It's a couple of days later and I pleased to report that "Notes from Underground" went well - really was about as good a radio show as I have been able to put together in terms of content and flow, although a little rough around the edges technically. I got one interesting negative comment from a caller who stated that "some of this stuff is pretty middle of the road compared to what WCBN played when this music was current." I don't know - I wasn't there. Also he stated that "this stuff doesn't get played because it's old." Well, stylistically I don't find it very "old", and perhaps that's part of the problem the New Wave/Punk/70s-80s underground has in terms of getting recognition. A lot of folks don't recognize it as a seperate genre unto itself, rather they view it as an outdated version of what is going on currently. I submit that even a cursory glance of the history of the Pop music of the last 25 years does not represent a continous thread of forward development as did in the first 25. It's more broken up, and from about 1983 forward you have a struggle going on between the edgy, underground music and the corporate commercial side of the music business. The latter almost always "won" in terms of attention and revenue, but once in awhile an underground trend would poke it's head through the curtain only to get it whacked off once the well ran dry or the talent wouldn't play ball with the majors (i.e. Dead Kennedys, Devo, Nirvana.) Thereafter things are business as usual until the next trend comes along that the suits and ties can't ignore.
Before 1983 the music business embraced all types of musical talent that had a pulse, and in a lot of cases lost money. What they've forgotten is that they used to lose just as much money on failed, "safe" commercial acts as they did the riskier ones. However some genuinely risky ventures, such as Jimi Hendrix and that non-singer Bob Dylan, made and continues to make corporate record companies very rich with green.
Also the "prestige factor," which corporate record companies abandoned long ago, did help them retain a positive reputation with the music-loving public, something they certainly do NOT have now. Not when the RIAA has won a judgement of $15,000 against a student for downloading, something he'll work another, oh, say thirty years to pay off. It is never a smart business tactic to make yourself look like Simon Legree to your customers.
I'm tiring of this tirade so I will take leave of it. I have been listening to a lovely collection of music by Phillipp Jarnach (1896-1982) a close associate of Busoni and probably the musician who was Busoni's spiritual heir. It's a on a Swiss label called Divox which is only infrequently available in the United States. Jarnach's music is outstanding, different and not particularly difficult to grasp; neither does it represent a compromise to any familiar school of thought. I shared this disc with Allen Schrott today and he agreed that Jarnach's music is unusual and possessed of some very fine, individual qualities.
Finally I wanted to say something about the writing I have been doing of late professionally. Like my fellows, I have been cranking out a number of articles under deadline, one reason you haven't heard much from me lately. I've been noting that my articles are more dense and are getting shorter. Yet I'm putting just as much work into them as I did before. It isn't because I'm getting lazy -on the contrary, short articles don't necessarily look all that great when they appear on the "home" site. But when you go look at it elsewhere on a client server, with all their bells, whistles, java, shopping carts, frame menus and other crap, the short piece fits like a glove, whereas a long one just makes you think "damn! nobody's gonna read this thing!"
So for now I'm working on learning how to say well what I can only say in a few words. It's certainly different from when I was a freelancer, and I had no idea what it was like to be an AMG editor - then I was very concerned about getting as much as I could into the story, not so much for the purpose of making money as that the piece could be as comprehensive as possible. Saying well what you HAVE to say, and no more - now that's a challenge.
I have to say that my opinions are my own, and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.
Uncle Dave Lewis