The 1960's were the start of the peak of electric-guitar music, a time when a great range of popular acts, both white and black, American and British, made work of great emotional depth and curiosity. Several names would come out as Gods and heroes, as definitively influential on their own, and subsequent generations. Of course we could not imagine heavy metal or other guitar-based musics of the 70's and 80's without Jimi Hendrix. His tone, phrasing and expression form its bedrock. But there are other artists, perhaps equally important, who do not get the recognition that their influence and contribution warrant.
Case in point: Robby Krieger, guitarist and songwriter in the Doors. A guitar teacher once compared Robby disparagingly to my own progress--
"Yeah," I replied, "well he played everything finger-style." Indeed he was an anomaly in rock guitar, playing sparse triads and descending intervals, using a bottleneck slide with unorthodox phrasing, and sometimes just adding atmosphere. Not always being flashy like, say, Hendrix or Clapton. So yeah, it can sometimes sound like he's not playing anything at all. But he gives the music its emotional character, and in fact wrote some of their biggest hits, and indeed their biggest hit, actually.
'Light My Fire' may have bored their lead singer after a while, and indeed it is their most played song; but they never would have gone so far without it. That was Robby's first song. The solo section is one of the most exciting in rock history. Robby is attempting to channel John Coltrane, and the result is an incredibly powerful guitar solo. The distorted modal passages certainly prefigure a different aspect of metal guitar than Hendrix, Cream and Page had done. Santana was certainly inspired by Robby's channeling of jazz and his melodicism. You can still hear this in Kirk Hammet's playing on 'Ride the Lightning.'
Early metal bands like Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Blue Öyster Cult certainly owe a lot to the Doors. This is evident in the influence of Jim Morrison, as lyric poet, dramatist, and madman; it contributed to the dark aesthetic above all. The musical innovation was just as important: Ray's bluesy organ was a bigger influence on Deep Purple's classic sound, but Robby Krieger brought in all these influences like flamenco, often using a simple descending progression that Black Sabbath and Blue Öyster Cult would also use, a more dissonant sound, again the modalism and jazz, chromatic riffs, and, of course his distinctive use of the bottleneck, both within and outside a formal blues context.
Duane Allman is the most conspicuous heir to Robby's slide technique, although use of slide guitar seems much more widespread in the Doors' wake. Just listen to 'Mountain Jam.' At about 3:07 the incorporation of a minor 6th adds that characteristic dissonance, reminding one of the disturbed solo in 'When the Music's Over' and contrasting to the bright yet bluesy feel that permeates most of the track. But Robby's style was completely inimitable. For example, incorporation of the major seventh in a minor blues scale on 'My Eyes Have Seen You', implying the diminished scale…the dark harmonies on 'End of the Night' and the use of open minor tuning, along with John Densmore who was actually, is, the most musically talented member of the band, whose drums beat out the cadence of Jim's stanzas, rather than just keeping time, and Robby brought out his voice with the strange wail of his bottleneck, yeah and 'Summer's Almost Gone,' the shimmering guitar Robby puts into it, drawing your sweat out, it's sticky, hot LA music, of course Ray, Rest in Peace, putting the icing on with insane brilliance, without his genius the music wouldn't have made it but ultimately Robby adds the anguish, the darkness, with certain dissonances and intervals that other instruments cannot achieve. Even a crappy song, well crappily sung anyway, 'Blue Sunday', Robby totally takes out onto another plane with his lyrical solo, as Jim sings "la, la la la," very jazzy, but different.
In fact, Robby should be given more credit as a pioneer of fusion. Although some guitarists, such as John McLaughlin, had been messing around with combining elements of jazz and rock since the early 60's, and in fact any true musician in a metropolitan environment would logically have incorporated jazz, rhythm and blues, country and other styles into their playing, before such rigid definitions of 'genre' were invented, nonetheless there was an almost idealogical opposition between the rock crowd and the jazz scene, at least superficially, at the time the Doors hit the scene, to bridge that gap.
Morrison himself was equally fond of Frank Sinatra and the composed cadence of poetry, as well as the wild Black Dithyrambs of Rock and Roll. Densmore was extremely jazzy in his drumming, which is what made the music so dynamic, although Jim often wished he would play a more simple, heavy beat. But it was Robby who brought his love of Miles and Coltrane into that solo on 'Light My Fire,' before Miles himself started the great fusion revolution from the jazz end. Other, more progressive rock bands like King Crimson show the clear influence of the Doors, who paved the way, along with The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix, for the more expansive approach to music that really took off in the 70's. The soft, introverted guitar solos on Robby's own compositions 'You're Lost, Little Girl' and 'Yes, the River Knows' are reflected in King Crimson's 'I Talk to the Wind.'
