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hope for happiness
:: Posted by albemuth on February 02, 2013
I usually find it easier to enjoy the idea of 12-tone music than the actual music itself. But my musical background is not sophisticated. Years ago, Olivier Messiaen helped me out. I feel I understand the spiritualism and love of nature in his music, even though I am, in fact, an atheist. Go figure.
I’m pretty sure that the Webern quotation (about children whistling twelve tones) is for real, but I cannot find it right now. I don’t know the details, but I can’t help but feel sorry for the poor guy who shot Webern. Apparently, he had great sorrow over this and died of alcoholism 10 years later. Today, I happened to read articles about the effects of combat on soldiers, especially the high rate of suicides (during and after service). During the French-Algerian War, Jean Paul Sartre warned about the terrible effect it was having on a generation of young Frenchmen (especially the ones who tortured prisoners). Of course, the guys with brass balls always ignore the scribblings of intellectuals. They live in the practical world and "know better."
I like the David Ackert piece a lot. It represents one side of the truth very well. I think the other side is to be practical in this world so that you do not suffer too much. But both things are true. Here is something on Ackert’s wavelength from the Dialectic of Enlightenment. Horkheimer and Adorno say that when we reach the age of forty or fifty, we discover that many of the people with whom we grew up and maintained contact "now behave in a disturbed manner": an old friend stops working, or breaks his marriage, or embezzles money, and so on. Most of us suspected that there was "something wrong" about adults (they were laughable, burdensome, disappointing, and so on) when we were children. And now, "the facts are confirmed: under the given conditions, the mere continuation of an existence maintaining individual skills of a technical or intellectual nature leads to cretinism even in the prime of life....It is as though people who betray the hopes of their youth and come to terms with the world, suffer the penalty of premature decay." I am feeling this lately; not so much about my old friends, but about myself!
Crimson Live 1969, Fillmore East Download, KCCC, Epitaph Boxed Set and ITCOTCK Boxed Set
:: Posted by noforker on February 01, 2013
Hello!
I am trying to solve a mystery. I’m hoping that someone on the DGM team will be able to help.
I’ve purchased the Fillmore East, 21 November 1969 recording in several formats: Volume One of Epitaph, KCCC Club 25, the DGM Live Library download and finally as part of the 40th Anniversary In The Court of the Crimson King Boxed Set. However, I’m confused about the date that is provided on the DGM Live Library version (which I think matches the version included in the ITCOTCK Boxed Set).
The recordings in Epitaph and on Club 25 for November 21st match to my ears. However, the download that is dated November 21st, seem to match the recording of November 22nd that appears on Club 25. The ITCOTCK Boxed Set does not specify a date.
Is the recording of November 21st in the DGM Live Library dated incorrectly? I’ve been using the stage banter after 21st Century Schizoid Man and the audience banter at the beginning of A Man, A City to compare.
Thank you,
Neil Forker
Webern...
:: Posted by emory0 on February 01, 2013
"Anton Webern predicted that, with the progression of musical taste, his music would be whistled by children as they walked to school." That’s hilarious. Is that true? If it’s not, it’s one of those apocryphal stories that fits a certain view of things so well that it’s better than what actually happened. I actually love much of Webern’s work and, yeah, listened to it even as a child. I’ve never been able to whistle any of it, however. But seeing Pierre Boulez conduct his Six Pieces for Orchestra you quickly realize that 12 tone wasn’t the emotionally devoid product of pure musical thought, it was the opposite: So steeped in complex and even sometimes conflicting emotion that you need a breather some times. No wonder the 6 Pieces are short. But you can’t whistle them. (I can KINDA whistle parts of Discipline, however.) Meanwhile, I believe that Webern never actually got to hear any of his pieces performed. And his life also ended tragically short, when he was gunned down by Americans entering Vienna after the war: He’d gone outside onto the balcony to have a smoke and the ’Cans thought he was a Nazi sniper.
The Crimson Mayor has Passed on!
:: Posted by emory0 on February 01, 2013
Last night Ed Koch, former Mayor of NYC, passed on.
During the Beat tour I saw and heard with my own eyes and ears Ed Koch introduce Crimson at the Pier at 42nd Street say: "Rockin’ out with King Crimson!" Though Fripp has confirmed that this was not merely a product of my feverish young brain, I have always wondered whether Ed Koch actually stuck around for a while to hear the Crimson creature play.
You know you did, you know you did, or did you didn't?
:: Posted by albemuth on February 01, 2013
Speaking of pop music, today I happened upon a new song titled "Ghost," by a young, London-based singer named Charlene Soraia. It’s nothing earth shaking, but it’s a good song and nicely performed. I found a few old interviews in which Soraia claims a number of prog musicians as influences. She especially singles out Robert Fripp and, in one Dazed Digital article from 2011, goes so far as to propose marriage!
A Resource of Hope Amidst the Cultural Barricades
:: Posted by Ornate_Coal_Man on February 01, 2013
I would call that the "Incalculable Value of That Exact Moment". As noted and discussed in this wonderful quote that has been mulling, swirling and gestating in my head today.
