I spent some months of my youth thinking Puressence
vocalist James Mudriczk was a woman, and at some point naively
believed that Nina Simone was male. My embarrassment as I watched a compact jazz
advert featuring black and white images of a beautiful, rather feminine artist
was unprecedented.
This experience changed everything about Feeling Good for me. It was just different from then on. But would
my blissful ignorance mot have better permitted me to enjoy the exquisite
orchestral arrangement and Nina’s unearthly notes for what they create: an
extraordinary piece of music?
Two minutes glancing over Joy Division’s Wikipedia page will
inform its reader of Curtis’ untimely and tragic suicide. But sitting in the
dark enshrouded in Unknown Pleasures
before tapping away in Google’s search bar should surely inform any attentive
listener that
something wasn’t
right there…
The reverse and you’re imagining something that isn’t there.
Project yourself onto the sounds, rather than the unenlightened views of pale,
one-track cyberspace faces.
Feel the mind in
the dark.
Journalists love to press new talent for their ‘inspiration’.
New talent loves responses like “a purple-spotted hedgehog” or, “a line from a
classic book” (or from an elaborate brass-framed six feet tall hall mirror). The
twisted tones of psychadelia or the richness of glam rock are often enough to
suggest the latter, without turning the pages of NME or pouring over Pitchfork.
It’s all very well winning first prize in your local’s Sunday
night Music Quiz for knowing dates and years, but it doesn’t mean you
appreciate artists’ works any more than the daily punter propping himself up on
the bar. If the music itself doesn’t tell you it’s from 1969, or that the
band’s front man is dressed from head to toe in sequins, or that its
inspiration is a dreary Manchester
estate, then that might not be what matters to the artist. So why try to make
that matter to you? If you’ve ears, shut your eyes and use them.
No comments:
Post a Comment