Yachats Oregon Writer Rick Schultze

Some music is background music; you know it’s there, but just there. Some music is “art” or “folk” music, a quiet kind of music, then there is “Urgent” music; music that calls for some kind of action, immediate action!

Urgent music has long been associated with Rock and Roll but it’s actually as old as music itself. Back in the days of the cave boys with clubs and drums, the sounds they were producing were calling for action now! “Let’s get going!” Tribal music has always been Urgent and even the early folk singers were beseeching people to take action. Rock and Roll does have its share of Urgent music, in fact in 1981 the Rock band Foreigner had a single titled “Urgent” that went to #4 on Billboard Magazines charts and the album the single was on sold 6 million copies and there was also a Rock and Roll band from New York called Urgent and it’s no different today!

I remember listening to singles in the late fifties heavily laden with Urgent messages and suggestions. Later folk groups called for change and action against the “man”. Today there is so much more music than back then and the method of delivery is different, but the Urgent theme is still there. Since you don't go to a record stores to check out songs today and can download and store an amazing amount of music on iPods and Apples’ iTunes software and the new iPhones, the Urgent factor has to grab someone's attention right away and the “want to hear that again” factor has to kick in right now!

Recently I received an email about a new song on free.napster.com and its Urgent factor caught my attention. The singer sees signs pointing to the end of the world being near and lets us know what is ahead and that he wants to be a pop star before it all comes crashing down! He Urgently wants his name in lights, to be with a starlet shooting the moon, and becoming the Hollywood stereotype having a blast!

This may not be the message our forefathers sang, and drummed about in their day, but this singer sees something and is telling the rest of us to beware!

It's a good, infectious, song and I can't imagine anything being more Urgent than having a big blast before the world ends with a big blast!!

The song co-written by Louie Lawent and performed by Billy Livesay, former guitarist from the Clarence Clemons Band, is titled Pop Star and can be listened to on Http://free.napster.com/view/artist/index.html?id=12351878. “Pop Star” will then be there and just click “Play” (it's on the left) and check it out!

Speaking of blasts I hope you all had one on the 4^th of July!!!

To reach Rick Schultze email yarick@pioneer.net