The 500 - #328 - Daydream Nation - Sonic Youth

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: # 328

Album Title: Daydream Nation

Artist: Sonic Youth

Genre: Indie Rock, Post Punk, Art Punk, Alt Rock

Recorded: Greene Street Recording Studios, Manhattan, New York

Released: October, 1988

My age at release: 23

How familiar was I with it before this week: In name only

Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, 171 - moving up 157 places

Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Teen Age Riot

When I secured my first teaching assignment, in September, 1999, I met Peter (Pete) Reid who was to be my teaching partner and mentor. Pete was a fascinating individual, only 49 years’ old and had been teaching since the early 70s. He actually began teaching while completing his education degree in Teachers’ College in London when he was barely 20.

The school where Peter and I met

Pete was not an outlier. Many young teacher candidates were hustled into the profession because of significant changes to Canada's immigration policies, leading to a population boom. Without getting too bogged down in details, the Prime Minister, Pierre Elliott Trudeau (Justin's Dad), announced in October, 1971, that Canada would embrace multiculturalism. Canada was in need of high-skilled workers and a points system was implemented to give preference to young immigrants based on education, experience and language proficiency. The consequence of this policy was rapid population growth through young immigrant families who would settle in Canada's major cities, Pete began a full-time teaching job while attending night school classes at Western University’s Faculty of Education.

Former P.M. Pierre Trudeau rode a wave of "Trudeaumania"
in the early 70s.

I share this to amplify Pete's resume. In the 30 years he had been teaching, he had experienced many changes in both Federal and, more importantly, Provincial leadership. Consequently, he had witnessed, and been part of, fundamental shifts in education policy, philosophy and practice. One of the many nuggets of wisdom he shared with me was that "education tries to reinvent itself every few years but, for the most part, its trajectory is more like a pendulum. Ideas fall out of fashion, but they usually make a comeback a decade later...slightly different and branded with a new name".

Throughout my teaching career, I've often thought about the things Pete shared. The idea of pendulum swings struck me as I did my research into this week's record, Daydream Nation. Released in 1988, it was the fifth studio album from the New York-based, four-member, art-collective Sonic Youth. The group was part of the No Wave Movement of the early 80s. This avant-garde art scene was a counterpoint  to the punk rock and new wave music popular at the time. No Wave music was, according to the Kill Your Idols documentary by Scott Crary, “more a set of ideas than a sound" – a reaction to the tropes of popular music and the belief that punk rock and new wave were simply recycling rock and roll cliches.

Poster for Kill Your Idols - a 2006 film about
art punk bands in New York

Bands such as Sonic Youth, Swans, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and even Suicide, whom I wrote about at #441, were part of a shift toward music that, according to Village Voice writer Scott Anderson; 

"pursued an abrasive reductionism to undermine the power and mystique of a rock vanguard by depriving it of a tradition to react against."  

No Wave music was intentionally atonal and repetitive, emphasizing musical texture rather than melody. It did not embrace the anti-establishment themes present in most punk rock. Instead, it was negative and nihilistic. If anything, it was inspired by 1960s improvisational psychedelia and acid jazz. If Punk Rock was "Chuck Berry, anarchy and Buddy Holly", No Wave was "Miles Davis, Frederick Neitzsche and Jim Morrison". Much like Pete had told me, things that fall out of fashion are reborn with a different name and a slightly different twist.

Sonic Youth (l-r) Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Steve Shelley
& Kim Gordon (1987)

Over my 25-year career, I have seen educational trends and philosophies come and go. I have even ridden the waves of a few. However, perhaps Pete's thinking was accurate. Maybe he was even aware of French New Wave director Claude Chabrol who once made the remark; "There are no waves, only the ocean".

Director Claude Chabrol

The 500 - #329 - In The Jungle Groove - James Brown

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: # 329

Album Title: In The Jungle Groove

Artist: James Brown

Genre: Funk

Recorded: Four U.S. Studios (1969 - 1971)

Released: August, 1988

My age at release: 4-5 when recorded, 23 when released

How familiar was I with it before this week: One Song

Is it on the 2020 list? No

Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Funky Drummer

Album Cover for In The Jungle Groove James Brown (1988)

J.B.

