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OTR, Abba, and other musings
hey all--
Over the (long) weekend we were fortunate enough to see a lot of bootleg
OTR video (thanks, Jeff). After miles and miles of Channel 12 news stories
which dated progressively farther and farther back in time (a strange
complement to the current backwards-aging Mork and Mindy subject-- first
Karen and Linford look solidly adult, then they start to look more and more
like kids as each spot follows the latter), we got to watch both a
partial Cornerstone show and a concert in Kentucky with a full orchestra.
I was grateful to see them perform Eyes Wide Open and How Does It Feel, as
the only other old one I've seen them do live was And Can It Be at Shuba's
in Chicago a little while back. But that's not the point of this post...
At the end of this "Orchestral OTR" concert, there was a tantalizingly
short portion of the band and symphony orchestra doing a note-perfect
"Dancing Queen." You may or may not think this is noteworthy, but that's
not the point of this post, either. Here's the point:
When I saw Karen and Terry start to sing this Abba chestnut, they lost all
their unique OTR-ness and actually took on a sort of Abba-ness! It made me
think about rock-n-roll as an art form. There was a time, before we were
born, when music could and should be played by someone other than it's
composer, but that time is over. Most composition today is integrally tied
to its composer. Aerosmith may cover "Come Together," but you don't even
compare it to the Abbey Road version. You don't count it in the same
category, even.
That's it. What do you think?
jnf