After brunch with Vic & Katie this afternoon I went shopping, in search of one particular present for my wife which has so far eluded me. Excitement! I discovered it in a store adjoining a comparable store, one already exhaustively investigated last week. This will go into a Christmas stocking for Toyah, who is very much a fan of Christmas stockings. Our stockings will be hung from our new, larger bed on Christmas Eve. Plucking out a present or two may well begin just past midnight.
13.19
There are 3 polaroids on the piano of Curly Belew, singing a guide vocal to "Oyster Soup+", and 1 of The Rhythm Buddies' equipment stuff. Stuff. Lots of stuff - lights, buttons, knobs, wires.
The guide vocal has accomplished everything a guide vocal should. The form is determined & the spirit of the song is conveyed. Now the other players may overdub, repair, and append parts knowing whether or not these are suitable for the song.
The last part of any writing tends to be - the words. This places the singer in total control of the event: the track / album cannot be finished or completed until the singer allows it to be. Then it has to be mixed, mastered & delivered to the record company (with artwork). Most record companies need 3 months prior delivery to set a release in motion. So, touring moves backwards from the release, which moves backwards from delivery, which moves backwards from mastering & mixing, which moves backwards from the singing, which moves backwards from - the words.
Any singer who has personal issues of control is, in this way, placed in complete control not only of the recording process but also of subsequent touring. That is, they control the group, its manager & agent and, with a major artist, to some extent the record company. Reasonably, legitimately, this may place pressure on the singer/lyricist. But on the shadow side of operating, where personal patterns & processes are mainly "unconscious/subconscious", this is where life gets educational for the accompanist. In the shadow group, the singer/lyricist holds a power over the lives of professional associates which is illegitimate.
Fundamentally decent singer-songwriters tend to address this as they mature, perhaps by entering therapy, perhaps by adopting a practice, perhaps simply by continuing in the process of craft. Otherwise, as Time's Arrow moves remorselessly forward poking the slow-moving in the butt, the appeal based on charisma, sexual power, youthful energy and fashion diminishes & loses the hold it exerts over others. The artist may no longer count on their previous capacity to manipulate events. Mature associates are no longer prepared to accept this form of illegitimate authority. Industry personnel, on to the next fave rave and generation of hoysy groovers, are not prepared to tolerate manipulation by an aging jerk who no longer pays their rent.
I have been close to this position. Fortunately, I am no longer. This is one of the main reasons Crimson has always had a singer who played an instrument, or a player who sung. When the singer is being difficult, you appeal to the player in them.
Adrian hesitates before putting down a vocal which is less than ready for an audience. This is fair. But Pat encouraged him (and we all promised to laugh at the singing) and the strategy has worked. Adrian has given us the song's vocal & lyrical flavour - and for fun, through a Smokie. Amphagoric alliteration is not a specific remedy for seasonal afflictions, obtainable without prescription at neighborhood drug stores - it is the Word Frenzy strategy behind this latest, newest, aromatic Crim delight.
15.20
Spider Fingers Fripp got called in to play a "piano" solo, alternatively a "paino" solo, on our new rock song. I was slightly hesitant about this but was given no room to demur. The tempo - 73 (or146 at speed) - is painfully placed at the edge of accurate picked articulation. Well-oiled left hand fingers are able, on most qualified young players, to whiz around in triplets at 105 / 210. But picking at this speed is right on the edge.
In live performance the door to what is possible may fall open, pushed by a supportive audience, adrenalin, an exceptional playing space or even, on especial occasions, an angel flying by and giving the door a helpful kick. To sit with a metronome for several years beforehand is, however, a necessary preparation. If we are going to stand on the corner and wait for someone to give us a tasty piece of cheesecake, better to do our part - hold out a hand. And, moving associatively along, it was Andy Summers who said that Fripp couldn't play rock because he practised with a metronome.
Playing with a metronome is, in my professional opinion, necessary for current players; this if only because much / most contemporary studios & producers assume that any musician on call can play to a click track. Certainly, any computerised or digital recording is click based.
So, on the professional level at least, metronome training is a must. But the capacity to play without a metronome is also a must whether in strict time, laid back, pushed or rubato. These are all qualifications of an experienced pro, although each player has their relatively strong points. Pointilistic, articulated playing is not intrinsically a "laid-back" style and is too stated, or defined, for conventional rock.
15.58
The Team has assembled a composite paino of their choice and now Adrian is about to wern & twern his guitar parts.
16.20
Wern, wern, twern, twern, is flying through two soundproofed doors into these basement chambers.
17.47
The creative process is utterly mysterious.The creative process is concrete.
It is know-able, do-able, feel-able, available.
Both these statements are true.
Both these statements are contradictory.
Unless we embrace and hold these two equal truths,
we are not part of a creative process.
That is, we are not part of the creative process.
That is, we are not part of the process of Creating.
"When we act as we like, we may get what we want.
But not what we need."
