Saturday, February 15, 2020

Brothers 4

A couple of days ago a song I remembered from long ago opened a radio ad for a concert by The Brothers Four (today, BTW). They can't still be around, can they?

The group has had various members, but Bob Flick still seems to be playing--after 61 years!

Wow.

Is it the same group?

If they sing the same songs in the same ways, with the same sound, I suppose they are the same--in a kind of utilitarian way. They have the legal imprimatur, which a tribute group that sounded the same wouldn't, but it is circular to rely on legal details to decide the question.

But... if you define the group in terms of what they do, the same people experimenting with new genres would be a different group. That seems silly.

If musicians are interchangeable, replacing one with another might mean the group remains the same. It isn't like a marriage. However, the musicians I've known don't think of themselves as interchangeable. And what do you get if the group disbands, and then reforms into two, both claiming the same name (as happens)?

I don't want to go all Heraclitus with this, but after so long it seemed a reasonable question.

I liked them then; probably still would. I'm listening to Manon at home.

FWIW: I liked the Kingston Trio too. "The Kingston Trio continues to tour as of 2020 with musicians who licensed the name and trademark in 2017."

4 comments:

Assistant Village Idiot said...

The woodsman's joke is "I've had the same axe for forty years. Ten new handles, four new heads. Same axe."

Anonymous said...

I just rebuilt my system. It was a serious stereo back in the day and now its very fine. The monoblocks and my preamp were rebuilt and tweaked by the people that made them. I spent about 7 grand altogether and for a bit my digital was better than my analog. Some wise purchases have mostly remedied that.

I have a lot of music both digital and on record as it is one of my favourite things. From what I have read you have a rather restricted view of what is appropriate and I can only feel sadness for the loss. There is so much amazing music, of very high quality, that comes from musicians who are on drugs, just for one thing that you may find objectionable, and the content is often quite profane.

Why is it that the 'nice people', never seem to produce anything worth listening to?

Assistant Village Idiot said...

We may just notice the naughty ones more. I believe Bach was a decent fellow.

Anonymous said...

You are going a long way back for your example. Its true some of the most talented and evocative musicians are serious drug abusers. Lady Day, Chet Baker ... I could go on for a long time.

Where are the modern nice people with quality music? Its almost like the drugs and badness release the great music while the nice people just produce mediocre stuff. Why would this be?