"Everybody goes / Leaving those / Who Fall Behind"
These lines, written by the great Alex Chilton and recorded in Ardent Studios, Memphis (where I visited three weeks ago) used to be signs of great pessimism to me in my communitarian, SanFran-inspired youth. The music of San Francisco in the mid/late sixties inspired me to believe that people could get together to resolve all of our mutual problems (cf. "Get Together" by the Youngbloods, a beautifully sad song). So when I first heard these lines they seemed terribly pessimistic in terms of the world view I then had.
As I listen again, however, I see that they are simply factual. We are "caught in the devil's bargain" (Joni Mitchell), animals who have the capability to think we are better than we are. A wolf pack does not attempt to be "nice" - if a member is unproductive in terms of the survival of the pack it is killed. We expect better than that; yet as animals ourselves we naturally live the same way. Our laws are coded as if that isn't the case, yet their practical execution, inevitably, encapsulates that truth in the way it is played out.
Which is why all human progress is only achieved through the very highest level of abstract mathematics. Only at that point of highly-codified and detached thought can the very highest notions of which we are capable be expressed in an incorruptible form. As we have found in the physical realm, so we will in the moral; the discoveries expressed in pure abstract mathematical algorithms will flow through into perceived everyday "reality". That is the only thing that separates us from our fellow-species. Aside from that, we should not be surprised by the harshness of the lines at the top of this entry.
Saturday 5 November 2011
Friday 4 November 2011
Friday Nov 4th - Further USA Reflections
Some further musical reflections :-
Thurs 6th pm - Upon driving on the freeway through Chicago the Butterfield Blues Band came on. The opening track was "Born In Chicago" - a tough, gritty, number and such an uplift for me being caught in afternoon traffic after having driven 1,000 miles from Boston. The perfect introduction to the home of electric blues !
Tues 11th am - Watching a film about the history of Country music in the Nashville "Country Music Hall of Fame", a song came on called "Whoever's In New England" by Reba McEntyre. The pain it expresses - marital desolation as experienced by millions of working people - summed up the huge strengths of Country music. It showed how the commercial aspects of Nashville-based Country can speak so eloquently into the lives of ordinary people - and echoed so powerfully the pain and suffering I'm feeling. You don't have to please the music critics to make great art !
Mon 24th pm - I'd been playing 12 CDs of Crosby, Stills, & Nash (and sometimes Young) via my MP3 player since leaving Albuquerque. Then just as I was approaching Pasadena Graham Nash comes on, introducing "America" by Paul Simon. A beautiful rendition, just him solo with acoustic guitar. His version has that quality of sadness so typical of his own greatest songs, and it captured exactly what I'd driven 4,000 miles for. To look for the heart and soul of the US, which for me is looking for my own reality. The line about the cars on the New Jersey turnpike summed it all up - anyone with a heart and imagination born in the fifties onwards in a dying UK has always looked to America for a centre, for vitality, for the drive to move forwards. I had to hold back the tears for fear of unsafe driving.
Mon 24th again - now getting near my hotel on Highway 110, and getting the first sight of the skyscrapers in downtown LA to my left. On came a version of "Turn, Turn, Turn", a keynote song for me in this darkest of seasons. The passion of the harmonies built upon my exhilaration at finallly being in LA after driving 4,200 miles. It also healed an ache in my heart from my previous US jaunt with my (then) wife and family, when we spent a day on Malibu Beach rather than looking round LA. This time I was going to get the proper LA experience, and my arrival there just happened to be marked by a strong rendition of one of my favourite songs by THE greatest LA-based group ever, the Byrds !
Can't wait to be back in the US. England has history but America has freshness, excitement, and honesty.
Thurs 6th pm - Upon driving on the freeway through Chicago the Butterfield Blues Band came on. The opening track was "Born In Chicago" - a tough, gritty, number and such an uplift for me being caught in afternoon traffic after having driven 1,000 miles from Boston. The perfect introduction to the home of electric blues !
Tues 11th am - Watching a film about the history of Country music in the Nashville "Country Music Hall of Fame", a song came on called "Whoever's In New England" by Reba McEntyre. The pain it expresses - marital desolation as experienced by millions of working people - summed up the huge strengths of Country music. It showed how the commercial aspects of Nashville-based Country can speak so eloquently into the lives of ordinary people - and echoed so powerfully the pain and suffering I'm feeling. You don't have to please the music critics to make great art !
Mon 24th pm - I'd been playing 12 CDs of Crosby, Stills, & Nash (and sometimes Young) via my MP3 player since leaving Albuquerque. Then just as I was approaching Pasadena Graham Nash comes on, introducing "America" by Paul Simon. A beautiful rendition, just him solo with acoustic guitar. His version has that quality of sadness so typical of his own greatest songs, and it captured exactly what I'd driven 4,000 miles for. To look for the heart and soul of the US, which for me is looking for my own reality. The line about the cars on the New Jersey turnpike summed it all up - anyone with a heart and imagination born in the fifties onwards in a dying UK has always looked to America for a centre, for vitality, for the drive to move forwards. I had to hold back the tears for fear of unsafe driving.
