We think we are influenced by those we look up to, those we idolize, but we learn from everyone, even those we don’t like, those we don’t know. The lesson this week, for me? To keep going … no matter what.
This past week the pop artist Meghan Trainor — the best at making songs I want to throw things at, can you throw something at a song, but that I know every word too (look up All About the Bass and No and you’ll see what I mean) — made news for falling at the very end of her performance on the Tonight Show. Jimmy Fallon literally came to her side by laying on the floor next to her and making it all into a joke. I’m not sure what she would have done without Jimmy, so it’s Jimmy who gets my kudos for making that show go on. But that’s really what makes a pro – rising up in the face of a total and complete meltdown.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewaQgopjitg
(The fall is at 3:46.)
A few weeks ago, I went to see Ellie Goulding, one of those first people I mentioned here, a person I totally look up to as an influence. And sure, when I come out of the newness of this place, I’ll write about that, throwing in a little Nuno Bettencourt, the show I saw a few days later, for good measure, but this week has been one of those weeks where I’m feeling a bit … challenged. And it was Meghan’s fall that makes me remember Ellie’s back-up artists.
There were two, both women, both blonde, both completely powerful in their own right. The first was a woman named Bebe Rexha. Who? Yeah that was my reaction, especially because this little person had so much energy she demanded you take notice. As most people weren’t even in Staples Center, a huge feat for Ellie to perform there too, and more on that later, Bebe took the stage wearing a red blouse as a dress and red patent thigh-high platform boots. I mean, seriously, if you’re going to rock that outfit, you’d better bring it. She had a small band, all in front of a curtain hiding Ellie’s stage. Ellie’s fans love Ellie, so I think it’s hard to get them to listen, but listen they did, and even better, they sang along. Sang along? To what? What are Bebe Rexha’s songs? Seriously, I was so surprised. There were at least two major pop songs that were hers, Monsters Under My Bed, given to Eminem and Rhianna for Eminem’s album, and a song that plays on the radio now called Me, Myself & I, done by G-Eazy, another rapper. Bebe is actually singing on that track, and I’m certain I’ve never heard the radio mention her name. But the song as she wrote it is better, or so I think. Could that be the bias I have for actual songs instead of rap songs? Who knows.
Did Bebe have trouble during her performance? No, not at all, but there was something kind of sad about this powerful singer saying “hey that song is actually mine, and here’s how I do it.” Staples Center, remember, and a Staples Center-sized audience, and goes on and sings a song that everyone there knows and everything there can sing along to, saying “this is actually my song.” I think that must have been tough, but I was left wishing it was Bebe’s versions that played on the radio.
You be the judge:
Me, Myself and I, Bebe Rexha, Staples Center 4/8/16:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lxq4Q0sOa9A
The G-Eazy version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSfpSOBD30U
For all that struggle, then came the very real struggle of the second band, Broods. Its singer, another blonde woman also in a bring-it outfit, took the stage with her band, one guy on actual drums, the other on a keyboard and electronic drum set-up. About one song in, playing to that Ellie crowd that had sung along to Bebe, she said “there’s some bad shit going on up here.” The problem wasn’t readily apparent, but then both band members stopped playing, even went off stage for help, and the singer walked to a small red keyboard. She said to the audience she was going to go old school. Then, alone, on Ellie’s stage at the now more full Staples Center, she moved the microphone from her right hand to her left hand and played one chord on the keyboard, not an ounce of nervousness apparent. She sang some song I’ll never recognize again, all while occasionally playing a chord or two on the keyboard while her band fixed their shit, as she had called it. The band members gave a nod to her when they were ready, but for the five or so minutes it took, she belted out a song almost a cappella to that Staples Center audience. By the time she was finished people we yelling cheers of encouragement and appreciation. That moment was so unbelieveably moving because, in her place, I’m pretty sure a lot of people would have crumbled. I don’t think I got video of it because it was something too in the moment to stop and record, and likewise, I can’t find any video on Youtube, so others must have felt the same way. But just to give you an idea, here’s one note with some normal band sound after.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWRMasyMWe4
Mind you, this song Free has 774,000 views on their channel on Vevo, so apparently this is another of those artists I haven’t learned about from listening to the radio.
So influence? How about influence from the girl whose songs are known on the radio by other artists? How about influence from the back-up band who loses their sound, but still brings down the house?
And Meghan Trainer? Jimmy Fallon came to your rescue. Better not fall again on your All About that Bass part because he might not be there. As for Jimmy? You’re an inspiration too. The lesson of these inspirations is clear: the show must go on! So my theme of this week, no matter what, bring it like the pros do, even if they are not pros we know.