A Belated Rest in Peace for Doug Fieger

No-other person ever labeled with the style "Power Pop" ever had to
pay the price that Doug Fieger did as the leader of the band "The Knack".The fact that
there it's debateable that such a style of music actually exists-never seemed to occur
to anyone.People have been argueing for years both in it's a favor and it's non-existence.
Personal i'm on the non-existance side.If any thing like power-pop did ever exist it was
in the songs of the early "Who" and the "Kinks" both english bands who were also called
Mod's.Mod is a style that definately exists.In many way's it was the template used by
punk and new wave bands of the original punk and new wave movement circa 1976- 1982.The chord proggresion for the kink's "All Day and All of the Night" can be found
in the "Sex Pistols" song "Submission " and also in "Paul Revere and the Raiders"
Song "Just Like Me" from the 1960's.It has to be one of the most lifted chord progressions in the entire pantheon of pop/rock music.
Getting back to "The Knack"-they didn't lift any well known rock riffs-they came up with thier own and that's the reason thier first album and single were so successful.The
Knack actually came up with a new style of Rock music that wasn't Mod,Power Pop,
Bubble Gum or any other specific style other than the general heading of pop/rock.
A accomplishment very few rock music artists or bands can make.
I don't know how the backlash against "The Knack" started but i do know that
The rock press,both writers and critics,and hundreds if not thousands of Dj's and
former fans joined in the Mob Mentality feeding freezy that before "The Knack",
had never reached such a level of pure insanity.
Fieger,allthough i'm sure he didn't enjoy it-didn't complain.What he'd accomplished with "Get The Knack" and "My Sharona" is so rare that i'm sure he figured it was
just one more sophmore jinx amongst thousands that have occured in Pop music past.But even
when he realized that the backlash wasn't on the same level of your average sophmore jinx-but
was something much larger and more dangerous and insane-he still didn't make a fuss.He just
keep making and performing music.That takes something else thats very rare in today's modern world-Integrity.Doug Fieger is free now.All the hate that was insidously pilled on top of him and
his band is of no conseqence either in this world or any other.But i believe there is a lesson of
caution to be learned from Doug's story.When mob-mentaltity builds up enough steam there is
no level to low for it to go.Even otherwise respectable and decent people are subject to it's giant
vortex of hate-and that's exactly what happened in the story of "The Knack".We would do
well to learn from this lesson in history.Good people are capable of doing very bad things-
if that's what's in fashion.Perhaps we'd better the human condition if we paid more attention to
the fact's and less to the whims of the arbiters of Pop Culture.Doug Fieger may you rest in
Peace.You have earned it the hard way.May the lord have mercy on your soul.

Best Regards,

Pete Holly,
President/CEO,
Look's Music International

The Greatist Recordings of All Time

#59-"Ride of the Valkaries"
by Richard Wagner
performed by "United States Marine Band"

From Wagner's epic four cycle Opera -The Ring-"Valkaries" is a stunning
and instantly recognizable piece of classical music.While during his lifetime Wagner had his
share of detractors;his music was quite differant from that of his contemperaries so it's
understandable that for some-Wagner's Horn and Woodwind drivin' compositions were
not everyone's cup of tea.
Of coarse now Wagner is fully accepted as one of classical music's greatist composer's.
As bombastic as some of his music can be you can't deny that there is a very strong and
emotionally charged sense to it."Flight of the Valkaries" is a perfect example.It instantly
grab's your attention.When it was used in the film "Apocalypse Now" it became exposed
to a new and much larger audience.Wagner was a follower of Frans Listz and he even
married one of Listz's daughters.People who only know "Valkaries" from it's use in
"Apocalypse Now" may not know who Richard Wagner is but that doesn't stop them from,
being tremendously moved by his music.

