Re[479]: ProjeKct 2 >>> Slick n' Finished VS Fresh n' New

[Mike.Biffle@wj.com (Mike Biffle)]

OB KimF disclaimer... hit that delete button now Kim! 8->

Laurie said...
LH: Story time, girlz and boyz: I'm reminded of the first time I heard 
Emerson, 
Lake, and Palmer in concert, early 70's.  (Oh gawd, that just about puts 
me in 
Grandmaville, doesn't it?  @8^)  

MB: Since we're dating ourselves... I saw ELP at the Hollywood Bowl, I 
believe, 
in the middle slot with Edgar Winter closing... Rick Derringer on guitar. 
This 
had to be in the very early 70's?

LH: I went to their first-of-tour warmup concert in a little college town, 
and 
they blew me away.  It was flawless, intense, dynamic - big flashy show. 
Two 
nights later I saw them in the city.  Clone concert, absolutely identical 
down 
to the note, nuance, rap, 
look-up-at-the-crowd-with-sexy-smile-on-this-measure, 
*everything*.  I was really disillusioned...SNIP!

It's not *their* fault I was disillusioned. They were playing their butts 
off, 
delighting their fans, and paying the bills. (I do wonder, though, if by 
the end
of the tour, the repetition started to feel stifling, even with the 
adrenaline 
rush of playing for huge enthusiastic crowds.)  The problem was only mine, 
in 
that my expectations were pretty naïve and idealistic.  However, _I don't 
think 
that idealism was unfounded at all. It was a major turning point for me in 
terms
of realizing that improvisation was a more satisfying direction for me 
personally...SNIP

MB: I guess the music biz in those days was *very much* oriented to 
replicating 
the album for the record buying audience, with some noteworthy exceptions. 
The 
promotion of those tours was probably all handled by Label mgt. as well as 
band 
mgt. And maybe (just maybe) funds from those tours were repaying label 
advance 
promotional and recording budget recoups. The present doesn't seem to have 
changed that much for major pop artists. On the DIY and Indie front maybe 
we can
harbor different expectations...

My comment is this: Is the music being composed and preformed designed to 
be 
played or sold? I'm sure many seemingly canned, stale sounding renditions 
of 
addmittedly great songs, were originally a passionate attempt of the 
writer to 
somehow convey something important to them *at that time*. 

Time really changes everything though. I keep asking myself how to somehow 
integrate and present songs I've written over the years in some meaningful 
way 
to me. Very dark painful songs have a hard time living next to brighter, 
funnier
material. Whatever was written most recently seems always to have more 
immediate
value even though I still find deep meaning in many of my other songs. 

Hence my slow swing back to improvised music. It stands in the present for 
me, 
and comes without the obligation to go back to retrieve feelings long 
past. It 
holds a vast potential as well as the risk of falling into the void.

Now it would seem, I have the responsibility to at least some of my songs, 
to 
somehow experiment with loose re-arrangements to seek their validity in 
the 
current moment. Hopefully with loops and all... There! LD relevance. (If 
this 
sort of discussion has totally lost relevance here, sorry... The 
discussion IS a
result of a highly loop involved live performance.)

LH: Which is why, at the very least, I admire the scope, vision, and risk 
of the
ProjeKct tours, independent of the music itself.  How Fripp, Gunn, and 
Belew -- 
and their fans -- will feel about their efforts and depth of 
experimentation 
when it's all over is anyone's guess.  The music's evolution over the 
course of 
the tour will be very interesting.  I'd love to hear an "after" cd 
juxtaposed 
with the pre-tour recording.  (BTW, if you really are hopelessly 
pathological 
about this, Gunn's Road Diary has some entries about making the P2 cd, as 
well 
as the P1 performances: http://www.treygunn.com/road.html.  Hearing about 
P1 & 
2 from one of the participants is actually pretty revealing.)

OK, off my soapbox.  Thanks for everybody's perceptive, probing questions, 
and 
thoughtful ideas.

laurie

     Off mine too...
     
     Cheers,
     -Miko