Monday, August 31, 2009

Whatever Happened to Joshua Kadison?

Do you remember the name “Joshua Kadison”? Clue: Two classics on love and belonging that hit the charts in the mid 90s. This is how we can remember Joshua Kadison, the artist who gained overnight fame with “Beautiful in My Eyes,” and “Jessie,” from his 1993 album “Painted Desert Serenade.”

In 1993, EMI Record released Kadison’s “Painted Desert Serenade,” a slim collection of eight piano masterpieces with short story lyrics that well define the modern ballads. They can be so called modern ballads in the sense that they tell stories embedded with relationships and conflicts that altogether create sentimental and memorable pieces for the heart and soul of the Filipino listener.

Some ten years later, the two songs have perhaps achieved the sentimentality of Filipino listeners, as these pieces instantly have become timeless classics [if such phrase doesn’t at all sound redundant] in the playlists in local radio stations.

“Beautiful in My Eyes” begins with the lover’s profession to his beloved about what she is to him: “You’re my peace of mind/in this crazy world/. And the cliché doesn’t appear or sound hackneyed, as the lover professes never to give up even when passing years make them older. “Jessie,” the name of the persona’s beloved, leads the list of ballads in the album which presents human experience bearing different faces. A number of women “serenaded” in the album included Samantha, Lady Jane, and others, whose stories are quite woven in the same cloth of love and life.

With these two powerful piano renditions of love and/or loneliness, Joshua Kadison resonates 80’s Jim Photoglo and even 70s James Taylor. The heavenly clear voice and the powerful sounds of keyboards—coupled with background choruses—make these songs worth our remembrance.

While the album slightly hints at male promiscuity--being involved with different women, it also lays bare the possibilities of the male specie who enters relationships and not being able to sustain them, unless both he and the woman seek to understand each other first, before being absorbed into their own selfish issues.

For your information, while “Delilah Blue,” his second collection released by EMI in October 10, 1995, featured “Take it on Faith,” this beautiful song which sounds more like a gospel love song, did not reach Philippine playlists.

Immediately after the two classics hit the charts towards the mid 90s, Joshua Kadison has been forgotten ever since. Not much was heard of him again. Like other one-hit singers [at least he had two], the Filipino listener never again heard of [or saw] his talent and artistry in crafting songs that tickle the soul after baring its honesties and conversions.

Frankly speaking, the artist named Joshua Kadison was simply shelved and categorized in the era of the mid 90s. We can perhaps attribute the loss of artists like Kadison to the way their music is marketed all over the world. Released primarily in countries like United States or Australia, Joshua Kadison’s art and musical masterpieces have yet to prove its worth to a Filipino audience that thrives on trash hip-hop and other no-quality music.

We can also trace this to who the Filipino listener is, what he wants, and why he wants music that he listens to. [Of course, the Filipino listener would rather prefer “Tahong ni Carla” or Black Eyed Peas’ retardate rhetoric to Joshua Kadison, one that is never heard of. Who was it, again? Who would even care to pirate one Joshua Kadison? Who is he?” Some people might even ask, therefore claiming that only Britney Spears or Sarah Geronimo can be worth their hard-earned month-end salary.] As a matter of fact, Joshua Kadison also appears in an Indyramp Music Page, more proof that his music has not at all permeated the mainstream listenership, especially in the black underground economy like ours.

Ranking with James Taylor’s greatest hits or Dr. Hook’s ballads, Kadison’s pieces always lifted our spirits in the mid 90s, the era that rather glorified angst in the grunge music of Kurt Cobain and the mushrooming rock and alternative bands that sold like hotcakes. That time, everyone just liked to sentimentalize or get angry at nobody-knows-what. We also recall how Alanis Morrissette, Collective Soul or the sleepy band named Lemonheads tried to dissuade youth from their optimism into their individuality, self-discovery, rage for order, splabberdeeh, splabberdah, all things that robbed the growing youth of his values, or potential good.

The grunge era of the 90s lived like it was New Age Movement in the 70s again. It was an alternative philosophy brought to the fore, persuading the individual to let loose and let go of his anger and fear, so as to live more worthily. Such irony, such oxymoron, such dilemma.

Playing in contrast, in the midst of all negative energies and attitudes, there was Kadison’s light treatment of the human experience in his characters and persons in the songs themselves that brought us to the brighter windows where sun can still shine. Along with his light ballads, "Jessie" and "Beautiful in my Eyes” may be two pieces hardly influential because of the artist’s eventual obscurity, but remembering them, or just listening to them again makes us realize that in the midst of angst and unexplained anxiety, Kadison’s almost totally appreciated sense and sensibility can always be the most welcome relief.

5 comments:

  1. CHECK for details and new music:
    http://www.joshuakadison.com
    http://www.myspace.com/joshuakadison
    There's all about Joshua and check on youtube for some of his new Songs performed in Germany

    ReplyDelete
  2. For new music from Joshua Kadison please check out his website http://www.joshuakadison.com or visit his official myspace page http://www.myspace.com/joshuakadison

    Thanks,
    Love,
    Gabiola :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you for bringing Joshua's music to the forefront again. He still has his website going, but had decided to stop performing his songs before they grow 'old' on him.
    His outlook on life and lessons amazes me as a fan, and I can only hope that in time he will come back to be friends with the songs that he gave life to.
    He does have quite a few songs that he wrote after Delilah Blue, and they can be found on his website www.Joshuakadison.com, or on Itunes.com.
    Enjoy!
    Johnny Mathes

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I chose "anonymous" as I'm no computer whiz but wanted to get my views out there.

      I was reorganizing my entire music collection in preparation to go back on-air as a volunteer announcer/dj for a Native radio station in Ontario (Canada). I discovered Joshua back in the 90's when I came across his music on a radio sampler that was sent to our station. What a terrific surprise! Since then, his music has been a permanent part of my air-play catalogue. To say "this guy is good" is somewhat mundane to say the least and I have often wondered why mainstream radio hasn't given Joshua the sir time he clearly deserves.

      I'm something of a romantic and when on-air in the wee hours of the morning, "Beau's All Night Radio Love Line" I just sit back and get into the song....then yes....the phone rings and away we go! He's touched this DJ where it hurts with this song alone.

      I'm so happy I decided to GOOGLE Joshua to find out where in hell he had gone. To "find" him alive and well AND....with "new" music hit the spot. Thank you to the people who pointed out he has recorded since "Painted Desert Serenade." Now I can go to the music store and if he ain't in stock, I can order as long as the albums are not out of print. I can promote him as best I can with our little 1000 watt station. Maybe the guys around us with their heavy transmitters will wake up when they hear his music. I most definitely hope they do! Best of everything to this very talented man.

      Delete

  4. Listening to Kadison is always reliving my beautiful past, only because his songs constantly tug (at) my heart.

    I share all your joys and amazement.

    Thank you, All.

    ReplyDelete

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