on 3/17/03 9:38 AM, Efrén del Valle at efrendv@yahoo.es wrote:
It's all about personal taste, regardless of the objective trascendence of this or that album in music history.
I agree with that, pretty much. You don't give props to REVOLVER because it was a great record "for its time". You give props to REVOLVER cuz it's a great record at ANY time. The history part can't make a bad record into a great one. You can say things like "this record introduced heretofore unheard of techniques" -- ie Tristano's groundbreaking but not altogether convincing free jazz stuff, which predates Ornette's forays by nearly a decade -- but all that means is someone brought some new tools to the box. Not a bad thing, but a different thing than making great work that stands up regardless of what techniques went into it. Unfortunately, the artifical pressures to "innovate" have created pedestals for things that, while full of new techniques and ersatz bravery, have not held up so good over time.
And with regards to those proposed ways of listening, I entirley disagree. My opinion is that the listening process, which is after all, enjoying music or not, is something more simple that shouldn't be related to any intellectual patterns, imho, and that's very related to an article I'm currently preparing (in English). I hope this opinion hasn't changed once I've finished it, which is what it should be about in fact.
To me records are like people (since they're generally idealized manifestations of people), and you don't choose your various friends all for the same reasons. There are some guys whose company you seek out because they're funny, there are some because they love to get up and go do really active stuff, some because they're great conversationists, others because they're just such damn nice people, and some just because you've known them for so long. It's not an intellectual thing, but rather what personality best fits the moment at hand. The mood of your ear when you reach for a Dead Kennedys album is likely different than if your natural inclinataion at a given moments would be to put on, say, IN A SILENT WAY, and your expectations as to what will make that record do its job are gonna be different. They each require a different ear-set on the part of the listener. Again, it's not an intellectual thing. It's all about a given record and being receptive given the mood of the moment. Intellectualism has given us more substandard music that succeeds by academic rules, and as a result is best kept out of the visceral world. But your moods aren't intellectual excercises. There are very few artists I can listen to no matter what my mood. Ray Charles is the only one who springs to mind (lately, anyway).
Best,
Efrén del Valle n.p: DD "Freak In" (still trying)
Now you're talkin' -- skip h http://www.skipheller.com