Exclaim!, October 2013: Difference between revisions
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The novelty of the method was certainly a provocation to the imagination. But it was also nothing more than I was trying to write some melodies, like with "[[Cinco Minutos Con Vos|Cinco Minutos]]" and "[[Viceroy's Row]]," that are laid over two chords, where there isn't an anticipated progression, where you're always imagining what's going to occur. It creates a different kind of tension and asks a different question of the melodies. It asks a different question of the vocalist as well at times, all of which makes the music unusual. You have something going around in one continuity, and then you have a horn line offset from that, and then a vocal melody that's off-centre again, all of which makes it hopefully arresting to listen to — but at times beautiful, like when you have [[La Marisoul]]'s voice coming in, a sumptuous voice compared to mine, and she puts some humanity into the character of this daughter who's waiting for her father to arrive and he's never going to arrive. | The novelty of the method was certainly a provocation to the imagination. But it was also nothing more than I was trying to write some melodies, like with "[[Cinco Minutos Con Vos|Cinco Minutos]]" and "[[Viceroy's Row]]," that are laid over two chords, where there isn't an anticipated progression, where you're always imagining what's going to occur. It creates a different kind of tension and asks a different question of the melodies. It asks a different question of the vocalist as well at times, all of which makes the music unusual. You have something going around in one continuity, and then you have a horn line offset from that, and then a vocal melody that's off-centre again, all of which makes it hopefully arresting to listen to — but at times beautiful, like when you have [[La Marisoul]]'s voice coming in, a sumptuous voice compared to mine, and she puts some humanity into the character of this daughter who's waiting for her father to arrive and he's never going to arrive. | ||
''In working on this album, did you implement any lessons you might have learned working with soul legend [[Allen Toussaint]] on The River In Reverse?'' | ''In working on this album, did you implement any lessons you might have learned working with soul legend [[Allen Toussaint]] on [[The River In Reverse]]?'' | ||
I had the experience of singing those Allen songs on a number of occasions with [[Pete Thomas]] on drums, who's a tremendous drummer — obviously, we've worked together for 35 years — and with Allen's regular drummer [[Herman LeBeaux|Herman]] [LeBeaux]. Also, singing the songs alone with Allen where the flow was coming from just his piano was a brilliant thing, but I think everything you learn as you're going along, and what you absorb, is part of what you know. | I had the experience of singing those Allen songs on a number of occasions with [[Pete Thomas]] on drums, who's a tremendous drummer — obviously, we've worked together for 35 years — and with Allen's regular drummer [[Herman LeBeaux|Herman]] [LeBeaux]. Also, singing the songs alone with Allen where the flow was coming from just his piano was a brilliant thing, but I think everything you learn as you're going along, and what you absorb, is part of what you know. | ||
I've worked with the method of recording records instrument by instrument — [[Spike]] was recorded like that — and I've worked from a rhythmic foundation that wasn't being played by a drummer. That goes back to "[[Green Shirt]]" from [[Armed Forces]], where there's a Moog loop cycling round and round that was driving that track. Or "[[When I Was Cruel]]," where it's a beat box and a sample behind a hypnotic ballad. So, you can make comparisons, but they only hint at what we started to do here. | I've worked with the method of recording records instrument by instrument — [[Spike]] was recorded like that — and I've worked from a rhythmic foundation that wasn't being played by a drummer. That goes back to "[[Green Shirt]]" from [[Armed Forces]], where there's a Moog loop cycling round and round that was driving that track. Or "[[When I Was Cruel]]," where it's a beat box and a sample behind a hypnotic ballad. So, you can make comparisons, but they only hint at what we started to do here. | ||
You're dealing with people who are fluent in this method, and I've got the curiosity about what happens when my voice goes with that. They've got the curiosity about what happens when they come out of that. Ahmir will say, "We didn't want it to be too funky," as if such a thing could be a problem. I know what he means; he didn't want it to sound like an affectation, and I didn't want it to either. It would just be idiotic to assume that I would even think about trying to do a rap record, but there are plenty of songs I've done where the declamation of the lyric has been more important than the melodiousness of my voice. Right from the beginning, "Pump It Up" is from a noble lineage of one-note songs, where the rhythm is driving it as opposed to melodies that, as they used to say, the milkman can whistle. | You're dealing with people who are fluent in this method, and I've got the curiosity about what happens when my voice goes with that. They've got the curiosity about what happens when they come out of that. Ahmir will say, "We didn't want it to be too funky," as if such a thing could be a problem. I know what he means; he didn't want it to sound like an affectation, and I didn't want it to either. It would just be idiotic to assume that I would even think about trying to do a rap record, but there are plenty of songs I've done where the declamation of the lyric has been more important than the melodiousness of my voice. Right from the beginning, "[[Pump It Up]]" is from a noble lineage of one-note songs, where the rhythm is driving it as opposed to melodies that, as they used to say, the milkman can whistle. | ||
