On the death of Stockhausen
Brian Eno, Robert Fripp and Stockhausen. Hot Chocolate, Mickey Most and Rod Stewart. It’s a huge divide that is crossed by andante. Music at walking pace. I spent a lot of time walking at the end of the 1970s early 1980’s and andante, walking pace, was the base on which I placed the music. The 1970s disco scene, Bernard Miles and Rogers; Chic, great beat. On that, one places chords. Chords. Some people play arrangements, very pacey, lots of different things going on, which leave the chord inferred, like Glenn Miller and Nelson Riddle, but the other angle is more jazzy, the chords are all, as with Herbie Hancock and his new album of Joni Mitchell covers. Obviously there are still ballads, Peter Gabriel’s “Don’t Give Up”, and Phil Collins’ “in the air tonight”. The seamless face of now, presents a great opportunity to put music into context, without dates, that is without chronological order. It’s like a huge wall with lots of different faces trying to grab the attention of the spotlight. Who do you love?
In the end all music must have a beat, even if it’s no beat, or no no-beat. So that’s Stockhausen done for. So “popular” music it is. Of the people, for the people, about the people, or people, or about me? Me as generic person. Me as non-existent Stanislavskyan "simulated reality” just like Bob Dylan. Or David Bowie.
That’s why the Beatles were "beat" apart from being ‘beat. Jack Kerouac to one side, it’s the back-beat, the down-beat, the up-beat, the blue beat. The notes placed on that beat are then everything or nothing if you prefer John Cage. Erik Satie, Scott Joplin, it’s what you put on the beat and in popular music, the chord is everything. Light music may be pop but that’s where the fault lines begin. I’m talking about Beethoven and Steely Dan. Erik Satie and Joni Mitchell, or James Taylor or Carol King or Neil Young.
Or Hot Chocolate, and andante. Disco and a walking pace, dancing, walking, singing. I'm only dancing. Rhythmical man-robot, the clang of the industrial hammer. Well I am a posh bloke with a first class education who never wanted for anything and took up the music production as a business enterprise, then known as a “record label” . I went through all the usual channels, all were pretty useless till I got to Tony Arnold, Bernie James was a great help and recorded "Susan" and "then there was you" and did a good job, particularly in getting the early gigs. Then it was Tony Arnold, which is where Robert Fripp and I crossed paths again and then there was Harold Shampan and then Red Bus Studios and then Room with a view got it together, at last!
So the secret is a walking pace with nice stuff on top, based on complex chords rather than the usual 12 bar formula although still following the ababbccbbbb, formula. The beat is then syncopated, i.e. you put bongos in, but 15th sixteenth accents are fine too, and you have funk-rock.
In the beginning there was Free and Alright Now and everything disappeared down a cultural black hole in 1990, so the world was born anew after 1990. But Jimi Hendrix and Steely Dan re-emerged despite that. Ach, a date, well never mind. I brought out funkygroovy and pop art in 1998 and it is now 2007. I have recreated myself in 17 years. Andante with funky rock chords, oh, chilli peppers, oh, Luther was there before them. Luther’s pop art came out before the pet shop boys’. And why not?
Friends, Urbanites and agra-people; we’re all cosmopolitan now. Global individualism and music as the universal language. Get down!
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