I have been a fan of Oscar since the late 1960s, and I find it sad and strange that he’s not better remembered.
He did the music for zillions of films, wrote tonnes of hit records, was a pal of Jolson and Gershwin and a star pupil of Shoenberg.
So many of my favourite “celebrities” (for want of a better term), are famed for quick wittedness on radio and TV — especially game shows and talk shows.
That is probably what made Levant so famous in his day.
Recent events with Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross made me recall Levant’s remarks about Marilyn Monroe that got his show taken off air — it was about her famous conversion to Judaism. Levant wise-cracked, ‘Now that Marilyn Monroe is kosher, Arthur Miller can eat her!’.
He later said that he ‘hadn’t meant it “that way”‘! Sublime. His show eventually got axed for being too controversial. This guy was cutting edge… back in the 50s and 60s.
He is incredibly well-quoted in tear-off calanders, here’s a wee selection of ones you might have heard and admired:
I have one thing to say about psychoanalysis: fuck Dr Freud.
Everyone in Hollywood is gay, except Gabby Hayes — and that’s because he is a transvestite.
Strip away the false tinsel from Hollywood, and you find the real tinsel inside.
So little time and so little to do…
What the world needs is more geniuses with humility, there are so few of us left.
I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin.
I used to call Audrey Hepburn a walking X-ray.
Happiness isn’t something you experience; it’s something you remember.
I’m going to memorize your name and throw my head away.
I envy people who drink — at least they know what to blame everything on.
A pun is the lowest form of humor — when you don’t think of it first.
Every time I look at you I get a fierce desire to be lonesome.
I have given up reading books; I find it takes my mind off myself.
Schizophrenia beats dining alone.
There are two sides to every question: my side and the wrong side.
Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character. and my favourite:
A politician is a man who will double cross that bridge when he comes to it.
The Frank Black and The Catholics self titled album of 1998 has some fantastic riffs, great harmonic lines, brilliant epic moments, emotion, truth, rock’n'roll — and the great Frank on genius vocal. In turn, each of the following could be in my head for days — each one is so honest and catchy.
01 – All my Ghosts (Eb);
02 – Back to Rome (E);
03 – Do You Feel Bad About it (G);
04 – Dog Gone (D);
05 – I Gotta Move (Eb);
06 – I Need Peace (C);
07 – King and Queen Of Siam (E);
08 – Six- Sixty-Six (G):
09 – Solid Gold (E);
10 – Steak n Sabre (D);
11 – Suffering (D);
12 – The Man Who Was Too Loud (F).
I know a lot of reviews that dislike this album, but for me, I cannot see why — even when taken with his other stuff.
Mind you, I adore “Teenager of the Year” — it’s earlier (1994) and nearer what the Pixies were doing. The tracks were shorter and each one a thing of real beauty. Taken as a whole album, this is a work of sheer magic. There are so many idea per liner millimetre of master tape, that it is outstanding.
My girl and I went to see Frank Black live in Edinburgh a few years back, and it was a life highlight. It truly was one of those nights.
Yet Frank is an ordinary, chubby bloke. I guess that absurdity adds to the mix. Ultimately Frank Black is about making music in the way that you always thought rock music ought to be made. There is something essential about it, something energetic and live, something raw and powerful, something clever and witty, but in an off-the-cuff and spontaneous way.
[embedded video from YouTube]:
I would have to have Frank Black and the Pixies included in my “Desert Island Discs”; how could one live without a regular fix?
Cake sound like they are from the 70s (which I can actually remember).
[embedded video from youtube]:
Cake sounds like Television or Talking Heads, and the wah wah reminds me (happily) of Man — from Wales — boy, I really loved that band. Ooh and also a LOT like Prefab Sprout on their 1996 Album “Fashion Nugget”.
“Shadow Stabbing” really has a Tom Verlaine guitar line, it’s so familiar, so going for it. John McCrea is superb; this is what we neeeed, ma-a-an! It’s kinda early Elvis Costello or something. Check it out!
