I am not a lawyer, much to the chagrin of my dear grandmother. However, I come before you today to make an argument that should be so plain, so obvious, and so transparent to even the most tone deaf of music appreciators that I shouldn’t even have to make it. But, for some reason, my client doesn’t get the respect she deserves. So here’s my opening statement:
Fiona Apple is the greatest popular music composer/performer of our time.
Not convinced? Don’t worry, you will be.
Apple, whose real name is Fiona Maggart (can’t imagine why label wanted her to change that), appeared in the American Consciousness back in 1996 with the release of her first album, Tidal. Apple and I were born a month apart back in 1977, so that means she was not yet eighteen years old when she wrote songs like Criminal, Shadowboxer, and Sleep to Dream.
Okay, I know you all want to see the Criminal video right now, so let’s just go ahead and get that out of the way.
[yframe url=’https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFOzayDpWoI’]
It’s easy to get distracted by the overt sexuality of this video (and one can make the case that Apple was borderline exploited in it), but think about what she’s really saying here. Apple sings about having used the power of that same sexuality to manipulate a man for her own personal gain, but now she realizes that she actually loves him and wants to get him back using less devious methods.
So what would an angel say/the devil wants to know?
She doesn’t want to be bad anymore, but she doesn’t know how to get a man any other way. This is pretty deep stuff for a seventeen-year-old to have realized. Ignore the damned video. Listen to what she’s saying.
And yet, on Shadowboxer, she manages to see the other side of manipulation.
Once my lover, now my friend
What a cruel thing to pretend
What a cunning way to condescend
[yframe url=’https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnXjISlKLuE’]
Apple showed very early on that she’s capable of writing a compelling lyric that speaks words to the emotional torment that so many young women of her generation face but that they, themselves, barely understand. As a result, while Criminal may have brought her popular acclaim, it’s Shadowboxer and Sleep to Dream that created an underground legion of Apple devotees.
Even though Tidal is her greatest commercial success, and the lyrics are undeniably powerful, the harmonies are fairly simple on all of the hit tracks. She began to explore with the 6/8 feel on Shadowboxer, but it wasn’t until her next release that she made it a part of who she is. But for a first release from a teenager, it was brilliant. Tidal won several awards for Apple, including a Grammy and an MTV Music Video Award (which led to the famous “The World is Bullshit” speech).
Apple waited three years for her next record, When the Pawn…(a shortened version of the 400 word title), which was produced by the brilliant Jon Brion. Those who expected a Criminal 2.0 were sorely disappointed. Fiona grew up quite a bit in those years, having been forced into the public eye, and the subject matter of the songs reflected that.
Fast As You Can, which was the first single from When the Pawn… explores some of the same thematic material as Criminal, and it’s harmonically simple to the point of repetition, but it brings back the compound meter feel of Shadowboxer over the bridge. The video, as directed by her then-beau Paul Thomas Anderson, is a huge shift from Criminal. Apple is a woman, now, not a girl. Fast As You Can is okay, but it’s the least musically adventurous track on the album.
[yframe url=’https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbxqtbqyoRk’]
My personal favorite is To Your Love, a song that effortless dances through several tonal centers while Apple, herself, explores her emotional walls that separate her from those who would try to love her.
Please forgive me for my distance
but Pain has ever haunted my existence
Please forgive me for my distance
but Shame is manifest in my resistance
To Your Love
[yframe url=’https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJqe0cULj6U’]
Watch that video and tell me another modern day performer who’s that good live. Go on—I’ll wait. No backing vocals required to cover up the tone of her voice. No Autotune needed. She’s a musician’s musician.
However, most Appleites would tell you that the best track on When the Pawn… is Paper Bag. I won’t fight them too hard on that one. It’s a nice change for Apple—it actually spends the whole tune in a major key, for once. The message of the song, however, is decidedly minor, especially from a woman who suffered from various eating disorders for much of her young life.
Hunger hurts
But starving works
When it costs too much to love
This video, again directed by Anderson, shows Apple at her best—both serious and lighthearted, both introspective and carefree. I remember when I first saw it back in 2000 or so and thought, “They made Fiona DANCE??” But it works.
