Thursday, October 17, 2002 #2 Stan Kenton, "Send in the Clowns" Kenton turns it into salsa. But then again, no...not every syncopated music with horns is salsa, right? I'm not the one to ask. I live in New York City, so I often feel pangs of (liberal?) guilt about the fact I still know nothing about salsa in spite of its crucial role in the city's sonic ambience. In point of fact, it sounds like Chicago -- or rather, Chicago is fairly notorious for sounding like Stan Kenton, particularly the horn arrangements with their odd, sweet-sour sheen. Overall, the feel is weirdly arrogant, the work of a man smothering a standard with the pecadilloes of his own peculiar style. The waltz-time of the original is shoe-horned into this oddball meter I can't identify; and the track rises and falls in emphasis, quiet little piano parts that somehow feel kinda forced alternating with screaming trumpet solos that exude blowhard swagger. Salsa -- or Chicago, whatever -- never sounded so unfun. (link)

Tuesday, October 15, 2002 #1 Van Morrison, "Send in the Clowns (live)" He stops in the middle of this live, possibly bootleged track to say "No, it's not about Elvis Costello at all..." HAHAHA! Elvis Costello is a CLOWN, DO YOU SEE? HAHAHA! Because the song, it has CLOWNS in the title, so you may wonder to yourself: just what clown could he be talking about? Could it be...ELVIS COSTELLO? HAHAHA! Elvis Costello! Clown! Geddit? HAHAHA! I don't think I've ever quite forgiven Van for the several minutes I was subjected to him getting all spiteful and pendantic during...I dunno. Maybe it was The Healing Game or Days Like This. Anyway, it was playing at the Sam Goody and I thought it absolutely insufferable. I don't remember what exactly he was whinging about, just that he was SO pendantic and bitchy that my generally warm feelings towards Astral Weeks faded away. (The other albums I've heard were largely uninteresting when not completely inexplicable.) So when I think of Van Morrison now, I think of that day at sam Goody. And when I think of that day at sam Goody, I think: Van Morrison sure seems like an asshole. An asshole who sings "Send in the Clowns" in concert as a joke and fills it with the little performing eccentricities of a man who just doesn't give a fuck anymore. (Another bad joke: "Losing my timing this late in my career" is broken by a seventeen second silence.) Or maybe one of those assholes who was once (again, maybe -- I'm guessing here) just an asocial weirdo -- then becomes a rock star who recieves, on the one hand, perpetual respect and admiration from a small number of devoted fans, and on the other, the kind of treachery that pretty much comes with workin' for the culture industry. So not only does he have plenty to bitch about, but he also has an audience he can always bitch to. Forever. And there ain't nobody to tell him, Van, dude, don't bother with that pieceashit EC joke in concert 'cause he’ll likely get to get so offended that he'll make yet ANOTHER song where he declares all mankind a bunch of cunts set to Irish wheedley-deedley-dee or florid R&B. And who needs that pain? (link)