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| Lazy Bones |
Johnny Cash.
Magic and Loss: The Year In Music 2003
by Arya Imig
This year end report is dedicated to all those who make it possible.
In a time before human life, there was the sound of the universe forming: An ascendant hum transcending into the big bang. It’s safe to say that music, or something quite like it, has been with us since then. Fast forward to before instruments, and early human practiced the first methods of percussion---rock on rock. Perhaps most importantly, it was early on that we probably began utilizing the single most powerful instrument we possess: the human voice.
In the last hundred years, there have been many a precious voice captured by modern technology. From the fragility of Chet Baker’s croon to the grit of Tom Waits’ growl, the voice of the earth itself Mahalia Jackson to the airy casualness of Skye Edwards, there have been voices to match every mood, moment, and meaning one could hope for.
2003 saw the passing from this world of what seemed like an inordinate amount of great voices in music. Among the many losses we suffered: a voice as deep and as wide as the human experience, that of The Man In Black, Johnny Cash; One of the most powerful interpretive singers, and underapreciated protest song writers, the High Priestess Of Soul, Nina Simone; The Dark Prince of Los Angeles, Warren Zevon, and, if anyone could truly lay claim to him, Portland’s own Elliott Smith.
In a neon super age ever more marked by a distinct and searing lack of sincerity, and authenticity, Smith, Zevon, Simone, and Cash were part of, to put it poorly, a dying breed. They were artists who created for the sake of the art in which they worked. It was the music, not the money, that mattered. For them, it was the message, and not the image. This year also saw the continued mourning for other deserving idols who’d passed in recent years with the posthumous release of Joe Strummer’s last album Streetcore, and the release of an album and DVD of The Concert For George, a celebration of the life of George Harrison held at the Royal Albert Hall in London last year. Our only condolence at their loss lies in the comfort their music will continue to bring us.
This year also saw the loss of the bass player and one third of the harmonic wonder of The Bee Gees, Maurice Gibb, and lest she be forgotten, the wife of Johnny Cash for 35 years, a wonderful artist in her own right, and the long time gate keeper to the legendary legacy of the Carter family, June Carter Cash. Legendary producer and Sun Records founder Sam Phillips died. Sun Records was the original home to Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis. Wesley Willis, Sheb Wooley, Robert Palmer, The Exploding Hearts, Noel Redding, and innumerable others perished as well. They did die not in vain. Somebody somewhere mourned them. Somebody played their records all day long when they heard the news. Somebody out there remembered losing their virginity to Robert Palmer’s “Addicted To Love”, or taking drugs for the first time to the music of The Jimi Hendrix Experience records which Noel Redding contributed to, or crying over unrequited love with The Bee Gee’s “To Love Somebody” on.
In other words, over our lifetime, music is our constant companion, our solace, and our savior. Whether one has a degree in it, or simply a shower radio, music helps us to make sense of things we can not understand, or at the very least shut it out. This has always been true. Despite the loss it was also a year of magic for music fans, and we were not let down.
When coalescing a list of music one deems to be the “best”, one must be either careful or loose in their definition of the word. I err on the side of caution. The albums contained here in may not have been the best albums of the year by most people’s measure. In the end, despite greater hopes, it is a person’s individual connection to the music they listen to which matters most. The jazz composer Duke Ellington once quipped “If it sounds good, it is good.” Here, then, in the order in which it was released, is what sounded good to me.
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| mac_daddy |
great article LB!
thanks. |
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CHAT
ROOM aka THE FUN HOUSE] [
RESTROOMS]
