USHER ~ I DID IT
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Adele - Set Fire To The Rain
Hit évident dès la première écoute, Set Fire To The Rain rejoint Rolling In The Deep en ce sens qu'il allie la volupté, la matûrité et la force de la voix d'Adele, autour de couplets rythmés (syncopés même) et d'un refrain puissant. On a comme l'impression d'être soulevé par ce titre, d'être pris dans une tornade, soufflé par une déflagration (d'où le titre "Enflammer La Pluie").
Une merveille co-écrite par Adele et Fraser T. Smith, déjà à l'origine de Broken Strings de James Morrison et Nelly Furtado.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Thursday, April 28, 2011
The Downtown Fiction - I Just Wanna Run
Après un joli buzz sur MySpace courant 2008 et 3 EP's, le trio The Downtown Fiction - qui tire son nom de "Pulp Fiction" - vient de sortir mardi son premier album "Let's Be Animals".
Un premier opus porté par un single efficace : I Just Wanna Run. Du bon teen rock signé chez Photo Finish Records, au catalogue duquel on retrouve les 3Oh!3.
'American Idol' tour returning to Charlotte
"American Idol Live!" will return to Time Warner Cable Arena on Thursday, July 28, when this season's top 11 finalists will perform a variety of medleys and solos that have been featured on the Fox show.Those singers are: the six current finalists -- Casey Abrams, Haley Reinhart, Jacob Lusk, James Durbin, Lauren Alaina and Scotty McCreery -- along with recently eliminated contestants Naima Adedapo, Paul McDonald, Pia Toscano, Stefano Langone and Thia Megia.
Tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, May 13, at www.ticketmaster.com.
The "American Idol" season finale will air on Thursday, May 26.
Coca-Cola 600 calls on the Cable Guy
Larry the Cable Guy will serve as the honorary pace-car driver for the 52nd running of the Coca-Cola 600 on May 29 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.In addition to leading the field of 43 NASCAR stars in the Coca-Cola 600, Larry the Cable Guy will take part in other activities during race weekend, including attending the pre-race drivers' meeting.
The blue-collar comedian voices Mater in the upcoming Disney-Pixar summer comedy "Cars 2"; during race weekend, the speedway will celebrate the film (scheduled for release on June 24) with a special display for fans featuring full-size replicas of movie stars Lightning McQueen and Mater. Lightning McQueen and Mater will also participate in the pre-race parade laps.
"I am excited to 'git r done' in the pace car at Charlotte Motor Speedway and lead the field to the start of NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600," said Larry the Cable Guy in a prepared statement. "It will be an honor to be a part of the most patriotic pre-race show in America."
Maroon 5, Train coming to Charlotte
Rock bands Maroon 5 and Train have teamed up to co-headline a summer tour that will stop at Charlotte's Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre on Tuesday, Aug. 2, according to a press release issued this week by the band's publicists.Gavin DeGraw will open the show.
Live Nation, which runs the amphitheatre, has not officially announced the concert, so no on-sale date has been set yet for tickets.
Maroon 5's biggest recent hit was 2010's "Misery," while Train landed in the Top 40 twice last year (with "If It's Love" and "Marry Me"). Both groups have won multiple Grammys.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Justin Bieber Determined to Show Up in Sydney Concerts Despite Back Pains
Justin Bieber is determined not to disappoint his fans in Australia as he insisted to go on stage despite back pains that have been killing him since he touched down in Brisbane.
The 17-year old teen sensation has a show in Sydney Wednesday evening for his sold-out concert Thursday evening at Acer Arena.
The teen singer had reportedly sought for medical treatment as soon as he got off the plane Wednesday afternoon for his sore back in preparations for Thursday show.
"He's all about his fans and was saying he didn't care what anyone was telling him to do," a source was quoted as saying by The Daily Telegraph.
A spokeswoman for Frontier Touring according to The Daily Telegraph, said that are waiting for Bieber’s management team to give them the word if the teen sensation will show up in his Sydney concert for two consecutive days.