The Godfather of Soul

The Hardest Working Man in Showbiz

Mr. Dynamite

The Godfather of Funk

Soul Brother Number One

James Brown had many nicknames. He was a complex man with a complicated history that was both admirable and, at times, contemptible.  In  a career that spanned five decades, Brown was a multi-instrumentalist, musical pioneer, songwriter, record producer and powerhouse front-man whose influence is still felt in contemporary music.

James Brown performing circa 1977

He was a social activist, encouraging young people to stay in school while supporting social service programs for the poorest neighborhoods in America. He met two U.S Presidents, Lyndon Johnson (a Democrat) and Richard Nixon (a Republican), to advocate positive change for African Americans in the 1960s and 70s.

Brown meeting with Richard Nixon to advance the cause 
of America's Black people

He was also credited with creating the genre of Funk music -- a style that evolved from soul, jazz and R&B. Funk features steady, infectious, drum grooves along with syncopated bass lines. It is a driving and danceable musical form, particularly because the heaviest thump falls on the first downbeat in each musical measure.

Brown performing in concert

Although a powerhouse on the music scene, as reflected in the assortment of memorable names assigned to him, Brown was also a flawed man. Married four times and arrested for domestic abuse on multiple occasions, he struggled with drug addiction. He was incarcerated for theft, drug possession, weapons charges and assault throughout his life. The most notorious incident occurred in 1988 when the then 65-year-old was charged with assault, battery and intent to kill following a high-speed, armed and drug-fueled police chase in Augusta, Georgia. Sentenced to six and a half years, he served only 15 months in a prison near Columbia, South Carolina.

Prison mug shots of Brown (1989)

The same year as this conviction, a new generation of music listeners was discovering Brown's catalogue. He capitalized on this renewed interest with the release of the compilation record, In The Jungle Groove, composed of unreleased singles, alternative takes and remixes from recording sessions that took place between 1968 and 1971. The record also contained the first album release of the single Funky Drummer. This is a monumental track in the history of modern music and requires some explanation.

Single Release of Funky Drummer (1970)

As I have discussed in previous posts, much of my understanding of the history of hip-hop music comes from a Canadian-made television series, Hip-Hop Evolution. In the first episode, the foundations of the genre are explored, beginning in the late-70s. At the time, Club & House Party disc jockeys (DJs) in the Bronx, New York, began experimenting with ways to keep their audiences on the dancefloor. They recognized that certain disco, R&B, soul and funk records had rhythmic drum sections, or breaks, which appealed to dancers. Their clever solution was to put the same record on two turntables and, as one record played the popular "break", the other record could be cued-up to repeat it. When the second record played the "break", the first turntable was muted and spun backward to the start of the same "break" again. Consequently, a rhythmic section could be played repeatedly -- much to the delight of the fans.

Grandmaster Flash - a pioneer in hip-hop DJ-ing

A popular record used by those DJs was Funky Drummer. The drum break in the middle of this nine-minute funk jam was an improvised performance by Brown's regular drummer, Clyde Stubblefield. As the "break beat" phenomenon grew in popularity in clubs throughout the United States, so did the popularity of the song Funky Drummer, as well as Stubblefield and Brown. This week's record, In The Jungle Groove, was released to capitalize on that cultural currency. Not only would the record be purchased by James Brown fans, it was also snatched up by many young DJs -- perhaps replacing their worn copies from the 1970 pressings.

Clyde Stubblefield

The impact of the drum break from Funky Drummer continues to resonate through popular music today. It can be heard on tracks from legendary hip-hop artists, many of whom are on The 500, including, Erik B. & Rakim; Public Enemy; NWA; Dr. Dre; LL Cool J; Run DMC; and Beastie Boys. It has also crossed over to be used on dance and pop tracks, including Freedom 90 by George Michael; Touch Of My Hand by Britney Spears; and Shirtsleeves by Ed Sheeran. It even appears on a novelty song, Deep Deep Trouble by The Simpsons; and the theme to the children's program, The Powerpuff Girls.

