Here is the first demo, compared with the sketch. As with all pieces they evolve considerably from the cradle. Since I've had the Jazz Bass tuned to Drop 31 tuning for months, I just used it as-is as a "standard" tuning. The lyrics are still provisional and sketchy. They're still looking for meaning. I'm thinking "western sky" could be a metaphor for something on the horizon for the West as if it were a rare cosmic alignment or a total eclipse.
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A radio show on Astrology (May birthdays) ~1935 . Imagine it was on a radio in that room. (The Thorne Rooms were built around that time)
https://youtu.be/ZLY5QoWIbdk?feature=shared&t=70 What is the sound of a place in an abstract sense? Motown had a sound. Philadelphia had a sound. Memphis had a sound. Glen Campbell "soundtracked" places like Phoenix, Wichita, Memphis, and Galveston. Chicago doesn't really have a sound all its own but it has "scored" my life. I suppose you could use the "Chicago" song by ___________. But do we want that as its "sound"? There's "Sweet Home Chicago" as a blues shuffle, but do we want that? I hear Chicago as having a "steel" quality.
For the entire month of April the routine was do carve a song out of the diary entries, and would only be for one month. Routines are hard to break! I couldn't resist this one because it's a song whose lyrics come from song titles or lines from songs. I'm not sure if it's plagiaristic or clever parody, but I would argue it's the latter. They are "cameos", as well as an ironic juxtaposition between war and postwar.
Where would you go? You can't do that You better get better Or else you're gonna get worse Can't buy me love 5/1/1943, Saturday Anne Frank writes to Kitty: "...Tonight the guns have been banging away so much that I've already had to gather up my belongings four times. Today I packed a suitcase with the stuff I'd need in case we had to flee, but as mother correctly noted, "Where would you go?". All of Holland is being punished for the workers' strikes. Martial law has been declared..." 5/1/1964, Friday Beatles in the studio 6:30-9:30: taped eight numbers, including 'I Saw Her Standing There', 'You Cant Do That', 'Can't Buy Me Love'. 5/1/2012 May Day. Arab Spring of OWS protests. *** You better get better or else you're gonna get worse.—Loudon Wainwright (From the song "Daughter")
As April comes to a close, so does my experiment for April generating a song idea per day. What has been most interesting is that working from the music of language, as opposed to the language of music (with music coming first in the form of a chord change or riff,) results in a wider range of musical styles. It also creates perhaps too many ideas, and they have to be triaged or converged and need to enter the full writing stage. Or they can be done live, where one player creates a riff based on it and the other players follow it as a form of improv. This of course is nothing new, but my spin is that it's a remix based on what happens on a particular day, regardless of year, and is an abstraction of it, not a literal storyline based on any one event.
4/30 Songday: Western Sky, initially inspired the line in the 4/30/1870 William James letter, as well as an entry by Brian Eno. "I think that yesterday was a crisis in my life. I finished Renouvier's second Essais and see no reason why his definition of free will, "The sustaining of a thought because I chose to when I might have other thoughts', need be the definition of an illusion." A search result for diary entries for April 29 using the Perplexity engine:
https://www.perplexity.ai/search/What-are-some-Iw65ngVqRASNGbXfZjpVMQ This is worth posting in its entirety because it is such an evergreen sentiment. It is a posting that could be made today:
4/29/1977, Friday (Keith Haring Journal) "This is a blue moment...it's blue because I'm confused, again; or should I say "still"? I don't know what I want or how to get it. I act like I know what I want, and I appear to be going after it—fast, but I don't, when it comes down to it, even know. I guess it's because I'm afraid. Afraid I'm wrong. And I guess I'm afraid I'm wrong, because I constantly relate myself to other people, other experiences, other ideas. I should be looking at both in perspective, not comparing. I relate my life to an idea or an example that is some entirely different life. I should be relating it to my life only in the sense that each has good and bad facets. Each is separate. The only way the other attained enough merit, making it worthy of my admiration, or long to copy it is by taking chances, taking it in its own way. It has grown with different situations and has discovered different heights of happiness and equal sorrows. If I always seek to pattern my life after another, mine is being wasted re-doing things for my own empty acceptance. But, if I live my life my way and only let the other [artists] influence me as a reference, a starting point, I can build an even higher awareness instead of staying dormant. If I can take this and apply it, it will help, but again I am afraid. Afraid I'll just ignore this whole revelation and remain in the rut and rationalize and call it human nature or some shit. But, I've been living like this for so long that it seems I'm doomed to continue. Although I realized it now, so that is encouraging. If I can do this, then it should not be hard to answer my questions and doubts about my forthcoming adventure. If I am all that is in question, then I should be able to answer all. Like past experience, there is always a certain magic that some call "Fate." Lately it hasn't been as evident, or perhaps I am just more ignorant of it, but I know that I'll end up somewhere for some reason or no reason, but with some answers or at least be a little clearer on why I am and what I am aiming to do or what I am gonna do or just "do." If this fate is negative, that isn't negative because that is what happened and that then was the fate. I only wish that I could have more confidence and try to forget all my silly preconceptions, misconceptions, and just live. Just live. Just. Live. Just live till I die...." 4/28/2023, Friday
By the end of April an area of dappled light appears behind my dining room table. When the wind is blowing it makes an interesting variegated pattern. A possible installation would involve a series of screens strategically placed such that the sunlight coming through a window is superimposed. (Turrell has probably done this).
4/27/1943 (Diary of Anne Frank)
"Our German visitors were back last Saturday. They stayed until six. We all sat upstairs, not daring to move an inch. If there's no one else working in the building or in the neighborhood, you can hear every single step in the private office. I've got ants in my pants again from having to sit still so long...." 4/27/1995 (Brian Eno Diary) "I called Mum and talked to her a bit about her time in Germany. She told me that a farmer used to slip an egg through the fence of the camp for her." A possible Songday song based on the entries:
In my SciFi story Reset 2046, one of the main characters is Tony Townes. He writes on 4/26/2037: "Centennial of the Guernica massacre, an event which made Picasso a political artist."
Picasso started the painting on 5/11/1937, done with matte house paint. It was also inspired by Dora Maar's black and white photograms.
The 2046 album was the "score" for the story:
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AuthorLee Barry, Musician/Content Producer Archives
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