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 Keep It Simple
Van Morrison
Roger McGuinn @ the Huntington IMAC, Long Island, NY - April 4, 2008
Emily Saxe @ the Allen Room/Jazz at Lincoln Center - April 5, 2008
Another Country
Tift Merritt
Be Your Own Pet
Get Awkward
Paul McCartney – The McCartney Years (DVD)
Juno – Music from the Motion Picture
Various Artists
Yes - Their Definitive Story
Day and Night Driving
Seven Mary Three
InterMedia Arts Center 2/2/08
Huntington, NY
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Seal
There are any number of ways that a recording artist can address issues they consider to be urgent. Some might be satisfied to simply complain, while others would really like to enact a change. If they choose the latter, then there are really only two options: antagonize or proselytize. In the first instance, change is enacted through anger or rage. It posits a direct challenge to the listener who must then decide to either jump aboard or get steamrollered. Most entrenched middle-class types have a problem with aggressive music styles for exactly that reason, because they work hard to be where they are and it isn’t easy for them to buy into a sense of responsibility for other people’s problems. Who wants to be crushed by an onslaught of accusations? Rap music fails to appeal beyond its constituents because (by design) it antagonizes the middle class. To put it bluntly, middle class types tend to get really nervous when someone calls them a motherf*%#er. The intended message fails to strike home because they can’t even listen. Proselytizing works the same turf, but in a more amenable way. If you think about it, conversion through seduction is even more insidious than aggression, because it disguises its intention with beauty as a distraction.
| Column A |
Column B |
| DMX |
City High |
| Rage Against the Machine |
Seal |
Each of the above-mentioned artists are very good at what they do, but chances are good that fans of column ‘A’ are disdainful of column ‘B’, while fans of column ‘B’ are horrified by column ‘A’. Figuratively speaking, Rage and DMX put a gun against your head and says “Move!!! NOW, MOTHERF*%#ER!!!!” Seal, on the other hand, taps you on the shoulder, points in the direction he wants you to go, and then hopes you have the common sense to listen.
None of this has anything to do with either artist’s popularity or artistic integrity. Kids who like to bang heads would undoubtedly rather thrash about in a mosh pit to Rage (and probably ignore their politics entirely) while people who prefer melody will appreciate Seal without necessarily gleaning any message from his lyrics. That’s a shame, though, because each artist is intending to convey something meaningful, something that transcends the medium that they choose. Listening to the music of Seal without hearing the message is like watching a movie with the sound turned down. It’s style over substance, the container over the content.
Seal chooses not to call anybody a motherf*%#er (at least not yet) because he doesn’t want to be divisive, and yet he can be as provocative as any rapper, or as stimulating as any politically-minded metal band. Seal taps into a positive life force that calls for unity, without sounding like some neo-hippie flower child. He's a pragmatist who recognizes the benefit of getting as many people as possible to listen to his songs. Whether or not they are really listening is another matter entirely, but anyone who does will be surprised by the sympathetic humanity that lies beneath the haunting melancholy of his voice.
“Kiss From a Rose” is a bizarre example for an emotionally fulfilling song, but it somehow fits the bill perfectly. I mean, face it, if not for the expressive talents of Seal this song would be a pretentious nightmare. In lesser hands, it’s only a florid madrigal gone berserk. “Now that your rose is in bloom, my life lifts the gloom from the grey” sounds like nothing so much as an out-take from Richard Harris’ version of “Macarthur Park.” Anyone else would die a slow death singing such a convoluted and yet serious lyric. Seal not only survives the song, he flourishes in it, making it sound like it contains a key to some hidden mystery of life. That is the power of sympathetic, artistic and intelligent interpretation. It’s proselytizing rendered into a work of art. If Seal can do that, he’s capable of anything, and if he ever decides to record “Macarthur Park”, look out, ‘cause it’ll be a motherf*%#er.
 
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