[embedded video from youtube.com]:
Adjectives on the typewriter
He moves his words like a prizefighter
The frenzied pace of the mind inside the cell
The man on the street might just as well be
The man on the street might just as well
The man on the street might just as well be
Outside, outside the world
Out there you don’t hear the echoes and calls
But the steel eye, tight jaw,
Say it all, say it all
But the white paint, plastic saints
Say it all, say it all, say it all
Say it all (say it all)
Say it all (say it all)
Say it all (say it all)
Say somebody’s got to say it all
Somebody’s got to say it all
I’m so nervous, I’m so tense
My heart can’t forget about this self defense
The air is so hot and my breath comes fast
I thumb the cool blade but I know this can’t last
I thumb the cool blade but I know this can’t last
Outside, outside the world
Out there you don’t hear the echoes and calls
But the steel eye, tight jaw
Say it all, say it all
But the white paint, plastic saints
Say it all, say it all, say it all
Say it all (say it all)
Say it all (say it all)
Say it all (say it all)
Say somebody’s got to say it all
Somebody’s got to say it all
Adjectives on the typewriter
He moves his words like a prize fighter
The frenzied pace of the mind inside the cell
The man on the street might just as well be
The man on the street might just as well
The man on the street might just as well be.
Cake are super — I wish they would gig over in Scotland someday. Enjoy!
I have been enjoying “The Last Bus” by Patch William a lot recently. I came across them via the BBC website (www.bbc.co.uk/music/introducing/artists/patchwilliam/), but I had some trouble embedding the video here (so I reverted to YouTube yet again):
[embedded video from BBC/YouTube of The Last Bus]:
“The last Bus” starts out all St. Vincent, but it changes as soon as you hear the very English vocal. The track builds nicely, it works it’s magic not unlike Grizzly Bear or St Vincent, but without their sadness or edginess, the interesting arrangements, acoustic and electric, folk and rock, lush strings — it’s all there, but with Patch William it’s warm and comfortable and easy listening, relaxing and like a well-known breakfast cereal, by the end you have to have another listen; they’re ludicrously tasty!
The Patch William LP is due out this month, and it’s meant to be super — we shall see.
[embedded video from BBC/YouTube of Morning cars]:
Morning Cars is plugged-in. It has elements of soft punk at times, some interesting timeshifts, dynamics, and even touches of Deacon Blue or Prefab Sprout (maybe because of the girl vocal part). To me, they always seem to start off a song sounding young and mature as they go along! It is nice to see indie still alive and kickin’ — and it’s great to see the yanks getting some competition.
When I need to cut off from background noise at work I wear headphones. What I listen to depends on mood as much as the work itself. Lately I have been chillin’ to Cornelius — quite simply, the guy’s brilliant and very original.
[embedded video "Music" from "Sensuous" on youtube:]
Keigo Oyamada chose “Cornelius” after the ape character in the “The Planet of The Apes” movie. His own son is named “Milo” — which is also the name of the baby ape son of Cornelius in that film!
I have only two albums — Point (2001) and Sensuous (2006), and both are top quality creations. To my mind, Keigo makes his music in a similar way to Steely Dan and The Blue Nile, it’s about sound experiences, noises, stereo imagery, an aural experience, as well as about rhythm and melody.
Cornelius albums are filled with audio craft — the works are art and compiled like a painting might be. Let’s be frank here, this is innovative, creative and also Japanese — yet it remains accessible and wonderful.
I must say that I have always loved pop-up books; they’re pretty damn clever — and are a category or genre of their own. Recently my interest have been rekindled by reading pop-up children’s books at my kids’ bedtimes. Sadly, my little boy is in the middle of the terrible twos and so likes to destroy anything that has flaps or pop-ups. Oh well.
Maybe when they’re older, and can appreciate the art of the pop-up, I will be able to get them something fabulous — possibly something like the works of Marion Bataille — check out www.abc3dbook.com/.
The abc3d book is just wonderful, despite it’s simplicity, it remains creative and ingenious.
embedded video from youtube.com:
This is Marion’s first UK publication, so I wish her all the best. It’s available on Amazon.co.uk
I just got a call from Chic Henderson from Auchtermuchty. It was good to catch up with the auld rascal. He’s 66 now, so he his not motorcycling as much any more — but he still seems pretty active in the Scottish and Irish folk music scene; his bands (The Randan Ceilidh Band) have several CDs, and he’s working on a new one right now.
He tells me that he toured Germany and the Baltic states again this year as a duo called Ardbeg — and that this will be his tenth year going out to South Korea for Saint Andrews at the Caledonia Society!
I met Chic in the late 1990s at the same place where I met my wife! He was a draughtsman for one of our sub-contractors on site. When I returned from my Swedish sojourn, Chic and I used to play Scottish folk music in Glasgow and Fife pubs. It wasn’t what I was used to — it wasn’t my usual scene, but it was great fun! We used to mess about with Toni Wood back then as well. Chic had a project to photograph every Scottish castle when he wasn’t moonlighting as a weekend wedding photographer! Chic got up to 2000 Scottish castles — check out his site at www.scottishcastles.org.uk
I love those calendars that have daily quotes from Oscar Levant, Oscar Wilde and Mark Twain.
