"Wow, he has lots of other records besides Supernatural". (I actually overheard this at Tower Records about 10 years ago when I was standing across from some young ladies who were leafing through Santana CDs).
Carlos Santana is a musician I have always admired.
I first got turned on to his thing when I was about 12. A friend's older sister had the "Moonflower" album and we listened to it over and over. I had never heard anything like it and I was immediately hooked. There are some guitar players that you can recognize after hearing just a few notes, and Santana is one of them for me. Since then, I've seen him live numerous times and have enjoyed his vast catalogue dating back to the late 60s, through some of his more experimental phases in the 70s ("Love, Devotion, Surrender", anyone?) and even through his (sometimes) sub-par 80s output.
What I think I admire the most about him is not only as a guitarist (though he still ranks as one of the best in my book, despite his having lost a little of his technique over the past few years). More than that, I admire his entire approach to music in general. He's always put together the most amazing bands with incredible players and he was always able to inject a little something extra into his playing. Call it spirituality, call it other-worldliness...just don't ask me to try and describe what I mean beyond this, because it will come off sounding stupid. Suffice it to say that there's always been an indescribable quality about Carlos the musician/guitarist that, to me, has placed him above most of the other professional musicians out there. I never once got the feeling that Carlos ever played a single note without really meaning it.
Most younger kids these days probably know Santana from his recent string of hit albums that he's recorded under the aegis of legendary music producer Clive Davis. Mr. Davis has certainly hit on a formula that has clicked: team Carlos with a lineup of modern-day pop singers and reach that elusive crossover market. Santana's recordings over the past 10 years have been his best selling of his career. "Supernatural", released in 1999, has sold over 15 million copies. I haven't seen the actual statistics but I think this has to be his best-selling release to date.
I can't honestly say I was a huge fan of the Supernatural-era Santana, or of the several albums that have followed over the past 10 years (all of which followed the same Clive Davis formula). To me, these albums sound over-produced and over-sterilized. It's as if the Santana band - still firing on all cylinders - got together with a bunch of top-40 singers to record some new tunes, and then Carlos would come in after the fact and lay down some random guitar tracks over what was already recorded. Still, I have to say that his playing never really lost that indescribable something on these albums. He still played everything as if he meant it. And...good for him for reaching what's probably the financial pinnacle of his recording career - if anyone deserves such success, it's Carlos.
All of which brings me to his latest release, "Guitar Heaven". Again, this one follows the same Clive Davis formula but on this release Carlos and his band cover classic guitar tunes from Led Zeppelin, Cream, the Rolling Stones, etc. Some of these covers are done pretty well ("Sunshine of Your Love" stands out for me so far), while some of them are what-were-you-thinking awful (AC/DC's "Back in Black", which is recorded with someone named NAS who raps the lyrics with what I swear sounds like the auto-tuned cast of Glee singing the choruses...just terrible). At this point, I think the Clive Davis formula has grown stale.
As a guitarist, Carlos' chops are not what they used to be...that's been apparent over the past few albums - but they seem even more sloppy on this new release. What's worse, though, is that I don't get that feeling that Carlos means what he's playing any more. Even more so than the past few albums, this one really sounds like Carlos is simply phoning it in. It doesn't really have the identity of the Santana band. Maybe this is what naturally happens after you've been through the Clive Davis machine for 10+ years; gotta appeal to the American Idol-buying public or your career is kaput-ski. I think that's a sad place to see someone like Carlos end up.
I like to think that maybe there's still enough creativity in the man to break out of this rut and record a new album of his own music, with only his own band again (please, no more "guest artists" on every track), and produced by someone else other than Clive Davis. One can only hope. In the meantime, I think I'll listen to Moonflower again.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Live Shows - Worth the Cost?
I recently sat down to watch a performance of Don Giovanni by the San Francisco Opera on my local PBS station. I thoroughly enjoyed the opera, but more than that it was the experience of watching it on a 52" HD screen with digital sound and in the comfort of my own living room. I didn't have to negotiate my way through downtown traffic, pay for parking, get hit up for spare change on the street, or pay $100 for a seat. And I could see the singers up close, noticing those nuances I would have missed in the opera house (sitting hundreds of feet from the stage), watching their facial expressions conveying what the words alone can't.
In this era of high-definition, big screen TVs, Blu-Ray discs and digital sound, is a live performance really worth the cost any more? I've read elsewhere how affordable, high-quality home theater systems may be responsible in part for declining movie theater ticket receipts, and I think live music performances may suffer from this as well.