The Greatest Recordings of All-time

The Long Way Around for Impressionism

by Pete Holly

History has a way of turning things around so that what was once viewed as "
"bad"becomes "good" and vice-versa.A "Ghetto" started out hundreds of years ago as
being the best part of town-now as we all know it means the worst or poorest-I don't
know how or why it changed-i just know that it did.The name of "Impressionism" in
art first arose in 1872 when art critic Louis Leroy first saw Monet's painting Impression:
Sunrise" and many other modern impressionistic paintings at an art exibition organized
by followers of Edward Manet called the "Anonymous Society of Painters,Sculptors,,Engravers, Etc."{Manet himself chose not to take part in the exibition} Nearly every art critic who saw the exibition wrote terrible reviews about the artists that
we now think of as being some of the Greatist's artists the Art World has ever known-Monet,
Renoir,Dega's,Cezanne,Sisely,Pissarro and Berthe Morisot.Leroy took Monet's painting title
and turned it against all the young artists who had exibited at the show.He called all the Paintings just Impressions and not properly finished works of art.For him that meant that the
paintings were all terrible and worthless and he wasn't shy in expressing his dislike of this new
and modern style of painting.
Today,the world see's Impressionism in a completly differant light.Impressionism
is the most popular style of art the world over.People love these dazzling,light drivin' paintings
with a passion that is almost like a religion in it's afirmation and appreciation.Impressionistic
paintings or their off-shoots command the highest price's at auction.Selling for millions of dollars
for just one painting."Impressionism" has come along way.

coda:The irony in all this is that in trying to brand the paintings all bad with one term taken
from Monet's "Impression:Sunrise-the critic Leroy inadvertantly gave Impressionism a
respectable name for it's style-one that once it caught on with the public has never let go of.
Now when someone say's impressionism-people stand up and take notice with respect and
admiration.One has to admit Leroy's critic backfired on him for instead of keeping the Impressionists down it eventually became the actual name of these artists style which has
remained the most popular style of art for nearly a century.

Written by Pete Holly-2010-All Rights Reserved

Two Short Writings on the Subjective Nature of Human Art

1. "The Spiral Jetty"

2. "The Sun Returns"


"The Spiral Jetty"

by Pete Holly

Surmised:Progress in the Lineal Form of Art is an Illusion

We could start off by saying that the first Art Produced by Humans-Cave Painting-is
as great or greater than any and/or all art that came after.This is true.We could say Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" is one of mankinds greatist paintings-however greatly flawed it may be-it
is greatly flawed{see earlier blog}.The flaws however,do not hamper the majestic impression
the painting possesses's-to enrapture-to seduce the viewer-perhaps in a fashion that is more
powerful than any other painting.We could say Dali's "The Persistance of Memory" is a perfect
representation of the very human persistance of memory-and be correct.We will surmise the
the Genuis of Mark Rothko's Brilliant Symbolific modern Masterpiece's."Whistler's Mother"
is second to no other and Michael-Angelo's "David" is surely a savior of Beauty beyond measure.
In cubism multiple perspectives are presented all in one scene at the same time-It's Done ! The Castles of Europe and Stone Monolith's-Stonehenge-Stone in America-Machu Pichu-The
Twin Towers even destroyed still carry thier artistic weight in Gold-Etched forever in Photograph's,Films,Memories and Paintings no less Great in thier possession of the Master Soul
of Art than when they were still standing at the edge of Manhatten-where so much great art has
been created,collected and presented to the World-Everyday.In the life and death of art there is
no straight line-All is allowed in Life and Art-Even when one live's high in the sky among the
god's and the clouds.The truth is realization-there is no lineal progress in art-it is an illusion.
And a Damn Fine One at that.