But chances are Bieber would again defy his doctor’s advice.
He was first told not to go on stage for his Brisbane show but went to perform for his fans anyway.The singer even received rave reviews both from 12,000 fans and his critics.
Justin touched down 90 minutes before the Brisbane show Tuesday night after some plane trouble during his trip from Indonesia before heading to Australia.
"Crazy 24 hours of travel ... back is messed up ... but we are smiling. We finally made it. AUSTRALIA we are here," Justin tweeted as soon as his plane landed in Brisbane.
Before the show started, the singer was reportedly examined by a doctor and a chiropractor - - and both advised him not to perform - - but the “Never Say Never” hitmaker pushed himself to the delight of his screaming fans.
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Ballets Come with a Little Cut and Thrust
The first, Checkmate, features the swords and comes from Dame Ninette de Valois. She was born in Ireland in 1898 – giving herself the French-sounding name while a teenager – and went on to found a London ballet school that was the precursor to the Royal Ballet School. Her Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet toured to Australia in 1956, sowing the seeds for what would become the Australian Ballet. She gifted Checkmate to the Australian Ballet in 1986. Her dramatic, expressionistic 1937 work danced upon a chessboard stars the duplicitous Black Queen who leaves a trail of death and destruction in her wake.
Concerto is from the Scottish-born Sir Kenneth MacMillan - he wrote to Dame Ninette at age 15 using his father’s name to score a place in her ballet school. His 1966 work, danced to Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No 2, is considered technically fiendish. “It’s an extraordinarily taxing ballet,” says McAllister. “He put in all these really, really hard steps. It’s a beautiful piece of music – quite glorious – but it’s tricky with these quite intricate rhythmic patterns.”
Christopher Wheeldon created After the Rain in 2005 for the New York City Ballet. Continuing the intergenerational thread among these choreographers, Sir Kenneth once gave Wheeldon inspirational advice: “You seem to have some talent for choreography; you should take every opportunity you have to practice it and make ballets.”
Wheeldon took Sir Kenneth’s advice to heart. Today, he’s still just 38 but is considered one of the world’s best choreographers. “His work looks contemporary but it’s so timeless,” says McAllister.
For those ballet aficionados wondering what might be in store for the company’s 50th anniversary next year, McAllister says: “Next year is the year – we’ve got a mixture of heritage, new and important works.” All will be unveiled in August.
INFO & BUY TICKETS
Mechanical Symphony to Scare off Opera House's 22,000 Unwanted Neighbors
Often found roosting together, hanging upside down by one foot from outstretched tree branches, the furry, gray-headed flying foxes are a popular attraction at Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden.
But soon the endangered species -- also known as fruit bats -- will no longer be able to call the Opera House’s 30-hectare back garden home.
Despite a last-ditch legal bid from animal welfare groups to allow the flying foxes to roost in peace, the Federal Court recently upheld the federal government’s approval for the Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust to begin evicting the bats.
In May, the flying foxes will be blasted with the recorded sounds of chainsaws and tractors for 10 minutes every hour. The goal: to disrupt the bats' sleep and force them to move away from their harbor-side nests to alternative daytime roosts.
The Trust argues the colony of some 22,000 flying foxes is destroying historic trees and plants. So far, it says, they have killed 30 palms and 28 mature trees –- including a rare, 153-year-old Kauri Pine -- and damaged 300 more.
If the flying foxes are not relocated, it warns, more heritage trees and palms would be threatened and the area may be closed down for health and safety reasons.
The court's approval comes with conditions: the operation must be supervised by an independent group of observers, and it can only be carried out until July to avoid interrupting the bats' mating season.
“The relocation is planned to be a win-win for the flying foxes and the Royal Botanic Garden,” says the Trust’s executive director, Dr. Brett Summerell.
Dr. Summerell insists the flying foxes will relocate to familiar areas away from homes –- including one existing camp at Ku-ring-gai Flying-fox Reserve. Residents and farmers will not be affected, he says.
