In which we’re all about music

This is a diverse set off my audit queue, with some things worth talking about.

It started with Box of Frogs, a spinoff group from the Yardbirds. (So was Led Zeppelin, originally named The New Yardbirds. Then again, Clapton was in the original Yardbirds, replaced by Jeff Beck. Something of a breeding ground, I’d say.) I don’t know how I found them—500 songs, I guess—but I probably don’t need to say after the description so far that they were right up my alley. I immediately grabbed a track off their debut album (they only produced a couple of albums) for my main rock playlist and then threw the album back into the main rotation. Definitely worth more than one listen.

Then, following orders from a young colleague of mine, I forced myself to listen to “The Life of a Showgirl.” There is absolutely nothing about this music that appeals to me, but I have tried to listen to Swift in the past, and I can say honestly that this was better than most of what I’ve heard from her before. But I don’t have much truck with synthesizers, drum machines, and voices that sound like every other voice out there these days. I was raised on pianos and drums and all the other instruments in the music store, and singers who were unique. Come to think of it, when the singers weren’t unique, they were, well, just there. Go back to the big bands. Ella stood out. So did a few others. Most were sort of interchangeable. And, of course, people played their damned instruments, sometimes to hell and back. (The same holds true for all my music, be it jazz or show tunes or rock.) There does not seem to be much of a premium on that sort of thing nowadays. Anyhow, I listened to this, and I can report that fact back to my young colleague, and I’ll never have to listen to Taylor Swift again. Unless, of course she preforms during…

…halftime at the Super Bowl was Bad Bunny, and this was my first introduction to him. I followed this with a listen to X 100PRE. I have to say, I definitely enjoyed the show, because it was like a trip to the tropics, but the music, not so much. I love lots of Latin music, especially Brazilian music going back to sambas and Bossa nova up to tropicalia (thank you, David Byrne), but Reggaeton just eludes me. It’s the rapping, I guess, which is absolutely a generational thing. I can live with that. And I think Mr. Bunny will also be able to live quite happily without my joining his fanbase. 

What came up next in the queue encapsulated what I was thinking about what had come before: Levon Helm’s first solo album. Here was somebody singing with a distinct voice full of personality, and it was Muscle Shoals folks playing behind him, and I can’t imagine anything further removed from Swift or Bunny, although I think both of them would happily link up with Muscle Shoals for the right project. These two are not the biggest performers in the world because they are not musicians. They are just not my musicians. 

OK boomer…