Disney Lets The Beatles Slip From Their Grasp

It’s been officially announced that Disney is NOT going to be producing the Robert Zemeckis  remake of The Beatles’ classic 1968 animated film Yellow Submarine. Reportedly his style of motion capture animation is a bit too ‘creepy’ for Disney. Too creepy for the Blue Meanies? I do agree that motion capture animation when combined with very lifelike CGI design tends to be a bit creepy. It’s too realistic to be cartoony fun yet strangely unlife-like to be a true replacement for real human characters. When used in an otherwise live action film CGI characters fit in rather nice and for the most part are suppose to be creepy like Gollum in Lord Of The Rings or the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park but we haven't really seen any motion capture CGI characters meant to represent real people such as The Beatles. Seeing a cartoon John, Paul, George and Ringo is one thing, and a lot of fun, but a version of the Fab Four designed like Scrooge was in the Jim Carrey /  Robert Zemeckis version of A Christmas Carol just might seem too creepy for Beatles fans.

I was really looking forward to the Yellow Submarine remake not only because the original was such a large influence on me as an animator and rock fan but also because I recognized it as Disney’s chance to add The Beatles to their catalog of great characters and stories (and music). A lot of people might find that possibility repugnant but I see it as just one more avenue for The Beatles to achieve the immortality I feel they so justly deserve (and have already achieved anyway).

Imagine a Disney’s Beatles’ Yellow Submarine ride at Disneyland. They already have a ride using yellow submarines so it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to change from the current Finding Nemo style to a Beatles’ Yellow Submarine theme. But why stop there? How about a whole Beatles’ themed land within Disneyland? Redo the Indiana Jones ride (another non Disney entity absorbed into Disney) into the temple of the Great Khaili from the movie Help! where Ringo was to be sacrificed. Or turn the skyline of London in the Peter Pan ride into Swinging London for an A Hard Day’s Night ride. Or keep the Alice In Wonderland ride just as it is but replace the songs with Beatles tunes.
No matter how you look at it I think Disney really screwed the pooch on this one.

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The Kinks And Video Multimedia

Someone commented in a review that our Rock & Roll Rehab Show at the Hayworth Theater reminded him of the Kinks’ shows of the 1970s. My friends and I went to the Kinks shows at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium back in the mid-Seventies and they were great. This was during the age of the concept album and Ray Davies, who was always rather English Musical Theater oriented anyway, wrote some nice little rock operettas.

My favorite Kinks’ concept album is School Boys In Disgrace. They never say just what exactly caused the school boy’s disgrace although a school girl seemed to be involved. At the show which utilized large screen video projection, we see that the school boy falls in love, knocks up the school girl, falls out of love instantly and then blames her for his being in ‘disgrace’. I enjoyed the show but my girlfriend at the time held it against me for liking it. It apparently wasn’t exactly feminist.

The Kinks’ previous concept albums were Arthur (Or Decline and Fall Of The British Empire) and The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society. They made a real loose concept album in the late Seventies about social misfits called Misfits after another great album called Sleepwalker which was a return to the normal collection of songs.

The Seventies are not really known as a time of really great rock music but it was a time of real great rock concerts. Pink Floyd, Yes, Emerson, Lake and Palmer and Genesis had huge live Prog Rock stage shows and the Rolling Stones’ shows were legendary. It should be of no surprise that some of the biggest selling albums of the decade were recordings of live concerts such as Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band’s Live Bullet, Peter Frampton’s Frampton Comes Alive! and Cheap Trick’s Live At Budokan.

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The Fifth of Several Blogs on Having a Successful Band – Lead Vocals

 The greatest challenge to a lead vocalist is endurance. Every show has to be over-the-top and it’s a burn-out. Many many vocalists have blown out their voices. You can come back, but it takes time, a lot of time. You can expect to be off the road for 6  months to a year and even then, you may never sound the same again.  Ask Elton John, if you meet him. Yes, you’re iron-throated and it will never happen to you. Meanwhile while you’re having throat surgery because all you can do is croak softly, you’ll figure that maybe your rock career is over.

The answer is learning how to be powerful without breaking anything. The best book that I’ve seen on this subject is Seth Riggs' Singing with the Stars. His list of serious vocalists, rock and otherwise is huge. A lot of people don’t want to go to a vocal coach because they’re afraid that they’ll get opera stuff rammed down their throats (no pun). I personally have gone through a couple of coaches and some of them suck as teachers and they’re arrogant and greedy. You have to shop around and try a few different ones. I generally rule out anyone who works out of their basement or their back room.