[yframe url=’https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK30r_SIZ-g’]
Unfortunately, that smirk she gives us at the end, signifying her happiness at moving on from that point in her life, perhaps, was the last we saw of Apple for nearly seven long years. Depending on whose story you believe, Apple’s next album, Extraordinary Machine, again produced by Brion, was either rejected by Sony for not being radio-friendly enough, or by Apple for being a “Jon Brion album, not a Fiona apple album. A grassroots campaign was started to ask Sony to release the record, and eventually all of the tracks were leaked to the public through various channels.
I have that original version that was produced by Brion, and while it’s brilliant in its own way, Sony was right to have rejected it for commercial purposes. Mike Elizondo, who played bass on When the Pawn… and produced several albums for Eminem and Dr. Dre, was brought in to re-record the record. The resulting record, which was released in 2005, is very, very good. But when you combine the two versions of the record, I believe it is the best recording of the young 21st century.
Here’s a little compare and contrast: First up, we’ll listen to Brion’s version of one of my favorite tracks on the record, Better Version of Me:
[yframe url=’https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAAdToKfjLg’]
Now, here’s Elizondo’s version of the same tune:
[yframe url=’https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAVsiW4nyjo’]
I find beauty in both. It’s also a very good example of just how important a producer can be to a recording session. You can hear Apple’s vision for the song come through in both versions, but Elizondo was clearly more focused on getting radio play. Brion had lush arrangements that used little to no drumset, focusing more on orchestral percussion, but I believe that Abe Laboriel’s excellent work on the drums in Elizondo’s take adds something compelling to the song.
As can be said of every single Apple record, Extraordinary Machine has a couple of songs in compound meter, and the glorious Waltz (Better Than Fine) is my favorite. I’ve included a live example with Nickel Creek here, just so Jack can stop complaining that I’ve dedicated a couple thousand words to Fiona Apple on his website. Ignore the cell phone quality of the audio and video, and listen to Apple’s normally plaintive voice giving inspiration to those who need it.
[yframe url=’https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrfnDkcunBU’]
Of course, we have come to realize that Apple only writes when she wants to, and as a result, we had to wait another nearly seven years for her next recording, The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do, which was released in 2012. As tends to happen with these sorts of things, it has been Apple’s most widely critically acclaimed record (named Best Record of the Year by Time Magazine), and virtually nobody has bought it. Produced by her touring drummer, Charley Drayton, each song has a highly percussive element to it. Apple’s voice seemed to have evolved over the years, with more vibrato than we had previously heard from her on studio recordings.
The biggest commercial problem with The Idler Wheel… is that it doesn’t have a single song that one could call, well, a Single. It’s a masterful work, taken as a whole, but there’s nothing that you can dance to on it. To which I say, who cares? It’s a sonically stark record, with many tracks featuring nothing more than Apple’s piano and Drayton’s percussion.
Let’s listen to Jonathan, a song dedicated to her former boyfriend, writer Jonathan Ames. Listen as Apple explains that she’s come to terms with the women in his past, but that she can’t bear to talk about it any more, as her piano weaves back and worth between minor and major tonalities in a 6/8 dance, a dance that seems to personify her own dance between her conscious and subconscious thoughts. The left hand and right hand piano lines performing Bach-like counterpoints would seem somewhat innocuous taken individually, but together, they haunt us.
[yframe url=’https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABtDxEQLURU’]
Again, Apple’s live performances transcend even the excellence of her studio work. Here she is in 2012 at the Greek Theatre, performing Werewolf. She’s able to see the beauty in a relationship that was ultimately flawed. Who among us hasn’t felt this way?
There’s nothing wrong when
A song ends
In a minor key
[yframe url=’https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co5o70PI-sU’]
Who knows when we’ll get more music from Fiona Apple, if ever? She’s made enough money to never work again—she probably made enough money from Criminal alone to never work again—and one almost hopes that she doesn’t have to experience the sort of pain and anguish that has displayed itself in such beautiful ways. But, at the ripe old age of thirty-seven, literally half a lifetime away from the first time we heard her name, I have a feeling that she has more stories to tell.
