Conscience Makes Cowards of Us All

Just over two years ago American R&B star Chris Brown was celebrity public enemy number one after his savage pummelling of his girlfriend, the singer Rihanna. Brown was vilified in the press and TV and radio refused to play his records. As Rihanna was catapulted to worldwide superstardom, Brown started his comeback at the unlikely setting of a tribute concert for Michael Jackson and about a year later scored the most successful album of his career. To me, he’ll always be a nasty piece of shit, but I do wonder if my moral indignation would be as strong if I liked his music.

A few months ago, Beverly Martyn – widow of the legendary John Martyn – published her autobiography revealing her much loved rogueish drunk of a husband was actually a rather nasty wife-beater. She waited until his death before publishing, as she was worried about reaction from the public. Solid Air is one of my favourite albums, but I’ve yet to listen to it since reading about this.

The most notorious wife beater of them all, Ike Turner, although arguably the founder of rock n’ roll and a pioneering guitarist, will forever be cast as the villain due to his brutal treatment of his ex-wife Tina. (Graphically immortalised in the film What’s Love Got to Do With It.)

Ike descended into a downward spiral of drug abuse, but his last few years brought partial redemption with Grammy successes and an appearance on the Gorillaz album Demon Days. One of my all time favourite songs, River Deep Mountain High, was ironically masterminded by the equally messed up – and now convicted murderer – Phil Spector.

None of this is new. Growing up, I was a huge Michael Jackson fan (Thriller was the first album I bought); alarm bells started ringing the first time I saw his distorted white face on the Bad video. Things got worse as Jacko’s plastic surgery got more extreme; his behaviour grew increasingly odd, and then came the barrage of sexual abuse claims – of which his handling hardly reeked of innocence.

I opted for the moral middle ground and chose to stick to listening to Jackson’s output prior to his ‘problems’, which is handy for me as the quality of his music decreased as his problems increased. Jackson’s untimely demise resulted in widespread praise from all manner of musicians and commentators with all the negativity seemingly swept under the rock ‘n’ roll rug, and the months following his death saw Jackson’s music sell in huge numbers.

Dubious private lives
For whatever reason society seems to have different rules for musicians as to the behaviour we tolerate from them, but would deem unacceptable in normal life. It’s not always consistent and it does relate to the level of stardom, or musical talent, and the level of affection the public has for them. The Ryan Giggs super-injunction case was a massive story a few weeks back, clearly Giggs completely misjudged the situation, but what’s even more interesting is that there’s been no mention of rock stars taking out super-injunctions. With celebrities, they’re primarily to cover up affairs, which are seen as the norm when it comes to musicians. The likes of Rod Stewart, Mick Jagger and Tom Jones were lauded for their manly ‘prowess’, revelling in their ladies man image, regularly being papped with a succession of ‘leggy lovelies’, whilst nobody really gave a toss for the wife at home being humiliated by this behaviour, or their kids being teased at school. In real life such antics would be deemed out of order, but as it’s a rock legend many laugh it off with an envious chuckle –even I absolutely love Rod. (Tell me not all of Rod, Dave, tell me not all? – Ed)

Space prevents mention of more musicians with dubious private lives such as R Kelly, Rick James, Chuck Berry, Tommy Lee and Jerry Lee Lewis, but we’ll end with the godfather of soul James Brown. Arguably the ultimate figure in black music, an all round cultural icon and a dominant presence on what we still listen to today.

Brown was born into a life of crime and poverty and managed to emerge as a successful artist and businessman, but his private life was far from idyllic, numerous domestic violence, sexual assault, harassment and rape charges were brought against him coming to a head in 1988, with a multiple state police car chase where he was jailed on firearms and drugs charges. With James Brown I’m a moral contradiction, I was thoroughly immersed in his music before I found out he was a rather unpleasant man, and whilst much of Brown’s private life is unforgivable, in this case I have chosen to like the art, not the artist.

feature originally appeared in Leither Magazine, June 2011.

Outageously, only 8 months after publication Chris Brown made his prodigal son comeback at the Grammies and was rumoured to be again seeing Rihanna…….

