It Is What It Is

     Where my music is concerned I suppose I have reached a point in life where doing what is honest and true to myself trumps the opinions of the "experts". While it is absolutely true that I enjoy and, dare I say, sometimes crave approval of my music by others I realize now that if I don't do what is genuinely me, then I don't approve of it nor do I enjoy it. That isn't to say I'm incapable of listening to and taking constructive criticism. The key word there is "constructive". More times than I care to remember I have had producers/A&R executives/publishers and such dismiss something that I know is good. Left-handed compliments abound with those guys. It took a close friend of mine to point out what should have been obvious to me. Almost all of those people were nothing more than frustrated artists and songwriters who had actually been given every opportunity to succeed, but had failed and now when they hear something truly good they are unable to recognize it due to their own bruised egos and mediocrity.


     I have no doubt that someone reading this is going to think "This guy is full of himself." Well, that's just not true. Nobody is as hard on me as I am. If you ask my closest friends, then they will tell you that I have long suffered from self-doubt. It is what has kept me from being on stage for many years. In my heart I know that I sound good, but my head has a hard time getting the message. Oh, and believe it or not, I am terribly bashful. It's one thing to write this and post it (it does take courage for me to do so) and a totally different thing to look people in the eye, ask them to give you money for simply being you, and not turn red and simply dissolve out of sheer horror.

     When I recently released my CD, "Sojourn of Love", I was (still am) very proud of the results. Mostly I have heard very good reviews of it by people who have listened to it. However, it's those "experts" that I was talking about that get me. No less than three ex-musicians/songwriters who are now in some capacity in the music business have told me "It sounds great, very 60's sounding, but it just won't sell today. Try doing something new." Well, to that I have a couple of things to say. First, how do you know it won't sell if you don't try to sell it? Secondly, given the music of the 60's is in general more inspired, more alive, and more talented than 99% of what is new today, I'll take that as a compliment even though it wasn't meant as such. When someone says to me "Your CD sounds Beatle-ish or if your CD had come out in 60's we'd still be listening to it on classic rock stations today", then that's high praise to me. The most amazing thing is that I believe I am offering new fresh music that happens to sound like it might have come out back then while the market for classic rock/singer-songwriter music of that era is huge with the top selling touring acts and catalog sales yet no "record company" is interested.

     Well, I read something yesterday that brought it more into focus for me. It was a quote from Jon Bon Jovi. Keep in mind that he came along in the 80's and while I do think he is very talented I'm not a huge fan of his music. It's just not my bag. Yet, he nailed it when he said that "Steve Jobs destroyed the music business." Downloading music is very convenient. Apple has made it very easy to do so. But it takes away so much of the fun we had when we used to buy an album. A perfect example is when "Band On The Run" by Paul McCartney came out. I got that album for Christmas in 1973. I couldn’t wait to get home with it. It was a fantastic experience to do the following. Slice open the shrink wrap and lovingly take the album out of the jacket and place it on the stereo turntable. As the opening of side one begins I discovered inside a huge wall poster folded up. I took it out and the smells of the printing, the texture, and the visual effects of the candid photos of the group while recording the album filled my senses. I laid back on my bed and let the music lift me up. It made me feel like everything was right in the world. Most of all it inspired me to want to write and perform music like that. Young people today don't know what they are missing. You download an album. There's nothing tangible. Nothing to look at. Nothing to feel with your hands, Nothing to smell. (The Raspberries first album had a scratch and sniff patch on it that made it smell like raspberries - now THAT's good marketing!) You get your little ear buds and listen to the album and mainly the kids like the beat or how nasty the lyrics are. Sad, very sad.

     The great thing is I can still experience those feelings from years ago every time I listen to "Band On The Run". The sensual delights are still there in my memory and all it takes is the music to bring them back. BTW - Profs to Paul McCartney for his recent remastered CD release of the album. He included (although a tad smaller) the original poster and artwork inside the packaging. Very cool.
Well, I suppose I went off on a tangent there, but that's the way it is. I'll close by saying that I have come to a decision where my music is concerned. I will only record and write music that is true to me. If it doesn't make me a dime, then that's ok because that's not why I do it anyway. Oh, I would love to have some retirement income from it, but if not, so be it. I won't do something I don't want to do. To all those "experts" - if you don't like it or can't handle it, then go sell your mediocre digital drivel to the poor kids who don't know any better than to buy it. For all you good people who truly like my music and want to hear more, then please know that I will continue to make it available as long as the money holds out and I'm able! To you good people, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your encouragement and kind remarks.

