from www.Haaretz.com
When the last note sounds on peace
By Noam Ben Ze'ev
"All that is banned is desired," goes the Arabic proverb. This expression is the title of a new brochure published by the Freemuse organization - the only international organization that is focused on the struggle against music censorship and which promotes freedom of expression in music. The brochure cites discussions from the Freemuse Conference on Freedom of Expression in Music, which took place in Beirut last October, and reflects Beirut's rich musical scene and climate of freedom - before the strikes began there last month.
The sensitive topics discussed in the course of the week-long convention point to why Beirut was chosen as the host city.
"We chose Beirut because only in that city, in conditions of freedom of expression, could musicians from all over the Middle East and its periphery speak openly and without fear about the censorship and the oppression that they suffer, and about the real threat in whose shadow many of them work," says Marie Corpe, the chair of the organization, whose headquarters are in Denmark.
In a phone conversation from Amman a few days ago, Jordanian-Palestinian oud player Ahmed al-Khatib, one of the featured speakers at the conference, described the musical and cultural climate in Beirut: "It's hard to describe the tremendous cultural progress that has taken place in the city since my first visit there in 1993, when it was in ruins after the war."
Al-Khatib came to Ramallah at the end of the last decade and became one of the founders of the city's conservatory and a leading teacher. However, in 2002 he was arrested by the Israeli army, and since then he has not been allowed to return to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
"I though that Ramallah was the height of cultural flourishing until I came to Beirut," he continued, "a city that is unlike any other city in the Arab work: bustling with music, with full concert halls, wonderful artists, recordings and new trends in composition."
The spirit of freedom
In a phone conversation from Copenhagen, Marie Corpe also describes pre-war Beirut as a city that enjoyed a renaissance of construction, theater, music, master classes and conventions attended by people from all over the Middle East - not to mention jazz cafes full of intellectuals and university students. "A large number of journalists and television people took an interest in our conference, the first in the Middle East devoted to freedom of expression," she says. "Even the people from Hezbollah's Al-Manar television station confirmed their attendance but they canceled at the last minute."
To kick off the convention, as a point of reference for later deliberations, they screened a documentary film about Lounes Matoub, the popular Algerian singer of Berber origins. Matoub was kidnapped in 1994 by the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), released in the wake of demonstrations by millions who spontaneously took to the streets, was exiled to France, but returned after four years because of his longing for Algeria - and was then murdered.
In lectures and discussions held after the film, different facets of the oppression of musicians surfaced, which not only threaten musicians in Algeria, but in the entire region - including Syria, Morocco, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. These threats were described by players and singers, producers and radio people, newspaper music critics and artists from these countries.
A discussion with the head Egyptian censor, Ali abu-Shadi, revealed only a few of the methods used to silence music in that country. Ahmed al-Khatib also shed light on the complexities inherent in the Palestinian situation. He said musicians and teachers were trying to establish a musical and educational infrastructure under the terrors of the occupation, all the while within a political, social and economic context that prevents them from flourishing. "It is difficult to divert the attention of children from the violent situation surrounding them, and to make them concentrate on music," said Al-Khatib. And outside intervention, by political forces as well as by foreign donors, is in itself censorship."
The desperate situation of the artists who live under the yoke of totalitarian regimes in Arab countries, or under occupation, only serves to emphasize the growing spirit of freedom in Beirut prior to July 2006. A unique expression of this spirit was showcased at the conference by a cleric, Sheikh Ibrahim Ramadan al-Mardini, from the Beirut Studies and Documentation Center. In an exhaustive survey the sheikh explained the main points of Islam's attitude towards music - both according to the Koran and according to Muslim law. "The censorship of music and arts is a tool used by the totalitarian regimes to preserve themselves, and is opposed to religion," he said, pointing to many examples from theology to prove his arguments. "Islam opposes any coercion relating to thoughts and ideas, including in the field of music - because it is an abstract, neutral language of expression, which does not reflect nationality, gender, identity or religion. Therefore, everyone is permitted to express himself through it."
The participation of Lebanese composer and oud player Marcel Khalife may have been the best indication of the victory of freedom of expression in his country. In 1999 Khalife was arrested for insulting the religion and for heresy because of his song: "Father, I am Yusuf," set to the words of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish an allegory on the story of Joseph and his brothers. At his trial, which was taped on camera, Khalife courageously spoke harshly to the judges, and freely expressed the contempt he felt for his prosecutors: "Why does the court of justice, which conducts its meetings in the name of the people and makes its rulings in the name of the people, close its doors to the people?" he said defiantly. "Did you throw me into the cage of the accused only because I am a creative artist? Placing me on trial is a crude and arrogant act, which subverts a person's right to interpret any idea according to his understanding."
In the verdict, the Lebanese judges ruled that disobeying the laws of religion did not necessarily mean desecrating its holy men. "After listening to the disc we discovered that the accused sang the song out of respectful awe," they added, "without desecrating his holiness, and without intending to incite against him - neither by the words and their meaning, nor by the music." Khalife was declared innocent; and in his lecture at the conference he once again opposed censorship of any kind, claiming that the censorship official was nothing but a police officer, and emphasizing the importance of the intellectuals and artists in society: "The artist needs wings, and we must help him fly."
Just like Tel Aviv
Lebanese composer Joelle Khoury's stories about up and coming music in Lebanon and the status of the female artists in the music scene; rapper Klotair K's description of the hip-hop scene, and the story of American musician and scholar Mark LeVine, emphasize a progressive Lebanon, which exists alongside reactionary forces. "In Beirut's jazz clubs, Shi'ite and Christian girls dance with one another, and all the borders - sexual, ideological, nationalist, religious - are crossed in the climate of the youth culture there," says LeVine, a professor of modern Middle Eastern history and Islamic studies at the University of California at Irvine, during his lecture at the convention.
LeVine speaks Hebrew. He lived for over a year in Tel Aviv, and has written books and articles about the Western-Islamic conflict - including that of the Israelis and Palestinians - from the music angle.
In a phone conversation from California last week, he described Beirut as a city that is more reminiscent of Tel Aviv than one that suits the image of an evil enemy: "When you sit there on the beach, it is impossible to tell whether you're in Beirut or in Tel Aviv," he says, "and the same is true in the cafes, the pubs and the nightclubs - the same dj's play in both places. Now a friend of mine who is a rapper tells me that just like in 1982, he once again goes to sleep with heavy metal rock and Jimi Hendrix on his stereo system, in order to drown out the thunder of the bombs. The artists have stopped believing that there is a chance for peace with Israel - and that's terrible, because they are usually the last ones to give up. They will be able to reconstruct Beirut with the billions from the Gulf states; the anger and suspicion against Israel, and the disappointment and fear of it, these have already been an issue for generations."
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Canada's Isis a Goddess of Lyrical Prowess
By Del F. Cowie
Exclaim.ca, Canada's Music Authority
August, 2006
With the release of her debut EP, Toronto-based Isis who has only been describing herself as an MC for just over a year is serving striking notice of her skills, charisma and versatility. On her debut EP, the 20-year-old MC of Nigerian origin issues battle-ready displays of dazzling wordplay on tracks like “The Fly Trap (Remix)” with infectious energy, wilfully taking on foes and nay-sayers. However, Isis also has the knack to compose compelling narratives. “U Know What Love Is” is visually striking, tackling the topic of domestic abuse and “Ask A Woman” outlines an often abstract balance of introspection and history. While the production and choice of mix-tape-style instrumentals is strong throughout, it’s highly evident that Isis isn’t dependent on a beat to bolster or mask her skills. Showcasing a variety of styles, this EP makes you wonder what this promising MC can accomplish in another year.
You mention on record that you have broken up with hip-hop in the past. What made you leave the music and what brought you back? I spent a while loving hip-hop only because my older brother loved hip-hop and I wanted to be like him. I used to freestyle on the block when I was 13 with a bunch of guys. And then when I was like 16 or 17 it was the “jiggy” era and I was like what the fuck is this? I got into poetry, became a vegetarian, did poetry slams and got attention and ego strokes. But then one day I started listening to Jay Dee. Then it was Stones Throw, and then I heard Quasimoto’s The Unseen and all this good hip-hop music. I kind of credit my ex-boyfriend because I would literally wake up to good hip-hop music every day.
