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Looper's Delight
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I wrote: Although we speak here about music and the almost magical technology that becomes our artist's palette, I cannot help but to be drawn to the bigger picture of the times in which we create. Is it historical "business as usual" that substance gives way to fashion? The 60's did not feel that way to me, but no doubt I am myopic and biased by my own experience. I feel that the US, and perhaps much of the world, has become more conservative since those times. Michael responded: >I don't really follow what you're saying here, not having experienced the >60s for more than a month, and then only as an embryo. Could you >elaborate? >From *my* vantage point, the 60's were a time when popular music was >infused with real depth. This notion has become a cliche to some extent, so I'm conscious of not gushing too hard over the music that I was exposed to then, during my own adolescence: during my own period of heightened discovery. But I can argue, from a musical perspective, that the times were richer. Hendrix and Clapton made statements that are still very much alive today: exemplars almost, of what kinds of expression can be gotten out of the electric guitar. Go into most music stores today, and you will meet 12 year olds who love the music and style of Hendrix. During the 60's, it *seemed* that even the average Joe's and Jane's were moved by music that had more to say. My own roots (and hence my biases) lie in the music that has that blues movement to it. It's a very hard thing to define in words without sounding pedantic and self-referential. Either you get it or you don't. Take an album like Electric Ladyland. 1960's technology. But the guitar playing and the engineering is sublime, eerie almost in how much is conveyed. My guess is that this will be listened to in 2100 and beyond. The music is just so present, human, and alive, on so many levels. I think the business of music was very different, too. I just spoke recently with a drummer that I've known since 1972, when we worked together. Over the years, he's had major gigs with several well known rock acts (Meatloaf, Edgar Winter, John Cale, Flo and Eddie of the Turtles). He sites the corporatization of rock as a major factor in the change of things. When rock became big business, the scum quickly floated to the top. Now there are less opportunities for high quality players to find work. There was less structure and more freedom to experiment in the 60's. There was a greater liberalism and idealism, infused with the sense that big changes in society could be made (along with angst surrounding Vietnam War and burgeoning drug use among middle class kids, not to mention the real sense that society might be put to rest via nuclear holocaust). There was this greater sense of risk-taking and a relative breakdown or blurring of class boundaries. Much of the music expressed renewed innocence and hope, even in the face of armageddon. Blues sensibility was the perfect medium for this message, expressing a sort of strength and beauty despite obvious pain and suffering. The absorption of rock instrumentation and affect into big business largely defangs its movement toward change and rebellion. There has always been bad music of every form. But what was once a medium recognized for it's expressive power has become largely the backdrop for superbowl beer commercials. Recently, I saw guitarist Scott Henderson at a small club in New Jersey. The music was incendiary. Scott played the hell out of everything from Coltrane's "Giant Steps" to Hendrix's "Fire". What an awesome command of blues, modern jazz, funk, bebop. The place was half empty. When I was 15, I saw Hendrix play to a sold out Madison Square Garden, making a lot of the same noises. But now it's a whole other game. Mickey ____________________________________________________________________________ Emmanuel Angel Nuclear Medicine Physics and Instrumentation Group University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 19104 angel@matisse.pet.upenn.edu