Take care,

Randy

P.S. If you're interested in previewing my CD, including videos of 6 of the songs from the CD, then go to http://www.jamesrstout.com/. If you would like to purchase the CD or download it, then just navigate to the "buy CD" tab on my website and there are links for iTunes, Amazon, and CDBaby.

A Hallmark World

      Sometimes I will write a poem or lyric and it will interest me for about 10 seconds and I will then just save it to the hard drive and forget about it. Oh, I might think to myself that I'll come back and revisit it when I get more time except I don't ever seem to have more time and the poor thing just sits in cyber purgatory for what could be forever. Other times I will plan on coming back and composing music for the poem and I will have every intention of doing so, but again the poem lies forgotten.
    
     Well, I found myself with a little time today and with the laptop staring at me. My intention was to go through and delete all unnecessary files and clean-up the hard drive. While doing this I came upon a poem that I wrote about sometime ago. I remember writing it, but I had forgotten what I had specifically written. So, I found myself reading the poem and in turn I found that I very much liked what I had written. I've copied it here to share with you and I hope that you will like it too. BTW - I do plan on composing music for this one.


Take care friends . . .
　
　

A Hallmark World

By

James R. Stout

I dreamed of a place where there was no hate.
A place where there was no sad or lonely fate.
A place filled with laughter and joy and love.
A place where a cat leaves unmolested the cooing dove.
I dreamed I could live in a Hallmark world.
　

I long for clear air and a pure water stream.
And everyone is a star on the hometown team.
And every child goes to sleep to their mother's song.
And every child's father loves them and does them no wrong.
I long to live in a Hallmark world.
　

I hope for a season of peace in each person's life,
where joy outweighs any sadness or strife.
I long to see real the dreams that I speak.
A place where the strong protect the weak.
I hope to live in a Hallmark world.
　

I want to be happy with simple pleasures and joys,
in a place where even the clumsy have poise.
I want to be loved and to love in return.
And to never again feel my heart burn.
I want to live in a Hallmark world.

Downloading Not Allowed

     I have no doubt you have all heard or seen advertisements for on-line data back-up for your computer. I’m sure many of you have your important photos, documents, MP3’s, and the like backed-up on external hard-drives or to DVD/CD discs. It only makes sense. Furthermore, I would be surprised if most of you haven’t had the occasion to lose valuable memories or data when a hard-drive crashed or a computer was stolen etc. If so, I have no doubt you were quite upset. I know that when it happened to me several years ago that I was. So, if we are wise we take time to back-up those files. They’re just too important to us.


     Before computers were a part of everybody’s lives we kept photos in albums or in other things (like shoe boxes!) and there were many other items such as letters, records (as in vinyl), cassettes, that we treasured and kept in our homes. Did you ever see or know someone who had the misfortune to lose their home to a fire? Most people who have had that heartbreak would tell you a variation of the same thing. They’ll tell you about how they feel blessed no one was hurt and they can buy another living room set or TV, but the photos and keepsakes are all gone and the loss of them is devastating.

     I lost my grand-father when I was 11. We were very close. But, I was just a kid and I didn’t think about losing someone until it happened. Even then I was sad and knew that I would miss him, but I didn’t have a clue how much. He was my mother’s father. Through the years I have heard my say, “I wish I would have asked Daddy about that.” We are all guilty of taking each other for granted. Our lives are busy and full and the old saying of “You don’t know what you’ve lost ‘til it’s gone” comes to mind. The same goes for our loved ones and our friends. Is there anyone out there that if given the chance to ask a question of a loved one that has passed away wouldn’t jump at the chance? But we can’t do that. It’s not like while we’re alive we can plug-in to a hard-drive and download our memories, wisdom, experiences, thoughts, emotions, and feelings so that our loved ones can have a way to ask those questions when we’re gone. No, downloading is not allowed.