''Had you been following at all what labels like Daptone Records had been doing the past few years in terms of soul music?'' | ''Had you been following at all what labels like Daptone Records had been doing the past few years in terms of soul music?'' | ||
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''Another thing I find interesting is Wise Up Ghost's packaging, with the cover reminiscent of Allen Ginsberg's Howl, which seems intentional.'' | ''Another thing I find interesting is Wise Up Ghost's packaging, with the cover reminiscent of Allen Ginsberg's Howl, which seems intentional.'' | ||
There's two stories in that. One is that 30 years ago I made a country record in Nashville of my favourite country songs [[[Almost Blue]]]. That was where my head was at; I knew I couldn't sing them half as well as the original artists, but I also knew that an awful lot of people had never heard [[George Jones]] or [[Charlie Rich]]. They didn't share my interest in it, so I thought it was a good case to just let people hear these beautiful songs that I felt strongly about. The cover of that album was a parody of a Blue Note Records cover. So, I thought since this album was actually on Blue Note, we had to do something different. It was [Blue Note president] Don Was's idea, and I suppose he was paying me a compliment in saying that he wanted the lyrics to be printed as a book. I've never had any illusions that I'm a poet, because that's a different skill, a different art. Those are people who can evoke music without anything being played. | There's two stories in that. One is that 30 years ago I made a country record in Nashville of my favourite country songs [ [[Almost Blue]] ]. That was where my head was at; I knew I couldn't sing them half as well as the original artists, but I also knew that an awful lot of people had never heard [[George Jones]] or [[Charlie Rich]]. They didn't share my interest in it, so I thought it was a good case to just let people hear these beautiful songs that I felt strongly about. The cover of that album was a parody of a Blue Note Records cover. So, I thought since this album was actually on Blue Note, we had to do something different. It was [Blue Note president] Don Was's idea, and I suppose he was paying me a compliment in saying that he wanted the lyrics to be printed as a book. I've never had any illusions that I'm a poet, because that's a different skill, a different art. Those are people who can evoke music without anything being played. | ||
''I did notice that last year you took part in a PEN event honouring [[Chuck Berry]] and [[Leonard Cohen]].'' | ''I did notice that last year you took part in a [[Concert 2012-02-26 Boston|PEN event]] honouring [[Chuck Berry]] and [[Leonard Cohen]].'' | ||
That was specifically an award for lyrics. | That was specifically an award for lyrics. | ||
''Yes, but it made me wonder whether you might feel that songwriting — at least since Bob Dylan — has assumed the cultural status that literature once had, or perhaps now shares?'' | ''Yes, but it made me wonder whether you might feel that songwriting — at least since [[Bob Dylan]] — has assumed the cultural status that literature once had, or perhaps now shares?'' | ||
You can make an argument that movies supplanted the symphony. Symphonies used to be where the court and the intellectual segment of society would go to hear the promotion of the spiritual, emotional and sometimes political aspirations of the artist. There's the story of Beethoven dedicating his Third Symphony to Napoleon Bonaparte and then scratching it out when he realized Napoleon was a tyrant. You might say that Birth of A Nation is one kind of statement that D.W. Griffith made about America, and Apocalypse Now is another one. | You can make an argument that movies supplanted the symphony. Symphonies used to be where the court and the intellectual segment of society would go to hear the promotion of the spiritual, emotional and sometimes political aspirations of the artist. There's the story of Beethoven dedicating his Third Symphony to Napoleon Bonaparte and then scratching it out when he realized Napoleon was a tyrant. You might say that Birth of A Nation is one kind of statement that D.W. Griffith made about America, and Apocalypse Now is another one. | ||
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[[image:2013-10-00 Exclaim! photo.jpg|320px|border]] | [[image:2013-10-00 Exclaim! photo.jpg|320px|border]] | ||
<br><small>Photo credit: Danny Clinch</small> | <br><small>Photo credit: [[Danny Clinch]]</small> | ||
{{Bibliography notes footer}} | {{Bibliography notes footer}} |
Revision as of 15:12, 29 June 2014
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