You Really Had To Be There

How ya doing Edinburgh? You guys are great, it’s great to be back, we love coming here!” The crowd cheers, we hear it at every gig yet we still love it and respond accordingly. We know that the frontman says the same thing at every show, and he/she knows that we know that, but we cling to the fact that this time it could be true. Insincere, or thoroughly heartfelt, it doesn’t really matter. Having said that, if Bob Dylan cracked a smile and said, “I love you Scotland,” we’d all be more than a little freaked out and concerned for his wellbeing!

Whilst we might have albums that we love and hold dear, I believe a live show will always count for more, a gig is special, as the very nature of ‘live’ is in the ‘now’ and the uniqueness of the moment. The less romantic will note in the days of Spotify, free downloads, dirt cheap CDs and online streaming, we’re bound to hear and consume much more recorded music than we are live music, although the flipside (as we vinyl fans say) is that it makes going to a concert all the more memorable.

There are a number of genres where live performances are essential to the success of an artist, where they are judged primarily upon whether they can ‘cut it’ live. The ability to play live is crucial in music ranging from jazz to folk and from rock to opera, where replicating, and even bettering, studio recordings is key to an artist building a reputation with fans. Also, for musicians unlikely to get mainstream media coverage, time spent on the road helps to build their profile.

Some bands sell small numbers of CDs but have such a reputation for live performance that they really make their living from touring and their albums are more of a promo tool for the next round of concerts. This is definitely the case with ‘classic’ acts like Rod Stewart, Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney, artists who’s days of making relevant music are long gone, but who are still a huge draw on the concert circuit. Some acts are better live than on CD, rockers like Iron Maiden and Kiss fall into this category as does, arguably, Bruce Springsteen, whose live box set blows his first eight albums out of the water.

Wrinkly rockers
For pop groups it’s less about singing and musicianship and more about the show/spectacle. The kids don’t seem to mind the autotune, miming, etc. – it’s not always possible to sing whilst dancing – they go crazy for the event. Madonna caught some flack for miming but the rather ironic miming of the likes of Justin Bieber and Cheryl Cole on the X Factor has had no negative impact on their careers. There are of course some acts that can combine spectacle with musicianship: Prince has always been the perfect example of this, Michael Jackson in his prime was a sight to behold, Public Enemy know how to put on a show, and these days Jay Z has really upped his game. The ultimate marriage of showmanship and musicianship was Parliament-Funkadelic; if I had a time machine I’d hitch a ride on the Mothership Connection.

Another recent development is the amazing rise in the popularity of music festivals, from a handful of big ones there’s now at least a couple every weekend from June to September to cater for every taste and budget. Some genres have their own dedicated festival that can help break an artist. As for the über festivals such as Glastonbury, a successful appearance there can take a performer’s career to another level through exposure to a whole other type of audience. Just like theatre fans at Edinburgh Festival, plenty of people choose random shows from the Celtic Connections or Glasgow Jazz Festival programmes on the strength of the festival itself. It’s one of the genuine delights of music to just ‘stumble’ upon something, make that instant connection, and get blown away.

In some types of live performance nobody minds seeing a bunch of ‘older’ performers onstage – jazz, folk, world, etc – in fact it often gives them extra kudos, but in rock and pop it has long been frowned upon (it’s obligatory to call the Rolling Stones ‘wrinkly rockers’), even that is changing though with the continued thirst to see performers in the flesh. Witness the rise in popularity of the nostalgia circuit; we now see nicely packaged groupings of 70s and 80s acts playing to big crowds. Reunion shows are as prevalent as debut gigs, albeit with varying success, for every Take That or The Police there’s a Shed Seven or New Kids On The Block (yup, they’re back). Crazy money is on offer for all sorts of ex-superstars to reform, Led Zeppelin turned down a mint to tour, and the rumour mill is again rife with talk of an Abba reunion, although let’s be honest, that would be bound to descend into the karaoke night from hell. Much better to catch Bjorn Again at a covers band festival. Now there is an idea…what do you mean it’s already been done?

feature originally appeared in Leither Magazine, February 2011.