The tendency for most new vocalists is to tighten up their throat to get more control. It’s hard to learn the difference between a tightening that fights the vibration of the vocal cords and the feel of the vocal muscles that happens when you’re just changing pitch or adding vibrato or holding the pitch steady to the end of the phrase. The correct feeling is like you’re pushing outward on your throat, as if you were expanding your neck. It should be done gently until becomes a habit. The next part feels counter-intuitive. It’s not anatomically correct, but this is how it feels: When you go for a higher note, it feels like you’re pressing  your throat downward. The opposite is for low notes. Eventually it makes your range sound even and you can cross the break into falsetto cleanly. It takes practice. Sing along to an album that’s right in the comfortable middle of your range. Initially you can still get power, but not much more than before. Once I got good at this, my power increased and my endurance probably tripled or more.

On another subject, I am amazed at how many singers have never sat with an electronic tuner as they sang. Of course, you are always in tune because you’re a genius, so you think, until you get fired or stop getting calls for gigs. No one will tell you when you suck because you may be the source of their next gig. People will tell you when you sing dead-nuts on. If you’re not getting compliments, take some time with a tuner before you’re out of work. Forget auto-tune. If you need that, you’ll sound like who you really are when you sing at the Grammys. I won’t mention any names here. I’m not talking perfect pitch. This the ability to match or anticipate accurately, any pitch in the key that you’re given. Lots of singers get burned on this and never understand why.

Let’s look at microphones. Working with a cardioid microphone takes some practice. Male vocals become fuller as you get closer to the mic. Use it as an instrument. For the intimate parts of the song, you work close. When it comes to the Robert Plant scream, you pull away and wail. And while newer mics are not as likely to overload as most older mics, “work the mic” and learn when you are at the edge of its abilities and when you have some leeway left. Make sure that you always have somewhere left to go. If you don’t control your sound, your sound mixer will. Trust me.

Randall Peede

President

Directors Clip, Inc.
FRIDAY FUNNIES
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The Fourth of Several Blogs on Having a Successful Band – Keyboards

In many ways, the keyboard player or rhythm guitarist is the adult of the group. I have discussed the necessity for the accurate alignment of the leading edge of the waveform between the bass and kick-drum. Now we must add the keyboard. To do this requires a lot of listening and the listening process between an electronic keyboard and an actual piano, like a Steinway Grand is radically different. It helps to have a good feedback stage monitoring system. Otherwise place the keyboardist as close the bass amp as possible without losing any hearing. Officially the keyboard is a percussion instrument, so following the bass player’s tempo is critical. The best rhythm sections sound like a well-oiled machine that listens. They cook.

But the keyboard must also create and maintain the harmonic structure of the band. The bass player creates a foundation, but the keyboard makes the bass note make sense. The chord progression is defined to the audience by the keyboard. The more difficult or unusual the chord progression becomes, the more it’s necessary to put the keyboard out in front mix-wise. The keyboardist should strive to provide clarity to the song. While the lead guitar is doing the splits with his axe behind his back, the keyboard player is playing notes that the guitarist should be soloing over and thereby making him or her sound good.

The good news is that, in rock ,the keyboardist sometimes has the option of hiding or being lazy. The keyboardist’s more intricate work can be buried under power chords and slamming beats. On the other hand, most larger professional acts are led by the keyboardist. He or she sees the whole picture and is in the best position to control what’s happening on stage tempo-wise and harmonically.

Therefore when choosing a keyboardist, it’s important to not get an introvert who adds very little to the band and tends to hide. You want a diplomat. A know-it-all can be twice as bad. There’s no use keeping a keyboardist who yells at the guitarist, “That’s a Cmin7, stupid” (even when he’s right). This is why the he or she must the adult of the group. Sometimes it’s good to give a keyboardist solos just to keep him humble. The guitar solo almost always wins unless the band is built on the keyboards. Seeing the whole picture, there is a tendency to stifle on-stage creativity. So the big picture person must also be sensitive what’s happening between the audience and the band and be prepared to respond to make it work. He or she must know when hold ‘em, when to fold ‘em and when to run.

In jazz, however, the pianist carries the whole weight of the band. The drummer can coast and few people can tell what the bassist is doing beyond keeping time. In top groups this not so, but even then, the tendency is there.

A keyboard is a fabulous composition instrument and you’ll be happy to know that whatever you write on a piano sounds better when played by a real band. Do everything necessary to make the band sound better at this exact moment. Be sure to move the audience. Don’t be afraid to experiment.

Randall Peede

President

Directors Clip, Inc.


