The Joke
This rubbed me the wrong way the first time through.
The second I tolerated it.
The third I LOVED IT!
That’s the power of radio, that’s the power of repetition. But every time they play an oldie on the Spectrum I flip the switch, I know where to get that stuff, I’m hungry for the new, but too many of those on the Americana playlists on the streaming services are tune-outs, BUT NOT THIS!
And there’s the conundrum. People are making new music but most of the potential audience is not hearing it. Hell, although Brandi Carlile’s album just came out this month, this lead track, “The Joke,” has been out since November, with YouTube views far under a million. HOW CAN THIS BE?
Brandi is someone whose name has been bandied about for years. But that’s today’s market, either you make an immediate splash or you get down into the weeds and do your work, make fans one by one, waiting for the big break that may not ever come, even though you’re getting bigger. I mean are we ever going to hear “The Joke” on the Spotify Top 50, on Top Forty radio? Probably not. Top Forty is not what it once was, now it’s all hip-hop/urban, there’s very little pop. As for Spotify, that chart is what people are actually listening to, so it’s hard to get started if you’re not already famous or working in popular genres.
And the problem with Americana/AAA is the audience. Aged and insular. So proud of their acts that they don’t want to share them, and they don’t want to embrace new technologies. Believe me, the audience for “The Joke” is much wider than it’s gonna be, unless Brandi Carlile gets one of those TV moments, like Sugarland or Kellie Pickler. When all eyes are upon you and you deliver…
But most acts never get a chance, even though they’re already good.
Now I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that this track was produced by Shooter Jennings and Dave Cobb, the Don Was of his generation, specializing in getting the essence of his acts on wax. Funny, we’ve become so inured to Svengali producers we’ve forgotten the greats don’t leave their fingerprints but allow their charges to shine.
So “The Joke” starts quiet, with piano and strings, the antithesis of today’s modern music, it’s alive, it breathes, it stretches out.
And Brandi’s not belting, she’s not a TV contestant, she’s servicing the song, not overpowering it.
And then there’s that change, too much of today’s music is repetitive beats. Brandi’s alternately climbing the song mountain and taking a detour and then…
Comes the big anthemic chorus, with its unexpected triumphant ending.
And then the strings and everybody else in the kitchen sink chimes in and you’re hooked.
And she starts singing again. With the drums starting to pound and you remember what music once was, this is like the seventies, someone taking the form but stretching it. This is not shoegazer music, one thing’s for sure, Brandi can SING! And like a Lowell George production the track breathes, there’s not too much on it.
Let ’em laugh while they can
Let ’em spin, let ’em scatter in the wind
I have been to the movies, I’ve seen how it ends
And the joke’s on them
Remember when music was the other, the refuge for those who just didn’t fit in, who couldn’t march in the preordained steps, who had a different vision, before we all became automatons marching to the dollar beat?
That’s what’s going on here.
This is music to wake up your inner power. Not some Katy Perry ditty.
And when the strings come back in and the song ramps up you feel powerful, you’re standing, conducting the band, a star in your mirror, feeling with this song in your ears you can conquer the world.
You might just.