“We will be conducting extensive monitoring of the flying foxes' movements and have procedures in place in an effort to prevent them from settling in unacceptable locations,” Dr. Summerell says. “We’re conducting the most extensive scientific research study ever on this threatened species, contributing to conservation work to protect them.”
Read more: Opera House's bats get moved along | CNNGo.com http://www.cnngo.com/sydney/visit/sydney-opera-houses-neighbours-22000-bats-be-evicted-962070#ixzz1KlzIZK90
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Justin Bieber v Bob Dylan: Has the Biebs got what it takes to take out the Master?
ONE is lionised as the songwriter of his generation while the other faces the challenge of keeping a generation of fans after they grow up.
Both the master Bob Dylan and the apprentice Justin Bieber will inspire fanatic devotion among their many admirers when they perform in Sydney this week.
Fresh from his acclaimed sets at the annual Bluesfest in Byron Bay, Dylan performs two concerts at the Sydney Entertainment Centre from tonight while Bieber will stage a two-night stand at Acer Arena from tomorrow.
While Dylan's Baby Boomer fans may express their adulation with vigorous cheering and applause, you can count on your ears ringing from the piercing screams that will greet Bieber's every move.
Bieber fever shocked Sydney a year ago when thousands of hysterical tweens and teens unexpectedly arrived at the Overseas Passenger Terminal for a television appearance and later caused mayhem at Sunrise's Martin Place studios where police cancelled a show for safety reasons.
Since then, armed with a debut record My World 2.0 Bieber has become as much a social media star as he has a chart-topper - his fans have downloaded more than 24 million singles and his YouTube videos have been viewed at least 1.5 billion times.
Like Lady Gaga, he is rewriting the pop rule book and knows a few daily Twitter or Facebook updates have more power to keep the fan fires burning than radio playing his breakthrough hit Baby three times a day.
"AUSTRALIA ... we are coming ... and there might be some surprises," he posted at the weekend with a link to his song Next 2 You featuring Chris Brown, also touring Australia.
Some fans have even coerced their parents into spruiking for hotel rooms to get closer to Bieber as well as for tickets which range from $95 to $285 for the Bieber Fever Ultimate VIP package.
Dylan fans also paid $95 for their Sydney Entertainment Centre cheap seats, with the front rows costing just $175 to see a living legend perform classics including Like A Rolling Stone, A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall and Tangled Up In Blue.
Of course their extras for the evening will include dinner and drinks. The Beliebers will buy T-shirts, iPod skins, dog tags, towels, bracelets, tracksuit pants and a teddy bear.
Baby face v Baby boomer
Justin Bieber
- AGE: 17
- ALBUMS: One studio album, two remix collections and one compilation
- CAREER: Signed to Island records in 2008 after discovered on YouTube
- SIGNIFICANT OTHER: Disney "It girl" Selena Gomez
- Named one of Time's 100 Most Influential People 2011
- MENTOR: Usher
- SOCIAL MEDIA: 9,141,770 Twitter followers; 25,986,403 people like him on Facebook
- AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES: Seven concerts
Bob Dylan
- AGE: 69
- ALBUMS: 34 studio albums plus live and compilation recordings
- CAREER: Signed to Columbia Records in 1961
- SIGNIFICANT OTHERS: Two ex-wives and six children
- Named one of Time's 100 Most Important People of the Century
- MENTOR: Woody Guthrie
- SOCIAL MEDIA: 42,275 Twitter followers; 2,376,779 people like him on Facebook
- AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES: Nine concerts
Mary Poppins Takes Off
When casting began in Australia, Hunt-Ballard was performing in Jersey Boys, playing Frankie Valli's lover.
``I loved being in the show and I'm a loyal employee,'' she says. Months later, however, after hearing the producers were still having trouble finding their leading lady, her agent suggested she audition.