I have always admired the Winston Churchill ones, so I thought I would collect here my favourite ones.
Starting with the obvious:
It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.
I like that he advocates an approach — to work, to life.
Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.
Winston recommends a positive outlook.
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
He recognises that failure can chip away enthusiasm or positive energy.
If you’re going through hell, keep going.
– that’s just brilliantly put; who wants to dwell in a bad place? He suggests not-giving-up as the key:
Continuous effort — not strength or intelligence — is the key to unlocking our potential.
Tied in with this is the idea of change — a lot of people are afraid of change, and experience fear of the unknown.
To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.
Then there is the past. People worry about their personal past. Churchill sends a dagger through all that nonsense:
You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.
Adding the absolutely wonderful:
For my part, I consider that it will be found much better by all parties to leave the past to history, especially as I propose to write that history myself.
– that is so true, and for everyone; we each of us have our own truth, we each of us write our own history — it’s perfectly natural and normal.
However, he warns about blaming your present situation too much on what has been done and dusted:
If we open a quarrel between past and present, we shall find that we have lost the future.
This is a cautionary word from a man who really respected history:
Study history, study history. In history lies all the secrets of statecraft.
This ties in nicely with:
We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out.
That was always one that I remembered, although I like to chat, I keep it at that level. Anything deeper or more personal has to be carefully let out, word by word.
Another rich quote that I have found significant is:
We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
I have found the truth in:
We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.
A quote that also applies to music and other shaped things. The next one uses “fanatic”, but I have substituted “bore” quite succesfully:
A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.
Also useful for me at work is the following (often misquoted and misused) advice:
Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room.
– That is something I see too much of, a basic mistake.
Now, I am not a democrat, and so I liked his:
The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
I do not like tax, and can hardly get my head around the modern idea of a fair tax!
There is no such thing as a good tax.
I also hate restrictions, regulations, too much government, Nanny State, Big brother and so forth, so I liked:
If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law.
I am not very socialist either, and agree with Mr Churchill that,
Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.
And
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.
I have also enjoyed that he couldn’t understand the Russians, and understood the Americans too well:
Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.
You can always count on Americans to do the right thing — after they’ve tried everything else.
Churchill had a way of looking at things from a different angle:
A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to kill him.
He was famous for that twisted wit, for example:
He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.
Nancy Astor: “Sir, if you were my husband, I would give you poison.”
Churchill: “If I were your husband I would take it.”
A sheep in sheep’s clothing. (On Clement Atlee)
A modest man, who has much to be modest about. (On Clement Atlee)
Each one is a wee gem. I hope you have enjoyed these quotes as much as I have done over the years!
I have just come across a website called Songza (songza.fm), it looks not bad at first glance.
I typed in a search for Weather Report, and it returned a reasonable list of results. When I clicked on one of the results, a Celtic cross “thing” appeared to let me select “add to playlist”, “share”, “rate” or “play”. I chose “play”, and it tried to open a video. It took an age. Naturally, I moved on and tried several others — all of which took too long. I never actually got to hear anything because I am not that patient. Anything longer than 2 minutes is far too long.
I first came across Steve Vai’s album “Passion & Warfare” in 1997, so it was four or five years old by then and had built up a huge buzz. I got onto it seeing that Brian May of Queen regarded the opening track, “Liberty” as one of his favourites.
I then read that Vai himself described the album as “Jimi Hendrix meets Jesus Christ at a party that Ben Hur threw for Mel Blanc”. Hmm. Intriguing and worth a punt in HMV.
When I first heard the CD, I was not immediately impressed. What was May talking about with “Liberty”? — for anthem work you cannot beat Gary Moore, especially with Colosseum II, or The Floyd’s Dave Gilmour, come on!
It had a lot of things I just have always hated — silly narration, backwards guitar, attempts at comedy, peculiar drums and timing, and shredding for the sake of it (to name but a few). “The Audience Is Listening” has a woman pretending to be a school-teacher, talking to Steve (who “talks” through his guitar)! No! Then his kid son intros and a hispanic lady and … and… you get the picture.
So I shook my head, put the CD away to one side, and moved on with my life.
