Well, I’m up to 1983 — a year I was looking forward to — since it means I get to cover “I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues,” the classic 1983 hit song written and performed by Elton John (with Davey Johnstone getting some of the music credit and Bernie Taupin writing the lyrics).
I basically recorded the piano and vocals live (filming with my iPhone), and then went back and added some backup vocals and “software instruments” (drums and bass) played live on my midi keyboard.
I’ve written and recorded my first post-retirement song. It’s an extended metaphor about getting old, based on the game of chess — specifically, the “endgame.”
Links to all my music and music videos can be found here.
Title: “Building Bad: How Architectural Utility is Constrained by Politics and Damaged by Expression”
Cornell’s YouTube video of my April 14, 2022, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM “Chats in the Stacks” book talk (a virtual event) was posted today.
In a free, live, virtual “Chats in the Stacks” book talk, Jonathan Ochshorn discusses his latest book, Building Bad: How Architectural Utility is Constrained by Politics and Damaged by Expression (Lund Humphries, 2021), where he examines how utilitarian function in architecture can be thwarted by political and economic forces, and undermined by artistic expression. In considering several contemporary buildings and projects, Ochshorn avoids advocating for a specific style or practice but provides an objective framework for analyzing architecture through the lens of utility.
Sponsored by the Mui Ho Fine Arts Library, Cornell University, the talk is followed by a live Q&A.
I just recorded a cover of Tainted Love, the 1982 U.S. hit by the English synthpop duo, Soft Cell. It turns out that this song, written by Ed Cobb, was recorded back in 1964 by Gloria Jones, but I never heard that version until recently. My version doesn’t have much in common with either the 1964 or 1982 recordings, probably because it’s the lyrics rather than the music that always intrigued me about this song: such an interesting way of characterizing a damaged (‘tainted”) relationship!
I recorded the song essentially live (vocals and keyboards) over a click track; then created drum, bass, and organ tracks using “software instruments” in Login Pro, played “live” on my Yamaha MIDI-enabled keyboard, and finally added some backup vocals. The glass curtain wall that I added to the video in Final Cut Pro is actually the north wall of Milstein Hall at Cornell University — looking into the basement auditorium — designed by Rem Koolhaas and OMA.
1. OMA-designed architecture studios put required exit and bathrooms in adjacent library. 2. But library is open when studios are closed, or vice versa, creating “security” issues. 3. Problem solved: forbid entry through the fire exit!
See links to all my posts and writings about the Fine Arts Library here.
In anticipation of the official U.S. release of my book, Building Bad, on Sept. 30, 2021, I made a more fully orchestrated version of my song, Ballad of Building Bad, along with a new, more elaborated, music video.
The original “live” version of the song, along with some fun facts and lyrics, can be found on this prior blog post.
Verse 1 Flames shoot up from a couch by the front bay window Toxic smoke quickly fills the room Then works its way right up the stairs to the floor where the boys had been so Fast asleep that they didn’t smell the noxious fume And didn’t hear the smoke alarm with their parents out and the doors all shut tight There is no law requiring sprinklers whose activation Might have doused the flames and saved their lives that night Perhaps the home builders associations that lobbied so hard to kill that legislation Will explain their tortured logic to Mom and Dad Building bad
Verse 2 Everybody’s talking about the fancy new library Where you must climb up steps to get to these bookshelves Asked about ADA mandates for access he says it’s customary For disabled people not to get their books themselves Now he’s pointing to the killer views you get looking out from those steel stairs But when asked about excluding handicapped users He says I won’t ruin my design just because of some strollers and some wheelchairs This is a gift to the community and beggars can’t be choosers And it’s based on these watercolor drawings in my sketchpad Building bad
Bridge Architects are trained to get their kicks with fashion an obsession While utility’s constrained by politics and damaged by expression
Verse 3 There are leaks and cracks and mold but the building’s still standing Like a party of drunken robots celebrating Says the architect hired to promote the institute’s rebranding He says it as a point of pride — not to be self-deprecating I can’t hang my blackboard when these office walls are curved and slanted Complains the famous linguist wondering why they’re convex And why even configuring control layers correctly is something you can’t take for granted Where the risk of failure grows and grows as forms get increasingly complex And fashionable dysfunction is more than just a passing fad Building bad
Unbeknownst to me, when I started writing this ballad, it took the form of a Shakespearian Sonnet, with these two modifications: (1) instead of three quatrains (abab, cdcd, efef) in each verse, there are two (abab, cdcd), followed, as in the Shakespearian model, by a couplet (gg); and (2) the accent in Shakespeare’s classic iambic pentameter (“Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon“) is reversed, so it is more like trochaic pentameter (“Toxic smokequickly fills the room“). And as the lines in my verses get elaborated, the meter becomes harder to detect, but it’s there!
Links to all my music and videos can be found here.
As I have been alternating new (original) songs and covers, it’s time for me to re-imagine this hit (recorded in 1980 but released as a single in 1981) from Daryl Hall and John Oates, with Sara Allen also given song-writing credit. I can’t possibly replicate Daryl Hall’s energetic vocal or mimic the particular rock genre — characterized later as “yacht rock.” The tempo of my version is somewhat faster, but with the snare drum slowed down into a half-time feel and a decidedly more bluesy articulation.
I wrote this song in January and February of 2021, then worked on the piano/vocal arrangement for another month or so, recording it live on March 21, 2021 (while simultaneously shooting the video using my iPod Touch mounted on a tripod perched precariously with one leg on the piano and the other two legs straddling my computer keyboard. This is a love song of sorts with my own intuited jazz-inflected chord changes. Try out a 14-bar verse yourself: | Cmaj7 | Eb | Dm | C# | E | Emaj7 | Dm – G | repeat. Or perhaps you would prefer to try the 9-bar chorus: | Cmaj7 | Fm – C# | B | Bb | Ebm – B | Amaj7 | Ab | C# | Fm | Dm – G |. And sorry for mixing up flats and sharps: it’s how I understand the changes, even if it doesn’t correspond to proper musical notation.
In my chronological quest to record covers of songs that were somehow influential in my musical/emotional development, I’ve finally left the 1970s! Inaugurating the new decade is Bruce Springsteen’s fine working-class anthem, “The River,” first released in 1980. The truth is, I didn’t really know the song until much later, but still…
This version is recorded live, at least the basic piano and vocals, with the video recorded simultaneously from two vantage points: the sucky iSight camera in my old iMac, and my relatively new iPod touch mounted on a tripod behind the piano (visible in the iMac segments). I then added acoustic guitar, harmonica, and—using Logic Pro’s software instruments—drums and bass. I edited the video using Final Cut Pro, making everything black and white in order to work around the horrible color quality of the iMac video segments. In this respect, I must disagree with Paul Simon’s assessment in “Kodachrome” that “everything looks worse in black and white.” In fact, the opposite is often true.
All of my music and music videos can be found here.
