One of the great joys of having written something that people connect with, is that you get to see all the creative works that your own work has inspired. Over the two years since the release of Civilization IV, I've been sent all sorts of writing, music, and videos from fans who found something in my music that sparked their creativity....and I love seeing that! But perhaps the most unique derivative work that I've seen thus far is the Baba Yetu Role Playing Game.
Apparently it's about lions. You create a lion character, then you wander around the prides, hunting, challenging other lions for territory, and occasionally mating (I'm really curious how they plan to make that work). Unfortunately, I think the game's creators have given up on trying to develop it....I think they may have gotten a dose of reality, and realized that creating and maintaining an online world is not the easiest thing to do. But still, I have to give them credit for trying.
John Kurlander Creates The First Ever Hidden Track
This past week I've been having a lot of conversations with John Kurlander, three-time Grammy-winning audio engineer (for his work on The Lord Of The Rings trilogy), former head classical engineer at EMI, and soon-to-be recording engineer on Calling All Dawns. :)
Since I'll be recording the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Abbey Road in a month and a half, John was the ideal choice to do the recording. Not only was he head engineer at Abbey Road for a good part of his 40 year career, but he's also recorded the Royal Phil many, many times--in fact, one project that he helped produce, an embarassing 70s classical-meets-disco album called 'Hooked On Classics,' brought the RPO back from impending financial crisis by selling 11 million copies. That's right. 11 MILLION COPIES.
He's got some great stories, since he's worked with everyone imaginable...but his best story comes from the very beginning of his career, when he was second engineer on none other than the original Beatles album 'Abbey Road.' Beatlemaniacs out there already know that the last track on 'Abbey Road,' a little :30 second number called 'Her Majesty,' is the first ever example of a hidden track. Indeed, it comes 14 seconds after the end of the side two medley that starts with 'You Never Give Me Your Money' and ends with 'The End'.
Well, originally 'Her Majesty' was wedged right in the middle of the medley; between 'Mean Mr. Mustard' and 'Polythene Pam.' But one night Paul comes in and listens to a rough mix of the whole medley, and decides that he doesn't like 'Her Majesty.' He tells John to toss it out--but according to EMI policy, John is instructed to save everything....so instead of tossing it, he snips it out, and tapes 14 seconds of blank leader after the end of the medley, and sticks it on the end with a note saying that it's a rejected track, and to ignore it.
However, someone didn't get the memo, and the whole medley--blank leader with rejected song and all--got sent over to EMI. Everyone over there got so used to hearing this little :30 second tag at the end of the medley, that they just decided to keep it there--14 seconds of silence and everything. When the album got printed, the initial pressing neglected to include 'Her Majesty' on the back--and so, the first ever hidden track was born.
And if you listen closely to track, you'll notice that it starts and ends rather oddly....that's because the crude edit done by John (those days you literally spliced the tape with a razor) included the last chord of 'Mean Mr. Mustard' at the very beginning of the song, and the last chord was removed, as it fell underneath the first chord of 'Polythene Pam.'
You know you've made it when the crazy novelty covers of your music start popping up!
Check out this version of Baba Yetu, created by a podcaster named Matt LaGoy , who comes with the tagline "Progressive Banjo For The Postmodern World."
I absolutely LOVE it. It's so wacky, and zany, and madcap....yet works so well. Every eight bars he launches into a new groove; ska, funk, samba...he's all over the place. I totally approve.
And on the topic of funny music, I'm reminded of a conversation I had in London with my old Royal College of Music buddies over dinner about a nice, pleasant Finnish band named Lordi that took home top honors at the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest.
For most Americans, we've never heard of the Eurovision Song Contest: basically it's an annual event where each nation in Europe nominates a song to represent their country, and all the performers of these songs duke it out on an internationally televised show. Every nation gets to cast their vote. The winner gets....well, I don't know. But judging by YouTube comments I've seen, the winning country at least gets bragging rights.
Usually the bands that get trotted out are the formulaic, bubble-gum teen-pop-idol variety. And many people I've spoken with often ridicule the show because of this fact. But in 2006, the Finns decided to buck the trend by putting forth a band called Lordi to do a song called 'Hard Rock Hallelujah'.
MONSTER ROCK! They won with MONSTER ROCK! I.....can't....stop.....laughing.....
They managed to squeeze in both "arockalypse" and "Day Of Rockening". GENIUS.
Last night my friend Jessica and I went to the Avalon for a benefit concert for the International Myeloma Foundation--in performance were Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer, better known as Spinal Tap, and sometimes known as their alter-egos from A Mighty Wind, The Folksmen.
Does For Rock And Roll What The Sound Of Music Did For Hills.
It was, in short, a brilliant night. They opened with 'Hell Hole,' and then spent the next few hours alternating between Folksmen classics like 'Old Joe's Place' and their bluegrass cover of the Stones' 'Start Me Up,' and Tap classics like 'Cups And Cakes.' And yes, they played 'Stonehenge.'
No one knows who they were....or, what they were doing.
Now I for one think their songs are just brilliantly, brilliantly funny. They're chock full of hilarious, sometimes crude lyrics ("Big bottom, big bottom/talk about mudflaps my girl's got 'em") and great send-ups of classic heavy metal clichés. 'Stonehenge' is one big paean to pretentious epic rock numbers like Led Zeppelin's 'Battle Of Evermore'--complete with mandolin solo and everything.
"This pretentious ponderous collection of religious rock psalms is enough to prompt the question, 'What day did the Lord create Spinal Tap, and couldn't he have rested on that day too?"
I'm reminded of my old Royal College of Music professor, Miguel Mera, who used to ask as, "What makes funny music funny?" Spinal Tap is a great example of the answer to that question: music is funny when it takes itself seriously. What musicians find especially funny about these songs is the attention to detail that these three talented musicians have put into the musical arrangements. For example, I love the section at 2:53 when they start climbing on those diminished 7th chords--reminds me of some old Metallica song that I listened to back in junior high ('Call of Cthulu?' 'Master Of Puppets?' Can someone help me here?) Or those little arpeggios in the CS-80-esque synth....they remind me of the synth part in Styx's 'Come Sail Away'.
It's such a fine line between stupid, and clever.
Music that TRIES to be funny, often isn't. For example, turn on Nickolodeon, and listen to the background music of some of their afternoon kids TV shows. It's packed of xylophone glisses, trombone slides, and other orchestral lunacy. And is it funny? To kids, for sure. But let's not forget that kids also find making farting noise with your armpit a comedy goldmine.
I think he's right. There's something about this that is so black. It's like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is none. None more black.
