Moe’s Art!

I kept hearing how great this guy was:



And I agreed, initially. After all, how do you beat this?

Turns out they meant another guy:

Oh, Christ, I thought, classical music is so boring. I mean, they hardly ever poke Curly in the eye, do they?

But I soldiered on and learned a few things. But so did Classical Music. Like, Don’t Be Annoying.

I always hated how fussy sounding it could be. Everybody was so exact and specific. It’s the sound equivalent of a foppish guy in a wig raising his pinky while sipping his tea, all the while imagining he’s better than the servant who brewed it for him. So even when he’s having a good time taking in a sonata or two, and you can’t be happy for him.

So I just wished they’d all relax a little. Like on The Brandenburg Concertos, where you can imagine the orchestra taking a hit or two before starting, or that Vivaldi Mandolin Concerto where you can just make out the Heineken's at their feet. Okay, that's a stretch, but you get the idea - relaxed.

But when they’re serious, oh boy, look out. It’s like a lecture from your teacher. Or worse, your mom. So these obstacles have slowed my appreciation somewhat.


For instance, it’s taken thirty years to really get this record:


Mozart: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (K. 525): Orpheus Chamber Orchestra  (1787)

Back in 1989, ex-friend Dan said that A Little Night Music was his favorite piece of classical music, which should have told me something.

But in typical Jaybee Record Store Trip fashion, I picked up this epitome-of-classical-musical along with the Replacement’s epitome-of-sloppy-rock n’ roll Tim.

So which one do you think I listened to more at the time, even with a baby in the house? It wasn’t even close. (And that wasn’t even the best one by the Mats…)

After all, the two artists couldn’t be more different:

• One was by a snotty young genius with bad manners, and the other was, well…  
• One celebrated juvenile jokes and the other, well…
• One died young (a fate we all secretly wish on those we see as having too good a time…) and the other, well….
• One created music that would ultimately be considered among the greatest of the era and the other would, well...

But no one would mistake Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart for Paul Westerberg (and no, Westerberg didn’t die, but guitarist Bob Stinson did. He was at least as wild as WAM) would they?

For all WAM’s proclivities, he’s long since been enshrined in the upper-class Museum of Why We’re Better Than Everyone Else.

Not so, the Replacements who’d take that bucket of black paint to the canvas.

But how are these records different? Well, one has guitars on it. The other doesn't, so I shelved it.

I have since gotten a few more opportunities to listen to it thanks to my World History Project, which is now up to 1787. And it's begun to grow on me. But first we had to get past that perky beginning, which is familiar so so many. I’ll take the second movement any day.

One good thing about classical albums is that they tend to throw in more than one piece in order to fill up the album. ALNM runs only about 15 minutes so there’s plenty of room for more. And that’s where this record really shines.

There's Divertimento en E flat major (K. 252 (240a) for those of you keeping score). And another one in D Major (K.131) both of which I like more than ALNM.

WAM knows how to fits in lots of melody without overdoing it. The violins don’t just play, they saw furiously to get in as many notes as can fit. And every one counts.

Like a tasty lead guitar with a couple of seconds here and there for fills.  Or even better, when they make the riff part of the overall structure.

Which is all I ask for, you know?

A-


And since I pretend to be open-minded I would eventually get some other records by Mozart, but in fact, a bunch of them just fell into my lap, like:


Sinfonia Concertante; Concerto in E-flat Major 
Concerto for Violin, Piano and Orchestra in D Major (c. 1777)

These two long pieces have got everything going for them, and the CD sounds great on headphones. The playing is excellent and they sound like they’re enjoying themselves. It's too fast for weed to explain, so I'm just going to assume lots of coffee.

A-



Sonata in A Minor K 310 (1778)

When I first saw the cover my deep animosity for the upper class made me think hey Alfred, get over yourself. But now I see him as thinking all right, we both know I kick ass on piano, so calm the f*ck down and we'll get this over with as quickly as possible.  And if you can get over that I gotta get dressed up to listen to this record feeling, you'll notice he skipped the tie and jacket, so I think he's trying to meet us halfway.

And this music is pretty serious sounding. (Hey, you, sit up straight!) But if you give Alfred a chance, you'll start to notice that it's worth listening to. It's not just serious for the sake of taking the joy out of your life. It's there to put some back in, so by the end you're cheering him on.

