------------------------------ Message: 4 Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2004 14:20:25 -0400 From: "Dave Smey" <dsmey@mindspring.com> Subject: Re: thoughts on Zorn To: <zorn-list@lists.xmission.com> Message-ID: <002c01c474cf$a3c70d00$a31cf7a5@mshome.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Dave Smey wrote that "Zorn is interesting and appealing because he does seem totally unfiltered and honest, and on the surface he seems to not care what anybody thinks. If you told him you couldn't stand a particular record he made he'd probably say something like "then don't listen to it." This is an appealing image of freedom - freedom for the artist, freedom for the audience. But of course, you have to be particularly successful or antisocial to *afford* this kind of freedom." I would emphasize that phrase "on the surface." Although "Zorn literally claimed that a great piece of art says 'fuck you!' It's quite a different model than, say, art as 'communication,'" it strikes me as absurd and disingenuous for an artist-- particularly one given to performing publicly, writing musical pieces dedicated to friends & influences, and disseminating on a regular basis recordings of said performances and compositions--to say with a sneering tone that he couldn't give a shit what people think of his work. I interviewed William Burroughs back in 1988, and I asked him a question about trying to communicate with an audience, to which he gave me his standard-issue bad boy reply that he didn't write to communicate with others. (His published letters to Ginsberg & Kerouac betray this nonsense: most of "Naked Lunch" was taken from letters he wrote to them.) I asked him if, then, he were stranded on a desert island, would he keep on writing. To which he petulantly responded "that's not fair." Of course it was. I called his bluff. He had something to say, something he believed in. And he said it well. And many people from around the world liked what he had to say--his vision of the world--and how it said it. So why pretend he wasn't flattered? (Part of the tough-guy attitude he had cultivated over the ages. A "kinder, gentler" Burroughs is now emerging from the biographical record, often in Burroughs' own words.) My point is, that unless Zorn is a montrous egomaniac--and I've seen nothing, heard nothing, read nothing that indicates he is--unless he's a monstrous egomaniac, he *does* write and perform to communicate, as does any other artist--painter, writer, musician, etc--who actively seeks a public forum (a gallery, a magazine or book appearance, a concert or CD). Somebody who doesn't care what others think, doesn't listen to what others have to say. It's a form of shouting (like those so-called "debate" programs on TV). Who wants to listen to music like that? Who wants to work in a band under those conditions? That said, I'm sure his priority in writing and performing is to do something that satisfies his own criteria of excellence. Of second priority is probably his hope that others--maybe only his closest friends--will enjoy it, too. More Dave Smey: "Actually, Zorn is one of the few artists I really like who I'll personally forgive for not pleasing me." There are artists--and I count Zorn among them--who, even when they faulter, faulter in interesting ways. I have something like 80 of Zorn's CDs, and I'll be the first to say that not every note is a miracle. But he has good ideas--sometimes unsuccessfully executed. Sometimes he has ideas that probably looked good on paper but which didn't pan out when performed. I think those are valid points to (constructively) criticize; to evaluate a work on the terms it set out for itself and how well it succeeds in (a) meeting those goals and/or (b) being goals that produce interesting work. On the whole, Zorn strikes me as an artist who constantly challenges himself, as a composer and a performer, who finds inspiration all around him (which you can only do if you find the world endless fascinating), who more often than not succeeds in creating works of lasting value and beauty; and who is able to cull from the people who perform with and/or for him their own personal bests. What else can you ask from a guy? Tom Bowden