Collaboration -- (sorta lengthy)

[OncleBoo at aol_com]

I was doing some musing the other day about OHIO and something occurred to me that didn't really register with me when I first read it.  All of y'all who've read Jeffrey Overstreet's interview with Linford will remember the following:


>What prompted the re-recording of “Bothered” [which was previously on the album >Eve.]
>
>The drummer gets the credit for that. We’d never recorded a band version of the >song. We played it last December, and Will came up with that groove, and he really >wanted to record it. So we just kinda did on a whim, thinking we would use it for a >b-side or something. When the whole double-album thing became possibility, we >decided to include it. People respond to that song and still want to hear it live. It's >like it still has work to do.

    
So anyway, as I said I was doing some musing and the above quote struck me as exceedingly positive.  Why is that, you ask?  Well, I'll tell you, though I fully admit I may not have a clue what I'm talking about.

Although there's no question that I've appreciated the band's musical output since the dissolution of the original quartet, one thing that has concerned me is that it seemed that Linford and Karin had complete and utter creative control.  For all the time Jack spent with them, I never got the sense that he ever had the freedom (or perhaps even desire) to shape the band's sound beyond playing the music that had been written for him to play.  I certainly don't remember him being credited on any of the songs on FFR.  Now, that's not to say that L&K don't know how to write and make good music, but I worried that their songwriting would become insular and stagnant through not having any input from fellow bandmates.  After all, what do either of them know about drumming or doing anything dynamic on a guitar?

"What does it matter?" you might say.  "What did Mozart know about playing the piccolo or the bassoon, after all?  He still managed to write great music that incorporated those elements, didn't he?"

Fair enough.  I honestly don't know though how much Mozart knew about the various orchestral instruments and what he was able to play.  Besides that, he was a prodigy, and as much as we all might like K&L, I don't know that any of us are truly prepared to compare them to someone of Mozart's stature.

Look, I'm not one of those hardcore old-timers who saw OtR play at Sudsy's and swore that anything they would do without Brian and Ric would be crap.  To me, Karin and Linford have more than shown that they certainly can and do make wonderful music and craft beautiful songs just by themselves, but I've really felt that they're missing out on the collaborative element that a true "band" can bring.  I mean, Jack is a hell of a songwriter, but how much use of that talent did K&L make?  Sure, they'd play "Curse These Dreams" or "Holy Rain" in concert once in a while, but it was always prefaced by "This is one of Jack's songs" or something along those lines.  Yeah, part of that is they were trying to encourage sales of his CD, but why weren't any of those fabulous songs of his taken and made an Over the Rhine song?  He was, in effect, a part of OtR for what, 6 or 7 years?  And how much input did he have in that entire time?  What would his performances have been like if he'd been able to take possession of the songs as more than just a glorified session musician?

Have I ranted enough yet?  I suspect so.  I certainly went on longer than I expected to and all just to make this point:  I think it's a good thing that a) this new drummer had the freedom to come up with a new way of doing a song, b) was able to push for it to be recorded, and c) it was ultimately included on the album.  Now, having said that, I haven't heard this new version of "Bothered".  It may suck.  Or not - I don't know.  I just think it bodes well for the creative health of Over the Rhine if there are more than 2 people involved in the creative process.

Thanks for bearing with what is, without a doubt, the longest thing I've ever written to this list.



Steve
oncleboo at aol_com

np:  Erin McKeown - Grand

"Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine." -- P.J. O'Rourke