Determining one’s fate seems to be a theme, particularly on ‘Starchild’, can you expound on what that means to you? I think that there’s a new generation of youth right now that are capable of reaching amazing feats and making history and we have to remind ourselves to realise our true potential. I have to remind myself. As females in this industry, we tend to go as far as the glass ceiling, but we can go through it. From far away it seems big, but when you get close it’s just a bubble, an anthill. A lot of things are about to change for our generation and the ones coming after us, the possibilities are endless.
Exclaim.ca, Canada's Music Authority
August, 2006
With the release of her debut EP, Toronto-based Isis who has only been describing herself as an MC for just over a year is serving striking notice of her skills, charisma and versatility. On her debut EP, the 20-year-old MC of Nigerian origin issues battle-ready displays of dazzling wordplay on tracks like “The Fly Trap (Remix)” with infectious energy, wilfully taking on foes and nay-sayers. However, Isis also has the knack to compose compelling narratives. “U Know What Love Is” is visually striking, tackling the topic of domestic abuse and “Ask A Woman” outlines an often abstract balance of introspection and history. While the production and choice of mix-tape-style instrumentals is strong throughout, it’s highly evident that Isis isn’t dependent on a beat to bolster or mask her skills. Showcasing a variety of styles, this EP makes you wonder what this promising MC can accomplish in another year.
You mention on record that you have broken up with hip-hop in the past. What made you leave the music and what brought you back? I spent a while loving hip-hop only because my older brother loved hip-hop and I wanted to be like him. I used to freestyle on the block when I was 13 with a bunch of guys. And then when I was like 16 or 17 it was the “jiggy” era and I was like what the fuck is this? I got into poetry, became a vegetarian, did poetry slams and got attention and ego strokes. But then one day I started listening to Jay Dee. Then it was Stones Throw, and then I heard Quasimoto’s The Unseen and all this good hip-hop music. I kind of credit my ex-boyfriend because I would literally wake up to good hip-hop music every day.
Determining one’s fate seems to be a theme, particularly on ‘Starchild’, can you expound on what that means to you? I think that there’s a new generation of youth right now that are capable of reaching amazing feats and making history and we have to remind ourselves to realise our true potential. I have to remind myself. As females in this industry, we tend to go as far as the glass ceiling, but we can go through it. From far away it seems big, but when you get close it’s just a bubble, an anthill. A lot of things are about to change for our generation and the ones coming after us, the possibilities are endless.
A Brief History of Punk/Glam/Rock Legends: New York Dolls
Too Much Too Soon - NY Dolls a Band Ahead of Their Times
It’s not a great exaggeration to say that punk rock as we know it today would not exist without fashion-focused glitter rockers New York Dolls. While not technically a punk band, they paved the way for groups like the Ramones and the Sex Pistols, helping create the audience for original rock music that led to the creation of CBGB and its infamous policy of originals-only. With a career that spanned only a few years, the influence of these young, flamboyant, but surprisingly heterosexual cross-dressers cannot be understated. The band’s success came almost as quickly as their downfall and tragedy, taking members from arenas to barns in Florida in a few short years. The junkie lifestyle for which some were poster boys was also what ultimately killed them, while others went on to work in libraries and, supposedly, drive taxis. With their first record of new material in 22 years landing this month, New York Dolls don’t have anything left to prove, and everything to gain.
1971
A band called Actress, which includes Arthur “Killer” Kane on bass, Billy Murcia on drums, and Ricky Rivets on guitar, recruits a young guitar player named Johnny Volume to round out their line-up. Rivets is soon replaced by the Egyptian-born Sylvain Sylvain, and the band rechristen themselves the Dolls. Volume adopts the last name Thunders, and the band opts to drop the “the” and add “New York” to their name. Recruiting vocalist David Johansen, the band rehearse for a single night at Rusty’s Beanies Bike Shop before performing their first show, a set comprised of R&B and soul covers, at the Endicott Hotel, a homeless shelter in New York City.
1972
In pre-CBGB New York, the band performs at the most unlikely venues, including the Mercer Arts Center, which features rock’n’roll bands on off nights. After playing a powerful set in one of the Center’s smallest rooms for a $3 cover, the band secures a weekly residency, performing every Tuesday in gradually larger rooms. In a city with little exciting, original rock music, New York Dolls become the band to see, mixing aggressive, tuneful music that combines the blues-influenced swagger of the Stones with a distinct attitude and aesthetic that pushes the gender barrier and equally excites and disgusts those who see them. Everyone from David Bowie to Andy Warhol come to see the band play, including Richard Hell and Tom Verlaine, who would later claim that seeing New York Dolls was the impetus for the formation of their own seminal art punk band, Television. The band’s continuing popularity leads to an offer to open for Rod Stewart and the Faces in London at Wembley Arena in front of 13,000 people, a significant jump from their previous high of 350. The band dive headfirst into the lifestyle they are now afforded, and with offers of record deals coming in from the labels of Mick Jagger and the Who, among others, it looks like their career is on an upward trajectory. While still in England, however, drummer Billy Murcia ingests a near-lethal amount of Quaaludes and alcohol, and when two groupies place his body in a cold bathtub and force coffee down his throat in an attempt to revive him, he chokes to death.
1973
For almost a month, the band struggle with the decision to continue as the Dolls without Murcia. Eventually, they decide to begin the auditioning process to find a new drummer; while Marc Bell, better known today as Marky Ramone, tries for the spot, Murcia’s stool is filled by Jerry Nolan, whose unique style cements the band’s original sound. Signing with Mercury Records, the band record their self-titled debut album in a week with producer Todd Rundgren. While New York Dolls peaks at #116 on the Billboard charts, it is critically praised for its brave new sound, though the femmed-up band shot that adorns the cover makes many uptight music consumers uncomfortable. The band travel back to England where they perform on BBC’s The Old Grey Whistle Test. Ripping through a set of originals, the band are as over-the-top as ever, which leads the show’s host, Whispering Bob Harris, to refer to them as “mock rock.” While Harris hates the band, a whole generation of UK teenagers latch on to the Dolls’ raw musical style and distinct fashion sense; some later credit the performance as the turning point in the English punk movement. (And five years later, Sid Vicious will mug Bob Harris in a London pub.) The band’s popularity as a live act begins to soar despite their flagging record sales, and a sold-out show at Paris’s Olympia Theatre leads to an intensely violent clash between police and some 4,000 fans who cannot get into the show; those who do, witness Thunders smashing his guitar over the head of a spitting audience member. A similar situation arises when the band play New York City’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel on Halloween and 6,000 fans arrive in full glam regalia. Only half get in, and the remainder trash the hotel’s lobby. The band themselves smash a plate glass window and hit the stage two hours late, prompting influential rock promoter Howard Stein to swear he’ll never book the band again. While continuing to tour, Thunders meets groupie Sable Starr, who is only 16 at the time. The two begin a tumultuous love affair, and when Starr runs away from home, a warrant is issued for her arrest at the behest of her anxious parents. Expecting trouble, Starr heads straight for New York City while the band head out for their next batch of shows. Cyrinda Foxe, future wife of Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, is erroneously arrested while waiting for the band at the airport, and, while annoyed, is flattered to be mistaken for 16 years old. (She’s 21.) Groupie troubles continue when Kane has his thumb split open in his sleep by Connie, an infamous New York groupie. Unable to play, the band recruit Peter Jordan as a temporary replacement. Sylvain and Johansen meet and befriend Malcolm McLaren, who is in New York to promote his Let It Rock designs with Vivienne Westwood.
1974
The band’s hedonistic lifestyle evolves as their success grows. Nolan and Thunders get seriously into heroin, while Kane’s alcohol addiction continues to plague the Dolls’ live shows; frequently, he is so drunk that he is unable to speak, and his bass parts are played from offstage by Peter Jordan. The band continue to play an important part of New York’s burgeoning original rock scene, performing a legendary show in full drag at Club 82, the first time the band have wholly adopted the transgendered image they have played with over the years, although Thunders refuses to dress in full drag. Too Much Too Soon, a title that would prove prophetic in the coming years, is released to generally poor reviews and dismal sales. Many criticise the album’s more poppy feel, although songs like “Who Are The Mystery Girls” have continued to hold relevance and excitement as they age. Still, the album’s reception, even from fans of the band, is overwhelmingly negative, and in an attempt to revitalise their image, Sylvain and Johansen talk McLaren into returning to New York to manage the band. Excited by the opportunity, McLaren accepts, bringing with him a new image for the gutter-glam stars: red leather. Toying with communist imagery, McLaren and Westwood play on American paranoia and attempt to politicise the band by marketing them as Mao-loving rock ‘n rollers. The idea, unveiled during four poorly received shows in New York, is a miserable failure, completely distancing the band from mainstream musical culture and leading their hardcore fan base to question their motives for the change. McLaren’s ultimate legacy with the band, however, is in sending Kane to rehab and enrolling Thunders and Nolan in a methadone clinic; while he may not have saved the band, he is credited with saving the lives of its members.
