MAYBELLENE MAG

MUSC 108 MIDTERM

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Boy Bands and other “Teenage Girl Music”: Talented or Tacky?- Lauren Shackman

Bob Dylan’s Early Years: Less “Talking Dust Bowl”, More “Tutti Frutti”- Mitchell Patton

Body Bags- Riley Larsen

The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan: Why Dylan’s Sophomore Album Has Stood the Test of Time- Samuel Serxner

Blink 182- Samson Dooley

Art Rupe and the History of Specialty Records- Cameron Park

The Power of Rap: Deconstructed- Benjamin Kaplan

Avicii’s Life, Impact, and Presence on the Music Industry- Matt Chase

Are Concerts Worth It?- Spencer Robbins

Woodstock: A Monumental Success or Failure?- Olivia Baglieri

Phish Fandom- Luke Dewees

Awful Records: Navigating the Transition from Independent Artist Collec-tive to an RCA Records Deal- Kalib Varela

Technology & The Multidimensional Aspect of Music- Freya Strasburg

What We Got Wrong About Waits- Olivia Gracey

Fly Me To The Moon (Cover)- Giovanni Ortiz

Layout- JR Atkinson

Boy Bands and other “Teenage Girl Music”: Talented or Tacky?

Why are early and relatively tame Beatles songs such as “I Want to Hold Your Hand” tak-en less seriously than their later music? Why do self-proclaimed “serious” music fans scoff when they see young girls screaming at concerts for their favorite bands? Why was Justin Bieber constantly criticized for being a pop star when he rose to fame in his early teens? Because these songs and performers were marketed towards teenage girls, their music was not taken seriously and was seen as shallow.

Teenagers, especially teenage girls, have always been seen as not being in control of their developing emotions and feelings, and boy bands are seen as capitalizing on their new-found sexual thoughts. This most famous example of this is Elvis Presley. In the puritan culture of the 1950s, the music scene offered little for teenage girls sexually, until Elvis’s gyrating hips and suggestive lyrics came into play. A primary source of the time, an ar-

ticle by Jack Gould, entitled “Elvis Presley: Lack of Re-sponsibility is Shown by TV in Exploiting Teen-Agers” and published in 1956, argues that “He is at the age when an awareness of sex is both thoroughly natural and normal… But what is new, and a little discour-aging is the willingness and indeed eagerness of reputable business men to exploit those critical factors beyond all reasonable grounds” Elvis was seen by many as shallow, untalented, and only famous for his sex appeal, just like boy bands are now. Now, many years later, and because his later works were not aimed at teenage girls, Elvis is seen as one of the pioneers of rock music and beloved by so-called serious music fans the main reason is that his later music was not

aimed at the teenage girls market.

While the market for music aimed at teenage girls is lucrative, it can ruin an artist’s repu-tation. Most assume that teenage girls are shallow, cannot appreciate real music, and only listen to music if attractive men are performing. If a teenage girl is interested in an artist marketed towards other age and gender groups, such as Bob Dylan, she is seen as “cul-tured” and superior to the more stereotypical teenage girls who lose control and scream while at a Beatles concert or try to touch Elvis on stage. Many impose their own biases by presuming that because the Beatles started as a boy band, they could not have been serious musicians like Dylan. In his 2012 article “Just me and the boybands” Mark Kemp attacks the Beatle’s origins: “Brian Epstein saw a gang of wannabe tough guys in leath-er jackets in dire need of some hip haircuts and groovy black suits. Their “genius” came later, with help from classical-music arranger George Martin, tips from Bob Dylan and a few acid trips. They wrote great songs, sure, but they started out as a boyband. Period”. It was only after the Beatles started producing music that did not appeal to the “teenage girl market”, that they were viewed as “real musicians”. As their ballads changed from simple love songs like “This Boy” to more serious topics like acid trips such as “She said,

Boy Bands and other “Teenage Girl Music”: Talented or Tacky?

She Said”, they began to get more trac-tion with older listeners, who at one time had scoffed at teenage girls for only to listening to the Beatles because they’re attractive. Many boy bands are groups of attractive young men who can sing, brought togeth-er by a “mastermind” behind the scenes older producer. For example, One Direc-tion was set up by Simon Cowell when he combined five solo acts in the XFactor into one group. They fit into a specific

category (attractive boys around high school age that are charismatic and can sing). Together they fit this trope that will eventually make them much more popular than they would have been alone. However, appealing to a larger audience as a group than if they were alone does not make boy groups less talented, they are just taking ad-vantage of the situation by trying to appeal to a large, available market.

Music aimed at the teenage boy market is viewed as being more

serious and superior to music aimed at the teenage girl market. Bands

who perform music aimed at teenage boys, such as Acid Rock (for example,

later Beatles songs, The Doors, and Pink Floyd) are considered great rock stars.

In contrast, The Beach Boys were called “archetypal “pop music cop-outs” by early

Rock critics, because their music was aimed towards teen girls. Their songs were about

surfing, girls, and cars, three “safe” topics (safe meaning conservative and not overtly sexual-

ized). Both The Beach Boys and The Beatles had material clean enough to be featured on the Ed

Sullivan Show. If you listen to the tapes, you can hear

girls screaming for both bands and the majority of the audience is teenage girls. Upon seeing the tapes of The Beatles, the first thought that comes to mind could be “cute” or “sweet”. Part of their appeal at that time was that they wore matching outfits and sing sweet love ballads, which isn’t taken seriously.Even in 2019, music that is marketed towards teenage girls is seen as unintelligent and vapid while the music that is marketed towards teenage boys is much more respected, although still viewed as a “teenager thing”.

1.Gould, Jack. “ELVIS PRESLEY; TOMORROW NIGHT ON TELEVISION--.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 16 Sept. 1956, www.nytimes.com/1956/09/16/ar-chives/elvis-presley-tomorrow-night-on-televisionthe-lord-dont-play.html.2.Kemp, Mark. “Just Me and the Boybands...” Rock’s Backpages, 21 June 2012, www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/just-me-and-the-boybands.3.The Beach Boys.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 25 Feb. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beach_Boys.

-LAUREN SHACKMAN

BOB DYLAN’S EARLY YEARSLess “Talking Dust Bowl”, More “Tutti Frutti”

Bob Dylan is known for his lyricism, his anti-war and civil rights anthems, and his distinct sound. In the 1960’s, he helped bring folk music back into relevancy, and both created and influenced a string of folk-based pop hits. But Dylan’s youth is not one that would lend well to crafting heartfelt, homespun folk tunes. If anything, Dylan’s upbringing primed him for a career in rock n’ roll.

Bob Dylan was born Robert Zimmerman in Duluth, Minnesota in 1941. By Dylan’s own telling, he did not stay long. At the age of either seven or thirteen he lived in Gallup, New Mexico while part of a traveling circus. He credits this carnival for his knowledge of the then contemporary folk songs. Dylan also claims that at that same age (either seven of thirteen, or maybe both), he ran away from Gallup, first to Texas, then on to Kansas. Some time later, he lived in Sioux Falls, South Dakota long enough to learn to sing from a farmhand. A childhood like this seems only fitting once you hear the coun-try twang and world-weariness of Dylan’s voice. But it is a lie.

A Newsweek article published in 1963 re-vealed the falsehood. It is likely that he spent almost all of his time from the age of six growing up in Hibbing, Minnesota, where he lived “in a conventional home” and attended “conventional schools.” Dana Gillespie, already friends with Dylan in 1965, once said, “…people think he was very poor once but in fact his parents are quite wealthy… At heart he is a kind of a tramp, who would rather do his travelling in com-fort…” Despite his claims, Bob Dylan start-ed out about as far as possible from being a folk star.

Dylan had his first performance while at high school in Hibbing. He started a band called the Golden Chords with three class-mates, for which he played the guitar and possibly the occasional piano. Though he did have a love for the blues, the music he really loved was more high-energy. When asked what the Golden Chords played, LeRoy Hoikkala, the drummer, said “… a lot of Little Richard. Bob loved Little Rich-ard, so we did a lot of Little Richard stuff.” Dylan’s yearbook goal was “to Join Little Richard”. At one school talent show, Dylan so committedly covered one of his songs that he went “screaming and pounding on the piano” in true Little Richard fashion. As often as Woody Guthrie is pronounced to be Dylan’s largest idol, he certainly was not his biggest influence in his early years.

While attending University of Minnesota, Dylan began transitioning away from the rock n’ roll passions of his high school and towards folk and more traditional blues. But before he began performing in the college town folk circuit, he needed a new name.

Dylan dropped his given name of Zimmer-man for something more befitting a folk star. Contrary to popular belief, he was not inspired by the poet Dylan Thomas. At first, he went by Bob Dillon, modeling his last name on that of the main character in the radio and television series Gunsmoke. Matt Dillon was the U.S. Marshall of Dodge, Kan-sas in the 1870’s. Being part of the Western Frontier then, the town did not always take kindly to law enforcement. For Matt Dillon, keeping the peace meant keeping a pulse on the people. He was a man who knew country people during some of their hard-

est times, and who would have witnessed the birth or the events of classis folk songs. Who could have been more fitting?

