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For many of us, the cultural references and interests we accrue during the course of our lives is an amalgam of influences and discoveries garnered both on our own and through others.  Often abiding friendships are formed around the core of a love for and an interest in a particular piece of culture - a book, a film, a piece of music, the artists who created the things we treasure.

I was born three generations after my mother and so we didn't share much interests in that regard.  She was never much of a reader while I voraciously devoured anything I could get my hands on.  She was an archetypal feminine presence whereas I was always more immersed in the life of the mind.  But we did share similar interests in music.  Although she had been raised with a backdrop of big band and blues (she grew up in the Chicago area), in her later years she became a fan of rock n'roll...well, at least some of it.  She was a Beatles fan, proudly telling me the first movie I ever experienced (in the womb) was A Hard Day's Night.  She liked a little bit of everything, as the era I grew up in - the 1970s - was a polyglot of genres airing at all times on AM radio.

And I was even able to get her to approve of my favorite musician...but it didn't happen right away.

She never much liked YesWest (except she was a fan of "Holy Lamb," like me she thought it was such a pretty song) but the first of Trevor's songs I remember her saying she enjoyed was "Sorrow (Your Heart)" and she was interested when I told her about Trevor's history and how it led him to write the song.

Then years later, I played her what I feel is one of Trevor's most beautiful melodies (from any era of his career) and was pleased to see the smile on her face when she agreed with me.  For years to come I would play it for her whenever she asked and knowing the name of the composition she said it did remind her of the winter days of her childhood, transforming an ordinary street into an amazing landscape, and - experiencing the pleasure in finding another fan - smiled myself to know she was also moved by the evocative power of Trevor's creativity.

And so I made certain it was played for her one last time, and it makes me so very happy to know that she could take comfort and joy in Trevor's music the same way I do.  This is for my mommy, and although our relationship was sometimes difficult, I love her always and am grateful she is at peace now.

Show some love!

Happy New Year, my fellow Rabinites!

Too bad it's not the Year of the Rabbitt...

Another year with musical accompaniment from our Maestro!

As was announced last month via such media outlets as Zap2It and the Huffington Post, Zero Hour, the ABC drama starring Anthony Edwards (Top Gun, ER) which Trevor is scoring, will be premiering in its spot on the midseason schedule on Thursday, February 14th, at 8:00 pm EST/PST.  So just over a month till the debut of Trevor's new job and how amazing is it that we get to hear his music every week through May?  It's like a Valentine just for us!  (Okay, I'm getting carried away now, let me reel it in.)

I plan to remain optimistic despite some speculation that it's doomed because it has been placed in the "Death Slot," (no program in that timeslot has gone onto a second season since 2009).

The Hollywood Reporter published a preview of the pilot episode (back when it was being considered for the Fall schedule) last year which can be read here:
Fall TV Preview: Zero Hour

I plan to compose commentary on the season (as part of my "Knowing The Score" series) as it progresses, though I'm still not sure how many episodes I will cover at a time.  But I hope all who can tune in (via TV or online) will do so, as we experience a new chapter in Trevor's career and a new opportunity for more of his scoring excellence.

Shiny Objects and other gifts

Tonight The Grammy Nominations Live! concert was held in Nashville and televised on CBS.  I have been looking forward to this event for a number of reasons but pertinent to this blog was the consideration of nominations for Jacaranda, my favorite album (and I hope one of yours) of 2012.  It is a landmark work fully deserving of all the accolades and trophies it can possibly receive.  And one of the most important is the Grammy, still considered prestigious among many.

Trevor is, of course, no stranger to awards in general and has earned the right to use "Grammy award-winning artist" before his name.  As we can see in this shot from the video for "Anerley Road" he has a number of what I call "doorstoppers" in his collection:

I tried to count all the awards but I was too distracted by Trevor's pants.

I had the opportunity to hold an actual Grammy once, and it's an interesting combination of impressions: solid enduring marble base and shiny almost gaudy plastic decoration on top.  I rather wonder if they switched to plastic at some point because the gramophone had a tendency to crack or break when dropped.  Otherwise the marble base would definitely crack or break whatever it happened to hit (as it is very heavy, you could hurt someone with one of those).

