Cale’s prior experience with LaMonte Young suggests that they could have, this ugly classic demonstrates why they did not. On “Sister Ray,” two guitars, one organ, one very peculiar drum

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-33629315912503044862011-12-03T17:25:00.003-05:002011-12-03T23:02:54.447-05:00

Cecil Taylor: Conquistador! (Blue Note, 1966); composed by Cecil TaylorCecil Taylor’s music can change your life but not all at once, and never just once, either. Notwithstanding its outward ferocity, starting with his twenty-fingered piano technique, the effect is more like serial concussions just over the horizon. And the outward ferocity is not all that; all of his pieces have portals in

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-63488198626138735552011-12-02T05:52:00.006-05:002011-12-04T11:41:47.667-05:00

Act IV, Scene 2 from Philip Glass/Robert Wilson: Einstein On The Beach (premiered 1976); composed by Philip Glass Philip Glass has written that he knew Samuel Beckett had taken theater to a different place when Glass scored Lee Breuer’s 1967 production of Play and found that emotional crisis points occurred in every performance but never in the same places. Ten years later, Glass’ first

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-3954328512058781342011-12-01T13:29:00.004-05:002011-12-04T11:41:22.263-05:00

Steely Dan: Gaucho (MCA, 1980); composed by Walter Becker and Donald FagenThe seemingly arrogant languor of this album pissed a lot of people off when it came out, but no one more than Becker and Fagen, themselves. It took them three years; Becker was out of commission with heroin and casualties; and Fagen was working through a fascination with disco as transmuted through Dr. Buzzard’s Original

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-47895015931338739762011-11-30T12:16:00.005-05:002011-11-30T13:39:21.241-05:00

Wu-Tang Clan: "Protect Ya Neck"/"After The Laughter Comes Tears" (Wu-Tang 12", 1992) and later on Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (Loud/RCA, 1993); composed by Robert Diggs, Jason Hunter, Lamont Hawkins, Clifford Smith, Corey Woods, Dennis Coles, Russell Jones, and Gary GriceHip-hop is now twice as old as it was when this record came out, but its innovation still stands like Monk’s transmutation

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-18159551133535823952011-11-29T08:30:00.004-05:002011-11-29T10:12:19.503-05:00

Stevie Wonder: Songs in the Key of Life (Tamla, 1976); composed by Stevie WonderInnervisions is awfully close to a perfect album, but if Stevie Wonder really did peak in the ‘70s, I still could not tell you exactly where. Or why. But his voice draws the lines for me. Before it phlegmed up in the ‘80s (like Merle Haggard’s in the ‘70s) it was expressive like no other in American music and his

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-52842606452634525632011-11-28T05:48:00.003-05:002011-11-28T05:53:27.561-05:00

Black Sabbath: Paranoid (Warner Bros., 1970); composed by Terry Butler, Tony Iommi, John Osbourne, and Bill WardThis track demonstrates how some performers ultimately epitomize themselves through a sharp and dramatic formal departure. Black Sabbath’s music was characteristically slow (not to say drug-impaired) conveying an undeniable grandeur through VERY SIMPLE guitar figures cranked through an

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-24046368522371415062011-11-27T07:23:00.008-05:002011-12-04T11:53:12.659-05:00

Peggy Lee: Rendezvous With Peggy Lee (Capitol, 1948) and Is That All There Is? (Capitol, 1969); Julie London: Around Midnight (Liberty, 1960); composed by Willard Robison, Dave Barbour and Peggy LeeIf Willard Robison really did write this song, rather than (as is rumored) Peggy Lee solely, then it might well stand as the only significant tune that the composer of “Old Folks” ever wrote

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-84903059074702276902011-01-05T08:13:00.004-05:002011-12-08T06:29:23.346-05:00

Elton John, Caribou (MCA, 1974); composed by Reginald K. Dwight and Bernie Taupin The 45 of this song is the first recording I ever bought with my own cash, back when it was on the radio ALL THE TIME (and Caribou was my first album). Apart from my 11-year-old’s pleasure in not having to wait five extra minutes for some DJ to play this damn song when I wanted to hear it, I thought the song itself

