2 haikus for james brown

jb’s gone, ‘bye beat
rainbow admirers weep now
who inherits funk?

shiny black shoes twitch
melt ice-covered hardwood stage
his hair defied wind

frustrated pioneers

rapper nas has been receiving a lot of backlash for his new song “hip hop is dead” but i don’t think his nay sayers are listening closely to the lyrics. he doesn’t appear to be saying the genre itself is dead, i think he’s proposing a sort of hypothetical story that asks, what if hip hop was dead?

a lot of nas’ hip hop progeny are taking the phrase personally. but i don’t think they should. i think nas has come to a crossroads in his relationship with an art he calls his first wife. i don’t think he’s on a hate campaign against the younger rappers following in his footsteps.

this situation reminds me of prince’s reaction to lenny kravitz’s song “rock and roll is dead.” the tension was flipped in that case, because the father was reacting to a proclamation made by the progeny. the song appeared on kravitz’s circus--a melancholic album that disappointed those who were expecting an “are you gonna go my way” part two. the album displayed kravitz’s cynicism toward many things, including the death of the genre he’d been credited for breathing new life into.

for him to say “rock and roll is dead” obviously shook something in prince, who responded with “rock and roll is alive (and it lives in minneapolis).” it was the b-side to the “gold” single that didn’t receive much attention. part of that may have been because it was released in 1995, when a lot of people dismissed prince as a cuckoo who’d changed his name to a symbol.

in “rock and roll is alive” prince sings, “some people say it’s dying, but we don’t wanna play that game.” i guess “some people” indirectly meant lenny. “that game,” possibly referred to the guessing game of whether prince was still relevant at that time. perhaps prince didn’t want to play “that game” because, in this instance, he was rock and roll and he was still alive (in minneapolis). for lenny to suggest rock and roll is dead was to suggest prince’s days of contributing to it were over and prince was saying “hey, i’m still here making great music--screw the name change and listen to what i’m doing musically.”

so, as nas articulates his frustration with a genre he’s helped cultivate, prince has already made his statement about a genre he helped reinvent--and moved on. prince didn’t compare himself to those who came after him in the process, and he didn’t even look to them for inspiration. he looked to his own body of work at that point in 1995 (and still does) for inspiration to keep building. maybe nas should take note.

a super bowl full of prince

some people tend to think prince fans are weird. they often categorize them as being freaks in some way: either sexually or...ok just sexually. but prince fans hold a certain truth about this great icon of 20th and 21st century musicianship: he’s friggin’ awesome.

more than just the fact that he’s mastered a bunch of instruments, he’s also one of the few male musicians to constantly reinvent himself. whether some of those reinventions failed or succeeded, he still had the guts to take chances musically throughout his career. i even forgive him for those lame raps he did during the early ‘90’s (although i thoroughly enjoyed “my name is prince.”) bottom line: no matter what he does, he’s so interesting to watch. from his technique, to his body movement to his style--fans are kept on the edge waiting to see what he’ll do next.

2004 was a great year to be a prince fan. he opened the grammys that year, reminding other folks what his admirers have always known: he’s a living legend. his guitar solos during the george harrison rock and roll hall of fame tribute was the zenith of that entire ceremony--and ceremonies to come (the look on harrison’s son dhani's face during “while my guitar gently weeps” spoke volumes!). then came the musicology tour. it became a year-long event that motivated longtime fans to keep believing in him, reintroduced him to one-time fans and earned him several new ones.

i think something’s brewing for next year. he’s spending the end of 2006 bringing great music to vegas on a weekly basis. then over the weekend came the official word that he’s headlining the super bowl half-time show in february. those are the usual clues that prince is up to something whether it be a new album or tour. but he could decide not to do anything after the super bowl and 2007 may just be the year he chills.

i’m hoping his half-time performance will be more memorable than the game itself. not because of any controversy, but because nonbelievers will be forced to watch his brilliance at work.

however, i am a little worried that he’ll do stale renditions of “let’s go crazy” (cue the confetti) and “purple rain.” quite frankly, i’m so tired of those songs. he’s more than those songs! but hey, pepsi’s sponsoring the show, so he probably will perform them. but knowing prince, he’ll have the last word on how they’ll be done.

we don't touch anymore

i’ve been hesitant to drive over to the local tower records store. ever since i read that the retailer was shutting down its 89 stores, i just haven’t wanted to watch the process of it slowly turning the lights out for good, or watch workers sealing off music sections or watch the store’s concrete floor turn into a skeleton of where the cd and record shelves used to be.

i think mine was one of the last generations to spend at least part of their childhood knowing what vinyl was. my parents had a great record collection. unfortunately it dwindled with every move across country we made, but i still have specific memories of album covers and needles and that popcorn noise the record player made.

i even have certain smells i associate with record store memories. there used to be a record store in springdale, ohio called record and tape outlet. it always smelled like onion bagels. i never figured out if it was because of the bagel store next door, or if it was because that’s what the cashier was eating everytime i went inside. but i distinctly remember that store closing down soonafter 1992.

we could debate all day on the devolution of traditional record stores. did it all start with the cd? or did it start with the cd retailer? well, some would argue the cd itself is now in its last days because of the mp3.

when cd prices started getting sky high, people looked for an alternative. at first, that was found in cd trading stores. but i guess people got tired of all that touching and leaving the house to buy music, so the internet took over. besides, who wants to buy a cd for 18 bucks, when it can be found on half.com or amazon.com for two bucks or less?

tower is just the latest casualty in the war on touching. there was a certain satisfaction in putting your hands on albums...and even cds, flipping through them until you found the one you wanted. then spending another 15, 20 minutes looking at the artwork. people actually walked around a record store with their pending purchases in their hands. i personally used to get a rush out of doing that--excited over getting home to listen to new music or ripping the plastic off a new cd and listening to it during the drive home.

nowadays for the most part, the only thing we touch, is the keyboard to download or purchase. there’s no human cashier to exchange money with or talk about your purchases with. i miss that. what will be the alternative when we get tired or mp3's and want to read liner notes again or walk through record stores again? what happens when you can’t touch nostalgia anymore?