re: joan osborne (and the music industry)

Elson Trinidad (elson@godzilla.westworld.com)
Fri, 1 Mar 1996 11:11:02 -0800 (PST)


On Fri, 1 Mar 1996 pyramus@wavenet.com wrote:

> That annoying-as-sand-in-your-eyes song,
> "What if God yadda yadda," was written by none
> other than the same fellow who co-wrote Cyndi
> Lauper's first break-through smash, "Girls
> Just Wanna Have Fun." Cyndi was and is a talented

Eric Bazilian, from the 80s band The Hooters ("All You Zombies,"
"And We Danced") Forgive me, but I kinda liked The Hooters and
early Lauper at the time...

What I thought was weird about Osborne getting all the nominations was that
she only had one single out and a little-known album, which led me to think
that she had some 'good friends' in the Grammy committee (See Raitt, Bonnie).

> U2 didn't become experimental until ENO found them.

True, but I always dug their earlier, more raw material, before Bono
proclaimed, "I am a STAR! WORSHIP ME!"

> Why did Sheryl Crow sweep the
Grammies 2 years > ago? Why did it take 5...FIVE(!) people to write
> "All I Wanna Do Is Have Some Fun?"

Hey, I liked Sheryl Crow. Her album is pretty diverse (ObJazz: "Do What
They Can," the second to the last song; ObFunk: "Solidify"). She's produced
by Bill Bottrell, who also produced Thomas Dolby's funky "Aliens Ate My
Buick" album. Also in the production team is Kevin Gilbert, who IMHO is a
real intelligent producer, musician and songwriter (anyone remember the
band Toy Matinee? He was one of them. Also he was the leader of the San
Jose band Giraffe in the mid-80s). "All I Wanna Do" was written by 5
people because it, and many of the songs from her "Tuesday Night Music Club"
album started out as informal weekly jam sessions, hence the name.

Okay, since people brought light about Osborne's talent, I'll give it a
chance. But I guess we all agree on Morrissette? Isn't she the first
Truly-Packaged, Bandwagon-Jumping,
Yodel-Like-Every-Other-Female-Alternative Singer,
I'm-Gonna-Cuss-On-My-Record-Just-To-Look-Hard 'Alternative' Artist?
She used to be on a Nickolodeon show, and used to be a Debbie Gibson-type
teen pop singer (that wasn't as successful).
The guy who wrote "You Oughtta Know" also co-wrote Michael Jackson's "Man
In The Mirror"! Actually, I kind of like Morissette's presence in the
industry. I mean, artists like her can only mean grunge's downfall.

Elson

-30-
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Elson Trinidad, Los Angeles, CA
elson@westworld.com
http://www.westworld.com/~elson
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