So if all you know of Fiona Apple is what she looked like in her underwear as a teenager, I hope that I’ve inspired you to dig deeper into who she became. Maybe she did her career backwards, in some senses, or maybe her early commercial success gave her a license to do what it was that she actually wanted to do musically.
Regardless of how you look at it, there’s no question that Apple has provided us with a body of work that is second to none among her peers. She’s outlasted the Tori Amoses, the Rachel Yamagatas, and maybe even the Feists of the world to become somewhat of an icon.
I rest my case.
I saw Fiona Apple at a tiny club in San Diego in 1997; the show was delayed about a half hour because the bouncers wouldn’t let an underage person into the building.
I remember it being a pretty damn fantastic show once she was let inside.
Jealous!
I have seen Fiona live three times—once after When the Pawn released, once with Nickel Creek, and once after Extraordinary Machine. I would likely drop whatever I was doing to see her if she were within a five hour drive at any given time.
Nice. She is absolutely and tragically under-appreciated.
Along with everyone else, I always liked the video where she was writhing around on the floor but it took Extraordinary Machine to realize what was up. Shit’s real.
Well argued, counsel.
Enjoyed this trip through her oeuvre. Learned something new and will make a dedicated effort to spend some time adding her to my music cloud.
First thought. That initial video, Criminal, is how you do sensual, carnal, sexy and I’m looking at you, Miley (how far has the pop music industry fallen since Fiona broke on the scene?).
Another thought. If I were her producer, I’d steer her away from her current vibrato, which is a bit manic. But hey, that’s kinda part of her bit.
Love her sense of time. She does more with an octave-and-a-half of vocal range than anyone in the business. She spends a lot of time in relationship ecstasy and despair. Which are a few more thoughts. Lyrical genius with some amazing turns of phrase. Which is how you do it and I’m looking at you Gaga (a long ways, that’s how far it’s fallen, pop music has).
Thanks Bark!
The Criminal video immediately brought to mind one of my favorite pornos, “Daring the Honey Trap.” Hmmm
I’m partial to Swing Out Sister, but one thing Corinne Drewery (bless her heart, that dress she wore in Forever Blue makes me want to have time-travel-sex!) and Fiona have in common is using real instruments to back their singing. Most music of the past 20 years just sounds so fake and disposable. I’m not an musician like you Bark, but yeah there’s something real about hearing a real accompaniment backing up a singer.
Corinne is…
just the best. SOS for life.
Sorry for a jalopnik like easy comment but here goes
You ain’t Fiona Apple and if you ain’t Fiona Apple I don’t give a damn.
After living thru the 70’s I tended to ignore 99% of “pop” music afterwards. Perhaps one in 100 songs would catch my attention, but it was mainly for the musical composition; a strong lead guitar, a good bass hook( think Blood and Roses by the Smithereens), some killer brass in there, things like that. As I have aged my tastes have changed even more, going back to older styles. These days it’s for the most part bluegrass and some rockabilly and if I’m in a strange mood even some Hank 3. My favorite these days are covers of newer songs done as bluegrass, like these guys;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDsqEQ1Y9KY
Yes I’m old but not really mellow (get off my lawn) 🙂
Hey Dingus, “What you said.” And how about “Wall of Sleep” by the Smithereens.
The tape is one of the dozen plus I keep in my Grand Marquis, to feed into its retro tape deck. And has always been a favorite of mine.
And if you like Hank 3, but haven’t run into Steve Earle, check him out, starting with Copperhead Road.
And I want people to stay off my lawn, too, but you, sir, are welcome.
Are you the same guy who was on alt.rec.climbing several years ago, with lots of good stories? Any chance on getting a short summary of where some of the regulars have gone and what they are doing? I only knew them online but considered them and you to be good friends.
Among other things I was the guy who took the very complicated formula for VO2Max, containing multiple variables and constants, and re-cast it as a simple formula that reduced to something like distance covered in fifteen minutes. My only real claim to fame in that distinguished company.