1975
Back on the small club circuit, the band heads down to Florida to play a tour McLaren has booked. The band hates the venues, which are often filled with no more than 20 people, with Nolan and Thunders in particular blaming McLaren for the miserable reception. The two are also relying on a small group of young kids to travel to Miami every day to buy them heroin, but when one of them is arrested, beaten, and spends five days in jail, all the kids get scared and refuse to supply either with any more drugs. Fed up with the tour and needing to score, Nolan and Thunders announce that they are leaving the band and returning home to New York. While the reason for their departure is initially seen as the result of issues with McLaren’s management, it will later be revealed that they were mainly looking to try Chinese Rocks, a type of heroin making its way through New York’s Lower East Side and made famous by the Ramones song of the same name. Intent on completing the tour, Sylvain, Johansen, and Kane recruit Blackie Lawless, who would go on to perform in W.A.S.P., but Kane leaves soon after Connie arrives in Florida, fleeing to L.A. to get away from her. Sylvain and Johansen struggle to continue the band without Kane, Nolan, or Thunders, playing the occasional live show, but the band slowly dissolve over the next two years in tragically unspectacular fashion. Back in New York, Nolan and Thunders look to form a new group where Thunders can function as a front-man. Television bassist Richard Hell, himself looking to front a group, agrees to join two days after leaving Television. Adding Walter Lure on second guitar, the band dub themselves the Heartbreakers.
1976
Ego drives Hell from the Heartbreakers, as he and Thunders argue over who should be singing the majority of the songs. Billy Rath, a part-time gigolo, is tapped for bass duties. The band play around New York for a growing audience, and after reviewing one of their shows for New York Rocker magazine, Nancy Spungen begins to follow the band around, attaching herself to Nolan in particular. Around the end of the year, the band leave for a tour of England with one-way tickets and no work permits. Nearly denied entry upon their arrival, McLaren has to haggle with immigration employees to let the band into the country. The Heartbreakers bring two things to the UK with them: Nancy Spungen, and heroin; as part of the Sex Pistols’ Anarchy in the UK tour with the Clash and the Damned, the Heartbreakers are often blamed for introducing the drug to the English punk scene.
1977
New York Dolls officially break up, though by this point, no one is really paying attention. The Heartbreakers, riding waves of positive reviews and energetic audience reception, record their only studio record, L.A.M.F. (“Like A Motherfucker”). The record is released by Track Records, run by the managers of the Who, but its awful mix leads to terrible reviews and poor sales, nearly bankrupting the label and the band. Nolan quits over the mix issue, and is replaced for a brief period of time by Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook. Nolan returns as a “hired musician,” claiming no membership to the band itself, but soon leaves again to be replaced by original Clash drummer Terry Chimes. The turmoil within the band, however, leads to the inevitable break-up by the end of the year, with Lure and Rath returning to New York while Thunders remains in London.
1978 to 1986
Thunders attempts to form a variety of bands, including Gang War with Wayne Kramer of the MC5. While the band never record a proper record, several live bootlegs exist. Thunders’ first solo outing features such notables as Chrissie Hynde, Glen Matlock, and Steve Jones, but none of Thunders’ solo material approaches the level of critical and commercial acclaim he had with the Dolls, or in the early days of the Heartbreakers. Thunders’ heroin addiction is crippling; he is declared “Burnt Out, Wasted, A Drugged Human Wreck” by British tabloids. Johansen also releases several solo records, often accompanied by Sylvain. Kane plays in a small number of unsuccessful bands, deeply troubled by his increasing reliance on alcohol, while Nolan occasionally fills in with Thunders at live gigs.
1987
The best-known Doll-related success occurs when Johansen releases a self-titled record under his new pseudonym, the cheesy lounge-lizard act Buster Poindexter. The album’s single, “Hot Hot Hot,” goes on to become one of those songs you are likely to hear at any mediocre bar, anywhere on the planet, at any given time, should you stay long enough. Johansen will go on to call the song, “The bane of my existence.” As Poindexter, Johansen hosts a variety of shows on VH1, and is a frequent musical guest on Saturday Night Live. Johansen’s continued success in the entertainment realm leads to roles in films such as Scrooged, where he plays the Ghost of Christmas Past. After seeing him on TV, Kane, who has appeared in several films himself as a non-speaking extra, drinks a quart of peppermint schnapps, beats his wife with cat furniture, and jumps out a third story window, shattering his kneecaps and elbow. It is years before he can walk properly again. Two years later, sober Kane finds God and converts to Mormonism. Kane refers to the message he received as being like, “An LSD trip from the Lord.”
1991 to 1992
On April 23, 1991, Johnny Thunders is found dead in his hotel room in New Orleans. While numerous conspiracy theories surround his death, it is generally accepted that the long-time drug abuser overdosed on heroin and methadone. Less than a year later, on January 14, 1992, Jerry Nolan dies while in a coma brought on by a stroke following a bout of bacterial meningitis.
2004
Morrisey, who was once the President of the New York Dolls Fanclub, asks the band to reunite for the Meltdown Festival, an annual event at London’s Royal Festival Hall, which is curated by a different UK pop star every year. The band’s surviving members decide to get back together, and play a single show on June 18. Despite the notable holes left by Nolan and Thunders, the band are tremendously well received. The show is particularly important for Kane, who has been working in a library for minimum wage for the last several years and whose troubled relationship with Johansen has continued to bother him since the band’s break-up. Twenty-two days after the show, Kane is diagnosed with leukaemia. He dies two hours later.
2005 to 2006
The brilliant New York Doll, chronicalling Kane’s life up until the band’s reunion, debuts at Sundance. Despite the loss of three original members, Sylvain and Johansen decide to continue to tour under the New York Dolls name, promising a record of new material, which is released by Roadrunner Records on July 25, 2006. One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This is a shockingly great record; while easily dismissed as a cash-grab, the record is arguably better than Too Much Too Soon, with more of the biting attitude and grit that made New York Dolls so important at its time. Featuring appearances by Michael Stipe, Iggy Pop, and Against Me!’s Tom Gabel, the record appears to hold the promise of bringing the band some of the attention they earned 30 years ago and never properly received.
Essential New York Dolls
New York Dolls (Mercury, 1973)
The band’s defining moment, this record set the stage for what would come later in the decade. Without New York Dolls, there would be no Marquee Moon, no Never Mind The Bollocks, and no Ramones. With the opening chords of “Personality Crisis,” these five dolled-up glitter rockers pushed music in a direction it was waiting for but hadn’t been given the chance. While the record will never hold the cache of punk’s first wave of classics, it remains a great rock’n’roll record more than 20 years later, with songs like “Jet Boy” and “Frankenstein” still possessing the power they did the day they were written.
Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers L.A.M.F. (Track, 1977)
Currently available online through Jungle Records (www.jungle-records.demon.co.uk) with vastly improved mixes, this collection of Thunders-penned tunes demonstrates the appeal of the guitarist’s strung-out persona. Gritty as hell with a hearty dose of melody, songs like “Born to Lose” became anthems for the legions of hair-sprayed Thunders wannabes, and the record’s sound and aesthetic helped bring about the eventual rise of bands like the Hives and the Strokes. When Thunders wasn’t completely off his head, he wrote some incredible music, and listening to L.A.M.F. is, in many ways, a painful remainder of his tragic downfall.
New York Dolls One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This (Roadrunner, 2006)
A quick spin around the internet will turn up a fairly universal early reaction among critics: “Why doesn’t this record suck?” It doesn’t just not suck though. It fits perfectly into the canon of old Dolls material, as if nothing has changed in 20-plus years. Never mind that only two original members remain, and that most of the band’s early songs were co-written by Thunders. Maintaining the piss and vigour they had in their 20s, Sylvain and Johansen offer 14 tracks of raunchy, R&B-influenced rockers that, despite the obvious trepidation any listener brings to a record like this, is guaranteed to impress any fan of the band’s back catalogue.
