Not all parents were created equal. There are parents who have no tact, parents who are too strict, parents who make out in front of their kids, and parents who simply have bad taste. Unfortunately, these parents still get to name their children, which is why it’s understandable that some kids can’t wait until legal age to change their names. Hey, Plato definitely has a better ring than Aristocles, son of Ariston, of the deem Cloytus. And Leon Trotsky probably realized early on that Lev Davidovich Bronshtein wouldn’t go over too well at the playground. God only knows what nom-de-plume Apple Paltrow will take on in years to come.
Of course, when you get to choose your name the first time around, you only have yourself to blame, which is why Mos Def’s recent announcement that he’ll be reborn as Yasiin come 2012 raises eyebrows. But the soon-to-be Yasiin is not the first artist to bring a stage name in for an upgrade–or an accidental downgrade. Read on for some artists whose name changes were also career changers, and decide for yourself whether Mos Def’s metamorphosis will usher in positive, new beginnings or just be the most confusing rechristening since the Triboro became the RFK.
As we listened to the new Rapture album on Monday — once the initial shock that it just wasn’t very good had worn off — the thing we couldn’t help noticing was that the lyrics seemed pretty rabidly Christian. Perhaps this shouldn’t be a surprise, considering the band’s name, but as far as we’re aware, their songs have never been overtly religious before. Anyway, it turns out that there’s a story behind this — according to the Village Voice, singer Luke Jenner converted to Catholicism in 2009. He’s not the first musician to undergo a road-to-Damascus experience — so after the jump, we’ve looked at a selection of other famous musical conversions, and what they meant for the both the artist in question and the music they made afterward.
It’s a while since we’ve put up a post that elicited as much reader hostility as our recent piece about much-loved music videos that aren’t, um, quite as good as we remember them being. In particular, our suggestion that David Bowie’s “Ashes to Ashes” and Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” look kinda dated these days went down like a lead balloon, with several commenters daring us to tell the world what videos we do think have held up over the years. We’re always up for a challenge, so we’ve gone back through our videotape collection to pick out ten clips that use technology and/or ideas that might be called obsolete, but still look pretty great to our eyes. Your comments are, as ever, read with interest. But be nice.
Back in April, Prince made news with yet another nutty pronouncement — that cover songs should be illegal. At the time, we couldn’t resist responding with a roundup of our favorite Prince covers. Today, Slicing Up Eyeballs brings us a late but incredibly worthy addition to the list: Elvis Costello and the Imposters performing “Purple Rain” live at New York’s Beacon Theater on May 24th. Costello belts out the song with the energy and sincerity of a true fan, and his metallic jacket and leopard-print hat serve as an apt (if also probably inadvertent) tribute to the Purple One.
Just this week, Ja Rule turned himself in to start a 2 -year jail sentence connected with a 2007 crime, which has gotten us thinking. Maybe it’s just us, but musicians seem to land themselves in a little bit more trouble than people of other professions. Maybe it’s because they’re living the high life, thinking they can get away with it all, or maybe they’re just negatively influenced by their surroundings, but we think it probably has something to do with the same personality trait that makes them want to be performers in the first place. Just a theory, though. In any event, we were inspired to dig up a few vintage mugshots of famous musicians, many of which are actually quite beautiful in and of themselves, although that could just be Sinatra’s good looks shining through. Click through for our round-up of vintage musician mugshots, and let us know what you think in the comments!
“What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist,” opined Salman Rushdie in 1990, and he’d know, considering he’s spent most of the two decades since doing his best not to get blown up by the religious lunatics who were offended by The Satanic Verses. You’d hope that in 2011 we might have moved beyond tedious moralizing and hand-wringing about what our artists do or don’t say. But no. This week such bastions of public taste as Sarah Palin (remember her?) and Karl Rove (remember him?) took the time to focus on the big issues and lambaste President Obama for… inviting Common to perform at the White House. Setting aside the fact that we’d bet our goolies that neither Palin nor Rove have ever actually listened to Common -– we also notice that they’re not exactly racing to condemn Ted “Suck on my machine gun” Nugent -– it’s the latest in a long and depressing litany of unwelcome moralizing about music. Here’s a quick roundup for those who came in late.
Ah, the 1980s. They’ve got a pretty rotten musical reputation, and as far as film music goes, at least, it’s largely well deserved. This was the decade that soundtrack albums became big business – the decade when ultra-commercial songs from the likes of Footloose, St Elmo’s Fire, Top Gun, and Dirty Dancing were a constant fixture on Casey Kasem’s American Top 40, and Kenny Loggins made a tidy living. But still, there was room for some genuinely innovative and interesting scores and soundtracks to be made – as we discover in the latest installment of Flavorpill’s soundtrack series.
We read with interest this morning that Prince had pronounced – via Fox news, no less – that in his opinion, cover songs should be banned. Specifically, he railed at the fact that “there’s this thing called compulsory licensing law that allows artists through the record companies to take your music at will without your permission.” This is true, from what we can gather – provided that by “the record companies” he means the companies who hold publishing rights, which isn’t always the same thing – although the law does also specify that licensing fees must be paid to the songwriter. It’s an interesting point, as very few musicians own their own publishing rights. But equally, it’d be a shame if he’d had his way all along, because there have been some cracking Prince covers recorded over the years. Check out our favorites, and suggest yours, after the jump.
We were lucky enough to score tickets to PJ Harvey earlier this week at Terminal 5, and were rewarded with one of the best shows we’ve seen in ages. She played every track off her new album Let England Shake, and it got us thinking about how consistently excellent her career has been, save for a slight dip in the early 2000s. There have been plenty of artists who’ve had one or two good albums in them but found it ever more difficult to maintain that level of quality once the initial rush of ideas is gone. Artists who’ve been able to put out a string of great albums without intervening stinkers are few and far between –- so we’ve rounded up ten of our favorites. We’ve set our bar at four consecutive great albums, which rules out a surprisingly large number of artists -– it’s tough to turn out nothing but goodness over a number of years! Feel free to add your suggestions in our ever-accommodating comments section.