After abandoning college, the recently minted “Bob Dylan” arrived in New York in January of 1961. In his first months there, he often visited the hospital room of Woody Guthrie, the folk legend whose accent and rambling cadence Dylan ad-opted. He became a frequenter of the folk bars and coffee shops of Greenwich Vil-lage, and by April he opened a show for John Lee Hooker. Substantial praise from a New York Times review helped gener-ate a record deal with Columbia, and in 1962 he released the self-titled Bob Dylan. The album contains numerous folk and blues covers, with two original songs. The second is “Song to Woody”, a tribute to Woody Guthrie. His telltale harmonica ap-pears frequently. All of this points to him having abandoned the Little Richard aspi-rations of his earlier youth.

However, those hopes had not died com-pletely. Also in 1962, he recorded a rock n’ roll single that his manager never released. Albert Grossman nixed “Mixed Up Confusion”

because he wanted Dylan to present ex-clusively as an “acoustic folkie”. And Tom Wilson, his recording manager, once said, “… you should hear him play blues piano. He could have made it big as a pianist, you know.” So even if his true roots never made it to the public, he they at least lived on in the recording studio.

Bob Dylan sold incredibly poorly, but it capped his introduction to New York and cemented him as a blues and folk artist, at least in the public’s eye. Despite the first’s failure, Dylan’s next albums would estab-lish him as the leading lyricist of the folk genre. He reached stardom performing just with his guitar and harmonica, and succeeded in reintroducing the world to a sound derived principally from Woody Guthrie.

But, in 1965, Dylan returned to his true Minnesota rock n’ roll upbringing, elec-trifying his previously all-acoustic sound for the first time. His album that year contained “Mr. Tambourine Man”, and it launched a new chapter in his career in the direction of Little Richard’s rock and roll. The album was aptly titled Bringing It All Back Home.

- MITCHELL PATTONJames, Billy. “Bob Dylan: The First Interview”. Press Release, 1961. Bob Dylan. Rock’s Backpages. http://www.rocksbackpages.com/ Library/Article/bob-dylan-the-first-interview.Linthicum, Leslie. “Did Dylan Roots Really Reach Gallup?” Albuquerque Journal, 13 Sept. 2012, www.abqjournal.com.Altham, Keith. “Bob Dylan’s Not A Singer At All — Says His Friend Dana”. New Musical Express, 1965. Bob Dylan, Dana Gillespie. Rock’s Backpages. http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/ bob-dylans-not-a-singer-at-all--says-his-friend-dana.Lindh. Robinson, John. “Bob Dylan: the Hibbing High School ‘Class Of 1959’ Reunion.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 23 July 2009, www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/bob- dylan/5887887/Bob-Dylan-the-Hibbing-High-School-Class-Of- 1959-reunion.html.“Matt Dillon (Gunsmoke).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Jan. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Dillon_(Gunsmoke).Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. “Bob Dylan | Biography & History.” AllMusic, 2018, www.allmusic.com/artist/bob-dylan-mn0000066915/ biography.Green, Richard and Peter Jones. “Inside Bob Dylan”. Record Mirror, 1965. Bob Dylan. Rock’s Backpages. http://www.rocksbackpages.com/ Library/Article/inside-bob-dylan.

BODY BAGSWith the world’s attention turned to Hanoi this week as President Trump and Supreme LeaderKim meet about denuclearization and eco-nomic stability of North Korea, now seems like a good time to recall the last time the United States was focused on Vietnam, during the ugly war that lasted over 18 years and led to the deaths of over 60,000 American men.

Here in the states, World War I and World War II, were “popular” wars, justifications for fighting that the American public could easily understand. But when the time came to enter the Vietnam conflict popular sen-timent echoed the words of President Lyn-don B. Johnson, who famously said, “We are not about to send American boys 9 or 10 thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for

themselves.”

But send them we did, and many did not go willingly, the draft was the law of the day and if a young man’s number came up, he was obligated to serve, and thousands were sent to fight. But it is important to note that the draft was not a level playing field and wealthy or well-educated men often found a way out through college or medical de-ferment while lower income boys had no option but to fight in the rice paddies of Southeast Asia.

While the soldiers of World War I had the patriotic music of George M. Cohan’s, “Over

BODY BAGSThere” and World War II was remembered for The Andrews Sisters and Benny Goodman, Vietnam did not have the backing of the public and the artists of the day were quick to judge American involvement in Vietnam. Difficult times have the unique ability to produce mean-ingful art, and musicians of the 1960’s and 1970s crafted songs that remain as some of today’s most haunting ballads. Artists like Bob Dylan, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Joan Baez wrote songs and lyrics that didn’t just hint at the atrocities of American involvement in Vietnam, they plainly addressed the draft, carpet bombing, and the killing of noncomba-tants with straight forward language and mem-orable lyrics. Consider the classic, “Fortunate Son” by Creedence Clearwater Revival,

“Some folks are born made to wave the flag Ooh, they’re red, white and blueAnd when the band plays ‘Hail to the chief’Ooh, they point the cannon at you, LordIt ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no senator’s son, son It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no fortunate one, no.”

Creedence John Fogerty wrote the gritty lyrics and strong guitar lines of “Fortunate Son” in response to the growing division in a country that was not only increasingly anti-war, but anti class division. As the war drug on, and Amer-ican television viewers saw body bags loaded on planes and helicopters every night on the evening news, it became clearer and clearer that young men of privilege were not going to the draft. The boys dying were lower and mid-dle income-unfortunate sons. “I ain’t no sena-

tor’s son” addresses this as directly as it can be addressed.

The protest songs of the Vietnam era were not just obscure songs with little or no airplay or popularity, many became huge hits that have been played by gen-erations after the war. Songs like Joan Baez’s “Saigon Bride,” and John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance” are rock stan-dards, as is the Country Joe and the Fish song, “Country Joe Feel Like I’m Fixin to Die,” which became a fixture after the song was performed live at Woodstock in 1969. The title is almost odd when you consider this song’s upbeat rhythm and pace, but when combined with it’s dark lyrics, the contrast makes listening to this popular anti-war song feel like some sort of macabre pep rally.

“Well, come on mothers throughout the land, Pack your boys off to Vietnam.Come on fathers, don’t hesitate,Send ‘em off before it’s too late.Be the first one on your blockTo have your boy come home in a box. And it’s one, two, threeWhat are we fighting for?Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn, Next stop is Vietnam.”

There can be no ambiguity about these lyrics, and the line, “Be the first one on your block to have your boy come home in a box” is both dark and breathtaking.

Another song that deserves mention in any discussion of Vietnam protest songs is Jimmy Cliff’s “Vietnam.” Cliff was an early star of reggae and in this song, he

describes a friend who writes him a letter postmarked from Vietnam, stating that he would be “coming home soon” but in the last verse before the chorus, we find out that once again in Vietnam, it has gone wrong:

“It was just the next day, his mother got a tele-gram It was addressed from VietnamNow mistress Brown, she lives in the USAAnd this is what she wrote and said‘Don’t be alarmed’, she told me the telegram said ‘But mistress Brown your son is dead.”

Finally, no discussion of Vietnam era pro-test music could be complete without including the haunting song “Ohio” by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Written in 1970 following the shooting deaths of four students at the hands of National Guard troops in an anti-war protest at Kent State University in Ohio, this song is more accu-rately described as the story of a protest, rather than as an anti-Vietnam song. But the song itself illustrates the utter futili-ty of the war and everything surrounding it. Young sings, “Soldiers are gunning us down, Should have been done long ago.” You sense the grave sadness of the time, not only were the soldiers dying thousands of miles away in the war, but the country was so tired of the war, and so political-ly divided, that now the killing had come home to middle America. The song is slow, and dark, and remains one of the era’s great, sad, ballads from Young who by any measure is one of rock’s most masterful writers.

While the music of Vietnam ranges from sad to angry, insightful to mournful, sarcas-tic to melancholy, there can be no doubt

that the songs of the war era influenced a generation of young people, fueled pro-tests and attitudes. In some way, the works of these artists and many others ultimately contributed to the long-overdue end of the conflict.

1 “Lyndon B. Johnson Quotes.” Brainy-Quote.com. BrainyMedia Inc, 2019. 27 Feb-ruary 2019.2 Rosenberg, Jennifer. “The Story Be-hind the Famous World War I Song ‘Over There’.” Thoughtco. Dotdash, 30 Dec. 2018. Web..3 Creedence Clearwater Revival. “Creed-ence Clearwater Revival History.” Creed-ence Clearwater Revival FAQ. N.p., 1969. Web. 28 Feb. 2019.4 Creedence. “Creedence Clearwater Re-vival History.”5 “Saigon Bride Lyrics.” Lyrics.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2019. Web. 27 Feb. 20196 Wikipedia. “Give Peace a Chance.” Wiki-pedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Jan. 2019. Web. 28 Feb. 2019.7 Lindsay, James M. “The Twenty Best Viet-nam Protest Songs.” Council on Foreign Relations. Council on Foreign Relations, 5 Mar. 2015. Web. 28 Feb. 2019.8 Alpha History. “Country Joe and the Fish: Feel Like I’m Fixin to Die Rag.”Country Joe Feel Like I’m Fixin to Die. N.p., 16 June 2018. Web. 28 Feb. 2019.9 Wikipedia. “Jimmy Cliff (album).” Wikipe-dia. Wikimedia Foundation, 23 Feb. 2019. Web. 28 Feb. 2019. 10 Sheehan, Ivan. “The Story of “Ohio”.” Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. N.p., 17 May 2012. Web. 28 Feb. 2019 11 Sheehan, “The Story of Ohio”

-RILEY LARSEN

THE FREEWHEELIN’ BOB DYLAN

Why Dylan’s Sophomore Album Has Stood the

Test of Time

Thrust upon him by fans and critics alike, the title “Spokesman of a Generation,” was not something Bob Dylan chose. In fact, he lament-ed the label and expectations that surrounded the sentiment. After his commercially under-whelming debut project Bob Dylan, folk rock diehards and critics were immediately taken back by his sophomore album released just over a year later on May 27, 1963. The Free-wheelin’ Bob Dylan forever altered the relation-ship between singer and songwriter, as Dylan proved through masterful lyricism and skilled composition that artists were capable and de-serving of greater agency over their work.