The creative team was back in Europe, working on the Dutch production, so Hunt-Ballard auditioned for their assistants, who sent a video of her to producer Cameron Mackintosh in London.
``She's marvellous,'' says Mackintosh. ``When I went to Australia for the auditions, I didn't see anyone who was unique in their own right.
``I saw many talented people, but a lot of them had been doing pop musicals like Wicked, which is a different kind of singing and playing -- really `big' rather than the very precise way of acting and singing and the other-worldly quality Mary needs.
``I saw (Verity's audition tape) and thought: `This girl's got something.' So I said: `Let's fly her to Amsterdam' we were doing Mary Poppins there and when we saw her, we knew we'd found someone very, very special. Thank God!''
After a sell-out season in Melbourne, Mary Poppins is previewing in Sydney ahead of its red-carpet opening on May 5.
``I'm so excited to be opening it in Sydney,'' says Hunt-Ballard, 29, who won rave reviews in Melbourne.
Asked if she ever shudders at how close she came to not auditioning, she smiles serenely.
``As I get older, I think more and more that we don't have too much control over what's going on, and you're swept on the wind -- as Mary Poppins is.
``I worked very hard to establish a career, and have been working professionally for 10 years, but I'm very grateful a role has come along that extends my particular skills.
``One of the great challenges is that Mary Poppins is not of this earth. Because she's practically perfect, everything she does needs to look effortless -- and that's a huge challenge when you're singing, dancing and acting as well as having to wear a corset.
``The costume is quite heavy too, so it takes a lot of stamina.''
Composer George Stiles, who co-wrote the new songs for the show with lyricist Anthony Drewe, says: ``Verity is stellar. She's quite simply one of the best there's ever been.''
``She's very witty,'' says Drewe. ``Some girls play it too stern and some are too soft, but Verity has really nailed it.''
View the Metro Hotel Sydney Central Mary Poppins Accommodation Package
Owl City - Alligator Sky
Adam Young (de son vrai nom) n'a pas chômé depuis puisqu'il proposait en 2010 de nombreux projets :
- Un album sous un autre pseudo : Sky Sailing (afin de travailler des sonorités différentes, moins électroniques; titres enregistrés avant ceux d'Owl City).
- Une collaboration avec Nick Bracegardle, alias Chicane sur Middledistancerunner.
- Un titre pour la bande-originale de "Le Royaume de Ga'Hoole : La Légende des Gardiens" : To The Sky.
- Et toute une flopée d'inédits rendus publics sur son site internet ou son facebook (le 25 octobre, pour Noël aussi...).
2011 sera l'année d'un nouvel album pour Owl City, "All Things Bright And Beautiful", attendu pour la mi-juin et introduit par un premier single que voici : Alligator Sky (en versions avec et sans le rappeur Shawn Christopher, chacune ayant des paroles différentes en leurs couplets).
Le titre rappelle beaucoup Fireflies, mais le charme opère à nouveau.
Owl City - Alligator Sky (no rap edit)
Owl City & Shawn Christopher - Alligator Sky
Monday, April 25, 2011
Concert news: ZZ Top, Goo Goo Dolls, more
The summer concert schedule for the N.C. Music Factory's Time Warner Cable Uptown Amphitheatre is taking shape. Three upcoming shows were announced this afternoon:
- Rock legends ZZ Top will play the venue on June 2. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday.
- Goo Goo Dolls have been booked for Aug. 9, with special guests Michelle Branch and Parachute slated to open the show. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday.
- Then on Aug. 13, Chicago will hit the stage. Tickets for this concert also will go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday.
Purchase tickets at the Fillmore Charlotte box office (also in the N.C. Music Factory), Ticketmaster or charge-by-phone 800-745-3000. Details: LiveNation.com.
In other news: Multi-platinum recording artist Usher has added Dev and The Cataracs and Tinie Tempah as guest acts on his “OMG Tour,” which stops at Time Warner Cable Arena on Saturday. Akon also will open. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster, at the arena box office, or by calling 800-745-3000.