And when you really look at him leaning on the piano, you think maybe he's had a few himself. Hey Alfred, let me hold the rest of that six pack while you play!

And he also includes a few other pieces, like Fantasy in C Minor and Rondo in A Minor that are quite pretty.

My favorite part, though, is “Variations in D on a Minuet by Duport”, where Mozart comes up with  NINE different ways to show he's better than the original composer. So obnoxious, he might have been asked to join the Replacements. He'd only have to live two hundred more years.

A-


Dude even did an opera (or thirty). I got it at Costco for about $1. WAM must be having a laugh at that. Even Pleased to Meet Me cost more than that!


Die Entfuhrung Aus Dem Serail  (1782)

But it’s all right. As usual, there’s lots of energy and melody, like they’re all planning to have sex after the show.

B+



Piano Concertos 23 and 24 (1786?)

And there are these two piano concertos I’m just getting into. I waited a month to get this. I thought maybe they were digging up old Wolfgang for me. When I complained they sent me two copies, because that makes sense, right?

So I’m still just getting into them. If we wait until I figure them out we'll be here until they unfreeze him, so he can explain it all to us.

In the meantime...

Grade: TBD

Requiem: (1791)

And finally a Requiem, in anticipation of his death. And, as you’d expect, it ain’t perky.

I’m not big of Requiems as the singers seem to be having an even worse time than the Monks, who are kind of boring to begin with.

Rest assured, nobody’s having fun here.

It’s not like I wanted him to die or anything. All he had to do was chill. But he has to overdo even that.

B


But I do appreciate all of his wit, energy and invention.

So I say jump in and enjoy a guy who is almost as good as the Replacements, but maybe not as good as the Beatles.

Or Moe Howard.

Free Again: Alex Chilton, RIP

Okay, I admit it.  My Big Star post may have been ill-timed.  Then again, with Big Star slated to play the South by Southwest Festival this month, so was Alex Chilton’s death.

Alex Chilton was not the greatest rock and roll artist of all time.  In fact, he's been compared to Rod Stewart in his capacity to turn his back on what he was great at.  But for a brief period of time, Alex Chilton could do no wrong.  And for a brief time after that, his selfdestructive habits created great art anyway.

In both cases, the public ignored it. 

Maybe it was a good thing that the Beatles broke up when they did, because hard rock was the in thing at the time.  In 1969, a friend told me that Led Zeppelin was better than the Beatles.  So, even with the great guitar playing on “Abbey Road”, it's hard to see the Beatles taken as seriously in that environment.  And in the mid-seventies, John Lennon himself ventured a guess that had they not broken up, they would probably have been doing music similar to ELO.  (Sorry, but, ewwww.)  So how could Big Star - the natural heirs to the Beatles – prosper in such an environment?

But to listen to their music now is to forget all that and wonder how they didn't make it, well, big.   But enough of that.

Alex Chilton, above all else, valued his freedom.  Why else break up the successful Box Tops?  Why else record "Free Again" right after it, and then later "You Can't Have Me."  There's a story about how a record company guy hanging out in the studio said that a new song Chilton was recording had hit potential.  Chilton, taking this opinion for what he thought it was worth, completely changed the arrangement.  To the song's detriment, probably.  But that was Alex for you.

Why else release a greatest hits record called “19 Years” instead of waiting one more year?

Why else put “Thank You Friends” - a natural album closer – second?
His behavior sent Chris Bell packing from Big Star, and yet they may have gone on to make even better music without him.

He had a great way of playing rhythm guitar, where the chords never seemed to come when you’d expect them – “You Can’t Have Me” and “What’s Going Ahn”, being great examples.

Artists from the Replacements, the Bangles, Elliot Smith and others know they owe a debt to Alex Chilton.  Alex himself could probably have cared less as he pretty much disavowed the Big Star records.  He was too busy making what he called "untamed" music.

He did eventually cave and do reunions with both the Box Tops and Big Star, but after decades of working in obscurity who could blame him?

So, no, he wasn't the greatest rock and roll artist of all time.  But he was great in the Bob Dylan and Neil Young tradition of going his own way and to hell with the consequences.

Well, he’s gone his own way again.  I hope we cross paths some time.