The Wire, March 1994: Difference between revisions
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Yes, and I believed it then at face value. I didn’t realise there was a controversy about it. And I’ve read other books about him since, and I think you have to pick intuitively what feels like the truth for the music, because even the things that he himself put his hand to are dubious. But there’s still some very chilling and some very funny things in the book. But also nobody wants to believe that someone like Shostakovich, who could write music that good, could be so rubbery of will, that he was just a stooge of the state. | Yes, and I believed it then at face value. I didn’t realise there was a controversy about it. And I’ve read other books about him since, and I think you have to pick intuitively what feels like the truth for the music, because even the things that he himself put his hand to are dubious. But there’s still some very chilling and some very funny things in the book. But also nobody wants to believe that someone like Shostakovich, who could write music that good, could be so rubbery of will, that he was just a stooge of the state. | ||
'''HANK WILLIAMS'''<BR> | |||
'''“I’ll Be A Bachelor ‘Til I Die” from The Wonderful World of Hank Williams 1947-1950 (SPA) | |||
[After the first bar] That’s Hank Williams. I don’t know that song, but I don’t really care so much for that kind of Hank Williams tune. That track’s much more like pop music really, isn’t it? And he was a pop star in a big way. It was instantly Hank Williams because of that scrappy fiddle sound. It’s very distinctive. And again the atmosphere of the tune is better because it’s analogue, and when it comes on there’s this sort of air just before the voice all the time. | |||
He’s great with funny lyrics, but I prefer to hear him sing something really sad, really heart-rending, because then he really digs in. His voice is so great, it’s wasted on a song like that. It’s like, I’d rather here Billie Holiday sing “I Cover The Waterfront” or “Ghost Of Yesterday” than I would some blues thing where she’s having fun, at that moment. It’s just my personal disposition towards melancholia. | |||
Is it the damage in the voice that attracts? | |||
Well, it’s partly that. I like that. Hank Williams had next to no voice, like Billie Holiday in a technical exercise. He had very little range and a very one-dimensional tone. But even on that track you can’t take your ear away from his voice. It’s like a laser beam. Most of the country records made in Nashville today sound like the theme tunes to bad daytime soap operas, and the actual exponents look like the actors in bad daytime soap operas. They have these stupid trimmed beards and creased jeans and a lot of them won’t even wear Western clothes. It’s the ‘I’m wind-surfing in a cowboy hat’ look. | |||
'''Do you think there is a Hank Williams legacy?''' | |||
If there is, it’s a cold place in the centre of the darker of today’s songs. Inside his apparently limited technique as a singer and guitar player is real to-the-bone music. It would be daunting for anybody to try to get to the heart of the matter in quite the same way as he did. Hank Williams is the benchmark: he took from the tradition and made it his own. He’s an artist. He’s a true artist. | |||
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{{tags}}[[Ross MacManus]] {{-}} [[Nick Lowe]] {{-}} [[My Aim Is True]] {{-}} [[Get Happy!!]] {{-}} [[Almost Blue]] {{-}} [[Billy Sherrill]] {{-}} [[Imperial Bedroom]] {{-}} [[Spike]] {{-}} [[Chrissie Hynde]] {{-}} [[Marc Ribot]] {{-}} [[The Dirty Dozen Brass Band]] {{-}} [[The Brodsky Quartet]] {{-}} [[The Juliet Letters]] {{-}} [[The Specials]] {{-}} [[The Pogues]] {{-}} [[George Jones]] {{-}} [[Johnny Cash]] {{-}} [[Chet Baker]] {{-}} [[Hal Willner]] {{-}} [[Weird Nightmare]] {{-}} [[Brutal Youth]] {{-}} [[Blood And Chocolate]] {{-}} [[The Attractions]] | {{tags}}[[Ross MacManus]] {{-}} [[Nick Lowe]] {{-}} [[My Aim Is True]] {{-}} [[Get Happy!!]] {{-}} [[Almost Blue]] {{-}} [[Billy Sherrill]] {{-}} [[Imperial Bedroom]] {{-}} [[Spike]] {{-}} [[Chrissie Hynde]] {{-}} [[Marc Ribot]] {{-}} [[The Dirty Dozen Brass Band]] {{-}} [[The Brodsky Quartet]] {{-}} [[The Juliet Letters]] {{-}} [[The Specials]] {{-}} [[The Pogues]] {{-}} [[George Jones]] {{-}} [[Johnny Cash]] {{-}} [[Chet Baker]] {{-}} [[Hal Willner]] {{-}} [[Weird Nightmare]] {{-}} [[Brutal Youth]] {{-}} [[Blood And Chocolate]] {{-}} [[The Attractions]] {{-}} [[Hank Williams]] {{-}} [[Billie Holiday]] | ||
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Revision as of 19:38, 17 January 2021
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