I had made a series of predictions two weeks ago on the Yesfans discussion forum but unfortunately none of it panned out, as there were no nominations for Jacaranda nor for Grouplove.  Some of the band's peers were nominated, such as Florence & the Machine, LMFAO, Gotye, Foster the People, Fun., and Mumford & Sons, so I believe it's only a matter of time before NARAS feels the love too. :)

I had wondered if a father-and-son were ever concurrently nominated across the field but this year a father-and-daughter are nominated in the same category: Ravi Shankar and his daughter Anoushka are both nominated for Best World Music Album, which will make for a good trivia question years from now, especially if one of them wins.

~*~*~*~

In the new year I am planning an entry with a roundup of the best interviews Trevor has given in this promotional cycle (and with over two dozen to choose from it's an embarrassment of riches...sort of) but unless some other is to come along between now and the dawn of 2013 I'd say the best was definitely saved for last:
Trevor Rabin: All Colors Considered
Interestingly the website All About Jazz featured two different interviews: one a short Q&A and the one I noted above, an in-depth narrative-style article covering the album as well as biographical material (which treads familiar ground as these things tend to do, but I've come to accept that many writers feel they have to utilize that same form no matter how many times it's already been done).  I would be shocked - shocked I tell you - if an interviewer actually acknowledged the existence of the Internet in regards to what readers already know or can use to find out about a subject.

However, I do have one major disagreement with Ian Patterson:

Fans of Rabin the guitarist will be thrilled to hear his playing on Jacaranda, as he's simply never sounded this good.

I take issue with this statement because although we are treated to amazing bravura moments on Jacaranda by Trevor on a variety of instruments - stringed and otherwise - his playing has always displayed a level of excellence which established him as one of the very best melodic guitarists (and as some are quick to proclaim, a Rock God) of this or any other era.   However, I know Trevor might not see it that way, as he commented to me - and likely others - that he believes he continues to evolve in regards to his own abilities.  My version of this value judgment, as I commented to a friend a few months back, was: "Trevor plays as wonderfully as he ever has."

But if I were to make a quick recommendation of any interview to read other than my own it would be this one, so if you haven't already...happy reading once more.

Speaking of my interview, it is now available on the blog under the "Rabin-esque links of interest" section on the left side of the page.  My version utilizes the layout I would have preferred (as well as the use of italics) but of course one doesn't always have the luxury of editorial decisions when dealing with an external publication.

Finally I'd like to extend my fondest wishes for a Happy Holidays to all my readers around the globe, whatever tradition you observe. Thank you so much for your interest in my blog and I will continue to entertain and elucidate in 2013...and let's all hope the Maestro keeps the momentum going and brings us lots of wonderful music...because we always want more!

To celebrate some festive inclusiveness let's listen to a Jewish guitar player offer his electric interpretation of a Christian hymn, "Adeste Fideles."  This will put the jingle in your bells, Rabinites!

Collector's Corner: Cover Boy

A continuing series wherein I share my obsession with and collection of Trevor memorabilia.

In support of his burgeoning solo career, Trevor did a fair amount of press during his London years (including his first appearance in a guitar magazine, the May 1980 issue of Guitar Player), and his first international cover was for the UK publication Sounds, a weekly tabloid music paper, which is referred to on Wikipedia as one of the "trinity" of British music publications, along with New Musical Express and Melody Maker.  Conveniently this happy event occurred on his birthday in 1979, as the release of Trevor Rabin was a few months earlier (I believe in the September-October 1978 timeframe).

I'd like to note that the image in the top left hand corner of the contact sheet was made into a poster for the Japanese release of Trevor Rabin, which I also own:

Trevor and his shadow.

This is of course the session for the album photographs and some of the other publicity photos.  My complaint is that none of these sessions ever featured Trevor with his Strat.  In these he's posing with a Telecaster and on the back cover of the UK version of Face To Face he's wielding a Les Paul Goldtop.  I have nothing against these guitars, of course, but it's just bizarre.

