In the evenings I find myself in the TV room with the wife, she'll be watching some TV and I'll be sitting on the laptop, usually working. It's rare that TV pulls me away from the allure of the internet. But recently GLEE has made me close the lid on my Mac Book Pro and watch. Partly due to the addition of Gwyneth Paltrow and partly because whoever is choosing the songs for GLEE is actually a very clever individual.Tonight, I rejoice that kids that may never have even heard of Fleetwood Mac will be begging their parents to download the GLEE version of the beautiful track Landslide. Other tracks in this 'Sexy' episode included Prince's Kiss and err *Gary Glitter's* Do You Wanna Touch Me. I am sure the latter had less relaxed Americans burning copies of the GLEE CD and Yearbook. 'GLEE vs The Registered Sex Offender' would make a great episode in my opinion.
It's genuinely pleasing that songs that could get lost are finding a new audience.
But It's sad though that the modern reproductions are nowhere near as pretty as the originals, at best they seem over-produced bubble gum pop, at worst they are auto-tuned beyond belief. A bit of dirt and grit is what made these songs so great.
At what point is it OK to teach kids that the best songs (like songwriters) are flawed, not overproduced polished audio versions of glossy magazine supplements. We can only hope that GLEE helps the younger viewer start to consider and develop musical maturity and find the originals and learn from them. Don't get me wrong, there are some wonderful cover versions of songs out there, but sadly GLEE seems to take it's production values into the songs a bit too far. But what do I know, I'm not my 14 year old god-daughter who owns the T-shirt, the lunch-box, the poster, the DVDs, the CDs, err you get my drift.
Oh and for those that don't know, the photo is of Stevie Nicks who wrote Landslide in Aspen, Colorado whilst she contemplated going back to school or continuing on with guitarist Lindsey Buckingham. Buckingham and Nicks had been dropped by Polydor and she and Buckingham were not getting along. It was first released on the 1975 album Fleetwood Mac. Have a listen to their version HERE.