"Singers and Musicians are some of the most driven, courageous people on the face of the earth. They deal with more day-to-day rejection in one year than most people do in a lifetime. Every day, they face the financial challenge of living a freelance lifestyle, the disrespect of people who think they should get real jobs, and their own fear that they’ll never work again. Every day, they have to ignore the possibility that the vision they have dedicated their lives to is a pipe dream. With every note, they stretch themselves, emotionally and physically, risking criticism and judgment. With every passing year, many of them watch as the other people their age achieve the predictable milestones of normal life - the car, the family, the house, the nest egg. Why? Because musicians and singers are willing to give their entire lives to a moment - to that melody, that lyric, that chord, or that interpretation that will stir the audience’s soul. Singers and Musicians are beings who have tasted life’s nectar in that crystal moment when they poured out their creative spirit and touched another’s heart. In that instant, they were as close to magic, God, and perfection as anyone could ever be. And in their own hearts, they know that to dedicate oneself to that moment is worth a thousand lifetimes.” - David Ackert, LA Times.
Book Club, revisited
:: Posted by KentSmith on January 30, 2013
I am delighted to see Robert Fripp’s (January 18th) response to my Book Club posting. Thank you. I must admit that after posting my query/comment I hit on an idea and tried the following search on Google Images, "site:dgmlive.com". This produces lots of images from dgmlive, including many photos of book covers which are then easy to use as a form of potential reading list for myself. It also produces a wonderful dessert gallery of pastries and cakes tantalizingly framed for the oh-so-ready-for-sweets, such as myself. And hats, a gallery of interesting hats of Robert Fripp. I like it, but I digress. These images also included many of the anonymous open-books held so by a hand which I referenced in my previous post, and seeing them in a collection I then recognized the distinctive page design pattern in each as that belonging to The Dramatic Universe. So it appears that the diary pages of Robert Fripp have been ordered and organized in advance to provide a "Book Club" index for those willing to take advantage of the flexible internet resources and to exert some personal effort, as well as to provide regular encouragements to review our copy of The Dramatic Universe. Again, thank you. Hooray!
think again
:: Posted by Undisciplined on January 30, 2013
:: Posted by Ornate_Coal_Man on January 29, 2013 And yet you did. Although that might seem like a clever phrase, actually, I didn’t. The question was "and the bad thing is...?" It went unanswered to, and there were no links posted to critical references, articles or YouTube videos. Hopefully, this has kept within the "spirit of goodwill" that we’re requested to maintain!
Re: S & BB Improv (Amsterdam 1973)
:: Posted by asdfadam on January 30, 2013
Regarding the improvs, I made a custom edit of the Amsterdam show
by putting the 2 discs on 1CD by dropping the encore (21st Century S.M.). The awesome benefit being that "S & BB" segues perfectly into "Trio" The show obviously had to be split due to the time constraints of CDs,
but it was a shame not hearing the improv flow as played (without a disc change). As far as the missing music, I too would like to hear it.
Likely an audience recording exists, maybe DGM can splice in
the missing part as was done for Zurich. Edited or complete - that funky section of "S & BB" is amazing, and a great contrast to the dark menacing vibe before it and the airy, beautiful contemplation after it.
Punky's Whips
:: Posted by albemuth on January 30, 2013
Sorry if people are not attracted to Adorno, but his work has been a big fascination for me. There’s an interesting-looking book by Ben Watson that uses Adorno to interpret Frank Zappa’s career. I don’t know how good it is, but the Zappa-Adorno pairing is appropriate. For different reasons, I think such an approach would also work for KC.
Wasn’t all early blues and rock and roll "oppositional" in one sense or another? As time went on, the danger was drained out of the musical forms and they became increasingly domesticated. So, consciously or not, musicians searched for other forms. Zappa was one way to go: re-cycle junk culture and combine it with western art music. KC is a different way, more towards refinement and abstraction. But why would anyone want to make weird sounds like these? Something is not right with the world. What, exactly, is open to interpretation. It’s important and worthwhile to hear what the artist has to say, but "Elephant Talk" notwithstanding, sometimes cultural critics have valuable, and maybe more interesting, things to say.
Some years ago, I read a music magazine in which a famous pop musician of the day (maybe Gary Numan) was given a silly questionaire along the lines of "what is your favorite food?," "your favorite town?," and so on. In answer to the question "What do you hate?," the artist wrote one word: "music." For pop music, that’s a perfect answer. I’ve enjoyed a lot of it, from Herman’s Hermits to Maroon 5. But, at the same time, it all sucks. I’ll always see Zappa and KC as being "higher" than Punky Meadows. But we are not talking about THAT big a remove; Zappa and KC were unavoidably part of the industry and relied on it for survival and musical raw materials.
Anton Webern predicted that, with the progression of musical taste, his music would be whistled by children as they walked to school. That didn’t happen. Instead we got the 45 and the king of rock and roll. Today, will the availability of cheap recording equipment bring a renewal of a kind of folk music? That’s a hopeful thought. My nephew "produces" rap music on his laptop (and ignores his high school classes). I try to be supportive of his creative life but, listening to the results, I cannot help but think of Zappa’s comment that this kind of thing could not have existed without decades of conditioning by TV commercials. Still, it is good to be dialectical. Somewhere in all that junk must be a resource of hope, and the kids will produce something new, somehow. To the cultural barricades comrades!
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