Nikki & Rich feat. Fabolous - City Lights
La première était choriste de Carrie Underwood, le second a fait ses armes en produisant pour Eve, Robin Thicke ou encore Mario.
Le duo, qui se définit sur son site comme étant enfant de la soul de ces 50 dernières années propose depuis quelques jours, après le surprenant Cat And Mouse, un morceau plus RnB : le très bon City Lights avec Fabolous.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Britney Spears ft. Nicki Minaj & Ke$ha - Till The World Ends (REMIX)
Après s'être invitée sur le remix du S&M de Rihanna (et avoir chanté nasillardement-vôtre, mais sa copine Riri trouve que c'est trop cool) Britney convie deux de ses copines pour poser sur une version explosive de son dernier hit : la rappeuse record-woman d'artiste féminine ayant classé le plus de titres de son album dans les charts US Nicki Minaj et l'auteure originale de ce titre Ke$ha.
3 nasty girls + 1 prod détonnante = un remix puissant !
Friday, April 22, 2011
Rascal Flatts set to return to Charlotte
Country stars Rascal Flatts are bringing their brand-new "Flatts Fest" summer tour to Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre on Friday, July 29.The band has headlined a show at Verizon every summer since 2005; they were last here last June with Albemarle native Kellie Pickler. This time around, Sara Evans, Easton Corbin and Justin Moore will open for Rascal Flatts.
According to a Live Nation press release, "The 'Flatts Fest' tour will include a new stage production design and set list" and "an interactive pre-show festival atmosphere and tailgating experience." Plans include a mobile karaoke vehicle, carnival games, photo booths, putt putt golf, food vendors, and contests.
Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 30, at LiveNation.com, the venue box office, Ticketmaster or charge-by-phone at 800-745-3000.
The night after the Charlotte show, Rascal Flatts will perform at Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion Raleigh (on Saturday, July 30).
Thursday, April 21, 2011
What's new at Museum of the New South?
I was disappointed last month when I dropped in on the Levine Museum of the New South only to find my favorite part of its award-winning “Cotton Fields to Skyscrapers” exhibit was closed for renovation.The other displays – ranging from a one-room tenant farmer’s house to a civil-rights-era lunch counter – are interesting enough, but the end section (closed since mid-January) is so much more urgent because it covers 1970 to 2010. It’s always fascinating to walk through knowing that these changes happened in Charlotte so recently.
The good news is that the uptown museum will reopen this expanded end section next Friday. Here are just a few of the many new highlights:
The 10-minute intro film has been completely revised, and now features narration by former Bank of America CEO Hugh McColl, famed NASCAR promoter Humpy Wheeler, and radio personality Ramona Holloway.
A 1908 Union National Bank ledger displayed juxtaposed next to one of the first computer-linked ATMs.
A fire suit worn in 2009 by NASCAR driver and California native/now-New Southerner Jimmie Johnson.
The interactive “Picture Yourself in History,” which uses green-screen technology to allow visitors to superimpose themselves into a historic scene from the exhibit; they can then e-mail the image to themselves.
If you’d like a sneak peek at the updated exhibit – and have some disposable income to spend on a nice night out – the museum is hosting a 20th anniversary party called “Taste of Time” next Thursday evening. ($125 per person, or $100 for museum members.) Otherwise, make plans to visit on or after the grand reopening next Friday.
Details: www.museumofthenewsouth.org.
Also, read more about this great museum in the online version of SouthPark Magazine by clicking here.
Simple Plan & Rivers Cuomo - Can't Keep My Hands Off You
Comme on pouvait s’en douter, le groupe révélait que son prochain album ne saurait tarder, qu’il sortirait même le jour de l’été (et de la Fête de la Musique, merci Jack) : le 21 juin.