Starting with “Blowin’ in the Wind,” the lead single of the album that sold over 300,000 copies in its’ first week and peaked at Number Two on the Billboard chart, Dylan set the tone of the album. Soft and pensive, Dylan asks questions of liberty and personal responsibility to others and the world around us. By main-taining a wide approach in his postulations, Dylan keeps the song applicable to a general audience, helping to explain both its contem-porary popularity and the tracks transcen-dence through decades and generations.

In “Girl from the North County,” Dylan speaks with nostalgia about a past love with antique lyrical quality, wondering if “she remembers him at all in the darkness of his night.” Though he is too proud to see her again, Dylan still cares for the woman, hoping she remains warm in the face of howling winds. Sentimental and empathetic, this track exposes Dylan’s delicate expressions for those he holds close, recogniz-ing that the termination of a relationship does not mean the end of thought and feeling about that person.

The sixth track of the album, “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” speaks of propaganda in the United States media, using hard rain as a met-aphor for the torrential downpour of lies and biased viewpoints coming from newspapers and the radio. This was particularly prevalent during the throws of the Cold War, where Cuba and the USSR were demonized for their polit-ical policies and stances by the United States media. Antagonistic in nature, Dylan’s fear-lessness and willingness to criticize perceived malevolent behavior made him a hero to many.

Called “self-pitying but brilliant,” by Dave von Ronk, “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” was written in the aftermath of Dylan learning that his girlfriend, Suze Rotolo, was considering prolonging her stay in Italy indefinitely. Dylan didn’t view the track as a love song, rather, “a statement that maybe you can say to make yourself feel better. It’s as if you were talking to yourself.” Though there is some debate as to whether Bruce Langhorne was playing the picking guitar or Dylan was on the track by himself, there is no doubt that the beat meshes seamlessly with Dylan’s folk rock sound. Com-bined with Dylan’s ability to use personal expe-rience and pain to express a feeling applicable to a general audience on full display, it’s no surprise that “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” is still played often today.

In The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, Dylan managed to change the way artists evaluated them-selves, acting as a catalyst in the development of The Beatles and The Beach Boys, as well as providing inspiration for a new crop of singer/songwriters like Neil Young and Johnny Cash. Looking at the way Dylan influenced The Beat-les is particularly interesting. John Lennon was quoted saying that The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan was listened to quite thoroughly and often by The Beatles in the summer of 1963. It is also well known that The Beatles began smoking marijuana, and eventually graduat-ing onto more dangerous drugs, in large part due to their exposure to Dylan. This lifestyle change greatly influenced the way The Beat-les went about making their music, especially for Lennon and McCartney as songwriters. It is not often that an album has such an effect on the entirety of the music industry, and though Dylan lamented the idea that Allen Ginsberg could crown him “spokesman of a generation,” Dylan undoubtedly established himself as a pioneer in rock music, something he continued to be long after praise and adulation turned to disenchantment and disgust. Through it all, Dylan maintained his freewheeling self, touch-ing on subjects like civil rights, personal rela-tionship, and political policy in a manner that was subtle and aggressive.

- SAMUEL SERXNER

BLINK 182

At the turn of the millenium one of the hottest bands that some say inspired a mainstream trend of punk pop. One of their most

defining features was their ability to say anything and everything you were taught not to say. As Mark Hoppus would say “Fuck everybody

and everything, I hope everyone catches gonorrhea and dies.” This is just a subtle glimpse into how licentious the band can get. This was just the fac-

tor that the youth of America so hardly clinged onto which led to an uprise of a new wave of punk.

Blink 182 was started in a suburb of San Diego, California called Poway. Poway is a quaint town with a country feel to it even though it was a half hour drive to the city

or the beach. In the center of town is Poway High School, consisting of anywhere from 3000-4000 students. Out of this giant pool of students, there was Tom DeLonge and Scott Raynor, the founders of Blink 182. The third member, mark Hoppus attended fontana High School, a smaller neighboring school of Poway. Tom performed as vocalist and gui-tarist, Mark as vocalist and bassist and Scott as drummer. During high school, DeLonge showed up to his school’s varsity basketball drunk. The administrators caught him and ended up expelling him from the school. He ended up Transferring to the cross-town ri-val, Rancho Bernardo High School. As a typical rebellious teen would act, DeLonge hated everything about his rival school. The original name of the band was referred to as Blink but and Irish band threatened a lawsuit against them causing them to change the name

to Blink 182. There is a theory among locals of Poway, California behind the meaning of the band’s name: Blink 182. Many people assume the band name is pronounced Blink one-eightytwo. But really it should be pronounced Blink eighteen-two. These numbers correlate to the letters of the alphabet. The eighteen correlates to the letter R, being the eighteenth letter of the alphabet and the two correlates to B, being the second letter in the alphabet. The two letters combined form RB, the acronym of De-Longe’s rival school he transferred to after he got expelled. The word Blink refers to the sound a TV makes when a cuss word is censored. Therefore, Blink can correlate to the word fuck. So the theory suggests the that Blink 182 means Fuck RB. This also perfectly fits the description of how a punk band would name themselves.

The trio started in in a garage like many teen start-ups would. ‘Flyswatter” was their first demo tape released in May of 1993. The EP was recorded in Scott Raynor’s bedroom on a boombox. It consisted of eight tracks, two of them called “Reebok Commercial” and “Time”. At the time, the made up label, “Fags in the Wilderness”, made by the band, dis-tributed copies via Tom at lunch time. Later that year Buddha was released which con-tained re-recorded versions of “Reebok Commercial” and “Time”. Blink 182 released records throughout the 90s and slowly grew in popularity with the rise of punk rock. It was in 1996 when the album “Dude Ranch” was recorded and signed with MCA to help with increasing distributions. When the album was released in 1997, 4 million copies were sold and the leg-acy of Blink 182 took off. Later that year, the single “Dammit” was released. This song was about maturing and losing a girl who wouldn’t take you back. As Tom DeLonge said in The Pursuit of Tone documentary, the recipe for making an unforgettable song was made by writing “Dammit”.

With the growing popularity and fame comes the rise of the party lifestyle. Shortly after the single released, Scott Raynor left the band due to alcohol addiction. A drummer from The Aquabats, a support band, named Travis Barker was asked to take place for Raynor. These three members of the band were considered the core trio of Blink 182. DeLonge,

BLINK 182

Hoppus and Barker would take Blink to a higher level on the popularity charts with the release of “Enema of the State” in 1999. Worldwide,” Enema of the State” sold over 15 million copies and the album included one of Blink 182’s biggest hits, “Adam’s Song”. This moving song illustrates a story of a kid who wrote a letter about taking his life. Towards the end of the song, the lyrics suggest that the boy does not end up committing suicide. “Adam” is used as a metaphor towards Mark’s depression he experienced while on tour with Blink-182. He stated: ‘Tom and Travis always had girlfriends waiting back home, so they had something to look forward to at the end of the tour. But I didn’t, so it was al-ways like, I was lonely on tour, but then I got home and it didn’t matter because there was nothing there for me anyway.’” With the song having such sensitive lyrics, Blink 182 flipped the song into a fast paced punk feel. This was considered the peak of Blink 182’s legacy as well as a thriving era for punk and pop punk in general.

As the mid-2000s approached, Blink 182 had seen better days. In 2005, Tom DeLonge was growing with conflict. He felt the tour was taking time away from his family and about his freedom for his artistry. He ended up quitting the band leaving Hoppus and Barker in consteration. To make things worse, in 2008, Travis Barker was in a small plane crash which he was diagnosed with PTSD from. The band had a reunion at the 2009 Grammy Awards a year later. This included an official launch of their website. More re-cently, Blink 182 released an album called “California”, in 2017. This album included the new guitarist Matt Skiba, who replaced Tom DeLonge. For the first time in 15 years, one

of Blink 182’s two albums, was number one on Billboard’s Top 200 Chart.

Throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, Blink 182 went from three high school kids playing punk in a garage, to a nationwide

icon selling millions of records. Blink 182 was a band who wrote disdainful lyrics earlier on, but as their career matured, the lyrics transformed into poignant stories about loneliness that would evoke emotion in anyone. Blink 182 led the change in the popularity of punk along with other bands like Green Day. Even to this day Blink 182 finds success after all of the major hindrances of the band’s career because they find ways to cling to the audiences emotions. “Music is life. Music defines people’s’ experience on this planet. Name one time in your life that wasn’t punctuated by the music you listened to at the time. When people are down, they listen to music that commiserates that emotion. When people are amped up, they listen to more upbeat, loud songs.” - Mark Hoppus

Edwards, Gavin, and Gavin Edwards. “Blink-182: The Half-Naked Truth.” Rolling Stone. June 25, 2018. Accessed February 28, 2019. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/blink-182-the-half-naked-truth-87106/.“ blink-182.” Genius. Accessed February 28, 2019. https://genius.com/artists/Blink-182.Https://www.eventim.co.uk, EVENTIM. “Blink 182.” Mika - Tickets. Accessed February 28, 2019. https://www.eventim.co.uk/blink-182-biography.html?affiliate=EUK&doc=artistPages/biography&fun=artist&action=biogra-phy&kuid=242388. blink-182.” Genius. Accessed February 28, 2019. https://genius.com/artists/Blink-182.Https://www.eventim.co.uk, EVENTIM. “Blink 182.” Mika - Tickets. Accessed February 28, 2019. https://www.eventim.co.uk/blink-182-biography.html?affiliate=EUK&doc=artistPages/biography&fun=ar-tist&action=biography&kuid=242388.“ blink-182.” Genius. Accessed February 28, 2019. https://genius.com/artists/Blink-182.Https://www.eventim.co.uk, EVENTIM. “Blink 182.” Mika - Tickets. Accessed February 28, 2019. https://www.eventim.co.uk/blink-182-biography.html?affiliate=EUK&doc=artistPages/biography&fun=artist&action=biography&kuid=242388.

-SAMSON DOOLEY

ART RUPE AND THE HISTORY OF SPECIALTY RECORDSArthur Goldberg, more famously known by his industry name Art Rupe, was born in Greens-burg, Pennsylvania in 1917. It is said that his love for music developed as he listened to gos-pel music produced by his local church choir. Few who lived in this small city in the ‘20’s could have imagined that a young Goldberg, who was born into a Jewish family, would take this gospel experience and use it to initiate the early stages of rock and roll thirty years lat-er.

After spending his teenage years in Western Pennsylvania, Rupe attended school at Miami University of Ohio and subsequently UCLA. Los Angeles would be the place where Special-ty Records would eventually come to fruition seven years later. Initially, however, Rupe had a fairly difficult time trying to establish himself in the music business as an unknown artist starting from the bottom of the LA scene. After failed investments in Atlas Records and the establishment of his original company, Juke Box Label, in the early 1940’s, Rupe finally es-tablished Specialty Records in 1946.

The establishment of Specialty Records was, unbeknownst at the time, the start of a cul-tural revolution. Rupe’s producing prowess and his love for gospel sound would lead to the evolution of the rhythm and blues sound. Rupe was also known for his marketing prowess that would eventually help the Specialty label grow to reach the top. He could not do this by himself however; he needed star power to elevate his productions to the next level. Ini-tially, Roy Milton was Specialty’s premier artist, with nineteen top ten hits. Lloyd Price also had a run of success on the label that would further establish them in the business. These two led the way for a new star for Rupe that would change the history of rock and roll for-ever.

The discovery of Little Richard is a turning point in Specialty’s history that Art Rupe himself, now 101 years old, remembers fondly. Upon induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the now legendary producer recounted the story of sending his trusty right hand man, Robert Blackwell, affectionately known as “Bumps”, to New Orleans to record with the very much unknown artist Little Richard, whose birth name is Richard Penniman. Rupe addi-tionally credits Lloyd Price for his discovery; he tells of a legend that Penniman saw Price flaunting his riches down in rural Georgia. When asked how he acquired such wealth, Price suggested to Penniman to make his way over to Specialty Records. Even after this event, Little Richard was barely discovered by Rupe and his team. He details how Penniman’s au-dition tapes, which may have been sent after the supposed meeting with Price, were passed over on an initial listen-through by “Bumps”, and only listened to again because Penniman did not leave the record label alone via telephone. Rupe also explains in this Hall of Fame interview that “Bumps” did not see much promise in Penniman until he heard him sing a crude version of “Tutti Frutti” (which Little Richard would eventually release with Specialty in 1955).

It did not take long for Little Richard to establish himself as a star of rock and roll during the late 1950s. The tamer, final version of “Tutti Frutti” became a hit (but not before Pat Boone produced an even less provocative cover of the song). This run of success lasted un-til 1957 when Little Richard famously quit the music business to become a preacher, but not

before Rupe and Specialty Records had altered the course of rhythm and blues forever.

Another significant -- albeit somewhat lesser known -- event in the history of Specialty Re-cords is one that was a byproduct of Rupe’s obsession with gospel music and its audience. Around the same time that Little Richard left the label, the Soul Stirrers were signed with Specialty. The Soul Stirrers were known for their gospel sound, which Rupe famously found so endearing. The controversy arose, however, when Sam Cooke, lead singer for the Soul Stir-rers, yearned to transition over to the pop world. One well-documented story from this situation describes Rupe’s reaction when he witnessed “Bumps” and Cooke recording pop songs with-out his permission. Following an outburst, this resulted in “Bumps” and Cooke being released from the studio instantaneously. The two then brought their respective talents to a rival label and Cooke established himself as a new pop star. One can only imagine the heights that Specialty would have reached if not for that blow-up in the late ‘50s.

Based on this account, Rupe is definitely a cap-tivating character, to say the least. His love for gospel sound helped him become the pioneer we know him as today, but it may have also hindered him in the end. He had just overseen the rise of a star as flamboyant as Little Richard; of course hindsight is 20/20, but knowing the success that Little Richard brought, how could he dismiss the possibility of cultivating a new superstar in the same vein? Based on the sto-ry, it seems that Rupe did not even think twice about giving Cooke a chance to show his pop music prowess. Rupe must have felt that he was being egregiously undermined by Blackwell, or else serious respect has to be shown to Rupe for staying true to himself and his love for his own gospel roots in making such a harsh decision.The sacking of Sam Cooke, along with Rupe’s overall disagreement with payola may have hurt Specialty Records and its longevity. Despite this, Rupe has to be admired for pushing rhythm and blues into the mainstream through his produc-tion. He came a long way from Greensburg, PA to LA, bringing his gospel influence all that way with him. Eventually, Specialty Records stopped

production and legal issues with Little Richard arose decades later, but we can all thank Art Rupe and his label for alter-ing the landscape of music culture forev-er.

“Art Rupe.” Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, 2011, www.rockhall.com/inductees/art-rupe.

Gill, Andy. “Little Richard: The Specialty Sessions.” Rock’s Backpages, Q, Feb. 1990, www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/little-richard-the-specialty-sessions.

Gillett, Charlie. “Specialty Records: Little Richard, Lloyd Price, and a Los Angeles Label.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Ency-clopædia Britannica, Inc., 15 Apr. 2010, www.britannica.com/topic/Specialty-Records-Lit-tle-Richard-Lloyd-Price-and-a-Los-Angeles-Label-1688489.

Hoskyns, Barney. “The Soul Stirrer: Sam Cooke.” Rock’s Backpages, MOJO, Jan. 1995, www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/the-soul-stirrer-sam-cooke.

-CAMERON PARK

THE POWER OF RAP:DECONSTRUCTED

Rap has had a meteoric rise in popularity de-spite its inception and formal labeling as a genre of music in the early 1970s. Rap Music has proven itself to be the genre of music most capable of vivifying a given experience. Rap music concurrently affects listeners’ moods and broadens their perspectives if one considers how rap caus-es listeners to experience the full spectrum of emotions, how the structuring and deliverance of rap songs’ narratives offer its listeners a cathartic jour-ney, and how the songs when taken holistically are tools for es-tablishing a dual perspective that carries forward the endless dia-logue of art.

When focusing on the sounds generated within the beats of rap there is a consistent flow that controls the song. This flow is what allows the singer to develop a rhyme scheme that captures the listener’s attention. The fluctuation of snares, hi-hats, 808s, kick, and other sounds drive the heart of the song no matter what words are said. These beats are also capable of controlling the emo-tions of the listener. For songs that are more mellow and sad, there is a “dull timbre - slow vibrato,” however for more upbeat songs, there is a “fast tempo - high volume - bright tim-bre” (Everett 5:07). A simple shift in the beats per minute (bpm) of the song can dictate the

mood. The ability that rap has to change emo-tions so greatly is why the Professor of Music Emeritus at Northwestern University, Bennett Reimer feels that “the range of music’s power to embody and display feeling is an enormous, encompassing the lightest, most fleeting diver-gence, the most complex in weightly profundi-

ties, and everything in between.” (Reimer 11). Rap’s ability to affect emotions does not only come from the beats, but also the lyrics. Most rappers come from struggling backgrounds, get-ting in trouble with the law, with a lack of guidance. They use rap as a medium to escape the horrors of their lives; their ver-biage is, “based on feelings, emotions, physical sensations and actions, and certainly not on ‘pure thought’” (Reimer 5). By speaking from the heart rappers are

able to add to the variety of rap by singing freestyles. In these, they say whatever comes to their heads in a rhythmic manner creating an emotional connection between singer and listener.