If that was you, how about a shoutout, please.
I couldn’t help but think of Patrick Bateman’s various monologues on artists and albums as I read this.
But seriously I loved “Tidal”, but I couldn’t really get into “When the Pawn….” But I’m a musical pleb anyway.
Oh and “Never is a Promise” is my personal favorite.
Radiohead is the greatest popular music composer/performer of our time.
Never heard of her before, amazingly talented but too much angst for me
she sounds a lot like that guy in Pearl Jam
The best supporting role award goes to the Dodge Stratus in Criminal.
And now for a rebuttal.
We will concede that Ms. Apple nee Maggart is a talented singer songwriter of recent years, and the evidence and arguments presented on her behalf are all positive with respect to the point which Mr. M. contends.
But there is no heed at all paid to other female singer songwriters who are arguably her equal, or even her better.
It is clear that Counselor M. is solidly on the side of Ms. A, but he completely ignores any attempt to rebut the strong body of evidence against his viewpoint that she is the best female singer songwriter.
Without going into the level of detail of discographies of the following singer songwriters, all of whose work is well known to most redblooded Americans who have a pulse and still breathe, there are (in no particular order other than the way that come to mind) Norah Jones, Bonnie Raitt, Tracy Chapman, Natalie Merchant, Janis Ian, Patti Smith, k.d. lang…there are these and many more whom others might prefer more than I do, who are easily Apple’s equal, and it would not be a hard case to prove that one or more of them have accomplished more under their own horsepower and talent, than Fiona Apple has.
I urge the jury to reject the honorable Bark M.’s overblown claim that:
“Fiona Apple is the greatest popular music composer/performer of our time.
Not convinced? Don’t worry, you will be.”
I remain unconvinced, and I suspect that many others will also remain unconvinced, and instead will see a strong streak of fanboy-ism coloring your perception.
Of course, you might argue that none of the the singer songwriters I have named are “of our time”, if you take a sufficiently narrow definition of what it means to be of our time. But none of the names I have mentioned are obscure artists from the past…their body of work remains relevant and in many cases, they continue to create at the same high level at which they have created in the past.
So I will concede that a good case has been made that Fiona Apple is a good enough singer songwriter that she deserves to be taken seriously, and that she might even be one of the great singer songwriters of her time.
But “the greatest popular music composer of our times.” Not proven. Unless you rebut with a very narrow definition of “of our times”, one that will exclude the names I have offered in rebuttal, as well as several others.
Methinks this is a case of canonizing one’s own tastes as gospel. Good information is provided, but a definitive conclusion proven? Not quite, not hardly.
Perhaps if you presented opinions such as these more as opinions and reviews, and less as pronouncements, I wouldn’t have so much trouble digesting them.
Remember your pronouncement that the three piece men’s suit is dead? By simply googling the question of three buttons vs. two, I have found over and over statements that the three button suit remains the bastion of conservative taste, and is found less frequently overall, but is the style of choice in places of power. How that jibes with the idea that the two piece suit is the ONLY suit to wear if you wish to advance in business, remains beyond my comprehension.
That it looks stylish? Yes. That it is the trendy look? Yes. That some people look better in it, especially if they are overweight or unathletic (since it is slimming)? Yes. But that it MUST be worn, and the three button suit left behind, if one wishes to advance to the top in business? Perhaps if the top is a local maximum. But if the top means the highest seats of business and government, over and over it is stated that the three piece suit remains the common and popular choice.
Yet you would have us believe not that you are presenting an opinion on dressing better, but that you have defined the perimeters of proper business dress, and the three piece suit has been left to the dusty halls of museums. Please try to reduce your positions from pronouncements to opinions, and expand your horizons beyond those that fit just the world you live in, and it will be easier for many of us to take you more seriously.
You are entitled to your opinion regarding Fiona Apple’s talent. But you have not proven that she is “the greatest” simply by a brief selection of videos coupled with a review.