"The Sun Returns"

by Pete Holly

I crawled thru the narrow tunnel.So narrow i could barely sqeeze by on my hands and knee's.Suddenly after crawling 100 yards or so i came to a large opening in the cave-A Gallery.
The walls were covered with ancient paintings-portraits of creatures-some i recognized-Antelope and Deer-others i could not but seemed to be ansestors of tigers and
elephants-Mastadons.They were very Large and ferocious looking bearing down upon my vision
with incredible clarity as if about to strike ! Writing too was on these walls-an ancient script that
some of which i could decipher."We are men of Day's","We came to earth 3.5 million years ago"
"From a distant planet far beyond your sun" "We found a home here and survived for millions
of years""Now we are Few""A cloud covered the earth and brought us down into this cave"
"Animals followed and we killed them and roasted thier flesh on the fire and so survived"
"Roots also dangled down from the roof of this cave and we found them edible as well-for along
time they continued to grow but we wondered how ?" "We are Men and Women and Children
not unlike yourselves""We know the ancient stories of your people" "We Learned to see into
the future-but i cannot explain how-just to say it was revealed to us by some form of wisdom
which has a connection with your planet-though we do not understand exactly what it is""We
have found it to be true""A great cold and covering of ice came but still bears and Mastadons
came roaming into this cave providing us with food and blood and so we survived for a very long time""We are Men like You"-"The Sun is Returning and we believe in one God !"

Written by Pete Holly-copyright-2010-All rights reserved

Lesson's in Song Composition

One method you can use to become a better song composer is one that i used
mostly during the years just prior and during my tenure as the leader of my garage
band "The Look's" which lasted from 1996-1982.Six years is along time to carry the
wieght of being the leader of a 3-piece rock band where you write all the songs,arrange
every players part including your own and also design the recording method as i did for the
look's.It kept me very busy-let's put it that way.
The method i'm speaking of is to write and record a song that emulates
a specific artist at a specific time period stylewise in thier career.The first time i did this
was with "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" in which i recreated the songwriting style and
the recording style of the "Merseybeat" Period Beatles.This was a difficult assignment i
gave to myself but as the early Beatles sound was one of my first and biggest influence's
and inspirations it gave me alot of fuel to tackle the task.The first thing i did was re-listen
to both of The Beatle's first two records "Please Please Me" and in the U.S. "Meet the Beatles".I would listen to these albums over and over-hundreds of times gleaning every
aspect and quality i could decipher which gave then thier unique sound.One thing i noticed
was that all the songs which had the trademark Beatle's Merseybeat sound were Johns songs.
"All i Gotta Do"-"There's a Place"-"Please Please Me" were all Lennon Creations and they
exuded the beatles merseybeat sound the most.I noticed Lennon allway's doubled his vocals
and during parts where George and Paul joined in it often became difficult to tell who was
the lead singer-all thier voices seemed to merge together into a mythlogical 5th beatle vocal
sound that was very unique and very powerful.Only on these first two LP's do you here this
combined vocal sound to such a large extent.Once the Beatles started recording on 4-track with
"I Want to Hold Your Hand" the merseybeat beatles sound dis-appeared.With four tracks
Producer George Martin could seperate and re-mix all the vocals and that ended the mystery
5th Beatle vocal sound that live two track recording with only a doubling of Johns vocal being
doubled.
The early songs were very upbeat even if the song itself was sad.They often started out in
a minor key but ended on a major key.Nearly every song was filled with all the songwriting tricks of the trade-Fanstastic middle 8's-Bridges-lead breaks on middle 8's,chorus's,and on bridges never knowing which one the Beatle's would choose.On "Are You Gonna Be my Girl"
i choose to play the lead guitar part on the middle 8.Any way these are just a few of the ways i
used to re-create The Beatles merseybeat sound and i'll just mention one more element that was
vital to get that sound.The snare drum had to have a really loud snap to it-allmost like that of
a rim-shot.I spent alot of time with Lenny teaching him how to get that snare drum snap but
it had to sound like that to really be like the Beatle's Mersybeat-so it was absoulutly mandatory
to the success of the song and the recording that the snare drum had this sound.
Another type of song i finally mastered thou much later in my career was The Big Song
that Bob Dylan invented for the modern world.Bard's in the middle age's played allmost nothing but these big songs as it was one of the only way's to communicate the news of the day but
in the early sixties Bob Dylan brought the big song back-and he would revisit this 7-9 verse
style from time to time throughout the rest of his career-in this manner he was pretty much on
his own-allmost nobody else wrote any of these really big song's that became a Dylan Trademark.Here are some of Dylan's big song's-Tangled Up in Blue-Up to Me-Mr. Tamborine Man-Sad eyed Lady of the Lowlands{probably his biggest but maybe not his best}-Like a
Rolling Stone-there are others but thats a good sampling.So how do you write one of these big songs-well for one thing it's hard to write one when your really young because you don't have
enough expieriences to fill up 9 verse's of anything interesting or even 7 Verse's.The most difficult aspect of writing a big song is having all the information you need to write 7-9
congruent verse's that are interrelated.The other hard part is to get that many verse's that
all end up setting up perfectly for the chorus in rhyme and in reason.My big song is "Too Many
Tears".It has more lyrics than any other song of mine and it was definatly inspired by Dylan's
big songs.I was 35 and sober when i wrote it-but i wasn't aiming at writing a big song-all the verse's just came to me in a very organic way-it just flowed-and kept flowing but as it got bigger
i could see where it could go to and so i just rode that wave all the way i could and "Too Many Tears" which is on the "Riverside Drive" Cd was the result.I will say i think being sober helped
both in coming up with all the flowing verse's and being able to remember them.
So these are just a few ways you can learn about the creative methods of songwriting and just remember using other artists idea's as a catalyst for more knowledge and more creativity
in your own back page's is O.K-just don't steal any thing outright-make sure your song is unique in a way that's true to you own indidvidual muse-ideas are one thing-but the way you finally execute
those idea's is a completly differant matter all together.Regardless any style you might borrow
from allways make sure that your music is unique to you.

