I watched the whole thing pretty much, since I was at my girlfriend's house and she wanted to watch it. There was one WTF moment for me, during that Dolly Parton (with Maren Morris and Miley Cyrus) medley of Dolly's greatest hits: they did Neil Young's "After The Gold Rush". I thought at first that Neil had just died and it was a tribute, but no... My girlfriend thought it was meant as a call for environmentalism since they changed the lyric to "Look at Mother Nature on the run in the 21st century". Now I see in a Rolling Stone article that Dolly recorded that song with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris back in 1995. Still, that was a weird moment; the lyrics of that song are pretty bizarre, especially considering the fact that every other song performed that night was VERY commercial.
After The Gold Rush is one of Neil's best songs, and dates back to 1970. It is also on the 1999 Trio II album by Emmylou, Linda and Dolly. I'm sorry I missed Dolly performing it last night. It wouldn't do any good to use Neil's original lyric: "Look at Mother Nature on the run in the 1970s." Most of the Grammy audience probably weren't born then.
For the record, Neil has consistently updated that lyric when he plays it live. The first time I heard it was the Berlin concert from the Trans tour, which I believe was shown on HBO in the early 80's, and in that version he sang "Mother Nature on the run in the 1980's". THen when he did an "unplugged" concert on VH-1 (I don't think it was MTV Unplugged, I think it was something different, although he did do an MTV show, in fact he did two of them, but the first one never aired) in the early 90's, he changed it to "on the run in the 1990's", and when I saw him do it was CSN&Y, circa 2002, that was the first time I heard the "21st century" line, which I guess is the on place he could go with that one, since "20-naughts" or whatever wouldn't have rhymed, nor would it have scanned correctly.
I've heard people argue about the meaning of that song for decades. This wiki entry cleared it all up for me.
Dolly Parton once commented about the making of her version of the song: "When we were doing the Trio album, I asked Linda and Emmy what it meant, and they didn't know. So we called Neil Young, and he didn't know. We asked him, flat out, what it meant, and he said, 'Hell, I don't know. I just wrote it. It just depends on what I was taking at the time. I guess every verse has something different I'd taken.'"[
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
Which one of them sang the line "There was a band playin' in my head
And I felt like getting high?" Maybe it was all three of them.
EDIT: Just watched their performance of this from Letterman in 1999 - they change the line to "I felt like I could cry." Wimps!
“Girl, we couldn’t get much better.”
Last edited by JKL2000; 02-12-2019 at 12:07 PM.
I saw a stupid headline yesterday:
"It's confusing, yes, but there is a difference between song, record and album of the year."
This is what our society has come to, folks.
<sig out of order>
I'm actually not clear on what the difference is. Song and Album seem clear, but I'm not sure what the difference is between Record and Album. Assuming they actually do use all these categories. I sort of thought that Record used to mean the same thing as Song.
Basically the categories seem to be set so that they can give out a sh*t-ton of awards.
BTW, I was wondering what they would do if some rock band happened to have a major hit, that would potentially win something like song of the year. Would it be relegated to the Rock category and the award presented outside of the broadcast? Could it be in the running for Song of the year? Or maybe not, because it was Rock?
I just don't know how they work these things out, but if I actually watched the show maybe I'd have a better idea.
I believe that the difference between Song and Record is that one is a songwriter award (which has become rather cumbersome and ridiculous now with a dozen song doctors working over a three minute dance pop song) and the other is a producer award. Album is still album of the year but has grown to mean less in a market where singles rule.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
Early in my musical journey, when I was a young teen, I gave away all my 45 rpm singles, and became an album guy. Now when I get an album, if it has a single on it, I never even hear about it. Anachronism, much?
It would be completely ignored.Originally Posted by JKL2000
I remember Dr. Brian May talking about Bohemian Rhapsody, and how he had no idea what the lyrics were about i.e. "What was thrown away, who got killed", etc, before saying "If I did know what it was about, I probably wouldn't tell you, because I wouldn't tell you what my songs are about".Originally Posted by Dolly Parton
Is it like that on the Trio record, or was it changed for the broadcast? Ya know, Letterman did a show from the Ed Sullivan Theater, which has a tradition of the latter...i.e. "Let's spend some time together".Just watched their performance of this from Letterman in 1999 - they change the line to "I felt like I could cry." Wimps!
