Thick as a Brick

Listening to … shh … Jethro Tull - luverly flute that.

Interesting fact for today – The man who recorded one of the “Mind the Gap” announcements for The Tube is Tim Bentinck who plays David Archer in … er … The Archers (Warning - that article on Wikipedia is longer than you might wish for).

I am sure you will sleep better for knowing that. Indeed you may actually be sent off to sleep by the Archers article though I did discover that Brian Eno was reported to have remixed the theme tune (Barwick Green or possibly dum-de-dum-de-dum-de-dum) though this was an April Fool joke in the end. However, Mr. English National Opera has produced the current Paul Simon Album, Surprise and has done very well. Thinking about it, this is not so strange; Paul Simon’s poetic lyrics have always been left-field in a sort of wordy version of what Brian Eno does with sound (and indeed his own lyrics).

More musical madness manifests momentarily.

Last Friday I tuned in to Radio 3 for the drive home, instead of the standard Radio 4 for Last Word – The obituary programme and Francine Stock’s Film Programme.
Friday late afternoon on Radio 3 is the time for Jazz Legends which ranges throughout the genre from rag to improve. Last Friday’s legend was Derek Bailey, an extreme and experimental guitarist who at first listen had appeared to abandon the normal musical pillars of melody, harmony, rhythm, scale and anything else that might distinguish music from the sounds of small children let loose with the contents of a toolbox. I was about to hit the fourth button on the radio when some spark of counterpoint drew me back in and I was hooked for the rest of the show. The final two pieces were from Bailey’s final album – Carpal Tunnel where he was experimenting with styles forced on him by that complaint. (This was probably the first sign of Motor Neurone disease which led to his death in December.) The first of the two pieces was him playing various experiments in a style that seemed extreme – no rhythm – no harmony – seemingly just random plucks and scrapes. Over this he explained what he was doing – it was just a ramble of seemingly-random sounds that happened to be made with a guitar. The second piece was recorded 12 weeks later and though at first it sounded not much more constructed than the previous track, it created strange counterpoints as if the random notes were apart by some strange and mystical musical distance – the golden ratio or pi or log 10 – wonderful. Harmonies rang out from the mush of notes in a way that suggested he had reached an agreement with his own improvisational style.

Next on Proteus and Ariel – Morons – a user’s guide.