     Or is it? What about spending time with them asking them about these things? Better yet, turn on a tape recorder/digital recorder or video camera and ask them just about anything you can think of. Behind our old farmhouse is a large gully. At points it is deep enough for 3 grown men to stand on each other’s shoulders and not see over the rim. It’s 20 to 30 feet wide in places. I remember that gully not being that big when I was kid, but it was still there. Well, this got me to thinking about it and I asked my mother how big was it when she was a kid. That’s when I learned how the gully came into being. There’s a road that goes over that gully and winds down past my great-grandparents homestead and then eventually dead-ends into my place about a mile further along. Back in about 1921 there were some neighbor kids who had to walk down that road to get to the one room schoolhouse near our farmhouse. When it rained hard water would stand in a low spot over that road making it hard for them to get by. So, my grand-father got his mule and plowed a furrow in his pasture allowing the water to escape into the furrow instead of standing in the road. Until then there was no gully at all! But by making that furrow with his plow it started something that is what it is 90 years later. If I had not thought to ask my mother about it, this seemingly unimportant bit of knowledge would likely have been lost once she and her brothers and sisters pass on. I think you get my point.
 
     More importantly, there are “mysteries” that we just didn’t think to ask about when we had the chance. Next to my grand-parents graves is a small grave with a small marker that simply says, “Infant Girl” and it shows that she was stillborn in 1924. She would have been an aunt of mine. NOBODY knows anything about the circumstances of that tragedy in my grand-parent’s lives. Why? Because nobody asked. I’m guessing she was stillborn, but for all I know she was born alive and died the same day. We just don’t know. What a sad thing for my grand-parents. What a burden my grandmother must have carried until she died at 86.

     So, what I’m saying is take time to “download” as much as you can from your loved ones while you can. Love them and share their lives. Share their memories and wisdom. Then pass it on along with your memories, experiences, and wisdom before someone says of these things “downloading not allowed”.

Fads, Phases, and The Pied Pipers

     Sitting here alone in my nice comfortable easy chair with no TV, no radio, no sounds other than the incidental sounds of the kitchen clock, a small hum from the refrigerator, and an occasional squeak from the rocking of my chair I started to ponder music. Nothing new about that for me, but one thought lead to another and I started to think about opera. I readily admit that I have not much cared for opera since, well, since I can remember. Frankly, it's boring to me. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that most operas are in languages that I don't understand or speak. But, that is not the only reason. Truth be told there is hardly anything more distasteful, musically speaking, than to hear opera in English.

     Well, all this thinking lead me to wonder why opera has endured and still thrives in certain circles. I came up with the answer quite by accident. Doo-Wop. Yep, that's the answer. I'll try to explain my thinking on this. First, Doo-Wop is in a crude way nothing more than opera only it is far more fun to listen to and by and large you can understand what is being said even if the words are made-up words that sound rather silly. Case in point = "Dip dip dip dip dip doom doom doom doom Get a Job!"
Or perhaps the more well known "Sha-na-na-na sha-na-na-na-na-na bah oom". Doo-Wop songs also by and large tell a story just like opera does. True, it was mostly boy meets girl - loses girl - gets girl back kind of thing, but hey it is Doo-Wop. Who hasn't been there and done that?

     Secondly, opera was originally experienced by the contemporary audiences first and then as a new generation discovered it that generation took it as their own. The same can be said for Doo-Wop. New generations are still loving "Grease" and such today. Doo-Wop just hasn't been around as long as opera yet.

     Finally, my hypothesis is that opera was nothing more than a very popular fad or musical phase that is now basically an "oldie but goodie" to those who love it. Most of us don't go to the opera or buy opera Cd's etc. Well, most of us don't buy Doo-Wop (I don't because I believe I already own ALL of them anyway!), but some of us do and some of us listen to the music a lot. Or, if Doo-Wop isn't your thing, then maybe it's 60's Flower Power music, or Disco from the 70's, or Rap (yuck) or even the current "thing" which is a sort of really screwed-up hybrid of Pop/Hip-Hop/Rap. The point is that for me I have finally uncovered the mystery behind why opera still endures. I freely admit that I don't get it and that I don't want to get it, but it has fascinated me that some people still like it. The reason is it's their Doo-Wop or what have you.
    
     Well, as messed-up as that all may seem to you, that's the way I see it and in the end that's pretty much all that matters as I sit here now with Hope, my 12 year-old cat, begging for attention and trying hard to stop me from writing this. Oh, and for what it's worth, Hope likes Jazz. Yea, she's one cool cat.

Later