But — as such things do — Steve Vai kept coming up. Now, I like Joe Satriani, and was surprised to discover in an article about him that he was Vai’s guitar teacher! Then I found out that Vai was discovered by Zappa – exactly like Adrian Belew!
Vai was gaining some serious credentials!
Next up was the movie “Crossroads”…
There are various legends about musicians selling their soul to the devil in exchange for increased musical ability, one is about the exceptional violinist and composer, Niccolò Paganini who died in 1840. Another is about Bluesman Robert Johnson who apparently sold his soul at a crossroads – and who had a secret “missing” tune. There are even rumours that Vai had gone that way himself… ooer!
The movie is about a young chap (Eugene) — played by the Karate Kid guy, Ralph Macchio — a classical guitar student who hears about Robert Johnson’s missing song and tracks down an old man and one-time friend of Johnson who says he knows it. But Willie had sold his soul too — and needed Eugene to battle to save his soul, taking him to the crossroads.
The climax of the film is the guitar duel. Ry Cooder played all Eugene’s music in the film, and so the duel starts off with Cooder playing Eugene’s blues/ bottleneck part against Steve Vai (as Jack Butler), the Devil’s champion — but in the end BOTH parts are played by Steve Vai (and oddly enough, some of the music was based on a Caprice by Paganini)!
embedded video of Crossroads from YouTube
That’s great fun, even if it goes against my belief that guitar playing is not competitive.
And that’s always the trouble when it comes to Mr. Vai — look at YouTube comments or guitar forums, and it’s clear that this has become a problem. People compare Vai with Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Satriani and everyone else. Vai is accused of being too cold and calculated, lacking heart — all technique and no soul!
What bullshit…
embedded video of For The Love Of God from YouTube
So I dug out the CD of “Passion & Warfare” and jammed along, listened and got used to it, and it is wonderful! I have even (to my utmost surprise) become accustomed to the daft bits.
As an influence on my playing, I would say that I sometimes use his pick-harmonic trick, and I now steer clear of whammy bar gargling, but that’s about all really.
Yes, Steve Vai is the shredder behind “Bill and Ted” films, but he is good with melody, sure he plays fast noodles, and overdoes everything grandly — but that is the essence, the charm of it. It’s certainly got the feel of being over-Vai-ed, in that he plays and writes too many of the parts.
I have to say that I bought his follow-up “Sex and Religion“, but that turned out to be the shortlived disappointment — despite being a proper grown-up record, complete with a band and singer! I think I would have liked another instrumental, but with some input and influence of band musicians.
Vai cites the great Allan Holdsworth as his biggest influence, and I really and truly can hear that coming through in his playing. He also quotes as his next biggest influence, the legendary Jeff Beck (Beck was probably through Satriani and the Berkeley School). Again, once you know about this, you can hear the influence — so Vai is like a blend of Holdsworth and Beck/ Satriani.
I don’t understand the level of anger and hate that Vai attracts, and was talking about this a while back to a metal-head at work. His theory was that resentment was down to his career moves: Vai replaced Yngwie Malmsteen in Alcatrazz, and later joined David Lee Roth when Roth split from Van Halen and went into competition with them. Although I could see that this might set Vai up in a competitive way, I have to say that Malmsteen and Eddie Van Halen are tappers – they play quite differently to Vai. Would Satriani, Beck or Holdsworth have received the same treatment? I don’ t think so!
The strangest thing of all is that I believe Steve Vai to have reached a far wider audience than most acclaimed guitarists, without resorting to playing pop (Eddie Van Halen played on Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”). Additionally, Vai is at the top of the list when it comes to technique playing, especially what-is-called shredding, so he’s a massive influence on modern guitar playing — even in the development of guitars, pedals and amps, or just in that he is not playing a Fender or Gibson. He’s really put Ibanez on the top.
Anyways, I really wish he would come up with a new album to beat “Passion & Warfare” – straight melodies and good tunes — maybe a grown up version of it would do me fine! No need to push the bleedin’ envelope or prove something to forum quibblers!
Until then, I am stuck with one CD and movie memories.
![[Picture of Oscar Levant at Piano - An American in Paris]](http://davedevine.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/oscar_levant.jpg "Oscar Levant")
I have been a fan of Oscar since the late 1960s, and I find it sad and strange that he’s not better remembered.![[Picture of Groucho Marx Al Jolson and Oscar Levant 1948]](http://davedevine.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/groucho_al_oscar48.jpg "Marx, Jolson and Levant 1948")
