Raw.
Cartoons like Top Cat
Why
Raw? It was about seeing how to make a song sound good without
the studio and all the overdubs and stuff. Over the last few
years I have been listening to more and more music recorded
before the studio really existed.
The
first thing I discovered in the process of doing this was how
well you need to know the songs. Playing live or doing a gig,
when a mistake happens you smile and move on, the moment has
gone and half the time no one noticed. Putting it down for posterity
but setting a principle that it must be one take from start
to finish, every mistake is magnified. I am sure you will notice
each of them on the recordings despite probably 10 tries on
average. I didn`t do one version that I felt was as good as
it should have been but I set myself a time limit and picked
the best version I could find.
Songs and poems
have been my saviour for as long as I could write and it was
a shock to discover that I could learn other peoples music.
This was something that came late in life to me partly due to
a mistaken belief that it was somehow cheating. As I listened
to more and more traditional music I realised how much of themselves
people can put into songs written by others. I still write and
love writing but now it has a context.
I
have followed the tradition of English musicians working with
American mythology. I do not know why I have such a connection
with American music. I have never wanted to be an American and
have yet to experience the sheer scale of a country and people
so similar yet different on so many levels. My only knowledge
is gained vicariously through music, T.V. film and literature.
The
songs that were written spoke of the immensity of the new world
these people had entered. This awe has been echoing through
western music ever since.
They
were people like you and me ordinary and special. The interaction
with each other as strangers and brothers flooding into a huge
void that seemed to be filled with riches and terror in equal
measure. To discover White men or Black men, Chinese and Native
American each with history and tradition must have been close
to discovering that Aliens are real.
To
the people who often could not write on paper but could repeat
words until they were embedded in there souls, the newness and
vastness of everything they saw must have coloured these words
and dreams in such a way as to appeal to emotions that all mankind
seems to share.
The
roots of the music of Europe and Africa have been mixed in America
to become a story based celebration of faith and ecstasy. Spirituality
has always been an integral part of my belief system and I could
easily be accused of a Magpie approach that perhaps debases
each of the wholes of which I take my parts. But the thread
of all religion rests in the stories. Gilgamesh to Osama mythological
warriors and saviours travelling through our lives but separated
by our perceived awareness of who they are and there place in
our lives. The truth of religion is it is a search for immortality
and it is the stories that make a man immortal. And the songs
I love are stories.
Once
upon a time all music was recorded like this, just a microphone
and a recording device. One step back and it was memory that
most imperfect of recording mediums that created folk music
with a life of its own. Even the classical music of the rich
and powerful although notated and copied is imbued with the
personality of the performer and conductor. So here I am, a
small cog with aspirations to explain the machine with stories
of my own and those that I have collected. I hope you like them,
there will be more.
Oh
yeah, “ Cartoons like Top Cat?” Talking animals with American
accents copying Bilko! How
does that appeal to people in Britain? “Gee T.C.”
J.B.O.
2006
