Doug Van Pelt

Rick Warren = A good guy

I am so happy that Rick Warren has been tapped to give the invocation prayer at the presidential inaugaration. I think it's so cool to have one of the smart, articulate, "good guys" in the spotlight, because I think he represents Christianity well. I like what he does and I like what he has to say. He's reasonable, articulate, and seems to have a great heart and a good head on his shoulders, which is sometimes a rare combination. In a world where we've seen baffoons on tv representing God, it is so refreshing to have a good ambassador getting the microphone. Good for Rick Warren.

I heard some odd things last night. One of them is that there is apparently a controversy stewing over the Coldplay song, "Viva La Vida," the pulsing feel good single from that great band. Apparently the vocal melodies sound like they match an older Yngwie Malmsteen guitar lead note for note. So, on the way to work today, I had the Viva La Vida CD and The Yngwie Malmsteen Collection with me and A-B'd some songs. First I played the Coldplay hit, just to make sure I had the right melody in my head. Then I tried the great (his best, in my opinion) instrumental, "Black Star." Hmmm. Some similarities, but surely not the crux of this argument. I remember when this song hit, guitarists dropped their jaws everywhere. I remember noticing with dismay that every publicity shot of the man had a pentagram pendant around his neck, with a crucifix turned backwards against the pentagram. That disturbed me somewhat at the time. I still notice stuff like that, but I'm not sure if I draw the same conclusions from purposeful events such as the positioning of jewelry in photo shoots. It's true that usually every hair and loose article of clothing is placed in such a way as the photographer or subject wants, but I'm not sure if someone showing allegiance to Satan has ever scared me or disturbed me too much.

I next tried "Far Beyond The Sun." I need to investigate this controversy and find the song they're talking about, because these don't seem to be the ones. I had to skip ahead to the melodic song, "Heaven Tonight," with its big choruses and giant, multi-layered BGV's. I remember when this kind of production was all the rage. John & Dino Elefante, among others, knew how to get that sound. It's too bad that a Petra song ("Seen And Not Heard") sounded so much like "Heaven's On Fire" by Kiss. Guardian's songs possibly suffered a bit from this treatment, and I know I winced when I heard their BGV tracks playing from a DAT tape or sample in concert. It was hard not to notice when a giant wall of sound of pitch-perfect vocals came over the sound system. The guys did their best to step up to the mics and offer their own, true vocals, but the overall vibe was "memorex," not live. I was glad when they went on the Swing, Swang, Swung Tour and left fake BGV's behind for good (we hope).

I also heard some real disturbing news. A friend of mine is a teacher at a special school (let's just say it was in Omaha, Nebraska) where troubled teens go. He gets the worst of the worst -- kids that none of the other schools want. Recently he walked into a bathroom and a high school girl was getting it on with two 30-something-year-old guys with a webcam documenting it. Apparently her mom is in prison and has lost her commisary privileges and, in order to get ahold of cigarettes and other luxury items, she offers her daughter to the gang she's a part of. The daughter was beat up pretty bad when this problem was interrupted by the authorities. The girl was told that, if her mom would force such and such on her in order to get cigarettes, she really doesn't love her. I'm glad someone has tried to speak some truth to this poor girl. My friend says that something terrible and insane like this happens to him about once a week at this school. I'm glad these kids have this guy. He's very positive and really good at cheering people up and making you feel good about yourself. In fact, I'd say this guy is a hero. I'm so glad he's where he is. I cannot imagine working in a school like that. Wow.

On a positive note, I'm playing for the championship of my Fantasy Football league. I think it's only right that the commissioner of the league (myself) win at least one championship. I had the last pick in the draft this year, so I haven't been super excited about my team. I think I lost three out of the four first games; but then my team went on a wild six-game winning streak; I won the first round of a two-round playoff, and now I'm playing the returning champion -- my nephew -- in the final round. I haven't checked on the stats yet, but I heard two of my players (tight end Dallas Clark and QB David Garrard) had really good nights, so that's a good start for me.

Okay, I better check out this Coldplay/Yngwie controversy and my fantasy stats, before I request a review copy of the Live Riot! album; learn how to upload my first youtube video (some footage I shot at the giant "light tree" from Austin's "Trail of Lights"; and start writing some stuff. Have a great weekend!

**Addendum. I might have changed the name of something in this blog to keep someone's identity secret. Okay, according to the National Post (Ampersand) website:

Grammy nominees Coldplay have been sued by rock guitarist Joe Satriani, who claims the band's song Viva La Vida uses one of his riffs. In court papers filed in Los Angeles on Thursday, he said the song used "substantial original portions" of his 2004 instrumental If I Could Fly.

The vocal line of the chorus of Coldplay's Viva La Vida does appear to follow one of the riffs from Satriani's If I Could Fly — watch the video above to hear the case rather convincingly presented. (Let's forgive the poor punctuation.)

But before we fly off to wild conclusions (especially those of us seeking new reasons to dislike Coldplay) it should be said that it's surprisingly easy to unconsciously steal melody ideas. It's called cryptomnesia and it's happened before.

Somehow my friend got Satriani and Yngwie confused. I'm not sure I can forgive him for that...

Posted by Doug Van Pelt at December 19, 2008 09:37 AM