Written by Pete Holly-Copyright-2010-All Rights Reserved

Ludwig Von Beetoveen

A Short Study on why Beetoveen's Compositional Style is
excedingly complex,more than any other composer,and for
that reason his style is difficult if not impossible to Classify.

Of all the great classical music composers,Beetoveen,is not only the most famous
but there is a completely distinct style to his compositions that make his style nearly im-
possible to describe-in relation to other classical music composers.He is not a romantic,
Like Chopin.though some of his work,say "Moonlight Sonata" is just as romantic as any-
thing Chopin ever composed,perhaps even more so.But few other examples of such romance
are to be found amongest Ludwig's compositions.Thou it's not a complete lack of romantically
infused sentiment that make's his work so unique-it's that there are so many other elements
mixed in at the same time in his large works such as his 9 symphonies.It is such a complex
array of stylizations and techniques that we find him alone in a catagory of his own creation-
Beetoveenism.
There are very fast passages in much of the masters work.Some are very loud only
to relent after a huge burst of energy,one might even call it anger,to fast quiet passages all
part of the same piece of music.He does the same thing with speeds of tempo-wild variations
that keep the listener on thier toes;alert-ready for anything Beetoveen might exude thier way
in whatever myriad of fashions he may decide.
This creates a dazzling world of speed and variation that no other composer can compete
with and i pity the fool that try's.The only thing one sometimes notices in his work that makes
it regular in any sense is Ludwigs very classical manner-which is also,thou,a purely integral part
of his masterful and sensational sytle.Without his classical anchor Beetoveen may have lost the
vital congruent component that holds all his work together in one master full stroke of inginuety.
Even so Beetoveen cannot be labeled as a strict classisist either.He rides that fine line between classisism and romantisism evoking both without ever totally committing to one or the
other-this is the true Genius of our Master Ludwig Von Beetoveen whose very name has come
to be the most oft used in describing excellance and mastery in the realm of the Greatist Classical Music known to ever exist.Only one word can describe this man's incredible musical
Talents-Genuis.

Written by Pete Holly-Copyright-2010-All Rights Reserved