On n’en connaît pas encore le titre, mais déjà les nombreuses collaborations : Claude Kelly (Take It Off pour Ke$ha, Grenade pour Bruno Mars, Price Tag de Jessie J…), Matt Squire (Panic At The Disco, 3Oh!3, David Archuleta, Selena Gomez…), Jim Irvin (The Weekend de Michael Gray, Alex Hepburn, Davd Cook…), Julian Emery (McFly notamment) et David Hodges (un des premiers membres d’Evanescence), le tout chapeauté par Brian Howes, leader du groupe Closure à qui l’on doit quelques titres pour Chris Daughtry.
Un album prometteur que le groupe annonce ficelé depuis novembre dernier. Frustrant. Réjouissons-nous : plus que 2 mois à patienter avec un premier single sur lequel on retrouve Rivers Cuomo (de Weezer) : puissant, entêtant et bien teen rock US comme on l’aime… Voici le très efficace Can’t Keep My Hands Off You dont le clip est fraîchement dispo.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Linkin Park - Iridescent
Non vraiment tout va bien pour eux. Leur tournée "A Thousand Suns World Tour" entamée à l'automne dernier affichera complet dans les plus grandes salles du monde jusqu'en septembre prochain et ils seront entre temps à l'affiche de quelques festivals dont celui d'iTunes en juillet à Londres où se produiront également Adele, Jessie J, The Script et Beady Eye le nouveau groupe de Liam Gallagher (ex-Oasis).
Il s'agit ni plus ni moins du meilleur titre de l'album à mon sens, bien que du moins rock sans doute, digne successeur de What I've Done et New Divide. A noter que c'est le premier où le groupe faisait appel à la technique du Gang Vocals (les explications dans cette vidéo postée par le groupe sur son compte YouTube). Le tournage du clip a débuté jeudi dernier, sous la direction de Joe Hahn, alias Mr. Hahn le DJ/sampleur du groupe.
Ecouter Linkin Park - Iridescent (B.O. de Transformers 3 : La Face Cachée de la Lune)
The Wiggles are returning to Charlotte
One of the hottest Australian imports in the entertainment biz is coming to Charlotte this summer.No, it's not Nicole Kidman, Keith Urban, Hugh Jackman, Olivia Newton-John or Russell Crowe. It's The Wiggles, the four guys from Sydney who are rock stars among the 2- to 6-year-old set. The musical group will perform at Time Warner Cable Arena at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, July 13.
The band -- originally formed in 1991 and currently featuring Anthony Field, Murray Cook, Jeff Fatt and Sam Moran -- has become one of the most successful children's group of all-time. It last visited Charlotte in August of 2008.
The Wiggles' Big Birthday Tour" will feature songs like "Sound Your Funky Horn," "Clap Your Hands With Dorothy" and "Hot Potato." Also slated to appear: Captain Feathersword, Dorothy the Dinosaur, Henry the Octopus, Wags the Dog and all the Wiggly Dancers.
Tickets go on sale Monday, April 25 at 10 a.m. through Ticketmaster.
The Wiggles recently announced that the U.S. school readiness initiative Reach Out and Read will be the official charity partner of their 2011 American tour. Reach Out and Read "prepares America's youngest children to succeed in school by partnering with doctors to 'prescribe' books and encourage families to read together." In North Carolina, 88 hospitals and clinics participate in Reach Out and Read, serving 98,000 children annually. A portion of the proceeds from all ticket sales will be used to support Reach Out and Read Programs in North Carolina and across the United States.
For more on the Wiggles' tour: Click here.
Jessie J - Nobody's Perfect
Tout autant insolite dans ses sonorités pop/urbaines que ses prédécesseurs, Nobody's Perfect est un titre efficace porté lui aussi par un très beau clip, très Tim Burtonesque que voici.
Réalisation : Emil Nava.
(déjà à l'origine des clips de Do It Like A Dude et Price Tag)
Stay tuned...
Good Morning everyoneI just logged in for the first time in god knows how long to announce that i will be taking up my old blog soon...
I’m off to Turkey for a couple of weeks but when I’m back i hope to start keeping you all back up-to-date with everything!
Stay tuned...