It is, "I felt like I could cry" on Trio II, even in the included printed lyrics. I don't know that they are wimps for changing from Young's original "I felt like getting high." Why buck Nashville if you don't have to? Or maybe Dolly, Linda, and Emmylou didn't unanimously agree on drug references in a song they were recording together. Neil didn't care if they changed the words. Why should we?
"Jeff the Magic Dragon lived by the sea..."
"There's a man with a sign over there, telling me I've got to beware."
It's true, Neil would have had to give permission for them to change it (or they should have sought it), so there's that. It's just a bit jarring.
I'm not sure you need permission if you change just two or three words. I could be wrong. Supposedly, after the first Megadeth album had been out for a decade, Lee Hazelwood contacted Dave Mustaine and made it known he didn't appreciate Dave swearing on his song (though as Dave noted on That Metal Zone, Hazelwood didn't seem to mind cashing the royalty checks from the song for the preceding decade). So, the next time the album was reissued, Dave censored out all the swear words. I dunno if Hazelwood would have an legal recourse if Dave had told him to where to stick it.
One that I thought was kinda ridiculous was the Belle Stars version of Aiko Aiko, where they change "Gonna set your ass on fire" to "Gonna set your fat on fire". Then again, maybe that's how it was on whichever version they learned the song from. They could have gotten it off an old Henry Belafonte record or something like that, from the era when you couldn't say "ass" on a record.
I think where you need permission is when you change entire stanzas wholesale, even then, only if the song isn't in the public domain. You also kinda want to do that, because if you make a contribution to the song, you get to collect publishing royalties. And if you make a contribution to a song that's in the public domain (or say something like using a Beethoven or Bach piece as the basis for your song), you get to collect all the royalties.
Hip-Hop the genre, is not all about the “F*** This Bitch”, “Shoot That N**ger”, “Screw W*itey”. The MC (Rapper) basically rapping about the inner city livelihood of their neighborhood. Granted many people can’t relate to the lifestyle of the Biggie Smalls, TuPac, Too Short to name three controversial yet influential MC’s but to the inner city youth living in the ghetto.
Hip-Hop since RUN DMC and The Beastie Boys helped bring the genre into mainstream public, Hip-Hop has been bucking the trend.
Now before all continue to lose their minds over a highly creative Kendrick Lamar, Jimmy Fallon’s house band The Roots play and write their own music fronted by one of the best MC/Rappers of his generation. You don’t like curses of the constant N word in your listen, Dela Soul’s “Three Feet High And Rising”, A Tribe Called Quest’s “Low End Theory” are two albums considered not only masterpieces in the Hip Hop genre but music in general.
Public Enemy’s second album “It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back...”, Ultramagnetic’s “Critical Beatdown”, EPMD’s “Strictly Business” and NWA’s “Straight Out Of Compton” to name just four more albums changed the face of the genre signaling in a “Golden Age Of Hip-Hop”.
Now the genre means more to someone like me, not because of the color of my skin but due to me being part of a cultural thing that fed not only ears but but my heart as well.
Charles
Be a loyal plastic robot for a world that doesn't care... Frank Zappa
Yeah, it's all just music.
In the overall scheme of things I listen to a infinitesimal slice of the giant pie that is music.
It's all the same pie, we just all taste it a bit differently.
Some people taste bitter, some sticky sweet, some a harsh metallic, some like newly mown hay.
My slice tastes so freaking wonderful.
I can't convince many others that it tastes so good. Some say it tastes like sh$t. Or at best, meh!
Funny, some of their pie tastes like that to me.
But I will try their slice if they offer, maybe it will be different this time.
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
-- Aristotle
Nostalgia, you know, ain't what it used to be. Furthermore, they tells me, it never was.
“A Man Who Does Not Read Has No Appreciable Advantage Over the Man Who Cannot Read” - Mark Twain
all award shows are a crock of.......
it's only about drawing attention to 'A' list personalities.
(i wouldn't even call them artists)
talent has nothing to do with it.
it's only about money, glamour, sex & image.
Speaking of the Rap, I’m glad to see that “As Soon As Possible Rocky” is able to leave Sweden.
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