JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Songwriter Message Forum Collabs are rampant these days!

Hi Magne

Great post! Very insightful and true. Great culture evaluations Magne. And thanks sooooo much for the kind compliment. Nobody is a more realist then me, I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm thrilled that Paul McCartney is NOT my competition. Others in life have had to feel that & think that way. Fortunately for them they were The Stones, Motown, The Beach Boys lol...

Ya know as much as I LOVE great music and great musicians I LOVE great songwriters,singer songwriters SOUL music and I have always LOVED Popular Music.
I wouldn't want the industry to ONLY play & promote artist like
Jaco Pastorious everyday & night or any slew of Jazz artists or any genre for that matter. I saw Jaco twice up close in NYC Oh brother!

What is sad is they shouldn't HAVE to abandon them either.

Atlantic Records HUGE!!! had Yes on there label.. A band that had a double album with 4 songs on it, ONE song per side
This band with it's incredible musicians and songs had a CHARTED
number 13 song with the epic Roundabout. The INDUSTRY made that happen.

I listen and love some of the poppiest tunes of all time. The thing I observe about them as a musician,songwriter and a producer first is there are musicians ALL over them. Musicians are supposed to be what music is all about! Music/Musician.

That is why Chicago was in the top 3 best pop groups of ALL time.
Singers can be musicians too, and not just puppets.
If there are such talents like that today (even on the internet)
then some suit should find them put them on the radio every 10 minutes and we'll never hear Big Jim say another negative thing about the music biz again LOL...

Talk about poppy pop...
I LOVE "Beach Baby" by the one hit 70's group "First Class"

This song has VERY cheezy lyrics. And EXCEPTIONAL musicality.
There are about 40 musicians playing on it. Hmmm well that was 30 years ago Mike, but 30 years before that 40 musicians were playing on the radio on nearly every song everyday. GREAT POP artists such as Benny Goodman, Glen Miller etc..etc...

So it's okay 30 years apart from then but not for now? I ask myself lol...

So if I had no clue lol I might hear Beach Baby and say
Oh God this is so cheezy, what kind of syrup is this? Oh this oh that... BUT of course I hear these GREAT melodies, and changes. HUGE dynamics. Slick tempo changes, wonderful counterpoint, great harmony, This killer drum groove, Beautiful French horns complimenting these great string lines. Now not only are the vocals counterpointing but so are the strings. I'm closing my eyes and visualizing the studio they were in... Man there's 30 plus players on this and HOW many tracks did they have in 1974?

And All of this and were not even talking about The Beach Boys Good Vibration or anything from Pet Sounds. All this money and work for an AM radio bubblegum tune. I LOVE IT....

They had no choice right? Couldn't make a whole song with 2 people a computer and a Roland Beat Box. But why? Where is the rule book that says. "Hi welcome to the music industry you are now an executive or A&R person therefore you are NOT allowed to EVER let anything that used to rule the planet and make plenty of money at the same time in these doors again"

What will it take for them to STOP using the very old Cher effect on EVERY song and every TV commercial. What engineer is gonna have the -alls to stand up at a session and say NO man I ain't doing it again.. I don't care if you fire me. And if you do we're all going on strike LOL... No AUTOTUNE EFFECT!

Nobody is paying any attention. The producer is coming in and saying to the engineer okay but where's that sound that's supposed to be on all vocals"
I have been in BIG studio's this is what they actually say & do.
Can it make it another decade?

I heard a song yesterday on the radio where the drum machine was intentionally put out of time the whole song. It was horrible and offensive to all of my senses. But that's what most of pop radio does for me today.
I sit and really really try to find the good aspects in it and it's getting really really really hard to find.

Magne - Chicago and The Bee Gees and Elton & Billy Joel were all A Talent and all SUPER DUPER POP STARS. Actual Pop Stars with posters.. and on the top of the charts being played over the radio every 2 seconds. And they were GREAT! in every regard.
Man Chicago had the whole package and that's why no one has ever even been close to them since.

On a few points you made...
I can't agree or admit that a decline of great musicianship for radio is any kind of progress. And how a song can do even BETTER without great musicians. I agree you don't have to wail all over a song for it to be great of course... But being a great musician is not about only wailing all over songs of course.
Look at the Funk Brothers on all the Motown hits. They have EVERY musicians respect and everybody else's as well.

You take the same song and give it to not great musicians
and then give it to great musicians and see what happens
But I know what you were trying to get across..

And a great producer would be sure that all things are in the right place.

All The Best, great thread about collabs running wild on the boards