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The Third of Several Blogs on Having a Successful Band – Drums

 In the previous blog, I discussed the importance of the kick drum matching the tempo set by the bass. This combination is the foundation of making the band cook. The drummer is not the timekeeper. The bass player is. The drummer sets up the emotional energy for the piece being played. The drummer accentuates the current section of the song by understanding the importance of different phrases and making them sound better by doing things that only the drummer can do. When passages get excited and the energy begins to flow, the band will frequently start to rush. This is when the bass player and drummer should make eye contact and lay down a particularly clear beat. If you’re in rehearsal, the errant players should be told of their tendencies and to watch out for them. Once you’re on stage you can either speed up to catch him or her or him make a fool of himself. It depends on the importance of the gig.

A drummer who understands the importance of lead-in’s and creative expressive is priceless. If they don’t, you may as well be playing with a rhythm track or drum machine. A drum machine can’t listen, express or create set-up’s and lead-in’s. The drummer is also an important backer who has more expressive freedom than anyone else in the band. He also has the ability to cover a myriad of errors by the band. A great drummer will make you wonder how you lived without him or her. The Beatles chose Ringo over Pete Best because Ringo made them sound better. John Bonham walked onto the Led Zeppelin stage and told them that he could blow their drummer off the stage, and then proceeded to do it. Having balls is one thing. Being a good listener and making the band sound better, is another. A big ego gets you in the door. A small ego keeps you in the room.

I want to discuss lead-in’s and set-up’s. The two best drummers that I’ve ever worked with were Ronnie Tutt and Chuck Brougham I’ve played with hundreds of drummers and percussionists and these two stand out as the best. I was with Ron while touring with Elvis. Listen to the Elvis at Madison Square Garden CD and you’ll hear how he impacts the band. If your watch the video of Elvis on Tour 1972 (same tour), you’ll see how he also amplifies the performance of Elvis. I don’t care if you’re doing heavy metal, zydeco, jazz or country, the concept is the same because the human brain is looking for the same things, despite the difference in audiences. They want the big build-up of tension and then a release. Think of it as sex. It’s the nature of music. The big band work of Chuck Brougham is particularly brilliant because of the way he sets up the band entrances. His simplicity, clarity and energy at these moments is untouched. Even the best players have a bit of fear of coming in at the wrong time. But when the drummer sets up the entrance clearly, the band hits together confidently and comes in harder.

What is a lead-in? For example, let’s assume, that we have a chart where the band comes in hard on the second beat. A really good drummer will hit clearly on the first beat, leading the band confidently to their entrance.

From another angle, it’s not uncommon for players and particularly soloists to get lost in a song, especially during longer solos. Here, the drummer can clearly define “one” and the beginnings or ends of eight, twelve or sixteen bar phrases and save the player’s butt, for which the player should be eternally grateful to the drummer.
 

Randall Peede

President

Directors Clip, Inc.

Directorsclip.com

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The Second of Several Blogs on Having a Successful Band - Bass

Bands are built from the bottom up. What I mean is that your bass player is more critical than you may know. It has been shown that if you take a band that is completely in tune and then slightly detune only the bass player, the effect is that the whole band sounds wrong. It is, in fact, very obvious to the audience. This not as true for other instruments. This effect is apparent in orchestra’s, big bands, jazz trios, pop and rock. It used to be that everyone had to tune to the piano, because it was hard to retune it or it came with the room. Now we have options. In the earlier days, basses like the Fender Precision Fretless Bass were popular because the fretted basses were not necessarily in tune with themselves and many rock and jazz players were classically trained, never had any frets and tuned by ear.

When testing a bass, I’ll use an electronic tuner and go up the frets one by one on every string. You would be surprised how many instruments are not built properly, especially inexpensive ones. There are some string adjustments, but you can’t fix misplaced frets. The less expensive the bass, the more you have to test the exact instrument that you plan to buy. If you already have a bass, go through it with an electronic tuner anyway. Even though one set of notes may be out of whack, you can sometimes use alternate positions to play the same note, but more in tune.

The next thing to consider is that the frets are all at the right height. Again you assume that they are all the same, but it’s not true. If you take an architectural level or some other serious straight-edged rule, you may see that some frets are lower or higher than others. This affects tuning only slightly, but plays havoc on your technique and speed. Try a different bass or talk to someone who is used to reshaping the fret metal without harming the neck.

Now that we’ve eliminated the instrument variable, let’s talk about the human variable.

