My Mind is Spinning Like the Wheel of Fortune

Really my mind is spinning, spinning, spinning, and not like the great popular song "Wheel of Fortune."  It is spinning or reeling rather trying to try to avoid the lobs of B.S. that have come my way this month.  Let me clarify.  B.S. or bullshit I should define as "jive."  Let me clarify.  The definition of jive is something that is worthless or more problematic, deceptive.  Satan is deceptive.  He masquerades as goodness but really is evil.  The old adage, "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer,"  I have found in my experience to be true.  One must lie in the bed with evil to fight it.  It is tiresome.  Sometimes I just want to be good and kind. I don't want to expend my now limited creativity dealing with evil or more precisely jive competition.  How is "jive" competition different than true competition?  Jive competition knowingly is fake.  A fake is a forgery or a sham.  Professional Wrestling is jive.  It is okay, because they are not hurting anyone with their harmless exhibitions.  Jive is a word that today seems to be defining the music industry.  In a video that is circulating in social media, pop artists are being exposed as lip sync-ers.  I do not have a problem with Madonna or Britney lip syncing.  Their shows are not meant to be vocal extravaganzas.  They are burlesque shows, shows that are meant to titillate sexually.  As a professional musician never have I found sexuality to be component of any music with which I have been involved.  Maybe this is abnormal or unique.  While romance has been at times a crucial concept in music composition and performance, never have I acknowledged that music could be a whore of sexuality.  Music is the breath of God, and to reduce it to a hedonistic vehicle for self gratification would be a sin.  It happens every day.  It has been happening.  I have ignored it.  I know innately never I have been attracted to the music of Motown.  I respect it, but four singing sweating black men do not turn me on.  There only has been one female pop artist that even suggested that sexual arousal was possible from a singer.  That was Shania Twain singing "You're the One."  Listening to that Canadian country brogue whisper in your ear was enough to get your juices flowing.  Her performance was not sexual.  It was intimate and sincere, something that long has left the music industry.  The historical concept of country music long has left country music.  The innate melancholy of traditional country music has been replaced by selfish hedonism.  When traditions in America that have been sincere and earnest become selfish and sexual, then they can be considered "jive."  They are not sincere efforts at producing an art form, something meant to entertain and enlighten.  Let me clarify.  Talent.  What is talent?  Talent doesn't seem to be important any more in the music industry.  Talent once in America was the thing that earned revenue.  It was an element that transcended humanity and crossed over to the spiritual realm.  We all know that the spiritual realm in America has been on the chopping block for a decade.  Radical right wing extremists have tried to exorcise God from every corner of our country.  Consequently tried and true formulas for entertainment and commerce have been rendered impotent.  This is why the economy is floundering in America.  This is why the dollar is weak.  We have no clue about what America is, because she has changed.  It could be said she has changed for the worse.  Was it a good idea to change the rules of the game leaving its players running in circles chasing an invisible rabbit?  I find it troubling trying to figure out the new America.  I find it infuriating dealing with "jive."  Having spent the entirety of my life studying and playing music, it is insulting again and again as a true musician being disrespected by jive.  The rules have been changed, and traditional talent no longer is important in music production.  Again what exactly is talent?  Talent is a transcendent entity that allows the experiences of an artist extemporaneously to manifest themselves as wisdom in a particular medium.  Once this practice of communicating with an audience at an intimate level was the desired vehicle for entertainment.  It almost guaranteed that the show would be a success.  One only has to watch the STAX/Volt Live in Norway DVD  circa 1968 to witness this phenomenon.  There is something happening that to the untrained eye seems inexplicable.  It is only a band and some singers, but.....   The songs they are singing are metaphors for life's experiences.  They communicate almost directly to and from the human soul.  That is why it is called soul music.  America does not have much soul music today.  That is because the rules have changed.  What used to be the cash cow now has been deemed the enemy.  That is because it takes talent to write and perform soul music.  One must possess a soul to engage in it.  A soul.  Let me clarify.  Soul is emotional or intellectual energy or intensity especially as revealed in a work of art or an artistic performance.  Let me clarify.  In short this means a performer or artist must have "something to say."  They must feel an urging to express themselves for some reason.  The reasons for this urge can be diverse, but without this emotional or intellectual energy driving them the product will be lackluster.  Talent comes in when this urge is recognized, a medium is chosen, and a performer seeks to become artistic in their rendering.  They must hone their skills first into craft and then into art.  America is to ADD to have time for this anymore.  It's all about immediate gratification.  Upon coming back to America from over a decade abroad, it is like hitting a brick wall.  The generation that understood and consumed artistic culture almost is extinct.  America's new youth only have learned from MP3's or streaming media.  It is a shite state of affairs.  What is phenomenal about the STAX/Volt revue is that each and every performer on stage is "feeling" the musical flow of energy.  That means that the songs or vehicles of music are well-written, naturally expressive, and have something to say.  They "flow."  The song from beginning to end is a flow of energy that ebbs and flows.  It creates tension and then seeks to release it.  It is a near perfect metaphor for most musical compositions.  There is a beginning and an end and something interesting happens in between.  An analogy can be made with the three great composers of the Classical Era.  In a symphony the piece builds and builds to a climax.  At the climax each would offer an extremely diverse denouement.  Franz Josef Haydn would make a joke.  Ludwig Von Beethoven would dazzle you with his fireworks.  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart would treat you to the most beautiful entity he could devise.  Good popular music seeks to do the same thing if it is not "jive."  Jive in this context is a non-musical enterprise trying their best to capitalize in the music industry.  They have failed.  It is disheartening to see musicians with integrity become diverted down this road.  Apparently it is easy to sell out.  Let me clarify.  I observed a skilled group of musicians last night completely drop the ball.  It was heinous.  Much like singer and guitarist Dominick Allen, they masqueraded as something else.  They ignored the historical meanings of the songs and made them selfish vehicles for themselves.  They faked it, and it was noticeable.  Not only was it noticeable it was grotesque.  There was not one ounce of music made at this concert. How can I say such a thing with notes flying around all night?  The quintessential flow of energy that is necessary in a musical performance was absent.  Whether it was the arrangements that were lacking or the acoustic of the arena, something did not allow a drop of sincerity to find its way to this concert.  It was "jive" with a capital "J."  It was weak, it was tepid, and it was jive.  Fake.  Deceptive.  I don't really understand how a group of talented musicians can "lay down" like this on the job.  Let me clarify.  The first time I heard an instrumentalist play like this was on a cruise ship.  I had no idea there could be such a musical concept that would allow singers or instrumentalists to blow puffs of air in your ear like a fairy.  All my life musicians have sought to expend energy from their souls by playing out.  The very idea of using music as a vehicle to weaken the fabric of life is unsettling to me.  It is wrong.  Art to does not seek to make you weak.  It seeks to empower you.  God does not seek to make you weak.  He seeks to empower you.  This kind of music is a disgrace, and if professional players need this kind of gratification they should seek it elsewhere.  The field of music is a professional area, and the meek and lowly do not qualify.  It takes gumption to be a musician, not submission.