Black Sabbath The Ballet: The Latest Sabbath Renaissance?

 

Given that for Gen-X’ers the 1990s era Grunge movement kicked off the most recent Black Sabbath renaissance, will an upcoming Black Sabbath Ballet proved to be a much bigger “renaissance”?

By: Ringo Bones

Back around April 2023, there was an announcement by Carlos Acosta – the director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet – that a Black Sabbath themed ballet will soon hit the stages across England by September 2023 and later, the world. For those old enough to live through the last great “Sabbath Renaissance” during the 1990s Grunge movement, will the upcoming Black Sabbath Ballet prove to be a much bigger cultural event music wise compared to the one that happened in the 1990s?

Given that the original members of the innovators of heavy metal music all hail from Birmingham, it might be a long-time coming to finally honor them. Not only that, but Birmingham was well-known for being an impoverished, largely underfunded city when Ozzy and his buddies started the band around the late 1960s. And it wasn’t until near the end of the Thatcher Administration – as in the late 1980s – that all of Birmingham’s World War II era bomb damages were finally repaired.

The Birmingham leg of the show will start in the 23^rd of September 2023 at the Birmingham Hippodrome and all of the music will be performed live by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia. Sparks will undoubtedly fly given the “recondite” nature of “conventional ballet music” normally used in a typical ballet performance. But given the relatively successful “marriages” of Western European Classical Music and heavy metal music – i.e. Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, S&M and Guns N’ Roses’ November Rain to name a few, the upcoming Black Sabbath – The Ballet could prove, at least, a very interesting musical event.

Remembering Charlie Watts

It may be a sad day for Rolling Stones fans, but will the iconic rock band soldier on without their drummer?

By: Ringo Bones

For those who are regularly attending Stones concerts since the 1990s, they’ll probably be voting for Jim Keltner as a potential replacement, but for those who had been there since the Rolling Stones set up shop back in the early 1960s nothing beats Charlie Watts. Often viewed as the “reluctant rock star” of the Stones’ line-up, Watts had been the longest serving drummer of the Rolling Stones when he joined up back in January 1963. While their front-man Mick Jagger had always had doubts of the long-term future of the Stones since the mid 1960s, typified by his now famous quote” I would rather die than sing Satisfaction at 40”. Well, Jagger turned 40 back in 1983 and yet the Stones managed to soldier on as if the band is still in its prime till the present day. Sadly, it seems like time and human physiology are the Stones’ greatest enemy when their drummer Charlie Watts passed away on the 24^th of August 2021 at the age of 80.

Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney recently paid tribute to the iconic drummer. Famous as the long time drummer for the Rolling Stones and dubbed as “the greatest rock drummer of his generation”, Watts also did drums for his Jazz band during tour breaks. His other well-known hobbies include collecting antique silver and classic cars even though he hardly ever drives them. His distinctive drumming style contributed to the Stones’ rather unique back-beat since the 1960s, he will be forever missed by his fans and music enthusiasts the world over. Only time will tell if the Rolling Stones will soldier on for another world tour. 

Feliz Navidad Is Turning 50 This 2020

Given the Spanish Yuletide classic’s popularity during the past years, did you know that José Feliciano’s Feliz Navidad is turning 50 this year?

By: Ringo Bones

In every interview during the past decades, José Feliciano readily admits he wasn’t thinking of writing a Christmas classic when, almost on the fly, he first sang: “Feliz Navidad, Feliz Navidad, proóspero año y felicidad.” And during the intervening years, the now Spanish language Yuletide classic has managed to survive being disco-fied during the disco boom years. Weirder still, José Feliciano probably pioneered writing a de-facto song about celebrating Christmas in parts of the world that never gets snow – probably inspiring Jimmy Buffett to write Christmas in the Caribbean and his Christmas Island album years later, perhaps?