Stubblefield was never given writing credit for the drum beat he created. Consequently, Brown, and eventually his estate, received all the royalties. Stubblefield told the New York Times in 2011.

"It didn’t bug me or disturb me, but I think it’s disrespectful not to pay people for what they use."

Stubblefield died on February 18, 2018 -- coincidently four years to the day I began writing this post. And if you're keeping score in the James Brown morality conundrum I mentioned at the start -- not compensating your fellow bandmate goes under "contemptible".

A section of the drum score from Funky Drummer

The 500 - #330 - Tonight's The Night - Neil Young

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: # 330

Album Title: Tonight's The Night

Artist: Neil Young

Genre: Blues-Rock, Country-Rock, Pre-Grunge

Recorded: Multiple Venues (Live from the floor - No Overdubs)

Released: June, 1975

My age at release: 9

How familiar was I with it before this week: One Song

Is it on the 2020 list? Yes - #302 (Up 28 spots)

Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: None - Neil recently pulled his music from Spotify to protest the platform's decision to continue broadcasting conspiracy theories and Covid misinformation, particularly on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast.

How do you process grief?

I have been fortunate. I have not experienced much grief, yet we all know we are subject to deep sadness as we travel through life. And the older we get, the more evident that fact becomes. Personally, in my mid-fifties, I try not to think about such morbid matters and focus on the moment -- the present.

As a kid, I'd imagine making it to 100 years of age. I was optimistic that technology would advance to the point where most of the population born post World War II would easily reach that milestone. I suppose I still could. However, I hadn't factored in potential grief. A long life means having to say goodbye to loved ones and then living without them.

Tonight's The Night, the sixth studio album by Canadian musician Neil Young, was an album born of grief. Two close friends of Young, guitarist Danny Whitten and road crew member Bruce Berry, died of heroin overdoses around the time Young was doing preparations for the recording of this record. Whitten’s loss was particularly painful because Young had dismissed him from the studio on the night of his overdose. As the story goes, Whitten was so absorbed by his addiction that he was unable to play his guitar. Young "fired" him from the gig, telling him to go home and get better. Instead, he left and purchased the heroin that would kill him that night.

The recording was completed in the summer of 1973, mostly on the evening of August 26, but its release was delayed for two years. However, in between, Young released a live record, Time Fades Away, and another studio album, On The Beach, which was recorded in 1974.

The reason for the delay is unclear. Some speculate the record company chose to shelve it in favour of the live recordings. Others  believe it was Young's choice to keep it, temporarily, for himself as a way of dealing with the raw emotion of Whitten’s death.

A cryptic note from Young is included in the liner notes of the record. It reads, "I'm sorry. You don't know these people. This means nothing to you." This apology was to the listener who would not know Whitten and Berry -- the "people" that inspired many of the songs on the record.

The book, Neil and Me, written by his father, Scott, suggests that there are even darker versions of these recording sessions stored in Neil's private archives. All, I would suspect, was part of Young's grieving process.

Upon release, it met with little commercial success, but was lauded by music critics. Rolling Stone Magazine writer Dave Marsh summarized the album as follows:

"The record chronicles the post-hippie, post-Vietnam demise of counterculture idealism, and a generation's long, slow trickle down the drain through drugs, violence, and twisted sexuality. This is Young's only conceptually cohesive record, and it's a great one."

So, how does one process grief? I'm not sure how effectively I do it. I suppose I go through the usual stages outlined by the Kübler-Ross Model - Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and, ultimately, Acceptance.

I suspect I will write regularly while working through the first four stages: A way of focusing to process the pain. I suspect this might be something Young and I have in common -- aside from being fellow Canadians -- healing through the power of creativity.

The 500 - #331 - Help - The Beatles

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: # 331

Album Title: Help

Artist: The Beatles

Genre: Pop Rock

Recorded: EMI Studios, London, U.K.

