It was earlier this year, I found myself at a family gathering at my grandparents’ retirement home.  Now, I don’t think I’m unique in saying that family gatherings are not a place I typically want to be.  But my uncle and his family (who I hadn’t seen in over a decade) were visiting from Chicago, so I figured it was my obligation to be there.  Also, my grandparents are both in their 90s, and at this point who knows when they’re gonna go, so it was nice to be able to get all of my mom’s side of the family together, since who knows if this would ever happen again.  Anyways, over the course of the meal we were having, there was a bit of this underlying tension, since my other uncle on my mom’s side isn’t exactly a huge fan of the uncle who was visiting from Chicago.  Which is not surprising.  One of them is kind of out-there and a bit of a weirdo, while the other is an ultra-conservative former bodybuilder.  However, the two managed to be fairly polite with each other in conversation, while I nonetheless wanted to leave, but was more than aware of why it’d be incredibly rude if I did.

Fortunately, my inner music geek was called to attention late in the dinner, as my uncle from Chicago started recalling stories of his younger years when he was going to shows at First Avenue, Minneapolis’s legendary music venue.  Unsurprisingly, this led to him talking about the few encounters he had with a performer known the world over as Prince.  And being that I’ve been a Prince fan for a long time, as well as rock bands like Husker Du and The Replacements who around the same time played First Avenue’s Seventh Street Entrance (the venue’s smaller stage), I was more than intrigued by these stories.  But what I didn’t expect, was to hear my conservative uncle ask from across the table, “You’re a fan of Prince?”  To which my other uncle of course replied, “Yeah”.  And then my other uncle said something to the effect of, “I really like Prince.  He’s a really talented performer.”  And I felt it — a bond.  A bond between these two men that literally have nothing in common with each other besides their relation to my aunt.  And it was over Prince of all things.

With the announcement of Prince’s passing earlier today, I can’t help but think of this moment and why it is so emblematic of what made Prince such a special artist.  Prince was a guy who brought people together.  Whether you were black or white, straight or gay, or whether you could dance or not, it didn’t matter.  Once a song like “Let’s Go Crazy” or “1999” came on, if you weren’t shaking your ass, you were at least envisioning The Purple One shaking his ass all over some gigantic stage and wishing you were there in his glorious presence.  Which is why yes, it is incredibly sad that Prince is dead.  Much like David Bowie, he’s a guy who you’d think would live forever.  But at the same time, I’ve spent most of today listening to KEXP play nothing but non-stop Prince, and it’s impossible not to be put in a good mood by this music, or at least a better mood considering the circumstances.  He just had that power, and you could feel it no matter where you were coming from.

It’s a little eery that The Beatles’ record producer George Martin has just passed away, since it’s happened right as I’m in the middle of a pretty heavy Beatles period.  Granted, I’ve been in a pretty heavy Beatles period for about half of my life, since they’re the band that seemed to inform a lot of my early tastes (musical and otherwise), and whose records I’ll often return to for inspiration and enlightenment.  But I’ve been thinking about The Beatles lately because I’m in the middle of reading Ian MacDonald’s book Revolution In The Head, which chronicles The Beatles career by breaking down and examining each song in their discography track-by-track.  There’s a passage I just read where MacDonald says of George Martin’s collaboration with The Beatles, “it’s almost certainly true that there was no other producer on either sides of the Atlantic then capable of handling The Beatles without damaging them — let alone of cultivating and catering them with the gracious, open-minded adeptness for which George Martin is universally respected in the British pop industry”.

And I think it’s Martin’s combination of pop acumen and respect for Lennon and McCartney’s talent, as well as his willingness to try out new ideas, that are not only why Martin was a great producer, but also why The Beatles records are as important as they are.  I have to imagine that part of Martin’s willingness to experiment came from his early work doing comedy records with the likes of British comic talent like Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, and Dudley Moore, since there was always a spirit of anarchy and penchant for breaking the rules in The Beatles’ records.  It’s no coincidence that what first broke the ice between The Beatles and Martin on a personal level was a joke that George Harrison made about Martin’s tie.  And yet at the same time, like any great producer, Martin clearly had a well-trained ear that knew how to facilitate and expand upon the incredible songs these guys were churning out.