Even though I’ve practically grew up listening to this Yuletide classic – given the song is only two years older than me – I’ve always thought that Feliz Navidad was much older, perhaps dating back at least to the Middle Ages composed by a Spanish monk in a monastery back then. It was only during the late 1980s that I’ve found out that this was originally composed by José Feliciano back in 1970 during a recording session for a Christmas album with Rick Jarrard, who would become Feliciano’s trusted producer and friend over the years. At the time, it was Jarrard who floated the idea of a Christmas song in Spanish. And Feliciano, in the middle of recording in the summer, wrote what would become one of the most enduring Christmas songs of all time.

Sadly, due to the COVID-19 pandemic putting a damper on celebrating this Spanish language Yuletide classic, nevertheless, a plan to release a 50^th Anniversary tribute to Feliz Navidad got ahead. Produced by longtime friend and producer Rudy Pérez, “Feliz Navidad 50^th Anniversary (FN50)” was released by Anthem Records as an Amazon exclusive at the end of November 2020. The recording sessions were done in July 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, but had been planned since 2019.

Remembering Eddie Van Halen

His fans around the world may have been saddened by his death at the age of 65, would heavy metal music be radically different without the musicianship and technique of Eddie Van Halen?

By: Ringo Bones

His death was announced by his son, Wolfgang, after a 20-year battle with cancer, fans around the world now mourns the passing of Eddie Van Halen at the age of 65. Fans who had known Van Halen since the 1970s and 1980s could be forgiven that he died too soon because there are “rock-stars” today who are twenty years older who are still touring – that is before the 2020 COVID 19 lockdown.

Eddie Van Halen, whose full name is Edward Lodewijk Van Halen, was an American musician famously known around the world as the guitarist of the band Van Halen which he co-founded back in 1972 with his brother Alex Van Halen on drums , bassist Mark Stone and singer David Lee Roth. Even though the two-handed tapping technique for the electric guitar was already demonstrated by electric guitar pioneer Les Paul back in the 1950s, this guitar playing technique was more famously associated with Eddie Van Halen during the 1970s, probably because Van Halen manage to compose better songs in which to show-off the technique than Les Paul did back in the 1950s. Without this technique, which was later dubbed as “shredding” during the late 1980s Hair-Metal era, heavy metal music would sound radically different without Eddie Van Halen’s influential technique.

During the 1980s, Eddie Van Halen’s well known collaboration with the King of Pop, the late great Michael Jackson, on the iconic guitar solo on the song Beat It was probably his most well known musical collaboration. Those dodgy Van Halen live bootleg recordings were a must-have for the aspiring guitarist back in the 1980s. add to that the departure of long time singer and frontman David Lee Roth to be replaced by Sammy Hagar had caused a Kultur-Kampf in the Van Halen fanbase back in the mid 1980s, detractors often derogatively referring the Sammy Hagar fronted Van Halen as “Van Hagar”. Eddie Van Halen is indeed no stranger to real-life musical drama. And, by the way, Eddie Van Halen was also a clever inventor with various guitar related patents credited to him, like a musical instrument support that allowed him to play his signature two-handed tapping technique while standing up on stage for prolonged periods without tiring, an adjustable string tension control allowing more precise adjustments than a whammy bar, a type of humbucking pickup and ornamental designs for guitar pegheads and pickups.

Is Donald Trump Using Music Inappropriately At His Rallies ?

From the launch of his 2016 presidential campaign to the more recent reelection campaign for 2020, is President Trump using music “inappropriately” at his rallies?

By: Ringo Bones

The Rolling Stones might be the latest of a growing number of musical artists launching their own cease and desist directives to the Donald Trump presidential campaign after their songs are used inappropriately in his rallies. Even though the Stones had been telling Trump to stop using their songs since 2016, the iconic band finally issued a legal action for Trump to stop.

Donald Trump had been exploiting loopholes in the BMI’s Blanket Political Entities License Agreement law in being able to play a number of classic Rolling Stones, Queen, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Pharrell Williams, Rhianna and Adele just to name a few. But a growing number of artists are complaining and had launched their respective legal cease and desist orders from their lawyers because their songs are used in a Trump rally for very inappropriate lessons.