The irony is that I see and learn some interesting things in your writing, even if I do not agree with all of them. But it is your dogged insistence that you hold the keys to what is the Truth, with a capital T, in matters ranging from business dress to songwriting talent, that I find so annoying. Perhaps others do not, but the fact remains, I fail to see the basis for some of your more extremely stated preferences.
But since I try to follow your brother’s wanderings and musings, it is inevitable that I end up seeing what you are up to, and like a person passing a roadside accident, I know I should just move on instead of looking, yet I find myself wanting to see what will happen next.
And I sincerely hope it is more expounding of ideas and preferences, and less pronouncements of fashion and taste, couched as if they are the be all and end all of that particular subject.
While you may not see it that way, this really is meant to be constructive criticism, as this latest example of your work has made it clear to me that it is not your opinions that disturb me, it is the unshakeable belief that you convey, that your way is the only way, and/or the way that is better than all others.
For example, you were write about the value of dressing well in certain business circles, but then overlooked that there are business circles filled with successful people who should not, cannot and must not wear suits to work, and that the acceptability of suits is not limited to those that fit your fashion sense.
And you point out why an under-rated singer songwriter does not get the appreciation that you feel that she deserves, but then couch it in terms that would lead a reader to believe that she is the second coming of Billie Holiday or Edith Piaf, when all that she is is an underrated talented songwriter, like so many others who cannot objectively be shown to be her inferiors.
In other words, it is not the views that you have, but the view that you have that your views are somehow superior to those of other people. All you would need to complete the picture would be a stone tablet on which to present your business dress semi-listicle, and the story would be complete.
A little open-mindedness and broadmindedness would go a long way towards winning more readers over to your side. It is not the contents you deliver that are the weakness…it is the package in which you deliver them.
And I would love to hear from you, in your own words, in the near future, exactly what were the circumstances surrounding the event that caused you to become Bark M., instead of the transposed original? I remember reading what you had hoped to accomplish by doing so, but haven’t ever seen the why of it. I suspect that that story, told in your own words, might be a helluva interesting piece of writing.
But please in the future give us your opinions and preferences as just that, and not as the final word on THE way to be, or believe, or whatever…
Dude, you are demonstrating some characteristics of some disturbing conditions. You’ve written about five times as many words in opposition to my points as I originally wrote. It’s a bit obsessive.
If you don’t like what I have to say, stop reading it.
And now for a rebuttal.
We will concede that Ms. Apple nee Maggart is a talented singer songwriter of recent years, and the evidence and arguments presented on her behalf are all positive with respect to the point which Mr. M. contends.
But there is no heed at all paid to other female singer songwriters who are arguably her equal, or even her better.
It is clear that Counselor M. is solidly on the side of Ms. A, but he completely ignores any attempt to rebut the strong body of evidence against his viewpoint that she is the best female singer songwriter.
Without going into the level of detail of discographies of the following singer songwriters, all of whose work is well known to most redblooded Americans who have a pulse and still breathe, there are (in no particular order other than the way that come to mind) Norah Jones, Bonnie Raitt, Tracey Chapman, Natalie Merchant, Janis Ian,
Apparently the rest of my rebuttal somehow got lost. Perhaps that is just as well.
At its heart is an argument to the effect that you present much good information, but are prone to such pronouncements as “everyone must dress this specific way to succeed in business” when in fact this is not true for whole industry segments and geographic regions.
Perhaps this is because you are guilty of the regional bias of the Midwest that you have accused me of having, having lived mostly on the coast.
But here again, you go beyond presenting a talented and under-represented singer songwriter, and tell us that you are going to convince us that the is “the greatest…of our time.”
Besides de gustibus non disputandum there are many female singer songwriters who are at least her equal, and perhaps are far better.
But once you get a thesis down on paper, for you it has become gospel, and all that remains is to show the rest of us unwashed masses what we must do to rise to your level.
The ideas you present are good, and valid, at least to some point. But the way you present them as if you have the key, and we have been in the dark all along until you came along and enlightened us, is what I, and I suspect others (see the clothing choice replies for starters), find to be more than a little off-putting.
