by Art Chantry ( art@artchantry.com):
I DON’T LISTEN to contemporary music any more. after a lifetime of carefully following what was going on, keeping up with new releases, checking in on various scenes and eagerly listening to everything i could – and buying literally TONS of records, i finally gave up. i couldn’t do it any more. around the year 2000, i just quit. i gave up. after a few years i sold my record collection (for a LOT of money. it turned out to be a good collection).
Contemporary music just sounds too flat, too uninspired and “retro ” the dreaded ‘r-word’.). after all these years, i’ve run into the problem of having heard it all done before by somebody else (and much better at that.) the offspring sound like the clash to me. green day sounds like stiff little fingers. lady gaga sounds like , well all those other gagas out there. all those sensitive singer-songwriters on the playlists right now sound like all those other sensitive singer-songwriters i spent most of the last 40 years running away from. basically, seen it, listened to it, bought the tshirt (and record.)
AC: i've found scores of records by the disabled community. usually they are religous records and are dreadful. it seems to me that they've become a sort of freakshow for the self-righteous community of godders out there. it's sort of some crazy-ass notion of being physically damaged but their belief in "jesus" allows them to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and show their triumph over their "handicaps" and entertaining us. or some such crazy idea. man, it's really insulting when you think it through. most of those folks are just trying to survive off a group of folks who exploit them. it sorta reminds me of the way white culture has treated black people for centuries - dance for me, sing for me, make me feel superior in my wholesome pity. sheesh. enuff already. this territory is a really huge double-edged sword.
Yet, i still love music. it’s just not the “commercial” music i love. i like music made by people with absolutely zero chance of ever making a dime off their creativity. i like music that speaks to me in a language i understand. i like loser music.
I spend countless hours cruising thrift stores and junk piles and garage sales just looking for music nobody else wants. my cut-off price tag for an LP is $1. anything over that is a non-starter. but, i prefer 45′s (for two bits or less) – those little antique slabs of black scratched plastic that were churned out in the bazillions over the last 50 years. anybody who could cough up a few hundred bucks could put out a 45. and they did. in droves. that’s the music i like. music nobody would buy in a million years recorded by little nobodies striving for immortality on a crappy little song. the intensity and sincerity of the recording speak for themselves – and usually off key. you fall in love with performances of utter desperation and longing by people who are giving it their ALL – their last ounce of feeling, their once chance at success, immortality and love. never mind they can’t carry a tune in a bucket, eh?
Today’s crappy little item is danny leiper’s solo opus (so far as i’ve found). i tripped across this in a goodwill for $1.39 a lb (the price of everything in the store.) it was one of those little self-released self-produced recordings, probably promoted by his parents as an act of love (and commerce) sold from the stage when they did a rare gig.
You see, danny was blind. yet, he possessed an inborn ability to play anything he heard – a gift of song. a blind child performer must have been an amazing (and heartwarming) sight to see, ya know? we so love blind child performers in our culture (start a mental list sometime. it’s rather long.) i wonder WHY we love them so much. the reason can’t be that good.
Danny never made the big time. dunno why. well, actually i do. i listened to the record. it’s a classic. never mind that danny was obsessed with the music of the carpenters (OMG), but he demonstrates what a fabulous soulful singer the late karen carpenter actually was. you see, little danny has a ‘mechanical’ way about his singing and playing. he hits all them notes really clearly and he knows that tune inside and out. but it’s almost godless in it’
elivery. you could swear it’s could be a machine (or very early computer?) churning this dreck out.
and that is why this record was relegated to the loser turf of $1.39 a lb.
i love it. i love this DIY cover. i love the perfection of the photo. i love the “virtually unplayed” condition of the vinyl. it’s a perfect object.
ADDENDUM:
AC:but this little record is still perfect. in truth, danny didn’t have to blind at all to be this lousy. he could have been been the richest happiest most well-adjusted most blessed person on this planet and still been one stinky-ass performer….when you specialize, then a whole universe of obscure info presents itself. collecting “45-caliber” music is an endless stream of material that seems likely to never ever run out. there was SO MUCH stuff released over the last 50-60 years, that there is no way you can ever see it all. every trip to the thrift store turns not only new performers, labels and b-sides, but also entire new genres as well.
for instance, i’ve found several ‘yodel cha cha cha’ records! who knew? and how about right-wing ‘john birch society’ folk singers? seems there was a genre of just that stuff, too (it’s amazing to listen to).
so, ‘blind talentless exploited children’ doesn’t seem so weird. rockabilly and garage music seems huge in comparison….
…any fav finds? a couple of my delicious little items:
1 ) randy andy and the candy men. a ‘twist craze’ band with delightful little numbers like “candy bar”. double entendre, anyone?
2) joe dodo and groovers. amazing 45 of competent studio musicians and low grunting sounds _ “GROOOOOOOVEY!”
3) any record made by monsters: zacherle, bobby ‘boris’ pickett and the crypt kicker 5, frankie stein and his ghouls, vampira, tarantula ghoul, the munsters (a band that used the name and the makeup). i HIGHLY recommend ANYTHING you find played by actual real monsters. always always always good stuff….
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