There is something to be said about being with a group of like-minded people, gathered together to experience a performance of live music of any style. And I know that many musicians rely on live performances as part of their incomes, and that ticket prices for the opera only cover a portion of their production costs. I know and appreciate all of this, and there are still instances when I will pay to see a live show no matter the cost. But increasingly I find myself distracted by the more unpleasant elements of taking in a live show and am more and more inclined these days to stay home and pop in a DVD.
In the case of rock shows (and maybe it's just my bad luck), I always find myself seated either in front of or directly behind the most inebriated idiot in the house, and who makes it his responsibility (yes, it's always a "he") to let everyone in a 20-seat radius know exactly what he thinks of everything. As I get older that sort of thing just annoys me more and more and it distracts from my enjoyment of the music. Then there's the outrageous food/drink prices, parking hassles, and those "convenience fees" of at least $10 added to the cost of each ticket. Maybe I'm getting cranky but these things are making me become more choosy about which rock shows I will pay for these days.
I even recently decided against going to see Rush on their most recent tour. Now Rush is one band that I almost never miss; their live shows are incredible and I've seen them at least a dozen times. But I consciously skipped this tour because I can guarantee that there will be a Blu-Ray disc of this show released soon after their tour ends. Also, for probably 90% of the concert I find myself staring at the large video screens as I'm usually too far from the stage to see anything...so why not just do this at home?
Speaking of video screens, I find it interesting how the SF Opera has installed video screens in their balcony section so that you can see the singers and the translations up close as if you were watching the same thing at home on your HD screen. This serves a dual purpose, I suspect: I'm sure they film these performances as they appear on the video screens, so that they will have a DVD-ready performance to sell (or lease to PBS) long after the live performance. I'm sure the Don Giovanni that I watched the other evening was exactly what the folks in the balcony section were seeing at the Opera House.
Live musical performances can still be thrilling, and as I mentioned I will still pay to support my favorite artists or local musical organizations ... just not as often any more.
In this era of high-definition, big screen TVs, Blu-Ray discs and digital sound, is a live performance really worth the cost any more? I've read elsewhere how affordable, high-quality home theater systems may be responsible in part for declining movie theater ticket receipts, and I think live music performances may suffer from this as well.
There is something to be said about being with a group of like-minded people, gathered together to experience a performance of live music of any style. And I know that many musicians rely on live performances as part of their incomes, and that ticket prices for the opera only cover a portion of their production costs. I know and appreciate all of this, and there are still instances when I will pay to see a live show no matter the cost. But increasingly I find myself distracted by the more unpleasant elements of taking in a live show and am more and more inclined these days to stay home and pop in a DVD.
In the case of rock shows (and maybe it's just my bad luck), I always find myself seated either in front of or directly behind the most inebriated idiot in the house, and who makes it his responsibility (yes, it's always a "he") to let everyone in a 20-seat radius know exactly what he thinks of everything. As I get older that sort of thing just annoys me more and more and it distracts from my enjoyment of the music. Then there's the outrageous food/drink prices, parking hassles, and those "convenience fees" of at least $10 added to the cost of each ticket. Maybe I'm getting cranky but these things are making me become more choosy about which rock shows I will pay for these days.
I even recently decided against going to see Rush on their most recent tour. Now Rush is one band that I almost never miss; their live shows are incredible and I've seen them at least a dozen times. But I consciously skipped this tour because I can guarantee that there will be a Blu-Ray disc of this show released soon after their tour ends. Also, for probably 90% of the concert I find myself staring at the large video screens as I'm usually too far from the stage to see anything...so why not just do this at home?
Speaking of video screens, I find it interesting how the SF Opera has installed video screens in their balcony section so that you can see the singers and the translations up close as if you were watching the same thing at home on your HD screen. This serves a dual purpose, I suspect: I'm sure they film these performances as they appear on the video screens, so that they will have a DVD-ready performance to sell (or lease to PBS) long after the live performance. I'm sure the Don Giovanni that I watched the other evening was exactly what the folks in the balcony section were seeing at the Opera House.
Live musical performances can still be thrilling, and as I mentioned I will still pay to support my favorite artists or local musical organizations ... just not as often any more.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
I Miss Tower Records
I love iTunes and I can't stand iTunes.
