VIEW FROM THE TOP by GIL LEGINE

The top of what, exactly ? Suppose on nearing the summit the weather closes in or I run out of Kendall Mint Cake? - inevitable retreat on both counts. Supposing I do reach the top and the view is shite - what then ? Just some of the myriad of thoughts in mind when asked to pen this little article..... enough already. Greetings Zoneheads, welcome to my allocated pages of : (don?t laugh) informed, erudite argument on the stuff known globally as MUSIC. Indeed it is music itself I wish to talk about as opposed to the various machinations of Radio, as, to be blunt, I know bugger all about that - except what I like ! Briefly, (& continuing on from Andy Miles) 'Personality Radio', by his interpretation, is good - but mysteriously absent, in the UK at least. Here, we seem to be suffering from a whole different kind of 'personality radio', presented by DJ?s who think they have one ! You know the formula - ?blah blah bollox - blah - alleged humour, inane comments from co-presenter, blah blah - more bollox, blah - oh yes, and here's some music I've been told to play.... More worryingly, a lot of these talentless gits get their own TV Shows which actually seem to be liked - PEOPLE WAKE UP ! This is not healthy, those DJ's (you know who you are) I beg you, LEAVE US ALONE PLEASE ! OK - now the important thing - MUSIC. I adore the stuff in virtually all of its forms, in fact it is my life. As I'm sure most of you are aware as a drummer I play/write it. I also engineer, mix and produce it, I teach it , and - (when allowed !) - I present it on the Radio. So, it feeds me, clothes me, keeps a roof over my head and above all else, it gives me great pleasure. I think for the purpose of this article it is easiest to discuss things in 2 categories - stuff I like, and stuff I don?t like. However, I should stress, just because one does not like something, it isn't necessarily shite ! In fact you can be sure someone, somewhere (unfortunately in some cases !) will like it. OK then, my personal views on :

CDs :
A good format for releasing music on, convenient, no surface noise, booklets can be entertaining, they can handle 'reasonable' abuse, and they are great for demos. It took me a while to 'go digital'. As an (ex ?) Vinyl junkie I still prefer the sound of an L.P, despite the 'pops' etc. You can spread a stereo signal better across a groove than by a series of binary numbers, and it's 'warmer'. A CD is superior in quality I would say. I have not replaced any Albums with CDs unless they have become shagged from use. I prefer the artwork potential on an LP too and you have always got the Music - whatever. I am concerned about CDs eventually degrading. CDs have more space on them, but this can be both good and bad. If an Artist has enough 'good' material, enough for say, a Double Album, or they are putting together a Compilation, then you find the advantages are obvious. However, it seems to me a lot of Artists these days feel obliged to fill the space - because it's there - with substandard music. Could this be, perhaps, an attempt to justify the ridiculous retail price levied by the Record Companies ? Even more of a sin is the usual inclusion of 'bonus tracks' or out-takes, usually on re-mastered Albums. I am sure for collectors and devotees of a particular Artist - the obvious curiosity value is there - but let?s face it, they are out-takes, i.e not good enough to include on the original release. I am sure there are Artists, who have since died, turning in their graves thinking - 'I didn't want anyone to hear those songs because I hated them' ! I reckon it's a ploy by greedy Record Companies to get us to buy the Albums again at £15, £16, £17 - what ! Normally, a CD costs about £1 to press, then even when you have paid off the Producer, Songwriter, Studio, Musicians etc - you could in fact charge around £10 and still make a profit - it's a rip-off people !

BOY/GIRL BANDS :
Aaaagh !... an entirely woeful concept. Manufactured groups have pretty much always been with us. For instance The Monkees (America's answer to the Beatles) were such a thing, but they at least had some talent and wrote some good songs too. Today, the people in these groups may well have talent, but it doesn't appear to be in 'musical endeavour'. The priorities seem to be : Are they beautiful ? Are they able to dance ? They should be fashion victims of course, and should say and do the right things - and down the list - ?Oh - can they sing and/or write good songs? ? Well, the answer is NO, they bloody well can't. All they can do is badly cover someone else's songs. The final insult is when one of these ex-boy band 'stars' gets into the Top 10 of a 'Musicians of the Millennium' national TV poll. I DEMAND A RE-COUNT !

SONGS and SONGWRITERS :
Now, I love to hear great tunes with (or without !) moving, challenging, or even funny lyrics. There are artists from years gone by (too many to mention) who are able to create such things very well, and long may they continue to do so. What does concern me is the apparent lack of genuine songwriters amongst todays new talent. Of course, there are some people pushing musical and lyrical boundaries - Beck, Gomez, Radiohead, Blur, Tori Amos, Eels and Bjork spring to mind - but on the whole it is pretty grim. Alleged 'songs' today nearly all seem to follow the same formula : Sampled bit from a good (old) song - that tedious bass drum/hi-hat loop on the top (at around 150 bpm) - some inane repeated phrase or 'hook' - a 'rap' bit - the same repeated phrase - some kind of sound engineering wizardry (if you're lucky) ! - song ends. Any fool with a computer can do this and for me it's soul-less, meaningless crap. I put this formula down to... (Oh No !)...

DANCE MUSIC :
Rave, Techno, Jungle, whatever you want to call it. We?ve had this stuff around now for surely 15 years or more. Why ?... there's no reason for its longevity other than there?s nowhere else to go or, maybe it's just the drugs. Oh, 'the kids' like it. Good things to evolve from it : well, Bjork again, The Chemical Brothers, Tortoise, Massive Attack, The Prodigy, Orbital and a few others. These people are at least trying to do something creative with all the samples, sounds and computers at their disposal. The rest should be herded into a giant pulping machine, the product of which I can use to wipe my arse ! I know it's harder to come up with entirely new material now but I do believe there must be somewhere else to go. Hopefully, with the dawn of a new millennium, something tuneful will emerge. In fact - between you & me - there are already tentative signs of this happening, have faith people, the attrition is almost over !

JAZZ :
Nice ! Generally believed to be self-indulgent, in-accessible, musical snobbery. I'll admit, in the wrong hands, this can be true. However, on the whole, I do think some of the most beautiful music in the world has been created under this 'banner'. I love to hear people who can play, play and people who can sing, sing. After all, there's little or no money in Jazz so the love and passion for the music is usually the only reward. Sure, there are pretentious arses involved, but that is true in every single avenue of music. I think Jazz has got a bad deal in nearly all departments, usually due to misinformation and ignorance. OK, that's it, I could go on, and on, and on... ! Some of you might think 'you cynical old git' !, but that's not true. I just happen to care a lot about the stuff known as music, and I am very optimistic. The future looks bright.

('Music is the best' - Frank Zappa, 1979)

Gil Legine.