It’s not a great exaggeration to say that punk rock as we know it today would not exist without fashion-focused glitter rockers New York Dolls. While not technically a punk band, they paved the way for groups like the Ramones and the Sex Pistols, helping create the audience for original rock music that led to the creation of CBGB and its infamous policy of originals-only. With a career that spanned only a few years, the influence of these young, flamboyant, but surprisingly heterosexual cross-dressers cannot be understated. The band’s success came almost as quickly as their downfall and tragedy, taking members from arenas to barns in Florida in a few short years. The junkie lifestyle for which some were poster boys was also what ultimately killed them, while others went on to work in libraries and, supposedly, drive taxis. With their first record of new material in 22 years landing this month, New York Dolls don’t have anything left to prove, and everything to gain.
1971
A band called Actress, which includes Arthur “Killer” Kane on bass, Billy Murcia on drums, and Ricky Rivets on guitar, recruits a young guitar player named Johnny Volume to round out their line-up. Rivets is soon replaced by the Egyptian-born Sylvain Sylvain, and the band rechristen themselves the Dolls. Volume adopts the last name Thunders, and the band opts to drop the “the” and add “New York” to their name. Recruiting vocalist David Johansen, the band rehearse for a single night at Rusty’s Beanies Bike Shop before performing their first show, a set comprised of R&B and soul covers, at the Endicott Hotel, a homeless shelter in New York City.
1972
In pre-CBGB New York, the band performs at the most unlikely venues, including the Mercer Arts Center, which features rock’n’roll bands on off nights. After playing a powerful set in one of the Center’s smallest rooms for a $3 cover, the band secures a weekly residency, performing every Tuesday in gradually larger rooms. In a city with little exciting, original rock music, New York Dolls become the band to see, mixing aggressive, tuneful music that combines the blues-influenced swagger of the Stones with a distinct attitude and aesthetic that pushes the gender barrier and equally excites and disgusts those who see them. Everyone from David Bowie to Andy Warhol come to see the band play, including Richard Hell and Tom Verlaine, who would later claim that seeing New York Dolls was the impetus for the formation of their own seminal art punk band, Television. The band’s continuing popularity leads to an offer to open for Rod Stewart and the Faces in London at Wembley Arena in front of 13,000 people, a significant jump from their previous high of 350. The band dive headfirst into the lifestyle they are now afforded, and with offers of record deals coming in from the labels of Mick Jagger and the Who, among others, it looks like their career is on an upward trajectory. While still in England, however, drummer Billy Murcia ingests a near-lethal amount of Quaaludes and alcohol, and when two groupies place his body in a cold bathtub and force coffee down his throat in an attempt to revive him, he chokes to death.
1973
For almost a month, the band struggle with the decision to continue as the Dolls without Murcia. Eventually, they decide to begin the auditioning process to find a new drummer; while Marc Bell, better known today as Marky Ramone, tries for the spot, Murcia’s stool is filled by Jerry Nolan, whose unique style cements the band’s original sound. Signing with Mercury Records, the band record their self-titled debut album in a week with producer Todd Rundgren. While New York Dolls peaks at #116 on the Billboard charts, it is critically praised for its brave new sound, though the femmed-up band shot that adorns the cover makes many uptight music consumers uncomfortable. The band travel back to England where they perform on BBC’s The Old Grey Whistle Test. Ripping through a set of originals, the band are as over-the-top as ever, which leads the show’s host, Whispering Bob Harris, to refer to them as “mock rock.” While Harris hates the band, a whole generation of UK teenagers latch on to the Dolls’ raw musical style and distinct fashion sense; some later credit the performance as the turning point in the English punk movement. (And five years later, Sid Vicious will mug Bob Harris in a London pub.) The band’s popularity as a live act begins to soar despite their flagging record sales, and a sold-out show at Paris’s Olympia Theatre leads to an intensely violent clash between police and some 4,000 fans who cannot get into the show; those who do, witness Thunders smashing his guitar over the head of a spitting audience member. A similar situation arises when the band play New York City’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel on Halloween and 6,000 fans arrive in full glam regalia. Only half get in, and the remainder trash the hotel’s lobby. The band themselves smash a plate glass window and hit the stage two hours late, prompting influential rock promoter Howard Stein to swear he’ll never book the band again. While continuing to tour, Thunders meets groupie Sable Starr, who is only 16 at the time. The two begin a tumultuous love affair, and when Starr runs away from home, a warrant is issued for her arrest at the behest of her anxious parents. Expecting trouble, Starr heads straight for New York City while the band head out for their next batch of shows. Cyrinda Foxe, future wife of Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, is erroneously arrested while waiting for the band at the airport, and, while annoyed, is flattered to be mistaken for 16 years old. (She’s 21.) Groupie troubles continue when Kane has his thumb split open in his sleep by Connie, an infamous New York groupie. Unable to play, the band recruit Peter Jordan as a temporary replacement. Sylvain and Johansen meet and befriend Malcolm McLaren, who is in New York to promote his Let It Rock designs with Vivienne Westwood.
1974
The band’s hedonistic lifestyle evolves as their success grows. Nolan and Thunders get seriously into heroin, while Kane’s alcohol addiction continues to plague the Dolls’ live shows; frequently, he is so drunk that he is unable to speak, and his bass parts are played from offstage by Peter Jordan. The band continue to play an important part of New York’s burgeoning original rock scene, performing a legendary show in full drag at Club 82, the first time the band have wholly adopted the transgendered image they have played with over the years, although Thunders refuses to dress in full drag. Too Much Too Soon, a title that would prove prophetic in the coming years, is released to generally poor reviews and dismal sales. Many criticise the album’s more poppy feel, although songs like “Who Are The Mystery Girls” have continued to hold relevance and excitement as they age. Still, the album’s reception, even from fans of the band, is overwhelmingly negative, and in an attempt to revitalise their image, Sylvain and Johansen talk McLaren into returning to New York to manage the band. Excited by the opportunity, McLaren accepts, bringing with him a new image for the gutter-glam stars: red leather. Toying with communist imagery, McLaren and Westwood play on American paranoia and attempt to politicise the band by marketing them as Mao-loving rock ‘n rollers. The idea, unveiled during four poorly received shows in New York, is a miserable failure, completely distancing the band from mainstream musical culture and leading their hardcore fan base to question their motives for the change. McLaren’s ultimate legacy with the band, however, is in sending Kane to rehab and enrolling Thunders and Nolan in a methadone clinic; while he may not have saved the band, he is credited with saving the lives of its members.
1975
Back on the small club circuit, the band heads down to Florida to play a tour McLaren has booked. The band hates the venues, which are often filled with no more than 20 people, with Nolan and Thunders in particular blaming McLaren for the miserable reception. The two are also relying on a small group of young kids to travel to Miami every day to buy them heroin, but when one of them is arrested, beaten, and spends five days in jail, all the kids get scared and refuse to supply either with any more drugs. Fed up with the tour and needing to score, Nolan and Thunders announce that they are leaving the band and returning home to New York. While the reason for their departure is initially seen as the result of issues with McLaren’s management, it will later be revealed that they were mainly looking to try Chinese Rocks, a type of heroin making its way through New York’s Lower East Side and made famous by the Ramones song of the same name. Intent on completing the tour, Sylvain, Johansen, and Kane recruit Blackie Lawless, who would go on to perform in W.A.S.P., but Kane leaves soon after Connie arrives in Florida, fleeing to L.A. to get away from her. Sylvain and Johansen struggle to continue the band without Kane, Nolan, or Thunders, playing the occasional live show, but the band slowly dissolve over the next two years in tragically unspectacular fashion. Back in New York, Nolan and Thunders look to form a new group where Thunders can function as a front-man. Television bassist Richard Hell, himself looking to front a group, agrees to join two days after leaving Television. Adding Walter Lure on second guitar, the band dub themselves the Heartbreakers.
1976
Ego drives Hell from the Heartbreakers, as he and Thunders argue over who should be singing the majority of the songs. Billy Rath, a part-time gigolo, is tapped for bass duties. The band play around New York for a growing audience, and after reviewing one of their shows for New York Rocker magazine, Nancy Spungen begins to follow the band around, attaching herself to Nolan in particular. Around the end of the year, the band leave for a tour of England with one-way tickets and no work permits. Nearly denied entry upon their arrival, McLaren has to haggle with immigration employees to let the band into the country. The Heartbreakers bring two things to the UK with them: Nancy Spungen, and heroin; as part of the Sex Pistols’ Anarchy in the UK tour with the Clash and the Damned, the Heartbreakers are often blamed for introducing the drug to the English punk scene.
