Fran Ashcroft – Going All Eleanor Rigby

I’m going all stream of consciousness this afternoon, after having the string parts from Eleanor Rigby running through my head since early this morning.  It’s masterly arrangement, especially in the subtlety of the last bar of the last verse (no, not the end of the song!), which resolves with a poignant finality – unsentimental,almost matter-of-fact, yet elegant, compassionate, heartfelt and uplifting. All in two seconds, on 4 track. That’s the way to do it.

The biggest challenge we face in this industry is putting the value back into music.  Not just simply finding clever marketing ploys to keep the pot boiling – the “give away the album because they’ll buy the T-shirt” philosophy…it’s more fundamental and far more challenging than that.  Truth is, the desire to own recorded music is entirely emotional – not a pragmatic two for one deal to save you money. The draw is part lifestyle, part nostalgia (what about that crap TV advertised compilation covering old Hollywood stuff?!!  Worst thing since the Eastenders Wartime Singalong album – Mea Culpa), part aspirational, and partly a visceral tug which touches the very core of a listener when they discover the grain of universal truth that only the best can deliver.  The epiphany of Highway 61 Revisited, Guernica, Strawberry Fields.  That’s how lasting art always connects, be it music, painting, writing, all that stuff.

Blame it on what you will, the old Art vs Commerce chestnut has a role to play in all of this…  if only for the strength an ambitious artist can gain by his own struggle with it.

Tell me, how much struggle is involved with your typical home recording set up?  Not much,I’m afraid.  Computers are ubiquitous, you can buy a mic in Poundland, and download the software for nowt.  Even if you don’t entirely understand the instructions, it’s not that demanding to get the thing working.  Not like when I were a lad (cue gruff Yorkshire accent) when we ‘ad to save up for years for a banjo or make our own out of old teabags….

A little bit of adversity sharpens one’s skills.  And having to dig into your pocket a little to buy a record makes it special – something of value, something worthwhile.  Not that I’m advocating putting up CD or download prices. The majors got it totally wrong when they adopted new pricing structures in the early internet days.  Had they reduced prices to a level the public felt reasonable instead of feeling ripped off (which they were) – the subsequent online disaster could in large part have been avoided, and we might not have been banished to the X Factor Phantom Zone we are currently in.

Where am I going with all this?  Simple; the value is in the quality of work we do, not its price.  Let it be a reminder if you’re not getting paid as much as you used to!

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