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-13865299563268848522011-01-04T21:57:00.004-05:002011-01-05T11:13:54.541-05:00

Frank Sinatra, Nice ‘n’ Easy (Capitol, 1960); composed by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie Not a few people regard In the Wee Small Hours (1957) as Sinatra’s best album, but, for me, the sound of Sinatra playing an unequivocal sad sack for fifty minutes exhausts my patience just like watching Jack Nicholson play a knucklehead in Prizzi’s Honor. Yes, I believe the performances, but it was worth

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-42237327088510142502011-01-03T14:14:00.003-05:002011-01-05T11:14:16.053-05:00

Jay-Z, The Black Album (Roc-A-Fella, 2003); composed by Shawn Carter; samples composed by Norman Landsberg, Felix Pappalardi, Billy Squier, John Ventura & Leslie Weinstein; produced by Rick RubinCecil Taylor used to stop parties by arguing that Marvin Gaye was as important as Thelonious Monk was. Jay-Z may have Gaye’s musical insouciance, but his accrued amour propre has done far more for both

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-45024459949947157742011-01-02T13:42:00.003-05:002011-01-05T11:14:30.313-05:00

Tom T. Hall, In Search of a Song (Mercury, 1971); composed by Tom T. Hall Between socking it to the “Harper Valley PTA” (Jeannie C. Riley had the hit with it in 1968) and extolling the exceedingly marketable virtues of “little baby ducks and old pickup trucks,” Tom T. Hall developed a country music niche with a singular style of blank verse reportage in which he would recount his personal

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-12601383803116124522010-12-30T17:32:00.005-05:002010-12-30T17:43:15.422-05:00

PJ Harvey, Rid of Me (Island, 1993); composed by Polly Jean Harvey I have not heard anything Polly Jean Harvey has recorded since Stories From The City ten years ago which (unlike many other sympathetic listeners) bored me silly. But I have never once thought I was “all done” with her, nor do I think I ever will be. It was once said about Richard Rodgers that he “just pissed music,” and Harvey

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-31141561717700451052010-12-30T12:58:00.005-05:002010-12-30T13:13:20.710-05:00

Composed by Robert Schumann, from Kinderszenen, Op. 15 (1838); as recorded by Mieszyslaw Horszowski (Nonesuch, 1988) Schumann’s Kinderszenen is a well-known cycle of piano pieces written when the composer was 18 years old. Its best known segment is probably “Träumerei” (“Dreaming”), which Alban Berg once praised for its deceptively complex harmony, but the most disquieting (for not dissimilar

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-41003424853243576852010-12-27T09:59:00.004-05:002010-12-27T10:13:41.365-05:00

Fairport Convention, What We Did On Our Holiday (Island, 1969); composer unknownA group as mercurial as Fairport Convention was could never really hit a “peak,” but the coincidence (not confluence) of temperamental opposites, Richard Thompson and Sandy Denny, is the consensus favorite. Still, the numerous high points are shadowed by a handful of utter duds: not just dull listening but utterly

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-27048444773241117442010-12-18T12:19:00.004-05:002010-12-30T14:35:13.810-05:00

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band, Trout Mask Replica (Straight, 1969); composed by Don Van Vliet Even if eighty percent (by my rough estimate) of what has been said about how Trout Mask Replica was made is not true (including most of what its auteur ever said about it), that detracts absolutely nothing from its achievement. Which raises the question of what all the mythopoeia was actually for.

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-80986909022903531852010-12-17T16:25:00.002-05:002011-01-02T10:41:46.901-05:00

Parliament, Mothership Connection (Casablanca, 1975); composed by George Clinton, William Collins & Bernie Worrell The great U.S. Funk Mob had hotter jams than this, but their oeuvre never readily boiled down to high points. This aggregation (“band” is inadequate to a project this conceptual) got far more mileage than anyone else out of what would be filler from anyone else: midtempo grooves on

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-35361191610793485672010-12-16T17:27:00.003-05:002010-12-16T17:36:56.194-05:00