Most people think that drums are the primary timekeeper. Wrong. If you have a bass player that can’t keep time, buy him or her a practice metronome. If they still can’t keep time, they don’t belong in your band. The drummer may have the big personality, but here, the bass player rules and the drummer must be a follower if the bass player is really good.

I’ve analyzed bands that have told me, “That’s our sound, man. We’re a train wreck.” Our tempos are all over the place” or “Our tempos follow the song”. “That’s our signature sound, man.” OK fine, but I can’t help you. In a strict, classical, artistic sense this is art and they’re right. Consider John Cage’s classical piece using 12 radios on a stage, all tuned to different stations. That’s an iconic piece. There are many examples of “art”. If you want to be a serious iconic artist, you also may starve for your art. By the way John Cage also knew how to do music the traditional ways. If you can only play “train wreck” style, you are limited as an artist and aren’t likely to hired by anyone, because you don’t make them sound better.

I was at the NAMM show (National Association of Music Merchants) about 15 years ago when I was stopped in the aisle listening to someone demonstrating an electronic snare that triggered a different bass note each time it was hit. It was a bit mechanical, but sometimes it sounded like a band with a rhythm section that really cooked. It showed clearly what happens when a drummer and bass player played perfectly in time. I was able to watch the waveforms on an oscilloscope and see that the leading edges of the waveforms were perfectly aligned. That was the sound of Duke Ellington, many small jazz groups, most hard driving rock and country bands. Those rhythm sections cooked. Now I had a better understanding.

In real life, on stage, the bass player usually syncs with the timing on the kick drum because, especially in the lower registers of the bass, there is a need to have the overtone structure (the higher sounding structure of the strings) match with the leading edge of the kick drum. If you were to play only the lowest bass notes and set up the bass sound with no treble so that the strings had no initial pop or treble to them, the delay in the wave propagation to the audience would make the bass player sound like he’s behind the beat. The entire wave can be 16 to 32 feet long and without some treble, the human brain has trouble finding the leading edge of the sound. Playing in the mid-registers is usually not as big an issue in this example and the fundamental of the note being played is closer to the note from the kick drum. So the bass player must be dead-nuts on tempo-wise and it’s up to the drummer to align the waveforms of his instrument to the bass notes by being a careful listener and making tiny adjustments that become second nature after a while. That’s one reason why the best players get the big bucks. They listen constantly. They make you sound so much better and say “Wow! What happened? This sounds like a different (but better) band.”


Randall Peede

President

Directors Clip, Inc.

Directorsclip.com

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Having a Successful Band

As a young band it doesn’t matter who owns and runs the band. “We’re all friends, right”? But as your talents and skills grow, not everyone will grow at the same rate and some will drop out. If you are the primary creative influence in the band, you may want to set down some ground rules. Bands that consider themselves to be a democracy (where everyone has an equal vote), will find that they are controlled by the most negative member of the band. You cannot allow this to happen. You have to make it clear from the beginning that this is “your” band. This doesn’t mean that you will ignore constructive criticism. Because you have the power, you can afford to listen carefully, but your decision stands. In the same way, never bring in a member that you can’t fire. This includes relatives, girlfriends, best friends and the guy who owns the PA. This is all before you’ve made any money.
There is no shame in being a cover band or playing weddings, bar mitzvahs and birthday parties. Everyone starts this way. The more styles that you can master, the more can make fun of them when you want to do it. Frank Zappa made a career out this type of thinking. When it comes to money, take a cue from Bon Jovi. He owns the band financially, even though some members have been with him for 30 years. A number stars from Bill Cosby to Oprah Winfrey agree…always sign your own checks. Know where your money is going. You can have a personal money manager, but when it comes to band finances, your signature keeps everyone honest. If you just want to drink, smoke, attract sex partners and generally screw off, you’ll be doing the same thing at the age of 60, and playing the same gigs. If you want a career,  it’s a business and don’t forget it. It’s a tough business that eats fools.
Let me give you a final example. A friend of mine who was the primary composer and performer for his band went to a major recording studio (A&M) in LA to create their first album. They were all friends, but the drummer couldn’t sync with the bass player. The bass player couldn’t keep consistent time and neither could stay in tune for the vocals. $50,000 later, they had crap. In this case, the writing was really good, the guitar solos were inspired, the keyboard work was creative and the lead vocals were solid, but Mr. Loyalty failed because he didn’t have the nerve to fire his incompetent friends. If he had hired professionals to back him, most people close to the artist agreed that he would have been on his way to a serious career. Out of money, and unwilling to change players he went home. Hard lessons, not to be ignored.
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Randall Peede
President
Directors Clip, Inc.
Directorsclip.com

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