While rap can capture all emotions in the raw sound of the song, the lyrics also have their own unique ability to take the listeners subcon-scious on a cathartic journey. Rap songs are sung in a rhythmic manner seemingly connect-ing verses, bridges, and hooks. When breaking down Inspectah Deck’s 1997 Verse On Wu-Tang Clan’s “Triumph,” one can notice the number of

words he can rhyme in a verse while he tells of the groups rise to the throne of the rap game. This seamless injection of wordplay is one reason that “Triumph” reached the top of the charts. In Jaden Smith’s “B” “L” “U” “E”, a twelve-minute song split into four smaller ones, he implements the use of iambic pen-tameter, which is when “lines are written with 10 alternating stressed and unstressed sylla-bles split into 5 parts” (Morel: 38-:42). Iam-bic pentameter dates all the way back to the Shakespearean Era when Shakespeare used it in many of his plays. The listener is hooked by the unique cadence of song and is lured into Jaden’s story of being in a state of sad-ness, melancholy, and loneliness for the whole twelve minutes. Jaden is not the only one that has used iambic pentameter, other notable artists and songs include Kendrick Lamar’s “DNA.,” 2Pac’s “Hit ‘Em Up,” and The Notori-ous B.I.G., “One More Chance.”

On the other hand, many rap songs stray away from intricate rhythm schemes, instead, they use repetition as a method to attract the lis-tener’s attention. This style usually comes with more controversy as it’s seen as, “uncreative, unchallenging and lacks complexity” (Cas-well 2:14-2:15). Despite the criticism, the most creative rappers still implement the technique. In Eminem’s “My Name Is” he repeats the line “My Name is” a total of 48 times, yet this song is what vaulted him onto the national stage and garnered him his first Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance at the 42nd Gram-my Awards in 2000.

In rap, successful results of creation, wheth-er it be mixtapes, albums, performances, or freestyles, are similarly prized because they contribute to our musical welfare, with all the resulting positive consequences for the qual-ity of our lives. We treasure a good song as a source of musical satisfaction and meaning. When used as a background to showcase another art, like photography, “music is ex-quisitely emotionally evocative, which is why a touch of happy music makes even unrelat-ed pictures seem more pleasant” (Changizi 1). Rap has the ability to venture beyond the meanings made available by words to mean-

ings only sounds can generate which guides us on the quest for profound experience. For those that are able to create with creative imagination, they encompass mind, body, and feeling, and embrace universal, cultural, and individual levels of experience, exempli-fying the human capacity to bring meaning into existence. Rap is a pattern leaving us “anticipating what melodies, harmonies, and rhythms may come next” (Resnick 1). The mu-sic controls the subconscious, from determin-ing, excitement and happiness to disgust and sadness guiding the human condition.

Rap is an essential source of pleasurable ex-perience, either by itself or assisted with a variety of other pursuits of enjoyment. It can be structured and delivered such that the narratives offered to its listener’s aid in a pu-rifying journey. The genre exhibits the ability to express energy and pleasure, resulting in the music being stored as a means for gain-ing the values of life experienced as joyful. It serves the need for experience; much deeper meanings are uncovered often quite profound. Rap’s alliance with this level of experience has been acknowledged throughout recent history as adding a profound realm of value to human life.

Caswell, Estelle. “Why We Really, Really, Really like Rep-etition in Music.” Vox, Vox, 13 Oct. 2017, www.vox.com/videos/2017/10/13/16469744/repetition-in-music.Changizi, Mark. “Why Does Music Make Us Feel?” Scien-tific American, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, A DIVISION OF NATURE AMERICA, INC., 15 Sept. 2009, www.scientifi-camerican.com/article/why-does-music-make-us-fe/.Morel, Jacques. “Jaden Smith’s Hidden Shakespeare Homage In ‘BLUE.’” YouTube, YouTube, 6 Dec. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLzWSGd0OIU. “Music and the Human Condition: Steve Everett at TEDxEmory.” Performance by Steve Everett, Youtube, 13 Dec. 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgbvCx-lIqbw.Reimer, Bennett. “Why Do Humans Value Music?” Northwestern University.Resnick, Brian. “The Scientific Mystery of Why Humans Love Music.” Vox, Vox, 4 Feb. 2016, www.vox.com/sci-ence-and-health/2016/2/4/10915492/why-do-we-like-music.

- BENJAMIN KAPLAN

Tim Bergling, known as Avicii, has been one of the most influential musicians for my gener-ation. His ingenious mind was able to create remixes of almost every variety of music. From remixing hip-hop, country, R&B, and rock music while also creating his own music, Avicii was able to captivate the world with the new trend of electronic music. Growing up in Stock-holm, Sweden, Bergling was exposed to electronic music at a very early age thanks to the likes of bands like Swedish House Mafia, Basshunter, The Knife, and many more. Since the age of 16, Avicii was releasing his remixes of a variety of electronic music forums. In a time when EDM and dance music popularity is rapidly growing, Avicii entered the music industry at the perfect time. Many critics and music professionals credit Avicii in helping electronic music gallop into the top 40 radio music genre’s. In his prime, Avicii was ranked in the top 10 of DJ’s from 2011-2015(Cijffers). During that time period, he released his best music work yet and took the music industry by storm. According to Billboard, from 2012-2015, Avicii had three songs reach within the top two for dance hits including Wake Me Up!, Hey Brother, and Levels(Zellner). As we near the one-year anniversary of Avicii passing, I wanted to look back at the life and true impact this artist had on the world.

As technology has evolved for the music industry, artists have been able to create and de-velop a new style of music. With the capabilities of new equipment like the audio interface, keyboards, controllers, digital audio workstation and others, artists have created a new trend of upbeat and trendy music. Artists like Skrillex, Tiesto, Calvin Harris, David Guetta and more have been able to captivate many listeners while constantly bringing hundreds

of thousands of fans to live music festi-vals. The equipment that helps produces this electronic music was used to its full advantage as unique digital, audio, and visual effects separated electronic music concerts from every other genre of music. With music festivals increasing in de-mand, Avicii was obviously a huge name promoters tried to sign for live events to bring in maximum revenue. Major Dj’s like Avicii demanded six-digit compensation for performance which slowly became the new norm in the festival market. In 2014, when Avicii was at the peak of his popu-larity and electronic music revenue grew nearly 40%, he earned 28 million dollars with a large proportion coming from live events. Overall, Avicii gross earnings over his career, which were primarily based on live performances, totaled to around 90 million dollars ( Karaian ). Avicii took full advantage of the change in venues and rapid increases in ticket prices. This mod-ern movement of music festivals has been a massive difference compared to previ-ous music generation due to the number of people attending live events as well as

AVICII’S LIFE, IMPACT, AND PRESENCE ON THE MUSIC INDUSTRY

the revenue the music industry produces.One of the few reputations the electronic music genre has carried on from previous generations is the presence of drugs. With the absurd amount of money artists make from live events and other revenue streams, the presence of money in the music industry usually leads down a road which conflicts with drugs. Many artists have fallen victim to the presence of drugs including some of the most famous musicians like Jimi Hen-drix, Heath Ledger, Amy Winehouse, Chris Farley and sadly many more. The stereotype of a drug infected community has infected the music industry, especially in the elec-tronic music industry. Avicii, unfortunately, was addicted to many different narcotics. In Avicii’s life, his family and friends always expressed their concern for him and the anxiety he had when performing music( Tsikurishvili ). The documentary “Avicii True Stories” does a great job of getting an in-side look at the life of Avicii while exploring the extreme pressures of drugs while being a music performer. In the documentary, it shows Avicii describing the constant pres-sures of being an internationally known DJ. He describes how other DJ’s continuous-ly drank at their live performances while still being able to release new billboard ranked music throughout the year. It was clear when watching the documentary that the stress of making music dominated his life and his mind. Constant pressure from friends and business partners to continue to make music and tour lead him to retire in 2016. Avicii could not find the same joy and passion for making music and perform-ing on a weekly basis. This troubled him as many of his friends said he often worked as a perfectionist. On April 20th, 2018 Avicii took his own life. Although the cause of death has not been released, it’s a major probability that an overdose was the cause

of death. According to a press release by his family, Avicii suffered from “thoughts about Meaning, Life, Happiness. He could not go on any longer. He wanted to find peace.”( Britton ). His life was unfortunately cut short due to the peer pressures of his entire envi-ronment. The pressence of the music indus-try, drugs, and peer pressure lead him to such a sad event. One of the major themes displayed in Avicii’s Documentary is how the music career lifestyle can seem appealing to outsiders but the toll taken on by artists can sometimes be too much. As the music in-dustry and culture continues to grow I hope it can separate itself as a friendly compan-ion with drugs as well as having constant pressure on artists to produce music. If the electronic music genre can distinguish itself from past generations of music I can only believe artists will only have more time and energy to produce their best music.

Cijffers, Charlotte Lucy. “Poll 2018: Avicii.” DJMag.

com, 12 Oct. 2018, djmag.com/top-100-djs/poll-2018-

avicii.

Zellner, Xander. “Avicii’s Biggest Billboard Hits.” Bill-

board, Billboard, 21 Apr. 2018, www.billboard.com/

articles/columns/chart-beat/8358844/avicii-biggest-

billboard-hits.

Britton, Luke Morgan. “How Did Avicii Die? Death Re-

ported as Suicide after Family Say: ‘He Could Not Go

on Any Longer.’” NME, NME, 6 Nov. 2018, www.nme.

com/news/music/how-did-avicii-die-2298210.

Karaian, Jason. “Avicii’s Fortunes Mirrored the Rise

of Electronic Dance Music.” Quartz , Quartz, 21 Apr.

2018, qz.com/1258832/aviciis-net-worth-reflected-

edm-as-a-force-in-the-music-industry/.

Tsikurishvili, Levan, director. Avicii: True Stories. Net-

flix , 2017.

-MATT CHASE

ARE CONCERTS WORTH IT?