This acquisition was especially meaningful to me for one particular reason...during our conversation in July, Trevor related the following anecdote when I commented to him that Chrysalis A&R was attempting to saddle him with an image I felt was restrictive and inappropriate to his talents:

I was on the cover of Sounds, posing with my arms spread out, and the headline read: Trevor Rabin: the Godfather of Heavy Metal, and I thought, "Uh...really?  Okay, I guess."

 Now here is the actual page (which is not the cover but the front page of the article):

I will forgive the Maestro his Senior Moment because let's face it: his version is much funnier.

The article contains plenty of the snide snark which was a hallmark of music journalism in that era, and not only in the UK but especially in the UK.  Staff writer Geoff Barton says he's a fan but he still manages to damn with faint praise, which is to be expected, especially when the editor manages a quip in the title of the article!  But I will give him props for his assessment of the record, which as I've stated previously is actually my favorite of the vocal solo work (though my preference is for the ZA version):

That aforementioned debut album really is as titanic a premier disc as I've ever heard and even though it appears to have done zilch since I reviewed it (though just before Christmas it did turn up in the lower reaches of the Billboard Top 200 US albums chart) my faith in its qualities has not diminished one iota.  

A few chunks of the article were later used in Trevor's 1979 Chrysalis press bio, which was fairly standard practice in that era.  In a future Collector's Corner I will regale readers with some of the more interesting/hilarious/revisionist portions of Trevor's press bios, as I have a near-complete collection.  But there are some interesting tidbits to be enjoyed despite the facts not quite lining up with the benefit of hindsight.  Barton describes Trevor as "rather intense and a trifle naive."  And the story of recording the debut once he had arrived in London is purposely misleading, given that we now know it was actually recorded in South Africa, although it's possible that the song which was added to the international version, "All I Want Is Your Love," was tracked in London.  Trevor talks of "lush sentimental ballads" with elaborate string arrangements which didn't make the cut, which can be construed as references to "Love Alone" and "Could There Be" but I'd like to point out that there are strings on the album, most notably on the lush sentimental ballad "Stay With Me"...just sayin.'

One criticism noted - which has seemed to follow Trevor around for the entirety of his musical endeavors - is that he is far too clever for his own good.  According to Trevor even Chris Squire told him this and I find it interesting that it was considered a liability but now, as he's entering the fourth decade of his career, people seem to finally understand that it's okay to do a lot of different things very well.  Personally, I think it's the consideration of doing so many things so well and being incredibly good-looking at the same time, it appears to create an overwhelming envy in some people.

This is my favorite quote of the article because it's so hilariously true although it's difficult to know if Trevor actually said it (journos could be slippery in those days):

"The only problem is that when I'm in the studio I become a bit of a lunatic.  I blow my head all the time.  If, say, the bass player wants to play such-and-such a thing, I can find myself shouting , 'No!  No way!  That's impossible!'  It's ridiculous, you know."

Barton cites Trevor as a perfectionist, which is true enough, and it's interesting to me that he states the same goal as he did in 1981 when he was interviewed by Sylvie Simmons (if my memory is correct) after having relocated to Los Angeles at David Geffen's behest: to form a band and go on the road.  Which did happen but it would take the better part of a year to accomplish.  It never did happen in LA, but that's - as we know - a whole other story.

reporting from the front lines of the Media Blitz

It is my personal mandate to provide readers with quality professional-calibre content, and to that end I am very proud to announce my own contribution to the promotional cycle for the new album.  Some months prior I was requested by Trevor’s organization to submit questions for an interview, the result of which has now been posted on the Rocktopia website (and features a previously unpublished photo), available at this link:
Trevor Rabin: the cultivation of Jacaranda

I was gratified to know Trevor considered my questions well-informed and interesting (and I appreciate his generosity in giving me so much of his time) and I hope long-time fans and neophytes alike will enjoy this article, composed from our series of exchanges via email and phone, which focuses on the creation of Jacaranda as well as other topics in regards to Trevor’s career.  It was certainly my pleasure (and a dream come true) to participate and I am gratified by the recognition of the organization entire.

