Oct 19 2009
The Byrd is the Word
Awww, I knew the day would come sometime …
This weekend, whilst trying to fend off this (fortunately only the) seasonal flu, a run to m’ local grocer brought out a very irate rapper-wannabe, who came down hard on my cuts on electronic sound-enhancements like the dreaded Auto-Tune and computerized loops.
When he said (and I nearly quote): “You ain’t never done it on stage, so how you know what it’s like, man?? We makin’ the sound, man, and the bxxxxs dig it!”
Well, first of all, “man,” I’ve been on stages, big and small (the largest venue was in Charlotte, about 10 grand at the time. The smallest? About 30 children at a birthday “sock hop”).
Secondly, I take the word of a Byrd over the palaver of a musical cadaver: In 1967, the leader of famed rockers The Byrds, Jim McGuinn (known as “Roger” since 1921), said that if you wanna know how good a band/act is, unplug ‘em (obviously, this does not apply to Keith Richard, who, if unplugged, would just stand there …). That way, if they can (no, I meant the man … not the guitar …) still sing/perform (albeit acoustically) and wow a crowd, they deserve the biggest breaks and fan bases.
Ahhhh, but if you need one (or more) of those little headaches on yer right in order to do a show, you’re sunk, IMHO (me, not Jim … er, Roger … talkin’ here. Still a Byrd-brain, though …). You’ve gotta alter your voice, your sound doesn’t come outta yer amps or from your guitar licks but from some weird machine that chews it up and spits it out differently — in other words, you do a 360, musically-tantric Milli Vanilli!
And don’t think yer “fame” is gonna last, either. Back-in-the-day (and still with The Fore and other top young rock acts), the acts WORKED for their sound … their gigs … their balance. The money was small at first, if it was there at all.
Fortunately, all the work and devotion paid off for quite a few of them. And, today, they’re true legends of the music world.
But, man, to think that one simple glitch in your computerized, synthesized and hardly-homogenized nonsense can take ya down! It just doesn’t add up!
And whilst acts like The Searchers, Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and The Fore are rockin’ the bejabbers outta the world (the first three I mentioned have been doin’ it for nearly fifty years, all told), your act ain’t gonna do squat if you don’t get serious and get some serious blood, tears, toil and sweat into building that act.
Huh??? Yeah, I did tell him all that. Didn’t set well at first, but he was unarmed and … I mean, he understood where I was coming from. In fact, he’s sending me a demo of one of his unaltered rap songs, just to prove he can do it.
I’m not really into rap, and am involved as US Press Agent for The Fore (a gig I really enjoy!) … but, tell ya what: If I can get clearance from this artist, I’ll share the demo with ya and get your feedback …
More in a bit. See ya on the flip side …