1977
New York Dolls officially break up, though by this point, no one is really paying attention. The Heartbreakers, riding waves of positive reviews and energetic audience reception, record their only studio record, L.A.M.F. (“Like A Motherfucker”). The record is released by Track Records, run by the managers of the Who, but its awful mix leads to terrible reviews and poor sales, nearly bankrupting the label and the band. Nolan quits over the mix issue, and is replaced for a brief period of time by Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook. Nolan returns as a “hired musician,” claiming no membership to the band itself, but soon leaves again to be replaced by original Clash drummer Terry Chimes. The turmoil within the band, however, leads to the inevitable break-up by the end of the year, with Lure and Rath returning to New York while Thunders remains in London.
1978 to 1986
Thunders attempts to form a variety of bands, including Gang War with Wayne Kramer of the MC5. While the band never record a proper record, several live bootlegs exist. Thunders’ first solo outing features such notables as Chrissie Hynde, Glen Matlock, and Steve Jones, but none of Thunders’ solo material approaches the level of critical and commercial acclaim he had with the Dolls, or in the early days of the Heartbreakers. Thunders’ heroin addiction is crippling; he is declared “Burnt Out, Wasted, A Drugged Human Wreck” by British tabloids. Johansen also releases several solo records, often accompanied by Sylvain. Kane plays in a small number of unsuccessful bands, deeply troubled by his increasing reliance on alcohol, while Nolan occasionally fills in with Thunders at live gigs.
1987
The best-known Doll-related success occurs when Johansen releases a self-titled record under his new pseudonym, the cheesy lounge-lizard act Buster Poindexter. The album’s single, “Hot Hot Hot,” goes on to become one of those songs you are likely to hear at any mediocre bar, anywhere on the planet, at any given time, should you stay long enough. Johansen will go on to call the song, “The bane of my existence.” As Poindexter, Johansen hosts a variety of shows on VH1, and is a frequent musical guest on Saturday Night Live. Johansen’s continued success in the entertainment realm leads to roles in films such as Scrooged, where he plays the Ghost of Christmas Past. After seeing him on TV, Kane, who has appeared in several films himself as a non-speaking extra, drinks a quart of peppermint schnapps, beats his wife with cat furniture, and jumps out a third story window, shattering his kneecaps and elbow. It is years before he can walk properly again. Two years later, sober Kane finds God and converts to Mormonism. Kane refers to the message he received as being like, “An LSD trip from the Lord.”
1991 to 1992
On April 23, 1991, Johnny Thunders is found dead in his hotel room in New Orleans. While numerous conspiracy theories surround his death, it is generally accepted that the long-time drug abuser overdosed on heroin and methadone. Less than a year later, on January 14, 1992, Jerry Nolan dies while in a coma brought on by a stroke following a bout of bacterial meningitis.
2004
Morrisey, who was once the President of the New York Dolls Fanclub, asks the band to reunite for the Meltdown Festival, an annual event at London’s Royal Festival Hall, which is curated by a different UK pop star every year. The band’s surviving members decide to get back together, and play a single show on June 18. Despite the notable holes left by Nolan and Thunders, the band are tremendously well received. The show is particularly important for Kane, who has been working in a library for minimum wage for the last several years and whose troubled relationship with Johansen has continued to bother him since the band’s break-up. Twenty-two days after the show, Kane is diagnosed with leukaemia. He dies two hours later.
2005 to 2006
The brilliant New York Doll, chronicalling Kane’s life up until the band’s reunion, debuts at Sundance. Despite the loss of three original members, Sylvain and Johansen decide to continue to tour under the New York Dolls name, promising a record of new material, which is released by Roadrunner Records on July 25, 2006. One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This is a shockingly great record; while easily dismissed as a cash-grab, the record is arguably better than Too Much Too Soon, with more of the biting attitude and grit that made New York Dolls so important at its time. Featuring appearances by Michael Stipe, Iggy Pop, and Against Me!’s Tom Gabel, the record appears to hold the promise of bringing the band some of the attention they earned 30 years ago and never properly received.
Essential New York Dolls
New York Dolls (Mercury, 1973)
The band’s defining moment, this record set the stage for what would come later in the decade. Without New York Dolls, there would be no Marquee Moon, no Never Mind The Bollocks, and no Ramones. With the opening chords of “Personality Crisis,” these five dolled-up glitter rockers pushed music in a direction it was waiting for but hadn’t been given the chance. While the record will never hold the cache of punk’s first wave of classics, it remains a great rock’n’roll record more than 20 years later, with songs like “Jet Boy” and “Frankenstein” still possessing the power they did the day they were written.
Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers L.A.M.F. (Track, 1977)
Currently available online through Jungle Records (www.jungle-records.demon.co.uk) with vastly improved mixes, this collection of Thunders-penned tunes demonstrates the appeal of the guitarist’s strung-out persona. Gritty as hell with a hearty dose of melody, songs like “Born to Lose” became anthems for the legions of hair-sprayed Thunders wannabes, and the record’s sound and aesthetic helped bring about the eventual rise of bands like the Hives and the Strokes. When Thunders wasn’t completely off his head, he wrote some incredible music, and listening to L.A.M.F. is, in many ways, a painful remainder of his tragic downfall.
New York Dolls One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This (Roadrunner, 2006)
A quick spin around the internet will turn up a fairly universal early reaction among critics: “Why doesn’t this record suck?” It doesn’t just not suck though. It fits perfectly into the canon of old Dolls material, as if nothing has changed in 20-plus years. Never mind that only two original members remain, and that most of the band’s early songs were co-written by Thunders. Maintaining the piss and vigour they had in their 20s, Sylvain and Johansen offer 14 tracks of raunchy, R&B-influenced rockers that, despite the obvious trepidation any listener brings to a record like this, is guaranteed to impress any fan of the band’s back catalogue.
Monday, August 07, 2006
Jacksoul, Jully Black, Melanie Durrant; Canadian R&B rising
Canada's Got Soul!
By Ryan B. Patrick, Exclaim.ca
Canada's Got Soul?
Why Our R&B Artists Get Left in the Cold
There was a recent flurry of media activity surrounding the release of Jamaica To Toronto, a compilation that exposes the �lost� history of R&B and soul music in Canada. The CD, released on American indie label Light in the Attic, collects recordings by Canadian-based R&B singers in the �60s and �70s. Toronto had experienced a wave of Caribbean and West Indian immigration that resulted in a highly charged music scene, and straight-up soul was the order of the day. Current press has marvelled at the fact that these soul artists even existed and how much they influenced the contemporary Canadian sound. The music was fresh and vibrant, but didn�t translate into sustainable success � Canadian soul detoured into a cultural cul-de-sac while Canadian rock became a well-paved road.
The struggles faced by a domestic R&B/soul scene remain an intricate mix of fear, prejudice and conservatism twinned with an inferiority complex when held up against American counterparts. R&B and soul artists in this country are afforded more limited opportunities � in terms of media exposure, touring opportunities, radio play and major label backing � when compared to Canadian rock. Despite a smattering of Canadian success stories both at home (Jacksoul, Ivana Santilli, Massari) and in the U.S. (Tamia, Deborah Cox, Glenn Lewis), the Canadian music industry still seems mystified what to do with them.
The number of active, successful Canadian soul artists can be counted on two hands with fingers to spare � but not for a lack of talent or ambition. Toronto-born vocalist Jully Black is a good example; she was a well-known commodity (at least to the industry) for more than a decade before she finally unveiled her debut album. The fact that it was released after she had a Top 40 radio hit (1998�s �Rally�n�), a Juno nomination and an American major label deal underlines the challenges she�s faced. After signing a deal with now-defunct affiliate MCA Records, which evolved into a joint deal with Universal Canada and U.S., her album was reworked, renamed and re-jigged before finally being released last summer.
Black remains upbeat about the situation, saying �I�m happy because I wasn�t really ready anyway. The people who run the industry only know what they know so you can�t really fault them for not being willing to take the chance.� What those industry-running people don�t know is what to do with an artist like Black � is she R&B, soul or pop? How will she be received in Medicine Hat?