Every spring and summer, thousands of peo-

ple make their way through the Xfinity Theatre

in Hartford, CT for what they hope is a great

night full of fun, dancing, lots of alcohol, and

amazing headlining acts. But for those who

haven’t been, the real question you’re proba-

bly thinking is, “is it worth going?”.

As someone who lives twenty-five minutes

away in MA, I have had the chance to at-

tend some of these concerts with many of

my friends, so I have a relatively solid idea of

what they’re all about. There are a number of

aspects to these concerts, and the only way

truly to know if they’re the right saturday

night event for you is to go to one! From pop-

ular mainstream acts like Lil Uzi Vert, Future,

Chance the Rapper, and Florida Georgia Line,

to older bands like Santana or Iron Maiden,

Xfinity Theatre has a variety of choices for all

music fans and could be your next destination.

One major aspect of these concerts to note

is that there will be many, many drunk people

at the venue. From crazy intoxicated teens

who “pre-game” in the giant parking lot that

many call the “dirt lot”, to the fun and bois-

terous adults that buy large cans of beer and

fruity drinks inside the theatre, there will be

no lack of drunk people. If this just isn’t you

and your buddies’ scene, then that’s complete-

ly fine, and I’m sure music sounds great with

headphones cuddled up in your comfy bed

eating some popcorn or candy. But, if you’re

willing to give it a chance, with these drunk

concert-goers comes a fun, loud and eventful

night!

Personally I have been to three country con-

certs at Xfinity Theatre and I would have to

say that they’ve all been nothing short of

a great show. Florida Georgia Line had the

house cranking back in 2017, and that was a

concert nobody in attendance could ever for-

get. Hits such as “May We All” and “God, Your

Mama, and Me” absolutely rocked the stage

and had couples dancing, kissing, and doing

whatever else their hearts desired. It wasn’t

until they closed with their biggest hit called,

“H.O.L.Y”, which was the number #1 coun-

try song in the year 2016 (Billboard), came

through the speakers that I was truly in awe. I

found myself belting out the lyrics at the top

of my lungs along with thousands of other

random people, and I can guarantee that this

was the loudest I had ever heard the place. So

for the folks who call themselves country fans,

buying a ticket to see a country music star at

Xfinity Theatre is something you may want to

check off your bucket list.

From a rap/hip-hop concert perspective, the

atmosphere is totally different at Xfinity. Yes,

there will still be that same crowd of teens

in the “dirt lot” and the adults buying all the

booze they could want inside the venue, but

the vibes are more “hype” if you will. Every-

one is ready to get rowdy from the moment

they enter the gates! And for good reason. I’ve

been lucky enough to see both a Lil Uzi Vert

concert and a Future concert there and let

me tell you, it is honestly a crazy atmosphere.

From the instant I was even on the premises of

the theatre, chants such as, “Uzi! Uzi! Uzi!”, are

ringing about the crowd. People walking with

a noticeable pep in their step, super anxious

and eager to enjoy the concert they paid to

see. Now I may be slightly biased because Lil

Uzi Vert is top three in my all time favorite rap-

pers, so of course, I loved every aspect of the

concert. From the moment Uzi was on stage,

the music was absolutely blasting out of the

large theatre speakers so loudly that I could

barely even think. Whether it was his all-time

best song, “XO Tour Lif3” (2017), or two of my

favorites “20 Min” (2017) and “Money Longer”

(2016), my eyes and ears were captivated the

entire time along with the thousands of other

people. Constant jumping up and down, yell-

ing lyrics and cheering for every song seems

like it would get old, but with a huge crowd

around and a performer like Uzi on the Xfinity

stage, you wish the concert never ends.

Deciding whether or not concerts at Xfinity

Theatre are right for you isn’t easy. The only

way to know is to check out the lineup for

online, and see if there’s someone that you’re a

fan of performing there. In my opinion around

sixty bucks for a cheap seat in the general

admission lawn is honestly a steal, because the

music and atmosphere created in the theatre

is truly like no other and make it well worth

the price. Country fans, rap fans, rock fans and

music fans, take a look at this year’s lineup

and decide for yourself whether you and your

friends will take the risk on an Xfinity concert

ticket for a night to remember.

-SPENCER ROBBINS

WOODSTOCK: A MONUMENTAL SUC-CESS OR FAILURE?The Woodstock Music Festival was held in Bethel, NY in August 1969. Without unpacking the larger themes associated with the festival, Woodstock was intended to be a celebra-tion of music and billed with the phrase, “An Aquarian Experience: 3 Days of Peace and Music,” (Woodstock). The lineup of artists included Jimi Hendrix, the Grate-ful Dead, Canned Heat and a variety of musicians from different genres of music (Woodstock). Contrary to the romanticized image of what the founders intend-ed, Woodstock quickly turned into a muddy, drugged chaos. The chaos behind the festival spoke to a larger and more complex issue within the United States at the time.

The mayhem within the festival was an animal in its own. Today, many speak about the Woodstock mu-sic festival as failing so stupendously that it became a success. The festival consisted of oversized crowds of around a half a million individuals since the fences were trampled and suddenly Woodstock became ticket-free; the audience traveled back at least two subway stops away from the stage and the performers. The stage was in constant danger of collapsing, leading to individuals standing underneath in order to stop the entire plat-form for caving in. Not to mention the rain that became a hazard as well as creating a muddy, messy experi-ence. David Dalton remarks on his own experience in at Woodstock, stating that, “...it was an over-rehearsed costume musical with a cast of hundreds of thousands of weekend hippies, a kinky remake of The Sound of Music.” (Dalton). The entire experience from his point of view, was a combination of drugs and discombobulat-ed performers and attendees which on some level, was most likely the reality of Woodstock. Woodstock was stereotyped by hippie culture, which of course gives way to another aspect of the festival. Dalton discusses the drug culture within the festival almost to distract the audience from the dysfunction of the event, “Wood-stock, if anything, was the point at which psychedelics ceased being tools for experience and perception and became a means of crowd control.” (Dalton). Dalton claims that the reason for the lack of violence was rooted in the drugged haze of the audience. The chaos associated with Woodstock however did not take away

from the entirety of the experience; but the underlying themes with the festival created a new meaning to the event.

The elephant in the room in August 1969 was the political turmoil apparent throughout the United States. With Richard Nixon in the White House, dealing with the ongoing war in Viet-nam, the public was outwardly dissatisfied with the actions of the government. A notable performance at Woodstock was Jimi Hendrix’s rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner. This

performance of the National Anthem sent an indirect mes-sage to the government as well as the audience expressing public sentiment towards obvious political issues. Hendrix played the anthem with long, drawn out chords, creating al-most a screech that resembled an air-raid siren or some call out for help; the emotion and the symbolism of the song was abruptly apparent (Cush). The Star-Spangled Banner, origi-nally a song that emulated liberty and justice, now illuminat-ed the ugliness and brutality behind American glory (Cush).The Woodstock music festival was a monumental success. The success itself did not come from the core performances from well-known artists, instead it came from the social and political message and sentiment sent to the public as well as the government. Marked by Jimi Hendrix’s rendition of Star-Spangled Banner, the United States as an entirety was taken back by the indirect voice from the screeches of an electric guitar. Woodstock represented a turning point for the American narrative. Woodstock gave the American pub-lic the ability to speak through radical political protest, the media, as well as other mediums including the music indus-try.

Cush, Andy. “Remember When Jimi Hendrix Protested the Nation-al Anthem on a National Stage?” Spin, SPIN, 12 Sept. 2016, www.spin.com/2016/09/remember-when-jimi-hendrix-protested-the-national-an-them-on-a-national-stage/.Dalton, David. “Woodstock.” Rock’s Backpages, 1999, www.rocksback-pages.com/Library/Article/woodstock-2.Degliantoni, Lisa. “Woodstock Revisited.” EBSCOhost, Aug. 1994, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=9409027585&site=eds-live.Editors, History.com. “Woodstock.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 9 Mar. 2018, www.history.com/topics/1960s/woodstock.Role, et al. “Jimi Hendrix: The Road to Woodstock.” BBC, BBC, 2 Sept. 2018, www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03p7p6v.“The Woodstock ‘69 Lineup.” Woodstock, www.woodstock.com/lineup/.Yglesias, Ana. “Two Woodstock 50th Anniversary Events Are Coming.” GRAMMY.com, Recording Academy, 26 Feb. 2019, www.grammy.com/grammys/news/two-woodstock-50th-anniversary-events-planned-aug-2019.

- OLIVIA BAGLIERI

For nearly every band, developing a strong community of followers is right up there with making good music on their list of priorities. For some musicians, the mildly extreme de-scription of their fans as “cult like” would be a great source of pride. Eyebrows can’t help but be raised, though, when a fanbase is so dedicated to a band that nearly 70,000 of them travel deep into rural northern Vermont, abandon their cars, and hike down highways in August heat to hear their favorite band play one final concert. Who is this band that created such a die hard following through-out the 80s and 90s? What’s life like for fans and their friends and family? And how does a quiet farming town react when tens of thou-sands of people roll in and take over for a weekend?

