Fuck Censorship

That’s a pretty cliché title, huh?

I am not a big fan of censorship in any form, I really do believe that it violates our freedom of speech.

Censoring music should be a crime. If the artist felt the need to include something, then there was a reason for it. I don’t think I can stress how important lyrics are. They weigh the song with meaning, and it threads the music together. The vocals in a  song are the closest connection to the listener. It is a medium we are all familiar with, and played using an instrument we all have.

Would we paint black lines over Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus”? We would not dare! It would be a travesty, an unheard of act of disrespect toward art around the world. Then why do we feel it’s acceptable to do so to a song? In fact, the entire premise of censorship in music is ridiculous. Content is being created constantly, whether or not it is acceptable for the public is a one way road. Yes or No. The answer shouldn’t be “Yes, but we need to take out this word, or this image.” Is it to protect our children? Are we too lazy and irresponsible to do that ourselves? Is it to prevent offense? Nobody is forced to listen to music, if they are offended, they can turn it off. If their kids are repeating vulgarities they’ve heard in music, their parents can turn it off. Again, it all goes back to good parenting. Your child will pick these words up sooner or later. It’s your responsibility to ensure that they understand when it is and is not appropriate to use them.

Aside from the obvious assault on the meaning, feel and emotion of the song, censoring it also destroys the rhythm. The most obtrusive methods of censoring music ( beeps or blanks ) halt the music to include their own sound ( or lack thereof ) . The effect is a watered down, more mediocre version of music being presented to the audience. This is especially damaging considering the audience is the most important critic.

This rant was inspired by Radiohead’s popular song “Creep” on the album “Pablo Honey”. I am an avid Radiohead fan, and as such, I own the aforementioned album. After purchasing it, I decided to give it a listen. The song “Creep” is track two. All of a sudden, I hear it again. I look at the cd player, and it blinks back at me ‘Track 13′ mockingly. ‘That’s odd’ I think to myself, until I realize that the version I began listening to was the clean version. The line “You’re so fucking special” was changed to “You’re so very special”. Groans all around! I was outraged, the entire song had a different feel to it, why would they even bother putting that on the album? ( I later discovered that it’s only the US version that comes with it. ) Not only did this mean that I had two copies of basically the same song, but that everytime the cd restarted they were one track apart. This means that if I’m not paying attention ( usually the case ) then It seems like I’ve heard the song about a thousand times. Fuck you censorship, now I can’t listen to Creep anymore.

Music Page Update

The song “Kiss” has been added to the Music page. More of me jamming with myself using the layering technique. Just one fingerpicking acoustic track with a lead track on top of it. Ther fingerpicking track is a peice that I’ve had for a long time. It had just been sitting there, not doing anything. I’m aware I’m pretty damn late on an update, I’ll get right on it.

The Story Thus Far…

Music is an interesting medium, it is one of many ways to passionately convey a message, or an emotion. Good music takes an emotion (or several) and transposes it into a style that appeals to the desired audience to make them understand the emotion. Great music takes an emotion and floods you with it, especially when you can relate to it. If you’re under the influence of a certain emotion, music can enhance the intensity of it. One thing that I do know is that the relationship between band mates is quite different than any other one.

Approximately 2 years ago I had began telling everyone that I wanted to get guitar lessons. I loved music, and I loved creating things; it just seemed to make sense. It was one of those things that I wanted to do eventually, but required some moderately big steps that I never had the guts to take. My father played guitar and he tried to teach me when I was younger, but for a while he was just too busy. So he did the next best thing, he gave me his guitar as a gift. It wasn’t necessarily great. In fact, it was almost as old as me! It cost about a hundred dollars, or 2364.67 Rubles¹ where it was purchased, in the USSR. I started taking lessons in June, or perhaps July. My teacher was a delightful man probably in his early 50s, with a friendly and patient approach to teaching. To be honest, I could not have asked for a better teacher. At first he taught me the basics, and they proved to be mind-numbingly boring, but it only got better. My father’s guitar didn’t last long. One night I left it lying next to my bed, on the floor and In the haste of the early morning, I jumped out of bed, and landed on the neck of the guitar … SNAP! And in a second, it was useless. I sat and stared at it for a while in disbelief. I felt terrible. I felt like my father would be furious, I felt like my mother would be furious, and I felt like an idiot for just leaving it on the floor. My father wasn’t pissed, he was just glad I was playing. My mother was indifferent. Now I was presented with a problem, I needed a guitar. My guitar teacher recommended several good brands of guitars : Taylor, Gibson, Ibanez. I asked to try his guitar out, and he handed it to me : it was a seagull. I had never heard of a seagull before, and I began to play it. Immediately I noticed the low action, the look, the feel, and the perfect sound, warm and mellow. The next lesson I had a brand new Seagull Series 6 Acoustic Guitar that I could call mine, and I could not have been happier.

Lessons continued for another year or so. My good friend Cody saw that I was playing guitar and picked it up as well, but it seemed as if his passion was in another instrument. Shortly thereafter, Cody expressed his desire to play bass guitar which I always assumed was due to his appreciation of the bass player from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Flea. He ordered a Red Gibson Thunderbird, and a dream hatched. Me and Cody would always spend a lot of time talking on the phone. We would usually discuss our friends, music, basically anything. But at this point we were fixated on one thing : We wanted to start a band. We wanted to go up on stage, and play out hearts out. We wanted to give people the feeling that so many artists have given us. Me and Cody became entirely serious about this goal, and we began our search for those who were equally serious. We experimented with several musicians, most of them friends, and had some good times. One thing we always knew was that we had a similar playing style, and had no problems free-styling.

Soon our friend Scott told us that he was getting a drum set, and starting to learn drums. Me and Cody saw this as a golden oppurtinity and asked him if he would mind joining us. He heartily agreed and we began to get together on a weekly basis. At first it was great and it seemed like we finally found what we were missing, they really helped add a large amount of structure to the music. But after a month or two Cody and I would spend the rest of the night frustrated, having long discussions about what we would do. After we exhausted every other resource, we concluded that it was not working out. There were several problems that I don’t see the need to mention, as well as a large difference in musical interest. All in all, it isn’t fair to rule him out as an influence. The little amount of time he did spend playing with us, He helped us evolve our style and sound greatly. He is still a good friend of ours.

When it all comes down to it, we cling on to one side of our brain, because it’s the stronger one. Either we pursue a more creative path, such as art, or music. Others pursue something less creative, more practical, more structural. There are often things that both parties can’t seem to understand about each other and perhaps they never will. For example, I know somebody (much older than myself) that seems to display no interest in music. I never see him listening to music, and he never seems interested in it. Personally, I feel like he has no soul. Then again, I’m sure there are plenty of people like that who shrug that kind of thing off. Being a musician, music plays a huge part in my life, my philosophy, and my relationships.

I have always said, “Friends can’t always be band mates, and band mates can’t always be friends”. People who create music together, must be able to connect on a much deeper level than normal people. Because the process of creating music is so personal, band mates must be comfortable with each other to create good music. They must be able to understand each other. Although getting along is a huge factor, some people just plain don’t have chemistry together. It is difficult to find someone who you can sit down with and just jam; but when you do find someone, it’s simply incredible.

¹ Exchange rates as of now.