Also, just on a personal level, George Martin’s importance within The Beatles has always been something I’ve been aware of, because my devouring of The Beatles’ albums as a teenager coincided with me watching all of The Beatles Anthology TV series, which Martin is heavily featured in.  So for that I do kind of feel like Martin was really the first person that I knew of who helped make popular art, but from a “behind the scenes” perspective.  Like I’m sure I knew what a film director was at that point, but I think my becoming aware of George Martin’s influence on The Beatles recordings’ made me truly aware for the first time that there are smart, talented people out there that are involved in the creative process, but aren’t necessarily the star of the show.

Yet because Martin was such a secret weapon in The Beatles’ arsenal, I do fear his contributions to The Beatles’ music may be a bit overlooked in the annals of history, since I feel like the Lennon-McCartney songwriting partnership/competitiveness is what is often thought of as the crux of the band’s brilliance.  But this was a band that after all retired from touring because they wanted to continue exploring their creativity in the studio, and the particular way those records sound is I think a big reason why they still resonate the way they do.  Which is why I’ve never seen anything remotely cheeky about George Martin being nicknamed ‘the fifth Beatle’.

David Bowie was never irrelevant. That’s the one silver lining I can find for his untimely death at 69; that he died having just released a new album to critical acclaim and popularity. He went out on top. But he was always going to go out on top, because David Bowie pretty much defined what the top was for the last 40 years. That’s what I mean when I say he was never irrelevant.

It’s shown in the outpouring of grief and support we’ve seen since the announcement was made – Bowie had made an incredible impact on all sorts of people. Some people remember the fun dance music. Some people looked for new meaning in the rock music. Many are analyzing his recent alt rock work, especially the new Blackstar, which is now so clearly his fond farewell to all of us. I bet somebody’s playing Tin Machine.

He was bigger than the music, of course. How many will be watching Labyrinth tonight? Or The Man Who Fell to Earth? Maybe even The Prestige. He played himself amusingly in Zoolander and that Ricky Gervais show Extras. Not to mention parodies of him in shows like The Venture Bros. and references like that episode of Friends when Chandler sings “Space Oddity.” Seu Jorge’s covers of Bowie songs in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou make one of the best movie soundtracks ever. He was everything, everywhere.

Guys, I’m just lost here. This wasn’t supposed to happen. That new album just came out. It was just his birthday. KEXP just got finished playing Bowie all day. He was supposed to guest star on Hannibal and in the second Guardians of the Galaxy movie… Damnit.

I’ve never really wondered why I was such a David Bowie fan until now. I guess part of it is because he was such a big part of making “weird” cool. Bowie’s androgyny and bisexuality were emphasized, not downplayed. He sang about being a kook and not fitting in and all the things you hate about yourself as a kid and learn to love again as an adult. It’s been hard for me to admit that I relate to those struggles too, but then again I’ve always had this music.

I’m really struggling to write this post, I’m not sure I’ve got anything insightful for you. I did a retrospecticus on Bowie a few years ago, here’s part one. We did top 10 favorite songs of his too, here are mine, Colin’s, and John’s.

David Bowie was one of the most prolific artists of the last century and I’ll miss him very much.

In celebration of Poon’s upcoming free show at The Royal Room (in Seattle on December 9th) a week-long celebration of Poon articles, lists, and interviews will be featured at Mildly Pleased. Kicking off the celebration is an article on the band’s history from the recent 40th Anniversary Issue of Malt Liquor Monthly. Enjoy.

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Two years ago, I wrote a post about the looming new generation of consoles and whether you should spend money on them on Black Friday. The main thing I wanted to tell people was that, if you had the willpower, you would be better off waiting as long as possible to buy new video game machines. I never said I had that willpower, so here are my thoughts on current gaming consoles as someone who’s had them all for about as long as anyone could have.
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