I have a lot of nice things to say about the latest remake of A Star is Born. I can be a critic as well. But Bradley Cooper still has a better voice than Kristofferson. Kris is actually a terrible singer and a brilliant songwriter that makes Lou Reed sound like Otis Redding.
But this movie is about songwriting and how exciting and important it still is to get your song across.
That part gave me goose bumps. I have been there 100s of times, trying to make an audience of strangers love a song I wrote that they never heard. Folks that had never heard of me till I opened my mouth to introduce a song and sell that first note.
Lady Gaga can also act. Pretty well. If she did not have those chops the movie would have sunk like a Led Zeppelin. But you know she made it because she could really sell her songs. She had gimmicks, but ultimately like Jack White they exposed her talent.
It’s ok to have tricks, if you also got some songs in that bag. I know tricks. I made up my tricks. I perform with my zipper down and let you notice naturally. But soon you’re singing along.
A Star is Born is cheese at times, but Gaga is the Queen of Cheese, and she has got classy cheese, authentic Italian cheeses and some spices we enjoyed in the Old World. Ask Tony Bennett.
But good job Bradley Cooper. He sure sold me on the idea he knows his way around an electric guitar. He can almost really carry a tune. He sure ACTS like he can, and that’s half the hustle anyway.
But to be clear, I also ate an edible from my Hangar 420 Snohomish educational samples, and I truly bought the ticket and took the ride. I was flying so high, higher and higher, I almost thought Andrew Dice Clay was Oscar worthy while I was up there at 36,000 feet.
Dice Dice baby.
Also write songs. You might be great at it. There is no law against writing great songs.
WARNING: You just might only make $1,700 co-writing a #1 hit because they are paying musicians like share croppers out here. Evil sh☆t. How is this different than poor black musicians getting exploited by record companies in 1955?
Oh, they skipped the middle man with the cash advance and sales team, and now musicians are being exploited by the faceless and tasteless railroad baron mega corps of our time. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool.
But even if there was no business, there would still be songs and probably better singers.
Autotune vocals still suck though. The fact women are so attracted to men making meandering fake robot sounds like Travis Scott did on SNL tonight was a real come down. But it’s a reflection of how few people have heard real singing. Thus the masses will thirstily embrace the happy meal toy version. A farce of what made American pop deceivingly simple, yet sophisticated human performances, as defined by the timeless masterpieces of the Spector, The Funk Brothers, Stax Records, Muscle Shoals, and The Wrecking Crew.
Bradley Cooper looked a lot more believable backing Brandi Carlile at the fictional Grammys, than John Mayer did last night on Saturday Night backing Travis Scott. Mayer appeared way too inspired and sure of himself playing stupid sound effects, mimicking the sound of a vaccum cleaner being pitch corrected by an iphone.
“…oh that that muddy wish wash you’re triggering sounds like freshly squeezed Yoohoo dunnit’ Johnny?”
Too many bad singers with bad songs. A Star is Born is a fantasy of a world where music is truth, singers sing their songs like they’re dying for for you hear them, and truth still some how matters.
Today’s pop delivery is Xanax. Just Xanax. Even the singers and rappers sound too bored to be indifferent.
FEVER!
Songs are spells. Straight up. That’s why I work on them everyday.
I do believe this one is a product of A Star is Born and practicing for that Tom Petty tribute Oct 20th at Historic Everett Theatre.
It’s no coincidence that what I am writing about often comes with a soundtrack. But what I write about in these rants, reviews, and thug history type essays loses the tether from the songs born each day, leaving hundreds if not thousands of songs as promising I may never finish.
But I threaten to do so, with never ending rocket fuel like this on the fire (if I can only hold onto them all).
There is something timeless about this one. I picked up a new B chord from ‘You Don’t Know How It Feels’ and even that initial vamp from E to A, though alternate with a B chord. It’s something Tom took from the foundation of Rock & Roll himself.
I like that I got the Wild Blues Gospel thing going that is not just my wheelhouse but the sound of my very soul.
I can’t help posting these song ideas. Like writing about the vagaries of politics, I promise myself I will stop and start posting songs I need to finish.
But there is something magical about capturing these moments where I am really writing the song in front of you. It has to be real, or it wouldn’t even be writing. Music gets me absolutely high. One of the handful of reasons why the only substance that has slowed down my career is probably literally sugar (and corn syrup) is because I remember a night at Rico’s in college singing Blues as I did each Tuesday with Mr. Chesterfield. I had gone through an awful break up as anyone in college probably should, and I realized something in the fog of free booze.
I don’t really like alcohol. It gets in the way. I am a half Puerto Rican with enough confidence to fill an NFL pregame locker room. I don’t need to get drunk to stand on a table and sing that I am golden god that can pleasure any woman and her handmaids, in the annals of history. I will tell you that right now, and I mean it. I don’t need liquid courage.
I just need a record deal circa 1992. I need 500K. Even 10K to make ‘Free Your Mind’ a big worldwide hit, because the whole game has fallen down the stairs wasted.
So I am not like Bradley Cooper’s character in A Star is Born. But I understand the demons, even if they aren’t mine. I drowned the demons of my hard college break up in the songs that ended up on 12th Street Blues, plus ‘G Spot’ from We Are The Blaxstonz and ‘Callin’ from Jungle Cat. And maybe ‘Ship on Fire’ from Hot Chocolate. OK and maybe ‘Casino Road’ on the next album.
But those demons ain’t coming up for air.
Go see A Star is Born. I love the first act, and the opening scene I assume is Coachella. But you can’t really carve out an epic without a Greek Tragedy.
Bradley Cooper actually did inspire me to stand up and play along to Tom Petty records today at the Pot Shop and be the real guitar player I appear to be in the ‘Free Your Mind‘ video.
Also these videos keep me honest. I hurt my achilles from jump roping and running every day and night. I got high as hell blasting songs and jump roping to guilty 80s pop rock pleasures. Yes, I think Bryan Adams is better than Ryan you hipsters. Ryan never wrote a song as good as ‘Heaven‘ as Brandi Carlile proved on her cover.
If I gain weight I can see it and you can too. I was no no-ing doughnuts all day at Hangar 420 Snohomish like Dikembe Mutumbo. Tonight I jump rope at the gym again for the first time in a week and a half.
I have the Fever. I want to hit the Top 40 in 14 countries, even if it never cracks the Hot 100 here. Sharks don’t stop swimming.
Davin’s new song has been released and has become a global earworm and Caribbean dancehall hit. Listen here on Reggaeville: DAVIN MICHAEL STEDMAN & ANTHONY RED ROSE – FREE YOUR MIND FEAT. SLY & ROBBIE WITH LENKY MARSDEN. The video is now available on Youtube.
– Musician and writer Davin Michael Stedman has many ventures, such as the AMAZING blog, 100milesofmusic.com, and is one of the driving forces behind the Staxx Brothers. This past spring he spent weeks networking in and reporting from Kingston, Jamaica. He will return there soon for more recording. His single with British band Sherlock Soul is now available as well.