Love Alan...
xxx
Monday, April 18, 2011
Showbiz Shaman Who Makes Pop Songs Serious
Bob Dylan's music has earned him critical and popular acclaim to rival Shakespeare, writes Craig McGregor.
When Bob Dylan tours Australia this month it may be the last time Australian audiences get to hear in person the artist Christopher Ricks, a former professor of English at Cambridge University, likens to William Shakespeare.
It's a big claim but Dylan has created such a voluminous oeuvre, and has covered such an amazing breadth of styles and genres in his six decades of songwriting, that only artists such as Picasso, poets such as Milton and playwrights such as Shakespeare spring to mind as possible comparisons.
Dylan revolutionised the popular song. He broke out of the stale Tin Pan Alley tradition of thinking a pop song had to be a love song, typically 32 bars long, with a jaunty or lachrymose melody and lyrics to match. It was music lite.
In more than 400 songs and 50 albums, Dylan destroyed that: he sang about war, injustice, God, kids, politics, protest, drugs and just about everything else (including love) in blazing imagery borrowed from the Bible, the Beats, the blues, Baudelaire. After Dylan, the pop song could be about anything.
Dylan's album Modern Times zoomed to the top of the American charts. In a sense he's turned himself into a showbiz shaman, a magician, like the midwest touring troupes of old, a popular entertainer who can synthesise the tumultuous world of song.
He openly borrows lines from old songs and incorporates them in his own. He seems to regard the entire corpus of American music - folk songs, gospel, ragtime, blues, vaudeville, jazz, classical and pop - as an inexhaustible resource to be reshaped. In that sense Dylan is continuing the vernacular tradition of using anything from anywhere as long as it works.
Dylan has his critics. His voice has obviously become rougher and more tired, and there are those who always said he couldn't sing. Others think his last albums don't rival earlier albums such as Blood on the Tracks, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde. A series of Bootleg albums and covers of songs by other songwriters is evidence, they say, of flagging inspiration.
But his Bootleg series, up to No. 9 with the recent release of his earliest Witmark demo songs, contains some of his most brilliant work. Blind Willie McTell, a fusion of blues with a bitter evocation of the slavery south featuring Dylan on piano and Mark Knopfler on guitar, is a masterpiece. In just five verses Dylan moves from ''this land is condemned/from New Orleans to Jerusalem'' to the Civil War, chain gangs, Rebel yells, bootleg whiskey, God-forsaken savagery and greed, all held together by his haunting tribute to the blues singer Blind Willie McTell, with a final acknowledgement of St James Infirmary Blues, on which the song is based.
A recent book by the American cultural historian Sean Willens devotes a chapter to analysing the song's sources and context.
Up To Me rivals Tangled Up in Blue as a masterful autobiography-in-song such as very few songwriters have attempted; in its cadences and extraordinary imagery it hints at how much Robert Zimmerman, songwriter, may owe to Dylan Thomas, poet.
When he was younger Dylan was being hailed as a poet and his work was included in several poetry anthologies. There is no doubt most of his lyrics can stand by themselves but the music intensifies and defines the words.
As for his latest albums, songs such as Nettie Moore, Highlands and the moving Not Dark Yet are the work of a mature, more reflective artist.
Dylan's singing is right for his songs: sometimes harsh, sometimes mellifluous. He has often tended to declaim his songs, especially in his live concerts. But that only adds to the power and the passion. The test is that Dylan's versions of his songs almost invariably sound better than the covers by other singers - except perhaps Jimi Hendrix's incendiary version of All Along the Watchtower.
In recent years Dylan has expanded from songwriting. He has hosted a radio show, Theme Time Radio Hour. He has taken part in the film director Martin Scorsese's filmic biography No Direction Home. He has made films, notably Renaldo and Clara, and written volume one of his series of books, Chronicles, which was praised by critics from The New York Review of Books to on-the-street music mags.
