Is it Live, Memorex or Protools?

Call me old fashioned - but one of the lessons I learned when I was young was 'just because you can do something, didn't you mean you should.' Ethics, morals and values were things we were to all weigh in with whenever we make a decision to do something. Or least that's what we were told was the right thing to do - but living in these times where the line between virtual and bona fide reality are blurred beyond recognition, I suppose it's no longer a given. Fuzzy lines and shifting ethical boundaries are now the name of the game.

One of the saddest things to happen in the country music industry recently is the high-tech, low-ethic melding of Anita Cochran and long ago recorded sound clips of the voice of Conway Twitty. The brainstorm came from a conversation producer Jim Ed Norman had with Anita on the phone about what legends she would have liked to record with. I realize the family has given its blessing to the single "I Wanna Hear A Cheatin' Song" but I don't think I'm the only who considers the title slightly more than ironic. Corporate Nashville has already taken the heart and soul out of country music for more than awhile and now they've one-upped themselves and taken the artist out out of the art.

Forget about asking if it's live or Memorex. This song wasn't even written when Conway was alive, in fact it was written a decade after the fact. No one can say for certain what Conway would think or do because sadly he's no longer here with us to make the decision.

With all due respect to the family of Conway - the end product has ended up sounding and feeling contrived and manipulated. In fact, its not "Conway" at all, but manipulated audio snippets of his voice. A year long process had them scouring audio tapes looking for the right lyrics that they spliced together for this recording. Anita Cochran admitted in an interview that they couldn't find an audio clip of the word "song" so they used "wrong" instead and took off the 'wr' and replaced it with an 's'. So now we're reduced to splicing syllables? Let me get this straight - we've got traditional country, new country and now placebo country? Give me a break!

It certainly may sound like a song Conway might have recorded but he didn't and to have his name attached reeks of manipulation for profit and rates as nothing more than a gimmick, an attention grabbing tidbit that will make good press and put a name in the spotlight that may not have otherwise been there. It's sad that a singer no longer concentrates on making a good record and hoping it catches an ear - now its the biggest publicity stunt that'll get print.

Music City has hit a new low. 'Til death to you part' is standard in marriage vows but perhaps now we've got to add that into a record contract. Being with a label for a few years gives them eternal legal rights over every single syllable you sung? Do we now have to legally determine the ownership of someone's post-mortem creative energies and processes. Perhaps artists should be considering adding codicils to their wills - "I, Johnny Doe, hereby declare that the snippets of recordings of my voice shall not be pieced together for commercial purposes and distribution after my passing."

Have we become so accustomed to using calculators and spell checkers that our brains aren't functioning at full capacity? Virtual reality has hit big time in Music City. There's a quick fix for everything these days -- what Mother Nature didn't bless you with can be taken care of with plastic surgery and airbrushing. If you can't sing on tune, don't worry -- they've got machines that'll make you sound on perfect pitch and not just on your records, they can do it while you're singing 'live' in person too. It looks like the latest techno-exploitation means now not only do you not have to sing a note, but heck, you don't even have to be breathing anymore!

Where's the honesty? The heart and soul? The artistic integrity? How can something have artistic merit when the artist is left out of the equation? We've become so used to searching for final frontiers and stretching boundaries that we've confused that with crossing, and at times erasing, ethical lines. Going where no man has gone before brings you instant press and comes with the lure of bigger bucks.

Come on folks. We've gotta put our foot down somewhere and deepen the lines in the sand. This one's gone too far...if we don't stand up to it now who knows...some day we might be subjected to a "Chris Gaines - The Greatest Hits He Never Actually Sang" album.

Don't get me wrong - I want Conway Twitty's music to stand the test of time. I just want it done the way it should be -- the way he recorded it, the way he wanted it to be. How about you?

Keep it real.