I buy a lot of music from iTunes. Since I got my first iPod in 2003 (I'm on my third now), I've been steadily building up my iTunes library with CDs from my collection and augmenting same with tons of albums purchased from Apple's online store. Even though I've been working in I.T. for the past 17 years, I'm still amazed at the fact that all of this content is available at the click of a mouse. Something about purchasing goods online is so tempting when you don't have to reach for your wallet and pull out your credit card each time you make a purchase (it's easy to forget that your card is getting dinged with each track you download). And for me, buying music has been an obsession since I could afford my first LP from paper route money (Led Zeppelin's "Song Remains the Same" double-album purchased at Musicland). This obsession continues in the digital age.
Still, I have to say I do miss the experience of shopping in a record store. For my money, nothing beats the experience of walking into a shop and seeing miles of rows of CDs of every genre, right there for the browsing - and it's specifically the browsing that I miss.
I used to make my way through Tower Records first to the "Rock/Pop" CD section. Starting alphabetically I could wander through the offerings...AC/DC (anything I don't already have?)...Black Sabbath (why don't they ever carry "Master of Reality" when you really want it?)...Depeche Mode (meh, walk on by)...etc...
It was the browsing experience that would get me feeling all adventurous and willing to try new things. It was how I discovered the discography of artists that I was just learning to get into. Most of all, I was in control and could easily wander back if something on a "Santana" album cover jogged something in my memory and made me want to wander back to the "L" section for some reason. The visuals of all the available CDs let me scan everything within eyeshot and take notice of what jogged my memory up there in the "S" section...(oh, yeah, I always wondered what this Living Colour album was like).
You just can't do the same in the iTunes store. For the most part, you have to know what you are looking for. You can't just look through everything and then decide. Sure, they will push whatever top-10 garbage is currently on their best-seller charts but if you really want to dig deeper than Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus you really have to search. And searching the iTunes store is a less-than-perfect experience.
Still - for all its faults, I love the iTunes store and will most likely continue to buy most of my music there. Yes, it pisses me off that some of my favorites are still unavailable (the Frank Zappa catalogue was there for a brief time but all too brief for me to really dig in), but for the most part I find it very satisfactory.
I still miss Tower Records, though.
I buy a lot of music from iTunes. Since I got my first iPod in 2003 (I'm on my third now), I've been steadily building up my iTunes library with CDs from my collection and augmenting same with tons of albums purchased from Apple's online store. Even though I've been working in I.T. for the past 17 years, I'm still amazed at the fact that all of this content is available at the click of a mouse. Something about purchasing goods online is so tempting when you don't have to reach for your wallet and pull out your credit card each time you make a purchase (it's easy to forget that your card is getting dinged with each track you download). And for me, buying music has been an obsession since I could afford my first LP from paper route money (Led Zeppelin's "Song Remains the Same" double-album purchased at Musicland). This obsession continues in the digital age.
Still, I have to say I do miss the experience of shopping in a record store. For my money, nothing beats the experience of walking into a shop and seeing miles of rows of CDs of every genre, right there for the browsing - and it's specifically the browsing that I miss.
I used to make my way through Tower Records first to the "Rock/Pop" CD section. Starting alphabetically I could wander through the offerings...AC/DC (anything I don't already have?)...Black Sabbath (why don't they ever carry "Master of Reality" when you really want it?)...Depeche Mode (meh, walk on by)...etc...
It was the browsing experience that would get me feeling all adventurous and willing to try new things. It was how I discovered the discography of artists that I was just learning to get into. Most of all, I was in control and could easily wander back if something on a "Santana" album cover jogged something in my memory and made me want to wander back to the "L" section for some reason. The visuals of all the available CDs let me scan everything within eyeshot and take notice of what jogged my memory up there in the "S" section...(oh, yeah, I always wondered what this Living Colour album was like).
You just can't do the same in the iTunes store. For the most part, you have to know what you are looking for. You can't just look through everything and then decide. Sure, they will push whatever top-10 garbage is currently on their best-seller charts but if you really want to dig deeper than Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus you really have to search. And searching the iTunes store is a less-than-perfect experience.
Still - for all its faults, I love the iTunes store and will most likely continue to buy most of my music there. Yes, it pisses me off that some of my favorites are still unavailable (the Frank Zappa catalogue was there for a brief time but all too brief for me to really dig in), but for the most part I find it very satisfactory.
I still miss Tower Records, though.
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