Generally speaking, the industry hasn�t bothered to answer those questions, leaving it to the artists themselves to break ground and build a DIY touring circuit all their own. �I�m the person I am today because of the grind,� Black continues. �I got stronger and better at what I do. I sold 40,000 [records] and no one expected me to sell even five or ten [thousand].�
�There aren�t a lot of outlets out there,� says Haydain Neale, front-man for Jacksoul, arguably the most successful R&B/soul outfit in the country. He describes the band�s decade-long career as a �beautiful struggle� that, despite nationwide recognition, moderate record sales and inevitable Juno nominations, remains a challenge each time out. �There�s no circuit,� he continues. �You�ve got to create it yourself. It�s real easy to say that people don�t want to show us love, but you�ve got to demand that respect.�
Ivana Santilli is another Canadian success story; her early �90s rise came at a time when there was some buzz around soul, R&B and hip-hop hybrids. �There was a genuine excitement at the time. Live music on the road was still a doable concept � whereas now it really is about making your band smaller.� Downsizing your artistic ambitions to keep your overhead low is one solution, but it doesn�t solve the problem of having nowhere to play. �If you�re playing rock, you can play 30 dates across Canada within a two month span,� Santilli says. �As an R&B artist, you�d be done in two weeks.�
Vancouver-based soul artist GreenTARA agrees, �It�s about finding that pocket of people that relate to your music. You have to be able to shave down all your extras and just go.�
ooking again at Jamaica to Toronto, it�s acutely ironic and wholly Canadian that it took an American label to recognise and legitimise the music before Canada took notice. This, more so than any other musical genre, relates to the perception of R&B and soul in this country.
�The Americans are laughing at us because Canada doesn�t have a system,� says Toronto�s Melanie Durrant. The R&B vocalist knows all about the U.S. system. Once signed to the legendary Motown label, Durrant suffered countless delays to her American debut project and was ultimately dropped. She came back and her reworked album was released by Koch Canada. Still, Durrant says the experience was valuable, if only to highlight the differences between the American and Canadian approaches to the music. The American approach is soup-to-nuts � producers, studios, writing staff and labels work in conjunction. �It�s a whole package, Durrant says. �Here someone will play a beat for you and demand five grand. There are only scraps to win.�
David Cox, an Artists & Repertoire (A&R) rep for the Universal Music Group, knows there�s a market for soul music in Canada, but the industry hasn�t evolved with the scene. �Maybe the industry of yesteryear didn�t know what to do with a Jully Black,� Cox says. �This attitude has changed a lot, particularly with the relative success of R&B and urban acts.� Beyond the few Canadian R&B/soul success stories there are teems of artists who toil in obscurity. Even the successes are relative; most were forced to breakthrough Stateside before getting any love north of the border. Paradoxically, it had to be done before people could see it could work.
�Who wants to put their balls on the table?� Cox asks. �The Canadian market is so Americanised and it�s hard to compete with because it�s got to be something that sticks out enough, but not to the point where it doesn�t compete.�
One big reason why soul music doesn�t get any love is due to cultural points of reference. The industry has always been white � there�s no other way to describe its infrastructure. The mistake historically made by labels was the belief that the music�s appeal is limited only to the African-Canadian community. Canadian labels, who often operate as franchises of their American counterparts, look to the U.S. market as a model in most of their operations, but the Canadian market doesn�t share the same monolithic cultural experiences � in black or white communities or music markets � as the U.S. Targeting an African-Canadian market for soul music doesn�t work the same way because the socio-cultural experiences of black Canadians aren�t always shared with African-Americans.
What�s interesting is that soul and R&B, as popular music, have Canadian roots far deeper than rock and pop. Larry LeBlanc, Billboard magazine�s Canadian bureau chief, agrees. �Toronto was a strong R&B town in the �50s, �60s and early �70s � this was not a rock town until the late �60s.� Yet that scene remained separate from the Canadian recording industry, which never quite figured out what to do with it. While the industry isn�t overtly racist, there exists a cultural disconnect, a �prejudice by exclusion� that hampers the success of domestic R&B and soul. �I can remember being at a Juno Awards dinner ten years ago. There was one visible minority in the room,� LeBlanc says. �Some of the labels have tried to tap into the market, but they saw limited rewards.� So the cultural thing is part of it. The industry was a composed of a generation that was raised on rock and simply couldn�t relate to the music, LeBlanc argues. The situation parallels the meagre gains the hip-hop community has had in terms of forging a place for the music.
According to music journalist Nick Jennings, the position of R&B and soul as an also-ran to Canadian rock is ironic, considering that soul music provided a key component in informing the quintessential Canadian sound. Jennings, the author of Before the Gold Rush: Flashbacks to the Dawn of the Canadian Sound, notes that Toronto in particular was a bastion for blues and R&B. The key player in the early �60s was Arkansas-born Toronto resident Ronnie Hawkins, who drew heavily from black American music in forging his popular rock sound. A lot of blue-eyed soul groups that were attempting a rhythm and blues sound looked to Hawkins, according to Jennings, including Little Caesar and the Consuls, and Jon and Lee and the Checkmates.
Black artists from the Caribbean or the U.S. found hospitable communities not just in Toronto but also Vancouver and Montreal; artists like Eddie Spencer, Johnnie Osbourne and Willie McGhie and the Sounds of Joy � all featured on the Jamaica to Toronto compilation � made an impact on the Canadian scene. But these artists, Jennings notes, soon became frustrated by a lack of opportunities to record � part of a larger prejudice against the worth of Canadian music in general. �There certainly wasn�t a shortage of talent,� Jennings says. �It wasn�t black or white � it was a national prejudice. Literally, at radio stations across Canada there was an assumption that if it was Canadian then it couldn�t be good.�
The Canadian music scene in general didn�t undergo the radical transformation required to build a domestic music scene until the early �70s, when Canadian Content rules (which dictate that radio stations must play a certain percentage of Canadian music) came into effect. That legislation gave Canadian music a leg-up, and an infrastructure � made up of producers, managers, engineers, writers, investors and label executives � began to grow. It�s a process that the R&B and soul scene is now in the middle of, according to Billboard�s LeBlanc. �What we fail to recognise in signing an R&B act now is that they are going through the same problem that the rock community experienced 20 years ago,� he says. Canadian rock grew by networking and a Byzantine system of joint venture deals between Canadian majors and their American counterparts, he adds � and most of the time, it was the Canadian labels that shouldered most of the risks.
For his part, Calgary-based soul singer Jeff Hendrick believes the industry doesn�t give Canadians enough credit. �Living out west, I think there�s still that notion it�s only happening in Toronto,� he says. More frustrating is a lack of promotional opportunities and diversity on the airwaves. �Obviously, radio is not looking to break new artists,� he says. �Let�s say there are five signed Canadian acts � those are the ones you�re going to hear.� He points to the fact that, outside of Toronto-based urban radio station FLOW 93.5, many other recently licensed urban radio outlets across the country didn�t last. �It�s strange that there were all these radio licenses that were able to apply under the guise of �urban� and were all gone within a minute.� (Most switched to a Top 40 format.) �The wrong people are making the wrong decisions, there�s no other way to put it,� he continues. �There are still some dinosaurs in the music biz. They�re making decisions and they don�t listen to the music. That�s problematic, especially since there doesn�t seem to be great interest in trying to grow different genres.�
A rock music-based infrastructure is the only one available, according to Hendrick. �As a soul artist, you�re usually [booked into] rock rooms, sometimes you�re opening for artists that may not really complement you, or vice versa. I know the crowd is there, but when it comes to the booking side, there�s hesitancy.�
Nova Scotia-based singer Jamie Sparks takes a zen approach to the situation. �Being on the east coast, sometimes you feel like there are things going on in the rest of Canada that we may not be connected to,� he says. �But there�s a strong community here, which is a plus. You can exhaust the market pretty quickly but there are spots that are really supportive if you have your stuff together.�
Sparks runs an independent label and understands the money needed to successfully promote an artist. �Marketing and promotion is a big part and the majors may not want to put money into a format they�re not comfortable with. But it�s all about [getting] good music out there and getting good feedback.�
It�s a huge country with a small, spread out and diverse population. But when it comes to work in the music industry, sometimes the opportunities just aren�t there. �There is a level of frustration,� says Ivana Santilli, �but the moment that I stopped blaming things around me and started doing something about it, I became more productive and re-inspired.� She adds that, regardless of genre, Canadian musicians need to think beyond their local communities. �If you�re any good, consider Canada a building ground. It�s not about being bitter. If you�re any good, you should be able to play on a world stage. You have to see it as your responsibility to either improve the situation or find a solution for your specific situation.�
Those seeking a model example of success for an R&B artist in this country need look no further than Ottawa-based Massari. His debut album, released on the independent Capital Prophet Records, has sold more than 75,000 copies (and counting) � that makes him bigger, sales wise, than artists who have been around longer, like Divine Brown, Jully Black, Shawn Desman and Keisha Chante.
