Courtenay Hameister brings friends/co-workers/vampires Shelley McLendon and Michael Fetters back to the studio to talk about what a crazy undertaking they’re in the middle of, what with this whole adapting The Lost Boys into a stage play. What’s been changed? What stays the same? How do you manifest the essence of Kiefer Sutherland into one single look? And then, the conversation turns to the more serious of subjects: Courtenay’s spent much of her life without a jam. Cort has a jam. Bobby has a jam. Shelley has so much jam that I don’t think you’re ready for this jelly. Can we come together to solve this giant hole in Courtenay’s soul, or will we have to journey to the library to see if we can look up a solution?
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
The Lena Dunham deal was for 3.5 million. Still a ridunkulous number, though. But yeah, she’s not even thirty. I know she has a hit show and everything, but it’s a little weird. I can’t be too mad, though. At least she actually writes her own stuff.
The “I think I may be the voice of my generation’ line was meant to be a joke.
Roffle is right. Also, Lena Dunham herself didn’t say that, her character on the show did and it was a joke. I saw her interviewed this past Saturday at the New Yorker festival. She’s incredibly humble about her success. She’s also incredibly sensitive about the criticism she and the show have received. In the interview she talked about how terrified she was about everything she has said being taken out of context. The Louie thing was a sweet comment from a fellow show creator. I don’t know it really makes sense to pass judgement on some off-the-cuff remark like that.
A reason (among many) this show is great: it’s one of the few places I’ll learn that someone else under the age of 60 calls a 70′s AM gold song their jam. We never have to meet, hold hands, heavily pet or french. Just knowing you’re out there bonds us.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt6lYiKcik8
I agreed with pretty much everything up until the mentions of Peter Cetera. He is everything that went wrong with that band, and even after he left, they could never pull themselves out of their adult-contemporary pit.
Truth be told, Cetera was with them from the beginning. He may have had “Questions 67 & 68″ and “25 Or 6 To 4″, but “Where Do We Go From Here” on the second album was basically them going light pretty early on.
A part of me thinks they wanted to remain adult-contemporary, because of the failures of 13 and 14, and when they realized they could achieve any level of success again, they stayed with that formula throughout the 80′s. They essentially became a retro band from album 21 on, that NIGHT AND DAY album they did was garbage. They’ve also done new versions of certain songs, a few with their longtime trumpeter Lee Loughnane: passable but they should never mess with success. You want embarrassing? They allow fans to sing “If You Leave Me Now” as they play along, so for four minutes they are their own karaoke band. Now, imagine if Chicago let Donnie Dacus taken over? In the two albums he was on, he did some decent work for them, but they are often ignored because he wasn’t Cetera. I disagree on Cetera being the main reason the band tanked, as I believe that some of the others contributed to their own downfall, if Danny Seraphine’s autobiography is any indication. How do you kick out one of the original guys who had a hand in starting the group? Well, they did. Seraphine had the last laugh when one of their songs (“Street Player”) from one of their worst selling albums (13) became used as a sample for a dance track, which keeps his royalties rolling everytime it’s heard in everything from sports to reality shows. I’m someone who understands why Cetera would eventually be the sole voice for Chicago to the general public, but he definitely wasn’t the only one responsible.
Great show. As for jams, I have way too many. I’m that one who gets specific in terms of decade, era, label, producer, remixer, what is the country of origin for the vinyl pressing, etc, but a few songs immediately came to mind.
Ramsey Lewis’ “Sun Goddess”
Ohio Players’ “Love Rollercoaster”
Jodeci’s “Freek’N'You”
With Lewis, it’s not even Philip Bailey’s vocals that move me, even though it’s one of the song’s trademarks. It’s everything that leads to and out of it, and Don Myrick’s saxophone solo mixed in with Verdine White’s wicked bass riffs: mandatory. It has to be the original LP version, not the version Earth, Wind & Fire on GRATITUDE and yes, I do know Lewis’ version is essentially EW&F with Lewis sitting in, but Lewis’ version: beautiful.