Phish was formed in 1983 at the University of Vermont in Burlington, Vermont. The original group consisted of Jon Fishman on drums, Trey Anastasio on guitar and vocals, and Jeff Holdsworth on guitar. Holdsworth left two years after their inception, but they picked up bassist Mike Gordon and keyboardist Page McConnell which solidified their group. They began their careers performing at college campuses near Burlington and around New England, not recording an album until 1988. In 1991 Phish started traveling and playing around the country, continuing to broaden their fanbase. By the late 90s, partially on ac-count of their nonstop touring schedule, they had gained serious popularity, and despite taking a break from music in 2000, the band’s listening base continued to grow as they cemented their position as an influential part of American rock history. Thanks to incessant pleading from their loyal fans, Phish got back together in 2002 and began touring again, but after releasing an album in 2004, they decided to give one last concert and break up for good. Even after that 2004 concert, they continued to sporadically release music, never completely committing to a separa-

tion. Much to the delight of their ceaselessly devoted following, they formally reunited in 2009, and have since released 9 albums and continue to tour.

When Phish announced in 2004 that they were throwing in the towel for good, one fan described the pain she felt as “worse than if every boyfriend I’d ever loved had gotten together to end things with me in unison”. While high levels of band loyalty isn’t uncom-mon among music listeners, Phish fans are unique in just how many of them have made Phish a major part of their lives. One article, written for Vogue by a self-proclaimed “Phish wife”, describes the measures her and sever-al of her friends went to in order to accom-modate the Phish fans in their families. She tells of New Year’s Eves spent at concerts watching Phish members “ride in on a giant hot dog high above the noodling masses of New York’s Madison Square Garden”, dinner date conversations infused with Phish related reference, childhood milestones spent home alone with her daughter, all in account of her husband’s obsession with Phish.

In one of the greatest expressions of Phish fandom in the band’s history, nearly 70,000 people drove into rural northern Vermont to listen to their favorite band play what was supposed to be their last ever show in 2004. Expectations were high before the concert, fans hoping for closure as the band who had brought them so much joy left the music scene with one final hurrah. Much to their dismay, the concert was a complete disaster. Torrential rains pummeled Vermont during the days leading up to the show, and the farmer’s field rented for the show turned into a mud pit. Cars couldn’t get in or out, campgrounds were ruined, and it quick-ly became apparent that there wouldn’t be enough room for everyone slated to show up. The venue was wildly unequipped for the influx of people that would make Coventry, a

PHISH FANDOM

town of barely 1000 people, the largest city in Vermont for the weekend. Local and state road systems were equally unprepared, inter-state traffic coming to a dead stop for miles. When bassist Mike Gordon came on the radio to say there was no more room for concert goers at the venue, people abandoned their cars and belongings and decided to walk the rest of the way. One local recalled, in a dazed sense of amazement that seemed not to have faded over the last 15 years, that there was “more trash than I ever thought possible”. She remembers locals offering (or charging for) rides, selling water bottles, and sorting through trash along-side roads after the week-end had ended. As much as the concert rocked northern Vermont, it was an even more tumultuous experience for Phish fans. Those dedicated enough to abandon their cars, and slog through fields of mud in humid August heat were treated to what is widely consid-ered the worse of Phish’s nearly 1,700 shows. One fan described the atmosphere as “dark, depressing and generally unpleasant”, with “the emotional trappings of a funeral.” Mr. Miner, the renowned Phish blogger, put it best: “the music, overall, matched the vibe of the festival as well—an utter fucking mess. Calling Coventry a travesty would be the understate-ment of the century.”

Very few bands in history have creating fol-lowings as unwaveringly committed as Phish has. These are people who travel the coun-try attending 15 or more shows a year, spend major holidays at Phish concerts, and are

willing to abandon cars and other world-ly possessions and hike down highways for miles to be transported to a special, higher place only Phish’s music can take them. They wreak havoc on entire states for weekends at a time, get stuck in lakes of mud, listen to the worse shows of their lives, and still come out the other side as loyal as can be, ready for the next show.

“Coventry, Vermont (VT 05855).” Accessed March 1, 2019. http://www.city-data.com/city/Coventry-Vermont.html.Miner. “Mr. Miner’s Phish Thoughts » Coventry,” August

14, 2014. http://phishthoughts.com/tag/coven-try/.“Personal Stats.” Accessed March 1, 2019. http://www.ihoz.com/raw.htm.“Phish | Biogra-phy & History.” AllMusic. Ac-cessed March 1, 2019. https://www.allmusic.com/artist/phish-mn0000333464/biography.Gary E. Lindsley, “Thongs Of Phish

Heads Walk Into Festival Site”, The Caledonian Record, 8/16/2004Ruiz, Michelle. “Confessions of a Phish Wife.” Vogue, December 28, 2015. https://www.vogue.com/article/confessions-of-a-phish-wife.Spencer, Kate. “Remembering Coventry: 5 Unforget-table Moments From Phish’s 2004 Break-Up Show.” VH1 News, August 14, 2014. http://www.vh1.com/news/53573/phish-coventry-10th-anniversary/.“Worst Phish Performance of All Time?” Accessed March 1, 2019. http://forum.phish.net/forum/show/1333241772.“Four Members of Phish Set for SPAC Triple Play | The Daily Gazette.” Accessed March 1, 2019. https://dailyga-zette.com/article/2016/06/30/four-members-phish-set-spac-triple-play.

-LUKE DEWEES

In June of 2018 Awful Records founder, Father, announced a deal with RCA Records that would take form as a “creative partnership.” This deal would basically give Awful the access to funding they need in order to create projects beyond the reach of their own financial ability. The implications of an independent group like Aw-ful signing to a major label are something that has made Father and many other inde-pendent artists tread careful-ly when navigating the music industry.

If you’ve never heard of Father or Awful Records there’s a good chance that you’ve seen or heard their influence in not just rap and hip hop but also in pop-ular internet culture. The group blew up in 2014 with a number of releases including Father’s “Look at Wrist” featuring long time Awful collaborator and Atlanta native iLoveMakonnen. Awful boasts an eclectic line-up of artists including Father, Ashley Romero, Abra, Tommy Genesis, Ethereal, RichPoSlim, Archibald Slim, Stalin Majesty, Zack Fox, Slug Christ, Danger Incorporated duo Louis Duffel-bags and Boothlord, Faye Web-ster, KeithCharles Spacebar, Playboi Carti, and more recently Alex Russell, Big Baby Scumbag and Meltycanon. Ranging mu-sically from emo and indie rock to RnB and trap, Father’s eye for talent goes beyond music to creatives like Zack Fox, a graph-ic designer/comedian/radio show host. As an independent record label with the internet at their fingertips, they have prided themselves on their do-it-yourself lifestyle of creative debauchery fueled by random drops of content on Sound-cloud and Youtube.

The internet gave them every-thing they needed in order to self promote and make a name for themselves in the music

world, and as they were clearly bringing something different to the table the music industry quickly caught on. Former Aw-ful member Playboi Carti went on to sign with A$AP Mob’s AWGE Label and Interscope Records, with his past two al-bums Playboi Carti and Die Lit peaking at #19 and #31, respec-tively, on the Billboard chart for Top Album Sales. Carti perhaps being the stellar example of Awful’s eye for talent. Father has been offered a number of record deals over the years, but taking his time to not fall into the music industry trap that many independent artists fall into he turned them all down.

With the internet, especially Soundcloud and Instagram, as a public platform for self pro-motion, many artists are able to grow cult followings before ever hitting the mainstream. The record deals that follow internet fame could often be detrimental to the artists cre-ative process. Take an artist like Lil Uzi Vert for example, who has a timeline of problems with his record label Generation Now under major label Atlan-tic Records. Most recently Uzi has announced that he has quit music and longs for the simpler days of 2013. It has been a year and a half since his last album release and he has been teasing the release of his Sophomore LP “Eternal Atake” for months now, but due to apparent com-plications with his record label he is unable to release any mu-sic. Another example is Night Lovell, a Canadian rapper with a cult following in the under-ground rap scene whose album “GOODNIGHTLOVELL” was set to release on January 25th, 2019. Days before the appar-ent release date, Lovell shared a handwritten note to his fans notifying them that the album would not be released for an-other month, writing, “This situation was completely out of

my hands. This album is done. I was ready to give it to you, then I was blindsided.” These are just two of many examples of art-ists of recent fame becoming frustrated with their label deals. When it comes to making it in the industry, many young artists of color come to realize too late that they may be signing away their own agency in exchange for an industry check.

This is exactly what Father wanted to avoid with Awful Re-cords. With a collective whose freedom of agency in their work was what made them so spe-cial, and who prided themselves upon their random releases, he has to make sure not to sign that away for a quick ticket to fame. So when it came out that Father had signed a deal with RCA Records there was bound to be concern within his fan-base. In interviews following his record deal and announcement of an album titled “Awful Swim” in collaboration with Adult Swim, Father has reassured fans that he took the time to choose a deal that worked for Awful. With a team that shoots for the stars in their creative endeav-ors, they need the ability to pursue that while also getting the funding to do so. Father ex-plains that under the deal with RCA they will still have control over their releases and will also receive the greater exposure that comes with a powerful re-cord label. They will be able to reach audiences outside of their almost underground cult follow-ing while receiving the funding to dream bigger. There is no telling what Awful Records will make of this deal, but Father has voiced that his goals would include a Hulu original series or even a book detailing the story of Awful and how they got to where they are today.