�The formula is simple,� Massari says. �You�ve got to work ten times harder than the average artist. The overwhelming presence of the States means that we�ve got to work harder to get noticed. People have been waiting for something different, and I�m here to provide that. It�s not about the money but about longevity.�
�He�s got a structure around him,� says LeBlanc of Massari�s career trajectory. �Five years ago, a major wouldn�t know what to do with an act like Massari � I don�t think they�d be willing to put in the time and development.�
The template for success as a Canadian R&B/soul artist probably lies somewhere in the gulf between Massari and Jully Black. Black has been savvy about branding herself, working as a TV host and crafting a media persona that has raised her profile, which should help her upcoming sophomore album. �Since when has any successful person been one-dimensional?� she asks rhetorically. �An R&B artist in Canada has to build a brand and broaden your fan base.�
�Right now I�d say Jully�s career is at a crossroads. But I think it�s to her credit that she�s kept herself alive,� LeBlanc says. �The days of the million dollar record deal are over. You have to create an indie presence and most don�t have the money, infrastructure or business savvy. The majors are signing less.�
Sometimes, the best way you can represent Canada is by leaving,� Santilli says. �We don�t need to remind ourselves that there�s talent here. We know that. What we need to do is inform other people elsewhere that there�s talent here in that way it can be widespread.�
Calgary's Jeff Hendrick has thought about moving out of Canada but decided against it. �At the end of the day it�s still a very rock-oriented country. I don�t think it�s inherently our music. But we do have people that love it and we�re producing some music of our own. I think that we�re doing ourselves a disservice if the answer is always �Let�s move away.� There�s more to Canada than Nickelback.�
Building a sustainable music community in Canada remains a challenge. The measure of success might well be if artists can avoid ending up on a Jamaica To Toronto type of lost recordings'compilation 20 years from now.
By Ryan B. Patrick, Exclaim.ca
Canada's Got Soul?
Why Our R&B Artists Get Left in the Cold
There was a recent flurry of media activity surrounding the release of Jamaica To Toronto, a compilation that exposes the �lost� history of R&B and soul music in Canada. The CD, released on American indie label Light in the Attic, collects recordings by Canadian-based R&B singers in the �60s and �70s. Toronto had experienced a wave of Caribbean and West Indian immigration that resulted in a highly charged music scene, and straight-up soul was the order of the day. Current press has marvelled at the fact that these soul artists even existed and how much they influenced the contemporary Canadian sound. The music was fresh and vibrant, but didn�t translate into sustainable success � Canadian soul detoured into a cultural cul-de-sac while Canadian rock became a well-paved road.
The struggles faced by a domestic R&B/soul scene remain an intricate mix of fear, prejudice and conservatism twinned with an inferiority complex when held up against American counterparts. R&B and soul artists in this country are afforded more limited opportunities � in terms of media exposure, touring opportunities, radio play and major label backing � when compared to Canadian rock. Despite a smattering of Canadian success stories both at home (Jacksoul, Ivana Santilli, Massari) and in the U.S. (Tamia, Deborah Cox, Glenn Lewis), the Canadian music industry still seems mystified what to do with them.
The number of active, successful Canadian soul artists can be counted on two hands with fingers to spare � but not for a lack of talent or ambition. Toronto-born vocalist Jully Black is a good example; she was a well-known commodity (at least to the industry) for more than a decade before she finally unveiled her debut album. The fact that it was released after she had a Top 40 radio hit (1998�s �Rally�n�), a Juno nomination and an American major label deal underlines the challenges she�s faced. After signing a deal with now-defunct affiliate MCA Records, which evolved into a joint deal with Universal Canada and U.S., her album was reworked, renamed and re-jigged before finally being released last summer.
Black remains upbeat about the situation, saying �I�m happy because I wasn�t really ready anyway. The people who run the industry only know what they know so you can�t really fault them for not being willing to take the chance.� What those industry-running people don�t know is what to do with an artist like Black � is she R&B, soul or pop? How will she be received in Medicine Hat?
Generally speaking, the industry hasn�t bothered to answer those questions, leaving it to the artists themselves to break ground and build a DIY touring circuit all their own. �I�m the person I am today because of the grind,� Black continues. �I got stronger and better at what I do. I sold 40,000 [records] and no one expected me to sell even five or ten [thousand].�
�There aren�t a lot of outlets out there,� says Haydain Neale, front-man for Jacksoul, arguably the most successful R&B/soul outfit in the country. He describes the band�s decade-long career as a �beautiful struggle� that, despite nationwide recognition, moderate record sales and inevitable Juno nominations, remains a challenge each time out. �There�s no circuit,� he continues. �You�ve got to create it yourself. It�s real easy to say that people don�t want to show us love, but you�ve got to demand that respect.�
Ivana Santilli is another Canadian success story; her early �90s rise came at a time when there was some buzz around soul, R&B and hip-hop hybrids. �There was a genuine excitement at the time. Live music on the road was still a doable concept � whereas now it really is about making your band smaller.� Downsizing your artistic ambitions to keep your overhead low is one solution, but it doesn�t solve the problem of having nowhere to play. �If you�re playing rock, you can play 30 dates across Canada within a two month span,� Santilli says. �As an R&B artist, you�d be done in two weeks.�
Vancouver-based soul artist GreenTARA agrees, �It�s about finding that pocket of people that relate to your music. You have to be able to shave down all your extras and just go.�
ooking again at Jamaica to Toronto, it�s acutely ironic and wholly Canadian that it took an American label to recognise and legitimise the music before Canada took notice. This, more so than any other musical genre, relates to the perception of R&B and soul in this country.
�The Americans are laughing at us because Canada doesn�t have a system,� says Toronto�s Melanie Durrant. The R&B vocalist knows all about the U.S. system. Once signed to the legendary Motown label, Durrant suffered countless delays to her American debut project and was ultimately dropped. She came back and her reworked album was released by Koch Canada. Still, Durrant says the experience was valuable, if only to highlight the differences between the American and Canadian approaches to the music. The American approach is soup-to-nuts � producers, studios, writing staff and labels work in conjunction. �It�s a whole package, Durrant says. �Here someone will play a beat for you and demand five grand. There are only scraps to win.�
David Cox, an Artists & Repertoire (A&R) rep for the Universal Music Group, knows there�s a market for soul music in Canada, but the industry hasn�t evolved with the scene. �Maybe the industry of yesteryear didn�t know what to do with a Jully Black,� Cox says. �This attitude has changed a lot, particularly with the relative success of R&B and urban acts.� Beyond the few Canadian R&B/soul success stories there are teems of artists who toil in obscurity. Even the successes are relative; most were forced to breakthrough Stateside before getting any love north of the border. Paradoxically, it had to be done before people could see it could work.
�Who wants to put their balls on the table?� Cox asks. �The Canadian market is so Americanised and it�s hard to compete with because it�s got to be something that sticks out enough, but not to the point where it doesn�t compete.�
One big reason why soul music doesn�t get any love is due to cultural points of reference. The industry has always been white � there�s no other way to describe its infrastructure. The mistake historically made by labels was the belief that the music�s appeal is limited only to the African-Canadian community. Canadian labels, who often operate as franchises of their American counterparts, look to the U.S. market as a model in most of their operations, but the Canadian market doesn�t share the same monolithic cultural experiences � in black or white communities or music markets � as the U.S. Targeting an African-Canadian market for soul music doesn�t work the same way because the socio-cultural experiences of black Canadians aren�t always shared with African-Americans.