Perhaps you might consider another style and tone of expository writing, one that would be more persuasive and less arrogant and condescending. For your content is honestly good content, as far as it goes.
But it does not go to the level of revealed wisdom brought down from the mountain on stone tablets by you, to be commanded to us if we ever hope to better ourselves to your level.
Just say she is a great singer songwriter whose talents are seldom fully examined and appreciated. This is not the singer songwriter (female section) competition as part of a battle of the bands. We can learn more about her and enjoy her work more without the need to be told that she is “the greatest” of our time.
Likewise, you offer many good clothing tips. But you fail to recognize that they are not universal, either by industry segment and career path, or by geographic regions. And while touting how great the two button suit looks, at the time you are stressing moving up to the top tiers of business, just a little googling about two vs. three buttons would have revealed over and over that the two button is more hip and trendy, but the three button model remains, primarily (and this was found over and over on several different sites)…the three button model is primarily found in conservative upper level management suites, and in top of the line exclusive menswear stores. So if the goal is to rise to the very top, and to be dressed to fit in there, it would appear that the three button model would be a better choice, while the two button model might make you look to the top level decision makers as if you are a bit swayed by trendiness.
So please, just present your information and viewpoints, but skip the pronouncements that they are proof of “the best” instead of just “very good”, or “universal” instead of some “useful tips for your journey”, ones that may not fit for all, and that might need more conservative dress in the most conservative bastions.
These are the kinds of unneeded embellishments that get under my skin, and that invite others to write back in numbers to rebut your assertion that your clothing listicle is de rigeur for ALL who would excel in business.
I hope you can see my point. It is not meant to put you down. It is meant to ask you to present your viewpoints in a more limited and less imperious way, so that they might more effectively reach us, without automatically making us want to offer up counterpoints to your universal pronouncements.
Your ideas range from A to C; your claims for them often lead to a desire for a complete re-write.
You may not agree. But it is clear to me that I am not alone in accepting some of your points, while rejecting your claims to universality or absolute superiority.
Your ideas are worth reading, if only to see where I might agree or disagree. But your repeated demonstrations of an absolute belief in your total and unlimited correctness can get tedious pretty quickly. And it is something that you should be able to switch off with just a bit of effort, making you a much better received writer, by a larger audience.
I can’t prove this, but that is my thesis…
And thanks for the close look at Fiona. I have a bit more appreciation for her work now. But I won’t be throwing out all my other female singer songwriter works just to make more room for hers, any more than that I will send all my three buttton suits to the thrift shop just because two button ones have achieved greater sales volume in the mass market.
I may yet have to interact with some of those who sit in high places and tend towards more conservative dress. And if I do, I will do as the Romans do while I am in Rome, this Rome being the boardrooms and management suites of some of the largest and most conservative businesses and other organizations.
I can incorporate and use some of your advice, whether it be clothing or entertainment. But I would be on a slippery slope if I took all of your pronouncements as being the absolute and total truth, the way you seem to present them.
So I will continue to read them when a title catches my eye while checking for Jack’s writing, but I will also continue to harpoon pomposity and self-righteous presentation, whenever I see it, just as I always have.
It’s your site and you can do what you want, but if you don’t want a lot of backlash from a lot of people with a low tolerance for BS and/or absolute self-centered certainty, you might want to try a different tack.
But you are in a low-BS zone, I suspect, by virtue of the type of reader who enjoys reading your brother. So you are probably going to continue getting called out on anything you claim is “the greatest” or “the only proper way to dress” or anything like it.
We can sit back now and watch, and see what happens.
My apologies. It has been a long week.
It looks like I did get my whole original reply on singer songwriters, then somehow only got the first part as a second post (not seeing the first full one) and then posted a new conclusion to the beginning part that I had thought was the only part that had posted.
I was not trying to overwhelm the site with repeated assertions of the same point. Just had some mechanical difficulties with an overloaded machine coupled with a tired operator.
So pretty much all I had to say is there, once in its entirety, and then followed by another copy of the beginning, followed by a similar but rewritten ending.
If I could have found a way to pull back one copy I would have, but I couldn’t so I will just say sorry for that.