-KALIB VARELA

AWFUL RECORDS

Navigating the Transition from Independent Artist Collective

to an RCA Records Deal

-KALIB VARELA

TECHNOLOGY & THE MULTIDIMENSIONAL ASPECT of MUSIC

Technology and music have always been

intertwined, from the invention of the

amplifier to the development of Spotify,

these two aspects of society are linked

and will remain so. Arguably the biggest

change that technology and social media,

as they exist in the present moment, have

produced, is that of easy and widespread

access to music in a way that wasn’t even

imaginable to previous generations. The

days of physical records and albums seem

to be behind us, as they take on a new

aesthetic value. With one click some-

one can stream an entire album for free,

whether they be in New York or New

Delhi. While the advent of streaming ser-

vices has broken down a lot of economic

barriers that may have limited people’s

access to music in the past, it has come at

a definite cost, which although important,

will not be the brunt of discussion in this

article. What will be of importance is how

increased connectivity and general tech-

nological advancements have created a

territory that artists, and musicians alike,

are exploring in extremely novel ways,

and which are being experienced on a

mass level of consumption unlike any-

thing we have previously experienced as

a society.

Album covers, sleeves, jackets, and in-

serts were all previously used mediums

that musicians used to give their music

a visual dimension, in some instances, to

provide context for their music, in others,

just for expression. No one disputes the

fact that art and music go hand in hand,

as do music and fashion, and music and

politics, and so on, but what seems to be

a uniquely twenty first century aspect, is

the multimedia outlets that are available

to artists that can be synthesized into a

coherent work to be experienced as a

unit.

While creative and rather avant garde

music videos have become more popular

in Europe and specifically, London, they

haven’t really permeated mainstream

American culture in the same way. An

explanation for this could come from the

fact that creative production agencies

that deal with this kind of music and vid-

eo production don’t function in the same

capacity in the American entertainment

industry. Production companies, creative

agencies, etc., tend to be much more

niche and less comprehensive, leading

to creation of work that isn’t necessarily

as cohesive or multidimensional, simply

due to a structure that isn’t necessarily

as conducive to that. One example of a

production hub that has avoided this, is

the London based company JFC world-

wide, which has produced all of Jungle’s

Music Videos. JFC worldwide represents

directors and acts uniquely in its ability to

translate the message of the Jungle col-

lective into an understandable art piece.

The merging of outstanding choreogra-

phy, fashion, innovative set design, and

strong social messaging, combined with

the truly phenomenal tracks, allows the

viewer to engage in a transcendental ex-

perience that previously would not have

even existed without the space for such

a multidimensional piece to come into

existence

The music video for “I dare You” by the

XX is another piece of work that takes

on a deeper and more emotional mean-

ing when viewed with its music video.

An homage to Los Angeles, the place

the majority of the album was written,

the music video is able to elicit some-

thing that the song alone isn’t, a sense of

nostalgia quintessential to the city itself,

which the musicians drew upon for inspi-

ration while writing. The music video as

an art form added a further dimension to

the original work, as did the story ex-

plored in the video itself, and so on. What

is happening currently, is that we are

living in a time where how we experience

music is changing. A new genre is start-

ing to open up that encompasses a type

of mixed music that is truly meant to

be experienced collectively, rather than

individually in parts. Songs that may not

be understandable or seem coherent by

themselves suddenly make sense when

viewed with their accompanying video, a

new method of translation between artist

and viewer has emerged. In a sense, the

mixed media aspect of music videos, and

other art forms that merge with music,

allow the artist to experiment with more

languages in order to express what they

are thinking; it has opened up new av-

enues in the vocabulary of expression

artists have access to in order to reach

the individual.

The technological ingenuity of the 2013

music video for Bob Dylan’s “Like a Roll-

ing Stone”, serves a metaphor for the

new age of music we live in, and spear-

headed a fascinating expansion in music

appreciation and consumption. It is with

keen anticipation that I look forward to

seeing what mixed media musical en-

deavors we see in the future.

- FREYA STRASBURG

Illustration- Olivia Gracey

“I seem to have a wide reputation, but my records don’t sell a lot. A lot of people seem to have bought one record or they heard one record a long time ago and got me down, so they don’t have to check in anymore: ‘Oh, that guy. The one with the deep voice without a shave? Know him. Sings about eggs and sausage? Yeah, got it.’” — Tom Waits, 1993 Inter-view

Tom Waits is not an eccentric. A beatnik, a lush, a poet, an undefinable mystery—all of these reputations and more precede him, perpetuating his mystique but never encapsulating his identity. The myth and the allure of Waits is that his varying personas have been so talk-ed to death over the last forty years that to this day, shrouded in speculation, he remains largely misunderstood and inaccessible.

Most avid Tom Waits listeners will tell you that his early stuff isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. Quick to write off his pared down, folksy music of the seventies, we point to Sword-fishtrombones and Rain Dogs as the pivotal moments in his music career: when Tom Waits really became Tom Waits. While I don’t disagree (his experimental, genre-defying albums are, after all, exemplary models of music’s creative potential), I’d like to make the case for a young Waits. By focusing solely on the genius of his music from the 1980s and onwards, we run the risk of caricaturing that body of work as well. As the rhetoric becomes intellec-

tualized, these albums are posited as somehow superior to the singer-songwriter croon of a 1970s Waits who is more accessible, easy listening. In this light, albums that go down smooth like Nighthawks At The Diner are overlooked.

His third release and first live album, Nighthawks At The Diner is essential-ly a performance of a performance.

Though technically a live album, Nighthawks was recorded

in a studio with the addition of a jazz

band and small audience. Transformed into a microcosm of

a jazz club, the studio had an ideal atmo-sphere for Waits to ramble through songs and

spoken narratives, accompanying himself on the piano.

This early Tom Waits, despite what you may have heard, is more than the cigarette-touting beatnik poet he’s made out to be. Nighthawks at the Diner is proof. The theatricality of the Nighthawks album easily could have become a gimmick, but instead it manages to become a self-reflective commentary

WHAT WE GOT WRONG ABOUT WAITS

on Waits’ persona. By creating a heightened, hyper-realistic jazz club atmosphere, it’s al-most as if Waits himself is in on the joke. His ability to riff on the atmosphere of late night diners and poke fun at his own loneliness shows that Waits is more than a down-and-out lush. While he could have amplified and perpetuated this caricature of himself, Waits instead impresses with a myriad of winding tales and meticulous observations that inject humor and awareness into his songs. In many ways, the narratives he creates in Nighthawks At The Diner are a prequel to the lyrics that accompany the more sonically complex tunes of Waits’ later aesthetic.

Though far from his most popular work, it is albums like Nighthawks At The Diner that showcase Waits’ burgeoning storytelling prowess. Even more than the jazz band and live audience, it is the lyrics that set us so completely and authentically within that hazy, late night headspace. Poking fun at the quality of diner food on “Intro To Eggs And Sausage (In A Cadillac With Susan Michelson)”, Waits’ largely improvised musings on the Copper Penny restaurant chain turn cheap eats into comedically poetic meals. “Intro To Better Off Without A Wife” sees Waits turning his bach-elorhood into a raunchy joke about taking himself out on a date, ending with the confes-sion: “I’m no different, you know, I’m not weird about it or anything, I don’t tie myself up first, I just kinda spend a little time with myself”. This version of a lonesome Tom Waits gives greater dimension to the whiskey-drinking brokenhearted man we often make him out to be.

Delving into the Nighthawks lyrics proves that

even when playing the part, Tom Waits has always been more complex than the perso-na we created for him. On the second track “Emotional Weather Report”, Waits uses the weather forecast as a poignant and extend-ed metaphor for his lonely emotional state. He growls: “well, the extended outlook for an indefinite period of time / until you come back to me, baby / is high tonight, low tomor-row / and precipitation is expected,” smartly inserting double entendres even in the midst of a profound isolation. And while the tone of Waits’ words is melancholic throughout, at the end he cleverly quips, “Now back to the elev-en o’clock blues / Doctor George Fischbeck ain’t got nothin’ on me!” departing, if only mo-mentarily, from his barstool poet persona.

Nighthawks At The Diner is the last in a series of albums sonically marked by this persona, a sort of final farewell to his early reputation. What Waits does so masterfully with this al-bum is subvert his reputation not by radically departing from it, but rather by exaggerated-ly embodying and essentializing it, giving us exactly what we asked of him to an almost absurd degree. All the while, the songs he produces remain lyrically evocative and im-peccably detailed, proving to us yet again that Waits really is a master of disguise.

Mark Rowland. “Tom Waits’ Wild Year.” Musician, Jan-

uary 1993, Rock’s Backpages. https://www.rocksback-

pages.com/Library/Article/tom-waits-wild-year.

Tom Waits. “Intro To Better Off Without A Wife.” Night-

hawks At The Diner, Howe, 1975.

Tom Waits. “Emotional Weather Report.” Nighthawks At

The Diner, Howe, 1975.

- OLIVIA GRACEY

Coming home to youMight look great from afarLying in my bed at nightWith, all these battle scarsSometimes it hurts, being your manSometimes it hurts, when your near me

With you I don't belongI'm gonna leave you that's for surePeace is all I pray forNo more hateful looks galoreSometimes it hurts, me it’s trueSometimes it hurts, loving you

With you I don't belongI don’t need this ring anymoreYou left me on the floorAfter years of this here warSometimes it hurts, me it’s trueSometimes it hurts, loving you

FLY ME TO THE MOON (COVER)

-GIOVANNI ORTIZ