mjzee

It looks like ECM is reissuing a bunch of titles on February 1: Kenny Wheeler - Double, Double You Pat Metheny - Watercolors John Surman/John Warren - The Brass Project Mike Nock - Ondas Eberhard Weber - The Following Morning Steve Tibbetts - Northern Song George Adams - Sound Suggestions Louis Sclavis - Rouge Barre Phillips - Mountainscapes Mick Goodrick - In Pas(s)ing Bobo Stenson - War Orphans Keith Jarrett - Standards, Vol. 1 David Torn - Cloud About Mercury John Abercrombie - Night Terje Rypdal - Blue Jan Garbaret/Kjell Johnsen - Aftenland Miroslav Vitous - Atmos Paul Bley - Ballads Leo Smith - Divine Love Chick Corea - Piano Improvisations Vol. 1 Dino Saluzzi - Andina Ralph Towner/Gary Burton - Matchbook Dave Holland - Seeds Of Time Peter Erskine - Juni

That was an interesting read; thanks for posting it. I wonder how this copyright law change will affect the world of music, specifically in the realm of songwriting. Will composers be able to lift melodic phrases from other songs and use them, mix and match them, without attribution to the original composer? This could breathe a lot of vitality into new music.

The 1940 movie “The Philadelphia Story” opens with a case of domestic assault played for laughs — Cary Grant shoving Katharine Hepburn to the ground by her face while a jaunty musical score plays. Eight decades later, the movie is clearly two things: uneasy fare for a post-#metoo culture — and an enduring American classic. And it’s far from the only example of such things. They exist throughout society’s pop-culture canon, from movies to TV to music and beyond: pieces of work that have withstood time’s passage but that contain actions, words and depictions about race, gender and sexual orientation that we now find questionable at best. Whether it’s blackface minstrel routines from Bing Crosby’s “Holiday Inn,” Apu’s accent in “The Simpsons,” bullying scenes in “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” the arguably rapey coercion of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” and “Sixteen Candles” or the simplistically clunky gender interactions of “Mr. Mom,” Americans have amassed a catalog of entertainment across the decades that now raises a series of contentious but never-more-relevant questions: What, exactly, do we do with this stuff today? Do we simply discard it? Give it a free pass as the product of a less-enlightened age? Or is there some way to both acknowledge its value yet still view it with a more critical eye? More here: Old favorites, outdated attitudes: Can entertainment expire?

Release date January 18:

Release date February 15:

Yes, I agree. Any risk taken that doesn't work out means the entire LP side needs to be re-performed. D-to-D also means short LP sides. More for the audiophile market, I guess.

I bought it when it was last available in Japan, in February 2015. It didn't make much of an impression on me. Bland and inoffensive.

Some counter-assertions: http://time.com/3393442/cdc-rape-numbers/ https://newrepublic.com/article/119364/cdcs-report-one-five-women-raped-other-statistics-disagree

OK, but then you say: So you admit this push was political. You want to "change the attitudes" of a large number of people; you want to punish them for enjoying the song and by not seeing the sinister overtones that "admittedly a small minority of women" might see. We see the political attempt, and we're pushing back. Keep your hands off my playlist!

Well said, duaneiac.

Personally, I'm triggered whenever I hear Ornette Coleman's music, and I think all of it should be banned.

Seems like there are a lot of unenlightened people out there; maybe they'll be swept away in the dustbin of history: Dean Martin’s classic Christmas song “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” has reached the top 10 digital sales chart for the first time ever, despite recent controversy over whether the lyrics promote sexual harassment. According to Billboard, sales of Martin’s versions of song were up 70 percent to 11,000 downloads in the week ending December 13th, while versions by Michael Bublé and Idina Menzel, as well as Brett Eldredge and Meghan Trainor, have both reached the holiday 100 with a sharp increase in sales. As well as the rise in downloads, online streams of Martin’s version have also surged by 35 percent to 11.1 million in the past week. https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2018/12/19/dean-martins-baby-its-cold-outside-hits-top-10-chart/

