Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Go On Then...End...I Dare You

 blokes in hats...they're everywhere...
 
The World is about to End.
One Direction have been named Music Artist of the Year by MTV (I am not joking!) and Silvio Berlusconi has got engaged. It gets worse. 8 million people still watch X factor. One of the seasonal top sellers in Waitrose, for a mere £200, is a guinea fowl, duck and turkey breast stuffed inside a goose (I'm still not joking). Of the 656 movies on television over the Christmas period 643 are repeats. No wonder it's all coming to an end. If I were the World I would seriously think about it too. As dear Kenneth Williams used to say, "Infamy, Infamy, they've all got it infamy!" Be brave my friends. We can get through this. It may be tough, it may involve drink and loud music. Let's take some risks.

The Hat has long expected to Go To Hell in A Handcart. Nothing new there then as it dates back to a youthful existentialist period where he got caught red-handed smoking french cigarettes, wearing shades and playing his stutter version of Thelonius Monk on the Church Hall piano. Many years later, watching Alan Parker's brilliant movie 'The Commitments', I was relieved to see the church organist/part time band rocker sneaking some variations on Percy Sledge into the church organ loft and I realised that I Was Not Alone. Times have changed but taking risks for your music is still an important high that drives many serious musicians.

Back in the day – long before that busking bloke from X factor took his three chords to the top of the charts – there was a wonderful space on the wireless machine for risk-taking proper music. Along with millions of others, The Hat was curled up under his blanket at night listening with a sense of awe and wonder to tunes, harmonies, melody, words like beautiful poetry and stunning instrumental talent. Of course, you had to kiss a lot of frogs and pick your way between the comedy ooh-wahs and babybabys to get to the real stuff, but at least it was there. Whole swathes of brilliant music managed to surface through the dross and swim its way permanently into our consciousness. And so it continued...new ideas, off the wall words, exciting rhythms, extraordinary voices. Even when Punk burst onto the scene and kicked the Stones and many others where it really hurt, they responded with the huge risk-taking 'Some Girls' album – and anyway, who could 'outpunk' Keef?  Somehow though, it seems as though the edginess and risk has gone from the main thrust of our music....

Well, maybe it didn't go anywhere. It's still there, but harder to find. Drowned in a sea of musak pap, commercialism, lowest-common-denominator, fast-buck, cheaply produced with a faux-porn dance video, a tsunami of second-rate rubbish, any attempt to break the mold is regarded firstly With Suspicion and then By An Accountant.

Right now, in the world of the blues there are skirmishes taking place at every level on the question as to whether we can continue with the new and the risk-taking without sacrificing the traditional. It is a nervy debate with a lot of labelling and defensive stances being taken. To be called a purist, a traditionalist – or even 'old and hatted' – are terms now swung around the head like clubs by those that think that time is past and is choking the present. Similarly, an adventurous re-work or even a new piece that is edgy or risky runs the gauntlet of being aggressively attacked as not being 'proper' blues. Clapton is boring and past it. Bonamassa is more rock than blues. How big is this Broad Church? Hey, what's wrong with spreading our music wings? This debate is not new. The two camps have been there some while and there have always been many who wander round in the middle puzzled by the emotions that they stir up. What has changed however, is the context. It is now so hard to find a way into the mainstream that the need to explore new markets and a wider audience has become an imperative to ensure that the genre does not go the way of (say) traditional jazz and almost disappear off the radar. Amateur presentation needs to give way to some proper marketing. Websites, the new media, video, specialist radio and magazine coverage with a good reach are all growth areas that are only comparatively recently available. The debate is no longer just Nerdy Jousting. It is a potential Wake-up Call.This is an important discussion but it should not blind us to the facts that firstly, good music will rise to the top in any event; secondly, the young guns (thank god) are still pouring through the door looking for the top dog and lastly that it is possible to modify, adapt and re-shape a traditional piece of music without touching its original honesty and integrity.

There are thousands of 'standards' in the blues world that get reworked every day – anyone who saw Ben Poole deconstruct 'Hey Joe' at the Hebden Blues Festival will know exactly what I mean - but let me give you a small example from mainstream music. In 1964 The Zombies produced 'She's Not There'. In the decades since, it has been covered by everyone from Punk to MOR. For example, in 1977 Santana decided to give it the amazing Carlos treatment followed soon after by the UK Subs coming from a totally different place. A cleverly crafted minor key number that is still being reworked and enhanced fifty years later. There was not a peep out of Outraged of East Cheam and the music flourishes because people took risks. Jools Holland recently said after playing a duet with Herbie Hancock that he was an 'extemporising' musician – by which he meant he never plays a piece the same way twice. That, The Hat would suggest is one of The great organic joys of blues players who push the boundaries. Nobody wants to hear the same riffs and chords pounded out in the saloon bar of the Guinea Fowl and Goose and there is quite rightly some scorn fired in the direction of the second rate. Those bands will probably die from lack of support in any event and The Hat is absolutely convinced that any blues lover, old, young, hatted or bareheaded will know that, debate or no debate, at the end of the day, talent, originality and good music will quite easily survive long after next week's end of the world.....

Ok. Calm Down. As it's Christmas, I leave you with a couple of handsome presents.

First. If there is someone you are still having trouble finding a present for, then look no further than Tony Bennett's two Cds. 'Duets'. Almost everything about these recordings is perfect. Blues, Ballads, Bliss and above all, that voice. John Mayer, Amy Winehouse, Aretha being Aretha, so many more. It's all there, so give out a few of these and The Hat promises that you will surely become The Star of Christmas.

Second. As last year, The Hat once again, offers you his free 'Waiting-for-Her Maj-to-Kick-off Christmas' round the table game. This Year, I have called it the Pass The Cliche game. Same principal as pass the parcel but you pass a cliche round the table, each player attempting to keep the train rolling. I shall start you off with "Well, I woke Up This Morning" and leave you to pick up the blues cliches from there. As you go round the table, any player failing to be obvious will drop out. The winner will be the last smug know-all standing....

Well, I have to get down to my panic room now with Cozy, a lot of Cds, several bottles of Emergency Rations and the BBC World Service. I know I can rely on them to let me know if the world ends......see you on the other side.....

Merry Christmas my Blues Friends
Pip Pip!
The Man in The Hat