Who knew?

By now, I believe that everyone who drops in knows I'm a huge music fan. Huge. Always have been, always will be. Growing up in the '60s and '70s, I grew up in a time when music was different. It was written by people who, for the most part, actually sat down with with instruments and hammered out  the music. In the '60's, there were music factories. Literally. Just think. You could get a job writing music for other artists. You could get paid to make music. And eventually, a number of these writers would go on to become stars in their own right. The '60s and '70s brought the "singer/songwriter" from behind the scenes to center stage.

The Brill Building

The Brill Building is a building in New York City. It's named for a haberdasher who eventually purchased the building, but it's nothing special. It's an office building. Inside is where the magic took place. It housed numerous musicians, music publishing offices and studios. Success breeds success, and the Brill Building housed a "Who's Who" of talent.

You may not know the name of the building, but look at who came through those doors:

Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Sonny Bono, Neil Diamond, Carole King and Gerry Goffin, Paul Simon, Laura Nyro and even Phil Spector

And more. Musicians working out of the building included Bobby Darin, Elvis Presley, Frankie Valli and Tony Orlando.

And the songs? "Save the Last Dance for Me", "Yakety Yak", "The Locomotion", "River Deep, Mountain High" to name a few. 

I won't gloss over "Tin Pan Alley", which may be the more "famous" writing arena, but the music and artists hail from a different time. No less important, just a different era.

Motown

We have to thank Barry Gordy, Jr. for Motown or "Hitsville, USA". Using the nickname of  Detroit, Motown and the "Motown Sound" was instrumental in providing crossover hits from the R&B charts to the pop charts. The blending of white music and black music. It's more or less where DJ Alan Freed was headed when he coined the phrase, "Rock and Roll". 

Motown gave us Smokey Robinson, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Norman Whitfield, Marvin Gaye, Eddie Kendricks, Stevie Wonder and Hal Davis.

The hits? "What's Going On?", "Let's Get It On", "My Guy", "Please, Mister Postman". Motown gave us the Commodores, Lionel Richie, Rick James, Diana Ross & The Supremes, the Four Tops, and yes, the Jackson 5.

These two sources are the building blocks of my love for music. But music was changing. Artists were demanding more control over their music. Artists were more concerned bout recording their own songs, providing their own arrangements, and their own bands. Buddy Holly was instrumental in moving forward for artist's rights and control over their own music and their own sound. 

You can't talk about making great music and leave out The Wrecking Crew.  The Wrecking Crew was a group of musicians who became Phil Spector's house band, helping him to establish his signature "Wall of Sound Orchestra". You'll have to decide for yourself if the "Wall of Sound" was good or not. Try listening to The Beatles "Let It Be" album. Then listen to "Let It Be...Naked". A marked difference in sound. The Wrecking Crew was a group of musicians who became the "elite" of studio musicians. You hear them on "Pet Sounds". The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, The Mamas & The Papas, literally hundreds of albums and thousands of songs. Leon Russell and Glen Campbell were one-time members. Larry Knechtel (Bread) was a member. You can't pass up how important session musicians are. They are unsung heroes, many who go on to have careers. Check out Toto. And Jimmy Page.  

I remember reading that regardless of what many of the bands of the '60s and 70's were up to, Creedance Clearwater Revival treated their chosen profession as a job. Every morning, up and off to rehearsal and writing. Just like a 9-5 job. Maybe others didn't follow the normal work day as much, but it was this era that gave us great writers and singers like Bob Dylan, The Band, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Neil Young, Jim Croce, John Denver. Performers writing their own material proliferated. And the quality was, well, maybe timeless. 

Today, I don't know. Yes, I know that my generation had the greatest music, but then, every generation says that. Bernie Taupin and Sir Elton John have written a music library that is formidable. The Beatles, primarily John & Sir Paul, did the same. As did Mick and Keith. It didn't take a room full of people, electronic machines to manufacture the music and auto tune to make the artist sound good. No, it seems that so much of today's music is literally manufactured. And don't get me started on "sampling", or "plagiarism", as we called it. 

We had a short road trip today, and on the way home, we were listening to a rerun of Casey Kasem's American Top Forty Countdown. The year was 1980.  Remember those days? Depending on your local station, Saturday or Sunday was the day to find out if there was a new #1 song in America. You got factoids about the artists. Learned about the songs. Heard "Long Distance Dedications". Kasem must have been a magician, because it was magic to hear him every weekend. Just like watching American Bandstand. It was something never to be missed. 

Things are so different today. People don't buy albums. Or singles. They download songs. Terrestrial radio (AM/FM) is challenged by Internet radio, with Pandora, Slacker and others leading the way. And what of Terrestrial radio? Big corporate conglomerations have been allowed to mass buy radio stations across the country, almost eliminating "local" radio, local content and local personalities. And now, those big conglomerations are facing bankruptcy.  I'm not sure where radio is headed. I miss live, local radio. We still have some stations here that are partially live and local, but it's not the same.

Finally, there was a time when I thought the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was a relevant venture. When Ahmet Ertegün is involved, you've gotta pay attention. But unfortunately, it seems the RRHoF has gone the way of award shows of any kind. Politics and money have taken over, and it's no longer about the artist and their fans. It's about the money. It seems the folks in charge have forgotten what rock and roll is. What it means. And mostly, it seems they've forgotten the artists that performed it. Too many great bands have been overlooked. Too many great bands have been disrespected by ignoring some of the band's history and members. And in the case of Steve Miller, they ignored his band. I grew up listening to the Steve Miller Band. Not Steve Miller. But you have to remember. Jann Wenner is involved with the board. He's also the publisher and co-founder of Rolling Stone Magazine. A magazine that used to be a great music rag with occasional political articles. Now it's become a political magazine with occasional music articles. 

I don't know where music is going. But I know what I like. Big band. Jazz. Blues. Soul. Rock. Classic Rock. And I do like some of the newer stuff, except by the time I figure out who they are, they aren't new anymore. Like Green Day. In the grand scheme of things, maybe it doesn't matter. As long as their are kids, there's going to be music that has parents yelling, "Turn that noise down!" I guess all that's left to figure out is why everybody hates Nickelback...