Released: August, 1965

My age at release: 27 days

How familiar was I with it before this week: Familiar

Is it on the 2020 list? Yes - #266 (Up 61 spots)

Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: I've Just Seen A Face

Help, the title track from the sixth studio record by The Beatles, holds a special place in my music repertoire.  Although I was aware of the band, this was the first song I truly loved. It was my childhood friend Glen who introduced me to it. Sometimes, we would commandeer his parents’ stereo to play The Beatles: Live At The Hollywood Bowl. They owned it on an 8-track cassette tape. One afternoon, while walking home from Glen’s place, I found myself singing the words to Help in my head and thought, “I’m a Beatles’ fan”.

At the time, I was a much bigger fan of The Monkees. After all, how could The Beatles compete with a group that appeared on my television set five afternoons a week. The Monkees also played catchy, up-tempo pop songs, but they packaged it with wacky storylines and broad, slapstick comedy on their television program.

As I started to understand music a little better, my Beatles fandom eclipsed their (mainly) American television counterparts. By the time I was a teen, I was borrowing Beatles records from the library and learning about their history -- from their beginnings as a mop-topped boy-band to their eventual foray into psychedelic experimentation… and everything in-between.

Without the advent of Google nearly 20 years away, it was tough to parse the facts from the fiction. It didn't matter. For teens of my generation, respect for The Beatles was a rite of passage and, as I chased scattered breadcrumbs of information on my journey of discovery, my admiration grew.

Which got me thinking.

What do today’s kids know about The Beatles?
Are the four lads from Liverpool relevant...or even remembered?

Spending six hours every weekday with 27 bright and funny students provides insight. The class I have is multicultural, with many students from first-generation Canadian families. Their parents were not raised in a North American (or even Western-centric) pop-culture milieu. What was their perspective?

So, last week I asked my crew if they would take a quick survey to help with my blog. They were, as I expected, happy to oblige. 

I posed the following questions on a printed slip of paper..

• Do you know who The Beatles are/were?
• How many Beatles were there?
• Can you name any of them?
• Are they still alive?
• Can you name any songs by them?
• Do you remember how you learned any of this information? Who introduced you to The Beatles

A copy of the slip my students completed.

The results were interesting and led to an engaging discussion about Beatlemania. Fifty-Three percent knew of the group and of them, more than half had a fairly good understanding of the band’s legacy.

Most had learned about The Beatles from their father or an older brother. Sulaiman informed me that it was an "old wizard" who was responsible for his knowledge -- (see what I mean about them being funny). I have compiled the data in the chart below.

Click to enlarge

The album Help was released in the summer of 1965, a few weeks after I was born. It is also the soundtrack to the film of the same name. Many fans see this record as part of a transitional period , marking the group's shift from pop-oriented music toward a more mature sound influenced, in part, by their admiration for the music of Bob Dylan. This can best be heard in the Dylanesque acoustic guitar work on, You've Got To Hide Your Love Away.

Promotional Poster for the movie Help!

The U.K. release included Yesterday which has become the biggest Beatles song of all time. It was voted the best song of the 20th Century by the BBC, and has been covered by other performers a staggering 2,200 times. Interestingly, none of my students mentioned it on the survey -- although one knew another hit from this week’s record, Ticket To Ride.

Single release for Yesterday & Act Naturally from the album Help

This was an interesting week, relistening to a Beatles record I haven't heard in its entirety for over a decade. I was struck, once again, by the deceptively powerful lyrics in the title track Help. The buoyant harmonies and up-tempo energy of the song belies the heartbreaking plea from the song’s speaker.

John Lennon, who wrote the song, later made it clear that it was a literal cry for help as he struggled with his mental health following the group's meteoric rise to superstardom. It was also the song I chose to play for my students.

Single for the U.K. release of Help

At the end of the week, the class and I gathered, as always, in our Friday Community Circle to reflect on the past five days. We use a process called "The Four A's" - Announcements, Appreciations, Apologies and Ah-Ha Moments to guide our discussion. At one point, a student named Malak said: "My Ah-Ha was learning about The Beatles." As you might expect, that made me smile (under my mask).

Perhaps, I have set another student on the breadcrumb trail of discovery that I went on as a teen in 1979. Maybe, like Glen, I helped make a few more fans of The Beatles...at least they have the advantage of Google.

Poster for our weekly 4 A's Community Circle Activity