September 28, 2006

• 1981

  Today I was listening to music from back when I didn't just think that music mattered, but that it totally and completely *was everything.*

  I used to listen to music and hear it in a variety of complicated ways that I always thought everyone heard. I couldn't understand why my friends didn't like, for instance, King Crimson's 'Discipline.' They were approaching me with a straightjacket by the time 'Thela Hun Gingeet' came on. But how could anyone not fall for that album?

  I've always maintained that some years are better for music than others, and 1981 was one of those years. If you want to explore a single year, you could do much worse than to get ahold of: Peter Gabriel's melting face album, Kate Bush's 'The Dreaming,' XTC's 'English Settlement,' the aforementioned 'Discipline,' and about a half dozen others I can't think of at the moment. Oh, and Jon Hassell's 'Fourth World Volume 2: Dream Theory In Malaya.'

  Somehow, the cultural reality was churning at that moment, with the beginning of sampling, a new popular appreciation of electronic music, and a cultural moment where music industry people literally didn't know what the hell to release. New Wave was about to take up some of that slack, and the NeuroMantics were appearing, like Thomas Dolby. That's another one: Dolby's 'Golden Age Of Wireless.' But record execs didn't know what to do, what with the new MTV and the VCR and the blank CrO2 cassettes. Musicians could do something weird and find a niche.

  Personally, I think it all revolved around 'Discipline.' I know it did for me. Robert Fripp (King Crimson's motivating force) was and is a nerdy egghead who learned to play the guitar despite being tone-deaf, and not only that, but in 1981 he re-formed King Crimson with a new idea: The distinction between rhythm section and lead should be abolished. So you end up with a quartet that plays as equals, each part as its own voice. Basically rock and roll as chamber music.

  I wanted to be a member of that King Crimson. But I was never all that competent as a musician or arranger. Then I got into Brian Eno. Eno had lots of connection to Fripp; they had released a couple of albums together, both highly recommended if slightly unapproachable. Plus, in 1981, Brian Eno and David Byrne released a seminal album I've 'blogged about before: 'My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts.' The point of this discursion, however is that Eno wasn't really a musician, but he was being successful at making and producing music. Now he's the grand old man of... something. He's an interesting guy who says interesting things, and everyone says they're a fan even though they've never heard 'King's Lead Hat,' 'Seven Deadly Finns,' or 'Thursday Afternoon.'

  Anyway. There's plenty more I could say, but it's already boring. I leave you with something that was inspiring to me. Warning: It's long, but you should listen to the whole thing. Put it on in the background. And that's a trumpet. It really is. Click to listen. Remember: This is from a time before there was 'new age' and world music. In fact, without this album and a slim few of its contemporaries, there wouldn't be any 'new age' or world music. There'd be no trance music, no house music, no rave music. No sampled sitars or djembes. You know that music they have at the beginning of the TV show 'Survivor?' There'd be no public taste for such things without Jon Hassell and Brian Eno and a few others from 1981. And that's the truth.

  'Malaya' Jon Hassell, from 'Fourth World Vol. 2: Dream Theory In Malaya'

  • 2:35 am
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