http://www.hi-fiworld.co.uk SEPTEMBER 2019 HI-FI WORLD 67
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W
e are so used to
pigeon-holing music
and everything and
everyone around
it. The music itself
is categorised into
genres (e.g. rock) and sub-genres
(e.g. heavy metal) and even sub-sub-
genres (e.g. thrash metal). It’s partly
an evolutionary thing and partly a
guy/geek thing (but mostly an indus-
try and retail thing – it helps the
accounts department). We also like
to pigeon-hole people: “Bill Bong?
Oh yes, lead singer in the Roaring
Nasties”. Well that’s him sorted
then, put in a box and fixed with a
metaphorical pin to an artistic cork
board.
You talk to most musicians and
they’ll hate the fact that their music
has been labelled at all. I concur
whole-heartedly. Life is not like that.
Life is chaotic and so, let me tell
you, is art. May I remind you that
music is not just songs and leathers
and jeans and riffs and solos and all
of that. They’re just the ephemera.
Shrapnel spinning away from the
creative core. Music is Art. Musicians
are Artists. Instruments are tools to
that discipline. Like a paintbrush to a
painter.
I emphasise the ‘A’ word
because people often forget that art
could even get within a 100 yards of,
say, that scruffy looking punk band
you like. People also forget that
musicians are artists. They may be
your heroes but their core is artistic.
Art is fluid, art changes as
frequently as those bobbly blobs in a
lava lamp. Art evolves and progresses
and – despite many fans hating the
very thought – changes.
David Bowie offered a clue in his
song, Changes. “So I turned myself
to face me/But I’ve never caught a
glimpse/How the others must see
the faker/I’m much too fast to take
that test”.
You see? No? Well Bowie was an
extreme example but the essence is
that what you see on stage and what
you hear on the album is yesterday’s
news, a ‘fake’ of the reality and
yesterday’s art. Bowie ‘never caught
a glimpse’ because he had moved on
before the pressing plant created the
vinyl. Bowie changed in a dramatic
form and frequently (a brave man
was our Dave – most musicians want
to change but are scared to lose
their fanbase so they don’t, but then
their art stagnates and they become
a parody of themselves).
I had a bunch of CDs hit my desk
recently that illustrate this notion
perfectly. The first is a magnificent
4CD box set (plus a DVD and
booklet) from The Yardbirds called
‘Live And Rare’ (Repertoire).
Featuring 70 remastered recordings,
live concerts, BBC sessions and other
broadcasts the group featured Eric
Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page.
Not one man stood still, creatively.
Everyone played with the band, took
what they could from the experience
and then moved onwards. Every man
learned lessons from other Yardbird
band members, used the time to
open their minds in a creative sense
and then “OK, I’m outta here”.
The Pink Fairies can be seen on
‘The Polydor Years’ (Floating World),
spanning 1971-1973 and featuring the
albums ‘Never Never Land’, ‘What
a Bunch of Sweeties’ and ‘Kings of
Oblivion’. Expert in wacko-jacko-
psycho punk-style rock, the band
acted as a hub for many years. A
sort of creative forum that included
Mick Farren from The Deviants, ex-
members of Hawkwind, the Move,
UFO and, would you believe, evenMarc Bolan and Peregrine Took.
An anti-stability centre but exciting
because of that. A chaotic soup, the
band was a great place to create-and-
go.
You may think that David Bowie
was the only singer-songwriter to
transform and evolve but others
did that too. Maybe in a less visually
arresting manner but still... Bob Dylan
possibly had the most contentious
artistic evolution as he moved from
acoustic to rock. A laughingly simple
non-event today that shook music’s
foundations in the sixties.
Even slightly more restrained,
‘respectable’ and conservative (with
a small ‘c’) artists never stood still.
Glen Campbell was one of those.
His new, sadly posthumous release
’The Legacy’, a 4CD box set of
seventy-eight songs spanning his
career reminds you of the man – but
he was a chameleon. He changed
and evolved with the best of ‘em.
He was a good actor (watch him
in John Wayne’s ‘True Grit’; he also
appeared with Steve McQueen in
‘Baby the Rain Must Fall’). Glen
Campbell wrote jingles for Clairol
hair products and candy bars and he
was part of the legendary Wrecking
Crew, Phil Spector’s house band.
More than that, he was also a Beach
Boy for a time when Brian Wilson
couldn’t tour – he did two group
tours and wore a stripey shirt, for
goodness sake.
Don’t expect your musical
heroes to stand still. Wonder why if
they ever do and be concerned, in
fact. Don’t criticise such movements,
celebrate them and if you are ever
lucky enough to meet that hero
never, ever say to them “I used to
like your music when you started
out, why can’t you make new music
like that anymore?”Paul Rigby
"Glen Campbell wrote
jingles for Clairol hair
products and candy bars"