Here's a letter in WSJ: The notion of a man wanting a little more time with his girlfriend wasn’t particular to this song. “Five Minutes More” and “We Just Couldn’t Say Goodbye” expressed the same sentiment. The woman in “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” would definitely have gone home. The only question was when. In those days, if a woman lived with her family or even a roommate and got caught spending the night away, it would have branded her a “bad girl.” I am reminded of “You’ll Never Get Away,” a 1952 duet by Don Cornell and Teresa Brewer, which followed the theme of a man pursuing a woman. She sang: “I’ll become a train and choo-choo out of sight.” He sang: “Then I’ll become a red caboose and trail you day and night.” Today, the man would surely be accused of stalking. We didn’t read things into song lyrics that were never meant to be there. The younger generation seems not to be able to grasp that back then, the general theme was love, not lust.

https://nypost.com/2018/12/17/radio-station-plays-baby-its-cold-outside-nonstop-amid-controversy/

Maybe you ought to take your own advice.

As I remember it, Knopfler and Sting actually overheard a guy working at a hardwares/electronics store saying these things. How do you know that your side won't be on the wrong side of history? None of us can see the future. Sounds like you're trying to justify your position by pretending you know the upcoming course of history. Perhaps you can be my stockbroker! Or as the Babylon Bee put it: https://babylonbee.com/news/progressive-suddenly-realizes-beliefs-render-intolerant-bigot-ten-years-now

I think it's silly to assume that everyone reacts in the same way to situations. I was reminded of that by last week's New Yorker, which reprinted an article by Nora Ephron from 2006, in which she writes about her life in the sixties and afterwards. It's a time capsule, to be sure. But read the third paragraph, and the tone of the article as a whole. Do she or her friends seem damaged by their encounters? Indeed, would that culture have been widespread if women were all getting damaged in the process? And btw, should this article now be dropped into the memory hole for its inconvenient anecdotes? https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/02/13/serial-monogamy

True, but you were still able to watch and enjoy Blazing Saddles. By the logic being applied to "Baby It's Cold Outside," you soon won't be able to see Blazing Saddles on TV. From there, it's a short step to Warner Bros. no longer making it available on DVD. Down the memory hole. Don't underestimate how destructive this movement is to your being able to speak and think freely. Your collective description of all men is dehumanizing and offensive. Who gets to determine what is and isn't offensive? And should the few be allowed to tyrannize the many?

Reread "1984." This is all about dropping history down the memory hole.

Plus they had two guys rockin' the hornrims.

In college, the Roxy Music with Eno was definitely considered part of the same circle of interest as King Crimson, Yes, Hatfield and the North, Gong, Matching Mole, Genesis (with Peter Gabriel) and others. Also, look at Roxy's subsequent pedigree: Eno with Fripp, Phil Manzanera with Eno-Nico-John Cale, Eddie Jobson with Zappa, John Wetton (King Crimson)...heck, Roxy's first album was produced by Peter Sinfield.

I'll stick to my subculture reference: The Cure--goth, mope, synth dance (I don't say any of that pejoratively - I owned one of their albums, and can appreciate them for who they are). Def Leppard--heavy metal. Janet Jackson--r&b, dance. Stevie Nicks--wiccans, new age spirituality, women. Radiohead--never heard them, but I'm sure it's for the under-50 crowd (which probably isn't the R&R HoF crowd). Roxy Music--intellectual prog-rock. The Zombies--top 40 in the Sixties. Maybe they're just running out of huge acts to nominate.

I don't have much to comment about these selections, but they seem so small-bore. Each appeals to a different subculture within the music-buying public, but none, I think, has wide appeal, or was able to span a few of those subcultures. I will say that I was listening to top 40 radio, on my 2-transistor, when "She's Not There" came out, and it was like nothing I had heard before. Very sophisticated, very cool, and you could dance to it!

RIP. Wonderful singer, easy on the eyes.