What�s interesting is that soul and R&B, as popular music, have Canadian roots far deeper than rock and pop. Larry LeBlanc, Billboard magazine�s Canadian bureau chief, agrees. �Toronto was a strong R&B town in the �50s, �60s and early �70s � this was not a rock town until the late �60s.� Yet that scene remained separate from the Canadian recording industry, which never quite figured out what to do with it. While the industry isn�t overtly racist, there exists a cultural disconnect, a �prejudice by exclusion� that hampers the success of domestic R&B and soul. �I can remember being at a Juno Awards dinner ten years ago. There was one visible minority in the room,� LeBlanc says. �Some of the labels have tried to tap into the market, but they saw limited rewards.� So the cultural thing is part of it. The industry was a composed of a generation that was raised on rock and simply couldn�t relate to the music, LeBlanc argues. The situation parallels the meagre gains the hip-hop community has had in terms of forging a place for the music.
According to music journalist Nick Jennings, the position of R&B and soul as an also-ran to Canadian rock is ironic, considering that soul music provided a key component in informing the quintessential Canadian sound. Jennings, the author of Before the Gold Rush: Flashbacks to the Dawn of the Canadian Sound, notes that Toronto in particular was a bastion for blues and R&B. The key player in the early �60s was Arkansas-born Toronto resident Ronnie Hawkins, who drew heavily from black American music in forging his popular rock sound. A lot of blue-eyed soul groups that were attempting a rhythm and blues sound looked to Hawkins, according to Jennings, including Little Caesar and the Consuls, and Jon and Lee and the Checkmates.
Black artists from the Caribbean or the U.S. found hospitable communities not just in Toronto but also Vancouver and Montreal; artists like Eddie Spencer, Johnnie Osbourne and Willie McGhie and the Sounds of Joy � all featured on the Jamaica to Toronto compilation � made an impact on the Canadian scene. But these artists, Jennings notes, soon became frustrated by a lack of opportunities to record � part of a larger prejudice against the worth of Canadian music in general. �There certainly wasn�t a shortage of talent,� Jennings says. �It wasn�t black or white � it was a national prejudice. Literally, at radio stations across Canada there was an assumption that if it was Canadian then it couldn�t be good.�
The Canadian music scene in general didn�t undergo the radical transformation required to build a domestic music scene until the early �70s, when Canadian Content rules (which dictate that radio stations must play a certain percentage of Canadian music) came into effect. That legislation gave Canadian music a leg-up, and an infrastructure � made up of producers, managers, engineers, writers, investors and label executives � began to grow. It�s a process that the R&B and soul scene is now in the middle of, according to Billboard�s LeBlanc. �What we fail to recognise in signing an R&B act now is that they are going through the same problem that the rock community experienced 20 years ago,� he says. Canadian rock grew by networking and a Byzantine system of joint venture deals between Canadian majors and their American counterparts, he adds � and most of the time, it was the Canadian labels that shouldered most of the risks.
For his part, Calgary-based soul singer Jeff Hendrick believes the industry doesn�t give Canadians enough credit. �Living out west, I think there�s still that notion it�s only happening in Toronto,� he says. More frustrating is a lack of promotional opportunities and diversity on the airwaves. �Obviously, radio is not looking to break new artists,� he says. �Let�s say there are five signed Canadian acts � those are the ones you�re going to hear.� He points to the fact that, outside of Toronto-based urban radio station FLOW 93.5, many other recently licensed urban radio outlets across the country didn�t last. �It�s strange that there were all these radio licenses that were able to apply under the guise of �urban� and were all gone within a minute.� (Most switched to a Top 40 format.) �The wrong people are making the wrong decisions, there�s no other way to put it,� he continues. �There are still some dinosaurs in the music biz. They�re making decisions and they don�t listen to the music. That�s problematic, especially since there doesn�t seem to be great interest in trying to grow different genres.�
A rock music-based infrastructure is the only one available, according to Hendrick. �As a soul artist, you�re usually [booked into] rock rooms, sometimes you�re opening for artists that may not really complement you, or vice versa. I know the crowd is there, but when it comes to the booking side, there�s hesitancy.�
Nova Scotia-based singer Jamie Sparks takes a zen approach to the situation. �Being on the east coast, sometimes you feel like there are things going on in the rest of Canada that we may not be connected to,� he says. �But there�s a strong community here, which is a plus. You can exhaust the market pretty quickly but there are spots that are really supportive if you have your stuff together.�
Sparks runs an independent label and understands the money needed to successfully promote an artist. �Marketing and promotion is a big part and the majors may not want to put money into a format they�re not comfortable with. But it�s all about [getting] good music out there and getting good feedback.�
It�s a huge country with a small, spread out and diverse population. But when it comes to work in the music industry, sometimes the opportunities just aren�t there. �There is a level of frustration,� says Ivana Santilli, �but the moment that I stopped blaming things around me and started doing something about it, I became more productive and re-inspired.� She adds that, regardless of genre, Canadian musicians need to think beyond their local communities. �If you�re any good, consider Canada a building ground. It�s not about being bitter. If you�re any good, you should be able to play on a world stage. You have to see it as your responsibility to either improve the situation or find a solution for your specific situation.�
Those seeking a model example of success for an R&B artist in this country need look no further than Ottawa-based Massari. His debut album, released on the independent Capital Prophet Records, has sold more than 75,000 copies (and counting) � that makes him bigger, sales wise, than artists who have been around longer, like Divine Brown, Jully Black, Shawn Desman and Keisha Chante.
�The formula is simple,� Massari says. �You�ve got to work ten times harder than the average artist. The overwhelming presence of the States means that we�ve got to work harder to get noticed. People have been waiting for something different, and I�m here to provide that. It�s not about the money but about longevity.�
�He�s got a structure around him,� says LeBlanc of Massari�s career trajectory. �Five years ago, a major wouldn�t know what to do with an act like Massari � I don�t think they�d be willing to put in the time and development.�
The template for success as a Canadian R&B/soul artist probably lies somewhere in the gulf between Massari and Jully Black. Black has been savvy about branding herself, working as a TV host and crafting a media persona that has raised her profile, which should help her upcoming sophomore album. �Since when has any successful person been one-dimensional?� she asks rhetorically. �An R&B artist in Canada has to build a brand and broaden your fan base.�
�Right now I�d say Jully�s career is at a crossroads. But I think it�s to her credit that she�s kept herself alive,� LeBlanc says. �The days of the million dollar record deal are over. You have to create an indie presence and most don�t have the money, infrastructure or business savvy. The majors are signing less.�
Sometimes, the best way you can represent Canada is by leaving,� Santilli says. �We don�t need to remind ourselves that there�s talent here. We know that. What we need to do is inform other people elsewhere that there�s talent here in that way it can be widespread.�
Calgary's Jeff Hendrick has thought about moving out of Canada but decided against it. �At the end of the day it�s still a very rock-oriented country. I don�t think it�s inherently our music. But we do have people that love it and we�re producing some music of our own. I think that we�re doing ourselves a disservice if the answer is always �Let�s move away.� There�s more to Canada than Nickelback.�
Building a sustainable music community in Canada remains a challenge. The measure of success might well be if artists can avoid ending up on a Jamaica To Toronto type of lost recordings'compilation 20 years from now.
Check Rabbitohs radio for emerging Canadian and Australian music stars
Rabbitohs Radio is Rockin the Round World in 2006!
Rabbitohs Radio is entering it's second year so tune in now to Rabbitohs Radio for the brand new station content.
We have competitions and prizes for you and all the latest on the happenings at the Club and all the news on your team.
We have got some great new shows this year including the popular live home game calls from Telstra Stadium.
Thanks again for all the support and we look forward to your feedback on the new station.
If you would like to request a song, send an email to requests@souths.com.au.
Hear great new tracks from Erik Simins, Imogen, Yuya, Ann Morita, Burning The Day, Katie Michaelson, Trevor Jones, Tommee, Trace Element and 2Face.
Rabbitohs Radio is proudly brought to you by Blue Pie Productions. Check out Blue Pie at www.bluepie.com.au.
Rabbitohs Radio is entering it's second year so tune in now to Rabbitohs Radio for the brand new station content.
We have competitions and prizes for you and all the latest on the happenings at the Club and all the news on your team.
We have got some great new shows this year including the popular live home game calls from Telstra Stadium.
Thanks again for all the support and we look forward to your feedback on the new station.
If you would like to request a song, send an email to requests@souths.com.au.
Hear great new tracks from Erik Simins, Imogen, Yuya, Ann Morita, Burning The Day, Katie Michaelson, Trevor Jones, Tommee, Trace Element and 2Face.
Rabbitohs Radio is proudly brought to you by Blue Pie Productions. Check out Blue Pie at www.bluepie.com.au.
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