Happy reading...and spread the word, if you're so inclined. :)

Halloween special: (slightly) scary subjects

 "English history has always fascinated me: Robin Hood, Cromwell...Jack the Ripper."

-Katherine Hepburn as Tracy Lord, The Philadelphia Story (1940)

The unofficial video for "She's Easy" produced by the BBC's The Old Grey Whistle Test, aired 2/14/81.

It's an interesting consideration that when newlyweds Trevor and Shelley moved to London in 1979, the milieu seemed to almost immediately influence Trevor's songwriting.  When I interviewed Trevor via phone in July, he related to me how the city produced the greatest cultural shock he'd ever experienced - coming from the oft-horrific cloistered social experiment which was South Africa - and although he was pressured to write songs which were au courant in regards to his new residence, as he was not a son of Albion he felt he couldn't relate to what was going on in the country at the time; from a political standpoint at the very least.  But both Face To Face and Wolf came to be peppered with British references which reflected the ways in which he was trying to fit into his adopted home.

But my true focus in this essay is a tip of the (witches) hat to the moments in which Trevor took a walk on the spooky side back in the London era.  The first is the song "The Ripper" on Face To Face, the lyrics of which appear to combine references of two true crime figures: Jack the Ripper and Peter Sutcliffe, who became known as the Yorkshire Ripper, in the final throes of his serial killer career around the time the song was composed and recorded (Sutcliffe would be finally apprehended in 1981).  The lyrics were composed by Trevor's then-manager Pete Smith (who also wrote the lyrics for "The Wanderer"), and the music is rather a sprightly tune with a memorable piano motif which does not really invoke a sense of dread in the evocation of the story, but rather focuses on how such a figure can remain a mystery even after attaining infamy.  But to my reckoning it - much like the reference to Yorkshire in "Candy's Bar" and the portrayal of London (though not specifically named) in "Now" - was a way of acknowledging Trevor was now planted in British soil, hoping to take root on his own terms.

But a more academic interpretation is offered in Chapter Two of Jane Caputi's feminist academic study The Age of Sex Crime (University of Wisconsin Press, 1987).  In "The Ripper Repetitions," she notes the song as part of a tradition (even in rock n'roll) which recounts and mythologizes the acts of a now notorious murderer; and its chilling quality comes from the first-person narrative of the lyrics themselves:

Rats, they'll call me just The Ripper

and George would love to know my name.

Fast, but man you know I'm quicker

I'll rid the world of all that shame.

The "George" which the song refers to is West Yorkshire Police Assistant Chief Constable George Oldfield, nominally in charge of the Yorkshire Ripper investigation.

The second track which I will next expound upon is rather more dread-full, though according to Trevor it was actually written as a joke of sorts.  And it appears on an album which does have a rather frightening cover by early-1980s standards:

Wolf, Chrysalis Records 1981

Taking the piss or no, the lyrics of "She's Easy" do reference a frightening figure of lore: that of the succubus. Because I believe this is not merely the tale of an nymphomaniac...but one who displays seemingly supernatural abilities.
Oooh yeah she goes down on you and she don't come up for air.
Oooh yeah she takes pride in love, it's a little much to bear.

In my estimation, this is a particularly telling couplet:
More than a woman, born out of a dream.
She takes you further than you've ever seen.
...because in various mythologies and literature the succubus is a malevolent force which may appear to men in their dreams for the purposes of sexual congress...which then leads to the male becoming sick or dying.
No resistance, you can do what you like
but you feel like a man, feels more like you died.
Think it's over, settle the score
then you turn your back, but she still wants some more.

Despite what can be construed as the cheesiness of the lyrics, the music is one of Trevor's strongest rock tracks: a great hook and chorus and a masterful long instrumental section, one of the standout guitar solos (along with "Heard You Cry Wolf" and "Looking For A Lady (Wolfman)") on the album.  The riff itself is a bit dark, which in turn fits the somewhat menacing tone of the lyrics, although I believe they are purposely ambiguous in regards to the portrayal of the female in question.  As the character who relates the allure of the subject, the emotional impact of Trevor's vocal comes across as more fearful than aroused.