Soft Machine, Third (Columbia, 1970); composed by Robert Wyatt “The Moon In June” is a nineteen minute last gasp of unassuming greatness from an English band that was pioneering (or succumbing to) a kind of electrified doodling that could be marketed as “jazz-rock,” but on this double-LP comprising one title per side, it was their jazziest player – drummer and vocalist Robert Wyatt – who crafted

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-14754485039325045482010-12-15T20:10:00.003-05:002010-12-16T10:45:59.348-05:00

Chic, C’est Chic (Atlantic, 1978); composed by Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers At its edited-for-radio length, the more modest of the two hits off Chic’s second album was even more obnoxious than the immodest hit ("Le Freak" – Atlantic's best-selling 45 ever, once). There is barely a song there: just the same four descending notes in a single chord over and over. However, at its full

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-60189224618787180692010-12-14T14:37:00.003-05:002010-12-14T14:44:16.648-05:00

LiLiPut (Rough Trade 45, 1981); composed by Chrigle Freund, Marlene Marder & Klaudia SchiffOne of the most remarkable things about the late Tony Judt’s genuinely remarkable history of modern Europe, Postwar, is how pig ignorant he was about punk rock. That Judt would posit European critical theory and the Sex Pistols on the same page as if they were opposites (see page 480) against the readily

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-42091466693634914692010-12-13T20:57:00.007-05:002010-12-14T11:21:18.506-05:00

Kansas Joe McCoy & Memphis Minnie (Columbia, 1929); composed by Joe McCoy & Lizzie Douglas; Led Zeppelin, Ƶ ɸ ʘ @ (Atlantic, 1971); composed by John Bonham, John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant & Memphis MinnieMemphis Minnie began her lengthy career with this song in 1929, two years after the cataclysmic flood it describes, when she was still performing with her first husband who co-composed

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-60809217346842777812010-12-13T14:31:00.006-05:002010-12-14T11:21:58.995-05:00

Billie Holiday (Commodore, 1939); Miles Davis (Blue Note, 1952); Marianne Faithfull, Strange Weather (Island, 1987); composed by Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach for the 1933 musical, RobertaI own at least five versions of this song from a now- obscure musical where it was introduced by Irene Dunne. Although its “subject” is obvious from the title, the song is hard to parse, both emotionally and

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-59301356635715689982010-12-12T10:39:00.003-05:002010-12-14T11:22:16.655-05:00

My Bloody Valentine, Loveless (Sire/Creation, 1991); composed by Kevin ShieldsAs anyone even remotely familiar with this band knows, the album that this song closes is all of a piece, conceptually differs wildly from the (sole) album that preceded it by three years (pretty great, but it took me a while), and was never followed up, numerous press releases and reunion tours notwithstanding. But

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-8303308370245500782010-12-11T10:26:00.005-05:002010-12-14T11:22:30.371-05:00

Composed by Franz Schubert, to text by Matthäus Kasimir von Collin, D. 827 (Op. 43, No. 2) (1822)The composite words of this three minute lied form a praise song (auf Deutsch) to night time, as if the dream life fell into our heads with the darkness, as though this was an unexceptionably pleasant thing, and as though dreamers necessarily cry for its return when the morning takes it all away. It

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-82522588377111043342010-12-09T17:50:00.004-05:002010-12-14T11:22:56.191-05:00

Eric B. & Rakim (Uni 12-inch, 1988); composed by Eric Barrier and William GriffinEven before I had actually heard any of it, rap interested me. Just from seeing it described in print (even by the numerous hostile) its long game was obvious to me, and also that it ultimately could not be just “spoken word” with music. It was some time before I began to hear records that sounded like what I

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-1440918923312290002010-12-08T15:52:00.006-05:002010-12-14T11:23:09.015-05:00

The Beatles, Abbey Road (Apple/EMI, 1969); composed by John Lennon and Paul McCartneyThis is the last song The Beatles recorded. John Lennon wrote it around the chord sequence from the slow movement of Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata played backwards, originally by Yoko at John’s inspiration. This song belies practically everything Lennon said publicly about his partnership with Paul McCartney, up

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-33474992796251936992010-12-07T21:32:00.005-05:002010-12-14T11:23:23.604-05:00

Sly & the Family Stone, There’s a Riot Goin’ On (Epic, 1971); composed by Sylvester Stewart and Sly StoneThis is the title track of the first album by Sly & the Family Stone in two years back in 1971 when such a gap was unusual for an act so popular. Nevertheless, the album went straight to No. 1. And its title song does not actually exist. On the LP label, the track’s time is clocked at “0:00.”

