Hey Bob — I love this post and love this question. Music has always been a bit peripheral in my life — a sometimes pleasure, often connected with social experiences. Which makes me think about artistic memory. I have a narrative memory of books that have electrified me, foods I’ve tasted that have rocked my world. Visual art too, though that’s a more recent story. But not music so much: I remember scenes of my musical life (my dad playing Italian opera for me when I was a tiny tyke and quizzing me about the arias and singers, dancing around the Catholic Worker house to Springsteen at the wedding of two community members, an epic Gogol Bordello concert…). Lots of music that has brought delight, but more as a soundtrack than as an experience in itself. What you describe here seems like a whole different kind of encountering music. Food — notes — for thought!
A couple for me...Bjork Vespertine a friend told me about her early works, which I thought were awful. But Vespertine has an aural smorgasbord that I found irrisistable! The other is Robert Wyatt's Rick Bottom. Weird, wonderful music that I love to this day. Mike Oldfield's guest appearance on the last track features some amazing "stop-go" guitar!
Great essay. Unequivocally for me, it’s Jimi’s Third Stone From the Sun. I had heard him live at the “original” Fillmore (opening for Jefferson Airplane and Gabor Szabo) the week following his debut at Monterey. Purple Haze was playing on SF Top 40 radio. Bought the album as soon as I got home to Chicago. As a teenager, I had already immersed myself in all musics: Jazz , Folk, Pop, Classical, you name it. I was a sponge. But Third Stone … something else. It still does for me what great Art does should do above all: collapse Time. Cheers!
Chuck, thanks for writing. I think you sum it up very well (& yours is quite the example!): “Third Stone … still does for me what great Art does should do above all: collapse Time.”
Miles Davis' Scorched Earth band/music live in St. Louis March '75, 3 weeks after the mind bending Osaka dates ('Agharta/'Pangaea") Which I hadn't even heard at the time. Pete Cosey's 'live wire' electric guitar? WTF was THIS?
Could you narrow that down a bit or was it a general feeliing? I'm interested in particular in how the Beatles and Stones brought you to BItches Brew; sounds like something worth hearing about!
Beatles (that little guitar figure in She Loves You, the tripiness of Strawberry Fields or Rain)..Stones ( my love of riffage comes from The Last Time and my overall rock ethos from the Stones) and Dylan (Rolling Stone did for me what his folk days never did for me...electric words of mysterious confetti).. these 3 were my music base. I was just a bit too young for Elvis. This of course evolved thru the Yardbirds (those freaky guitars! Over Under Sideways Down!) Jimi (need I say?😅) and Cream (the cover of Disraeli Gears! Dance the Night Away!) etc ad infinitum ... Then one night as a stoned teen I went to see Leon Russell at the Fillmore West and Miles was the opener. Man .. that was like being hit by a meteor... And the Bitches Brew tour, no less... Altered me big time
Shock moment .. tectonic plates.. watershed.. big demarcation line... All that occurred at that Miles show... To this day... After that show I started with jazz in addition to various rock configurations... I can envision you as maybe a bit formal and constrained at Juliard then running with Jimi .. that's great
Hey Bob — I love this post and love this question. Music has always been a bit peripheral in my life — a sometimes pleasure, often connected with social experiences. Which makes me think about artistic memory. I have a narrative memory of books that have electrified me, foods I’ve tasted that have rocked my world. Visual art too, though that’s a more recent story. But not music so much: I remember scenes of my musical life (my dad playing Italian opera for me when I was a tiny tyke and quizzing me about the arias and singers, dancing around the Catholic Worker house to Springsteen at the wedding of two community members, an epic Gogol Bordello concert…). Lots of music that has brought delight, but more as a soundtrack than as an experience in itself. What you describe here seems like a whole different kind of encountering music. Food — notes — for thought!
Thanks, Margaret. Which books, foods, or visual art has moved you in this way?
A couple for me...Bjork Vespertine a friend told me about her early works, which I thought were awful. But Vespertine has an aural smorgasbord that I found irrisistable! The other is Robert Wyatt's Rick Bottom. Weird, wonderful music that I love to this day. Mike Oldfield's guest appearance on the last track features some amazing "stop-go" guitar!
Very interesting column!!
Great essay. Unequivocally for me, it’s Jimi’s Third Stone From the Sun. I had heard him live at the “original” Fillmore (opening for Jefferson Airplane and Gabor Szabo) the week following his debut at Monterey. Purple Haze was playing on SF Top 40 radio. Bought the album as soon as I got home to Chicago. As a teenager, I had already immersed myself in all musics: Jazz , Folk, Pop, Classical, you name it. I was a sponge. But Third Stone … something else. It still does for me what great Art does should do above all: collapse Time. Cheers!
Chuck, thanks for writing. I think you sum it up very well (& yours is quite the example!): “Third Stone … still does for me what great Art does should do above all: collapse Time.”
Bob,
Miles Davis' Scorched Earth band/music live in St. Louis March '75, 3 weeks after the mind bending Osaka dates ('Agharta/'Pangaea") Which I hadn't even heard at the time. Pete Cosey's 'live wire' electric guitar? WTF was THIS?
I never saw that band perform (alas!) but if what has been released is any indication, oh my. Pete was just incredible.
For me it has to be that Beatles/Stones swath through the 60s culminating with discovering Bitches Brew ...
Could you narrow that down a bit or was it a general feeliing? I'm interested in particular in how the Beatles and Stones brought you to BItches Brew; sounds like something worth hearing about!
Beatles (that little guitar figure in She Loves You, the tripiness of Strawberry Fields or Rain)..Stones ( my love of riffage comes from The Last Time and my overall rock ethos from the Stones) and Dylan (Rolling Stone did for me what his folk days never did for me...electric words of mysterious confetti).. these 3 were my music base. I was just a bit too young for Elvis. This of course evolved thru the Yardbirds (those freaky guitars! Over Under Sideways Down!) Jimi (need I say?😅) and Cream (the cover of Disraeli Gears! Dance the Night Away!) etc ad infinitum ... Then one night as a stoned teen I went to see Leon Russell at the Fillmore West and Miles was the opener. Man .. that was like being hit by a meteor... And the Bitches Brew tour, no less... Altered me big time
Big moments in my personal cosmogony
Thanks!
And let's hear it for Bill Graham.
Shock moment .. tectonic plates.. watershed.. big demarcation line... All that occurred at that Miles show... To this day... After that show I started with jazz in addition to various rock configurations... I can envision you as maybe a bit formal and constrained at Juliard then running with Jimi .. that's great
I'd say I was less formal than feeling captive on a spaceship from another planet!