The BBC2 musical variety television program The Old Grey Whistle Test chose "She's Easy" as a song to set to vintage film stock (as was their tradition with various new discoveries since the show's inception) and they used a short featuring puppets engaging in a romantic assignation (which turns into a comedy of errors when another man intrudes upon their interlude).  I have wondered for many years if perhaps the use of a Hammer Horror like The Vampire Lovers wouldn't have been more appropriate, but probably difficult in regards to obtaining clearance.  It was aired on their Valentine's Day broadcast in 1981, and is a rather twisted valentine at that when you consider what the song may truly be portraying.

Trevor would go on to score the horror film Exorcist: The Beginning (taking over for Christopher Young, who was the composer on the film when it was helmed by Paul Schrader) as well as various action thrillers like Deep Blue Sea and Snakes On A Plane, so Trevor's capacity for entertaining the eldritch continues to haunt him!

(This is where I would insert a creepy evil laugh, so let's just imagine I did.  And now I bid you loyal readers adieu...be safe, sane and spooky, mwahahaha!)

Rumor Control (and the lack thereof)

My readership has likely been tsk-tsk'ing me for not realizing that Trevor had originally revealed his tuba-playing aspirations via Facebook a couple months before I attended his recent public appearance and I fully admit I totally missed that part of his post (wherein he shared a couple of his favorite YouTube videos) from June 20th.  And so now we have to hold him to his promise of heavy metal on the next album. :op

(To sum up: me = fallible.  I'm so glad we sorted that out.)

A better example of being entirely fallible comes courtesy of two articles which I was rather irked by this month.  The articles are what I refer to as "secondary-sourced" in that they are merely restatings of other articles, both of which are interviews: one with Trevor and one with Jon Anderson.

Both take statements completely out of context resulting in misreporting (and as this is the Internet, that kind of thing can go viral in a matter of hours or days).  And these items are what I consider to be "political" concerns because they invoke the spectre of Yes, an endeavor which in the past has been challenging, one might say, in regards to its collective operation.

An ongoing debate in fandom has been the continuation of the band despite the absence of Anderson, one of its founding members.  It's happened before but now there seems to be rather a finality to its occurrence.  It's not my aim to debate the issue, however one of the writers at PROG took it upon himself to use Trevor to advance the "No Jon, No Yes" viewpoint in this recap of an interview on Blogdegezou:
http://www.progrockmag.com/news/trevor-rabin-you-cant-have-yes-without-jon-anderson/
What you may notice, however, is nowhere does Trevor actually state any of what the writer would have you believe in regards to the current status of Yes or the legitimacy thereof.  Ever the diplomat, Trevor did not take one side or the other in regards to the question posed to him by Henry Potts.  And so I wonder why Martin Kielty sees fit to drag Trevor into the middle of the ongoing argument when it's blatant misrepresentation and therefore bad journalism.

As for the other item, I have my opinion concerning the collective which - despite never having actually collaborated as of yet - is known as AWR - and I'll refrain from stating it save that I believe the hype and expectations which have been piled onto this idea since it was first brought up by Rick Wakeman in 2010 are altogether ridiculous.

The article which does something equally as bad is courtesy of Something Else!, a website which featured an interview with Trevor a couple months back.  Last week Jon Anderson gave an interview to CBS affiliate WZLK and the website posted a recap which also took his comments about the status of AWR entirely out of context, causing fans to believe the project is in the works now, and that is simply not true.
http://somethingelsereviews.com/2012/09/08/recording-as-we-speak-new-album-in-works-from-yes-alums-jon-anderson-rick-wakeman-and-trevor-rabin/
I believe interviewers should cease inquiring as to the status of the project because how many times can one hear the same answer?  Or answers which are speculative and not actual.  What is the use of that?  Granted, a collaboration between Trevor, Rick and Jon would be wonderful, and something I would love to hear.  But it until it actually happens I don't plan to waste any time pining for it, nor would I (or did I) ask about it.

Instead, I'll be enjoying the music Trevor is making now, and in the (definitely foreseeable) future...especially if it involves the tuba.