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-15753738768279317972010-12-07T08:02:00.004-05:002010-12-14T11:23:37.816-05:00

Pet Shop Boys (featuring Dusty Springfield), Actually (EMI, 1987); composed by Chris Lowe, Neil Tennant & Allee WillisBefore this duo formally came out (wryly observing that they surprised no one), their hits shared a decided delicacy toward gendered pronouns and a comparable indelicacy toward the moral collisions the songs were about. Although this song is as quintessentially chromed as a

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-91609320664732448842010-12-05T11:10:00.004-05:002010-12-14T11:23:51.746-05:00

George Jones, The New Favorites of George Jones (United Artists, 1962); composed by D.T. GentryThis song came out as a single the same year as "She Thinks I Still Care," which alone would make Jones a genius singer in the way he makes the line about dialing his ex-lover's number "by mis-taaaaake today..." sound both hilarious and like you and he each lost a kidney. "Open Pit Mine," in contrast,

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-32385475966529180622010-12-05T00:11:00.004-05:002010-12-14T11:24:04.605-05:00

James Brown, Sex Machine (King, 1970); composed by Charles BobbitThis edition of the JBs, with Clyde Stobblefield on drums and Bootsy Collins on bass is as different from the band that played on Live at the Apollo, Vol. II, released only two years earlier, as the storied 100 mile per gallon carburetor would be from a Hummer. The earlier music is classic, but the music made on this album

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-52960488577490338032010-12-03T15:32:00.007-05:002011-01-02T14:47:07.895-05:00

Patti Smith, Horses (Arista, 1975); composed by Patti Smith, Lenny Kaye, Ivan Kral & Richard SohlThe first Patti Smith "group" comprised Patti reciting, with Lenny Kaye on guitar and Richard Sohl on piano. “Birdland” is the one track on their first album using this drumless configuration, plus Ivan Kral’s bass. It is a slow two-chord vamp setting Patti’s semi-improvised, half-sung recitation

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-85760595880780512082010-12-02T16:15:00.007-05:002010-12-14T11:24:38.831-05:00

The Rolling Stones recorded live at a 1973 show in Munich, found on various bootlegs, most notably Bedspring Symphony; composed by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.The most problematic aspect of the Rolling Stones’ discography is that an early business decision resulted in Allen Klein’s obtaining control of their ‘60s publishing. Accordingly, the Stones made a point of keeping those songs off

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-70886560685679047152010-11-30T20:33:00.003-05:002010-12-14T11:24:51.824-05:00

Vocal version by The Staple Singers (Vee-Jay, 1959); instrumental version by John Fahey on Blind Joe Death (Takoma, 1967); original composer unknownThe classic 1959 version of this song by the Staple Singers is about Heaven, because there is no weather there. Pop Staples’ tremolo-heavy guitar is the only accompaniment to the voices of his adult children, who harmonize so closely that the chords

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-767437092543461312009-11-10T07:56:00.000-05:002010-06-21T14:36:41.504-04:00

This is a legal article adapted from a presentation I gave to the Copyright and Literary Property Committee of the NYC Bar on October 21, 2009. It's a little lengthy for a blog post, so here's a link to the article, and to the court decision discussed in it. It is also viewable through my firm's website.