Ohio Players? It has to be the full length album version, not the single edit. I’ll even take the quadraphonic mix with the extra horns.
As for Jodeci, I tried to select something of the last 25 years and I could’ve went to anything from Black Sheep’s “The Choice Is Yours (Revisited)” to Jemini The Gifted One’s “Funk Soul Sensation”, but as I was listening to this show, I wanted to turn on a fan, sing into it, and create DeVante Swing’s vocals. The remix with Raekwon and Ghostface is an incredible jam as well, especially if I want to talk about loving my power U warm, wanting some ice cold milk and Lorna Doons, but I’ll stick with the original album version. Plus, having Beverly Peele in the video lip-synching: super hot.
I am glad the whole AM Gold thing was brought up. I’m sore all mainstream radio in the US is the same at this point, but I’m tired of the same 100 songs every day. Free made many more songs than “All Right Now”. I’m a sucker for the one-hit and no-hit wonders, so I’ve been packing that on the iPod and just playing that. I’m normally with iPod, most of the time catching up on podcasts but give me AM Gold. Precious and few? Very much. Give me the 15 to 25CD box set of all of that.
The discussion about music at the end was of interest as well, and it fit in with what I read recently. I think it was an article related to the way people used to listen to records compared to now, where everyone is with earbuds isolating themselves from everyone else. Growing up, music was very much a communal experience, and maybe that was due to necessity or being in a home where the stereo in the house was your only stereo. Whatever was played, everyone heard it, which meant what my parents liked, I would go through and find something I liked. I’d also have “my songs” too but I had been very curious about the music that happened before I was born, so 60′s stuff is something I continue to explore. I used to hate the music of the 1950′s because I became one of those “Elvis was a hero to most, but he never meant shit to me” kinda guys. I was sold with The Beatles, I understand Presleyana but still can’t get into his music, but I understand his appeal. Then I realized that a lot of my favorite blues and jazz came from the 1950′s, and as I would eventually get into rockabilly, garage rock, surf music, and doo-wop, I realized Presley did not own the 50′s at all. The one thing my parents did not do was create my musical interests, they allowed me to listen to anything and everything . It was my uncles who were the huge hard rock and heavy metal freaks, but also loved the whole acoustic California sound. My mom and aunties loved soul and funk. I’m a kid of disco. I loved Kiss at an early age, but I also worshipped Earth, Wind & Fire and the entire P-Funk empire. Music was something I did not fear, and even now as I use a “critical ear” as a journalist, I can get elitist and complain about crap I don’t like, but I try to find something in it that I do. As far as all the remixes being used as a sponge to suck up any and all genres, I still think it’s better to know and understand certain guidelines so you can figure out where to go next. If it’s a Ted Nugent-like free-for-all, they’re not going to be aware of its history and significance, or maybe I’m one of those guys who found history and the documentation of it equal to the power of the music.
As for Peter Cetera, I am a fan of his from the first CTA up until the “You’re The Insipiration” video where he gives the equivalent of a “Paul is Dead” club by miming the bass left-handed. “WHAT IS THIS… IS PETER LEAVING THE BAND?!?!” He may be the butter to eveyrone’s popcorn, but he is one of the most underrated bass players in rock, plain and simple. Yes, they became extra cheesy because of the Cetera schmaltz but I’ve always loved that too. The 80′s had the band in survival mode, but look at all the hits they managed to get with the producers and songwriters they had. You put on “Hard Habit To Break”, and I’ll bust out my Bill Champlin and let out a scruffy “I’M ADDICTED TO YOUUUUUUU” Even post-Cetera, those albums were great in their own way, some of it is incredibly dated but I admire the craft. Cetera can live in the woods of Boise or wherever he is these days, but that man should not be ashamed. Playing “Aloha Mama” on my iPod in his honor.