This month two newish books on Dylan are scheduled to be published. One is The Mammoth Book of Bob Dylan, edited by the British music writer Sean Egan; the other is an updated version of Robert Shelton's No Direction Home. Shelton was the music critic for The New York Times when Dylan was a virtually unknown songwriter, and it was his review of a Dylan concert in 1961 at Gerde's Folk City that launched Dylan on his career. Shelton wrote: ''Mr Dylan is vague about his antecedents and birthplace, but it matters less where he has been than where he is going, and that would seem to be straight up.''
Remarkably, a younger generation is discovering Dylan's music. He's always had an influence on other songwriters, from Elvis Costello to Paul Kelly, both of whom are appearing at the Byron Blues Festival, but now he seems to appeal not only to an older generation but to a significant number of generations X, Y and Z as well.
Why? Possibly because he's the last, and greatest, of the singer-songwriters who is able to straddle today's fractured and ever-expanding genres of pop music. That's why we may never see his ilk again. He is an artist who tells powerful, contemporary stories-in-music about love, hate and redemption.
He draws on his own imagination and a thousand other sources to create parables of our time … even though, years ago, he denied he was any kind of prophet.
Dylan's great insight was to realise the song, not poetry, was the key to reaching a mass audience.
Dylan turned pop serious.
He is a contemporary Bard who has used the mass media to achieve something of the same critical and popular acclaim as the Bard himself, and in the process has transmogrified the popular song into one of the most important art forms we know.
Craig McGregor is the author of Bob Dylan: A Retrospective and is writing another book on Dylan's songs. Dylan plays at the Byron Bay Blues Festival on April 25-26 and at the Sydney Entertainment Centre on April 27-28.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/showbiz-shaman-who-makes-pop-songs-serious-20110415-1dhmt.html#ixzz1JvaQAPJC
Find Sydney Accommodation at Metro Hotels
Katy Perry Set to Play the Logies
THE list of nominees for this year's Logie Awards is pretty bland, but we can reveal that at least the night will start with a bang.
Katy Perry is confirmed to open the awards ceremony at Melbourne's Crown Casino complex on May 1, performing her chart-topping hit Firework.
Perry will be in Australia as part of her California Dreams World Tour, with sold-out performances at the Sydney Entertainment Centre on May 4 and 14.
Classical music superstar Andre Rieu is tipped to attend the Logies, with 'tween heartthrob Justin Bieber also in Australia.
Shane Bourne will be the host, and awards will be presented by Chris Lilley, Karl Stefanovic, Sarah Murdoch, Lisa McCune, Deborah Mailman, Shane Jacobson and Megan Gale.
Sydney Accommodation at Metro Hotels
Beyoncé - Run The World (Girls)
On est proche de l'esprit d'un Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It), un aspect militaire en plus et quelques mélodieux gimmicks en moins. La version finale ne saurait tarder, en attendant réjouissons nous : entre Britney, GaGa, J-Lo, ..., et maintenant Beyoncé : 2011 sera l'année des superstars de la pop.
Edit le 21.04.2011, 12h :
Carowinds is dyeing for this world record
Carowinds is best-known for giant roller coasters like the Intimidator and Nighthawk, but the theme park is hoping to earn some Guinness-sized recognition this weekend for its massive Easter egg hunt.Beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday, during the ninth annual "Easter Egg-stravaganza," the park is attempting to set a world record for the most amount of people dyeing Easter eggs at one time. Related activities at Carowinds this weekend will include appearances by Snoopy the Easter "Beagle" and the Easter Bunny; a Coloring Station; a DJ-hosted party for kids; and "Bunny Hop" lessons.
For details on the event, click here.
Justice Crew & Flo-Rida - Dance With Me
Peut-être aura-t-il une nouvelle chance en 2011, puisqu'un an et demi après, il vient de réapparaître, copie corrigée car légèrement remixé, raccourci... mais sans Aaron Carter, remplacé par les Justice Crew (boysband gagnant de la dernière édition d'Incroyable Talent en Australie).
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