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-77517078823729713232009-10-22T15:55:00.000-04:002010-01-03T13:09:31.078-05:00

The following is an essay I recently wrote for a catalogue accompanying a recently-closed exhibition entitled Stuart Sherman: Nothing Up My Sleeve, curated by Jonathan Berger at PARTICIPANT Inc. Gallery, 253 East Houston Street, NYC, running November 8 - December 20, 2009. See recent Art In America piece. (I am also - not so incidentally - the executor of Stuart Sherman's estate.)I.If you ever

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-83601177799976697842008-11-12T12:34:00.000-05:002008-11-12T19:21:02.399-05:00

Yet again, I responded to a question posed in an online forum, and stuck the response here. The original question posed was from someone who had just attended a concert featuring Boulez, Messiaen and Lutosławski, and found that he couldn't talk to his friends about it. My experience with Difficult Century XX Music began when I was about 15 or so (fyi - that’s almost three decades back) when I

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-51489721878543456022008-11-10T13:28:00.000-05:002008-11-12T14:42:17.501-05:00

Someone just posed this question on an on-line forum, so I'm double-dipping and putting my response here, too:I'm not so sure it's a demographic so much as a sub-cultural inclination. The intrinsic problem with the "World Music" category is that it means music from wherever you're not. Not only does it jumble soukous together with clog dancing, qawwali, and gamelan (although we're okay with

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-19622500712944829102008-10-03T11:13:00.001-04:002011-05-24T07:58:07.405-04:00

Don’t write about Bob Dylan. Everything written about Dylan by anyone other than Dylan melts in the air instantly except for Greil Marcus’s 1970 review of Self Portrait, which began “What is this shit?” and included “I once said I'd buy an album of Dylan breathing hard. But I'd never said I'd buy an album of Dylan breathing softly.” That piece is currently absent from Rolling Stone’s on-line

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-26253369352306833472008-09-23T11:17:00.000-04:002008-10-30T07:44:59.818-04:00

I have a longstanding difficulty with cultural decay as a model for anything, unless I can learn something from it. Certainly, when anyone says, “All music sucks now,” I tune them out as quickly as I would tune out “Chicago X is the best album ever made. Period. Pete Cetera kicked ASS!” It’s not news that all artists, milieus and entire genres lose focus and generating principle over time (not to

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-12778579611967310342008-09-18T18:56:00.000-04:002008-09-19T08:59:18.048-04:00

Only a few years ago, mash-ups were a hot topic and they’re not one anymore. If you draw a blank at that term-of-art, you might recall hearing (or hearing about, more likely) the pre-Gnarls Barkley DJ Danger Mouse’s splicing each vocal track from Jay-Z’s The Black Album into samples from The Beatles’ White Album to make The Gray Album back in 2004. That’s just one mash-up – probably the best

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-24965930451298643952008-09-17T10:44:00.000-04:002008-10-13T13:55:08.705-04:00

It’s pretty late in the day to be bearing down hard on Gang of Four, but I had a couple of amusing thoughts after catching up with their second album, Solid Gold, only twenty-seven years after it came out. First, I realized they reminded me a lot of The Band. This got funnier when I subsequently came across an old interview in which Andy Gill cites Music From Big Pink and The Band as two of his

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-51198493716650584172008-09-14T22:04:00.000-04:002008-09-24T10:00:51.555-04:00

Thanks to old friends and some vaguely related legal work, I was sitting last night in a vintage swivel chair in a Williamsburg performance space watching Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith being “honored to be honored” (his words) by the Festival of New Trumpet Music (FONT). Then he proceeded to play a lot of loud trumpet in a duet with Pheeroan Ak Laff . The drummer appeared to lead, the trumpeter

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-5020935343137970702008-09-10T12:33:00.000-04:002008-09-21T15:12:36.421-04:00

It is likely that this blog will be primarily verbal (my sister does the visual stuff awfully well - see blog menu at right), but here's a video of my son and me levitating.

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731766020625725086.post-63778306895279291832008-09-09T09:21:00.000-04:002008-09-14T16:02:35.093-04:00

This is the pilot post. No content as yet except for this image of a sand castle I neurotically built (or excavated) on Popham Beach, Maine on August 10, 2008. I'm also using this shot as my ID photo on both LinkedIn and Facebook. I imagine I will think better of that idea before long. My sons found and placed the shells in the porticos (?) and named it "Temple of the Clam." And so it was. (But

Mark Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16562965312650849604noreply@blogger.com1