Earlier this week, the family of the late Tom Petty posted on the band’s official Twitter account saying that the Trump campaign’s use of his song is “in no way authorized,” adding that he: “would never want a song of his used for a campaign of hate.” Pharrell Williams’ Oscar nominated “Happy” was played at a Trump rally hours after 11 people were killed at a Pittsburgh synagogue back in October 2018.

This more than just pointing out the preexisting thinking of hard right conservatives not giving a rat’s ass about copyright laws since the launch of Fox News, being tone deaf to the social injustices endured by non white Anglo Saxon Protestant musicians is one thing, but keeping silent while Trump uses their songs inappropriately in the era of the renewed Black Lives Matter protests after George Floyd was killed in an act of police brutality is just unforgivable. It’s high time to vote Trump out of the White House this November 2020.

Is Robbie Williams a Secret Trump Supporter?

Despite being debunked for four years, does former Take That member Robbie Williams’ belief that the Pizzagate conspiracy is real make him a “secret Trump supporter”?

By: Ringo Bones

In the wake of the reinvigorated Black Lives Matter protest brought about by the application of excessive force during the arrest of George Floyd, admitting publicly that you subscribe to debunked bizarre conspiracy theories put forth by white supremacist could be tantamount to saying publicly that you are an unabashed Holocaust Denier. Sadly, former member of a popular 1990s era boy band Take That, Robbie Williams, just recently did that in a recent interview.

The 46-year-old sat down for an interview with journalist Anna Brees, and in a teaser clip from the second part of the interview, the Rock DJ singer appears to question the validity of a conspiracy theory alleging that several high-ranking members of the U.S. Democratic Party and U.S. restaurants were involved in an alleged human trafficking and child sex ring. That theory was widely debunked during the 2016 US Presidential Election following an investigation by the New York Times and the fact-checking website Snopes. Although various American far-right and white supremacists groups still believe to this very day that the Pizzagate Conspiracy is real and proof that – according to them – the US Democratic Party are composed of sex deviants, while denying President Trump’s association with convicted billionaire-paedophile - the late Jeffrey Epstein.

As well as the Pizzagate Conspiracy Theory being debunked by a number of investigative journalists, no alleged victims came forward and no physical evidence supporting the theory was ever found. Sadly, it caused the defeat of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 Presidential Election that resulted in subjecting America into over three years of social trauma that culminated in the COVID 19 response mismanagement and the systemic racism of US law enforcement that resulted in the resurgent Black Lives Matter protests. Let’s just hope this is nothing more than Robbie Williams’ sad attempt to be famous again to the 18 to 24 crowd who are now heavily into Billie Eilish and peacefully marching in Black Lives Matter protests.

Black Lives Matter: The Musical?

Given that the so-called modern music is predominantly influenced by African American culture, should the music industry lend a voice to the Black Lives Matter cause?

By: Ringo Bones

From a musicologists’ perspective, modern popular music is largely influenced by black American or African-American culture. I mean when was the last time a hit song had forgone that signature singing back-and-forth between the tonic and the suspended fourth – i.e. the Pentatonic Blues Scale? Fortunately, our contemporary online digital music streaming providers immediately took notice and avoided from being on the wrong side of history by launching Blackout Tuesday.

Blackout Tuesday was a collective action to protest racism and police brutality in conjunction with the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests. The action was originally organized within the music industry in response to excessive police action that led to the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breona Taylor. It took place on Tuesday, June 2, 2020. Streaming services taking part were encouraged to abstain from releasing music and other business operations. Some outlets used blacked out, silent or minimal programming for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, the length of time officer Derek Chauvin compressed Floyd’s neck resulting in death.

Given that Black Lives Matter protests have since gone global, maybe musicians everywhere should do their part to tell everyone that racism is still alive and well in this day and age. Not just in Trump’s America, but also in the rest of the world. Country music band Lady Antebellum recently changed their name to Lady A in the wake of the protests of the killing of George Floyd and ongoing Black Lives Matter Protests. Although if you ask me, the name change is somewhat reminiscent to the 11^th Hour urgency of one of their biggest hits Need You Now. It’s a quarter after one but the famed country music band should have changed its moniker back during the June 2013 Paula Deen racism row.