Mon 24th again - now getting near my hotel on Highway 110, and getting the first sight of the skyscrapers in downtown LA to my left. On came a version of "Turn, Turn, Turn", a keynote song for me in this darkest of seasons. The passion of the harmonies built upon my exhilaration at finallly being in LA after driving 4,200 miles. It also healed an ache in my heart from my previous US jaunt with my (then) wife and family, when we spent a day on Malibu Beach rather than looking round LA. This time I was going to get the proper LA experience, and my arrival there just happened to be marked by a strong rendition of one of my favourite songs by THE greatest LA-based group ever, the Byrds !
Can't wait to be back in the US. England has history but America has freshness, excitement, and honesty.
Tuesday 1 November 2011
Tuesday Nov 1st - Horsham
Been back home since Saturday, and I'm starting to reconcile myself to the English winter. It has been hard to avoid feeling deflated after such an amazing trip, which was the fulfillment of a lifeteam dream.
However, above and beyond all that, I must say that the USA is an absolutely fantastic place and I love it more than ever. There's such a dynamic and open spirit out there, and people genuinely love their country. It is a great contrast to the jaded cynicism in the air over here in the UK. I'm already looking forward to when I can go back, which might not be for a while given current financial difficulties. Next time it would be great to visit Washington D.C. and Virginia; Greil Marcus in his book "Invisible Republic" describes a drive through the Appalachians listening to the full 5-CD set of Dylan's "Basement Tapes". I would like to do the same thing.
In fact I nearly took a job in the US back in 1983. I'd only been three years in IT at that point, and many people in what was then called Sun Alliance were moving out there. Somebody I knew well went out there and talked to me about joining him. I was well up for it, but sadly - for what seemed like good reasons at the time - I declined the opportunity. That's what happens when you let other peoples' priorities govern your life.
To change the subject - I've been thinking about really duff tracks on what are otherwise amazing albums. Two immediately come to mind :- "Here, There, and Everywhere" on Revolver, and "Young Lovers Do" on Astral Weeks. These tracks are so bad that, when ripping the CDs onto the PC, I have omitted them. This is a most unusual thing for me to do; I am typically passionate about the album as an entity in its own right. However these two songs are so offensive to my ears that omitting them has significantly improved my appreciation of the respective LPs. On the other hand, there are some artists like the Byrds, the Grateful Dead, and the Who who have never made a realy duff track. Unspectacular as much of the Stones post-1974 output has been, they are never less than listenable.
There are some key points in common to the two above-mentioned dreadful songs. They both have incredibly soppy lyrics, and they both use musical devices drawn from cabaret, a form of music whose only function in life is to form the backdrop to supper-club drinking. Their music has little to do with the core root American music of Blues, Jazz, Country, and Gospel, which to me sit at the heart of everything that is wonderful. Seems to me that if the World was a CD, the UK would be the duff track.
On that happy note I shall retire to bed and continue with Keith Richards' autobiography. Now there's a musician !
However, above and beyond all that, I must say that the USA is an absolutely fantastic place and I love it more than ever. There's such a dynamic and open spirit out there, and people genuinely love their country. It is a great contrast to the jaded cynicism in the air over here in the UK. I'm already looking forward to when I can go back, which might not be for a while given current financial difficulties. Next time it would be great to visit Washington D.C. and Virginia; Greil Marcus in his book "Invisible Republic" describes a drive through the Appalachians listening to the full 5-CD set of Dylan's "Basement Tapes". I would like to do the same thing.
In fact I nearly took a job in the US back in 1983. I'd only been three years in IT at that point, and many people in what was then called Sun Alliance were moving out there. Somebody I knew well went out there and talked to me about joining him. I was well up for it, but sadly - for what seemed like good reasons at the time - I declined the opportunity. That's what happens when you let other peoples' priorities govern your life.
To change the subject - I've been thinking about really duff tracks on what are otherwise amazing albums. Two immediately come to mind :- "Here, There, and Everywhere" on Revolver, and "Young Lovers Do" on Astral Weeks. These tracks are so bad that, when ripping the CDs onto the PC, I have omitted them. This is a most unusual thing for me to do; I am typically passionate about the album as an entity in its own right. However these two songs are so offensive to my ears that omitting them has significantly improved my appreciation of the respective LPs. On the other hand, there are some artists like the Byrds, the Grateful Dead, and the Who who have never made a realy duff track. Unspectacular as much of the Stones post-1974 output has been, they are never less than listenable.
There are some key points in common to the two above-mentioned dreadful songs. They both have incredibly soppy lyrics, and they both use musical devices drawn from cabaret, a form of music whose only function in life is to form the backdrop to supper-club drinking. Their music has little to do with the core root American music of Blues, Jazz, Country, and Gospel, which to me sit at the heart of everything that is wonderful. Seems to me that if the World was a CD, the UK would be the duff track.
On that happy note I shall retire to bed and continue with Keith Richards' autobiography. Now there's a musician !
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