Krieger, as well as the other members of the Doors, has continued to create and perform music after Morrison's death. He is best known for his contribution to that immortal, Dionysian frenzy that the Doors were able to achieve, however. It is a shame that commercialism and complacency have eroded the revolutionary spirit that pervaded music in the 60's and 70's and for a time blurred barriers of race and class. Ironically, that same hedonism that artists like Morrison naively asserted as new values to the young audiences of the time, has contributed to that very same complicit self-centeredness and false egotism of our modern culture. Friedrich Nietzsche predicted that this revaluation of all values would be cataclysmic. However, the state of music these days is so stale and anemic, it would be great to see some true creativity and revitalization of the scene; and whatever eccentric music is made, at least in a guitar/rock context, owes volumes to axe-slingers like Krieger, Syd Barrett and Lou Reed.
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Monday, June 16, 2014
Inman Square
When I moved to Inman Square with my wife and three children a little over a year ago, we found ourselves in a compact, vibrant cultural center, a pleasant change from the lazy doldrums of West Cambridge, and what would be a breath of fresh air if not for the smoking stream of traffic flowing through Prospect Street to the highway. My wife being born a 3rd generation Cantabrigian, and myself being here since I was 6, we have collectively inhabited seven homes in this city, but in many ways this is the coolest neighborhood we've lived in.
With Harvard and Central losing a lot of what had made them so culturally relevant, and interesting, in the name of commerce and decency, being streamlined, gentrified and marginalized until unrecognizable as living communities of free-thinking individuals, what hope remains for this greatest of cities in which the most powerful army on Earth was first gathered to deflect the advances of Empire and Tyranny from the British Crown? This modern Alexandria, home of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology?
Although a hot-spot for yuppies, surely, Inman has not yet been crowded out by students and hipsters, and still retains that stamp of individuality than only and organic community displays, while also showing signs of a new embryonic intellectualism and art. It would bring great joy to see a new birth of creativity on American soil, in this stale age of rigid and nervous boredom.
Inman has all the makings for an artistic/literary Mecca. First, there are the bars. Beer has long fueled American thought and creativity, and there are several interesting places to drink--- what we need are more interesting people to drink there. Bukowski's serves good beer and tasty, Cantabrigian bar-food. The staff there are very friendly, particularly the waitress who put up with the obnoxious comments of my friend, who was mooching beers off us; I made him at least leave her a tip. Being named after an iconic poet, I think it would make sense to start hosting poetry readings there. It would bring a higher sense of culture. There's also a cute little bookstore next door, Lorem Ipsum---why not get drunk and go read literature late in the evening? As you stumble tipsily down the sidewalk, bubbles float through the air. You could also drink at The Druid, or cram into the Lilly Pad to hear music. What Cambridge really needs is a revival of the local music scene.
We could play in the open air of Alfred Vellucci Park, right across the street from Rosie's Bakery. Children playing with sidewalk chalk, hippies singing folk-songs, the old-timers and semi-bums of the neighborhood sitting, smoking, watching and talking. Host some real Happenings, make this the new Harvard Square, Vellucci the new Pit, sans the less genuine elements, the excessive filth and drugs and all that. Maybe just some teenagers with a can of beer in their pocket, smoking a joint. It's a short walk up Cambridge Street to the High School and the Library, which has become far more popular than when I was at the High School. Inman is perhaps not as superficially attractive to young people as Harvard Square --- when we were teenagers we were pulled in by the scene of quirky people in Harvard --- but there is the potential here for a depth of culture absent elsewhere.
Further up Prospect Street, toward Central Square, you've got The Field, a nice, cozy Irish bar. You can even get a good meal there. Before that even, on Prospect is Out of the Blue Gallery. Lots of cool, funky local art in there; we got a housewarming gift from there. They also do lots of cool stuff, poetry readings, I've played music there a couple times, sidewalk chalk and yard sales; an eclectic place for reviving the local art scene, if only heads would get involved; we need more patrons of the arts, of real art, in Cambridge. Anyway, I've met some pretty interesting people there. And of course XO, beloved dog that you're bound to see lying down outside. Whole Foods right across the street, they should link up do something art/healthy food oriented.
In the other direction you've got the highway and Union Square. Somerville and East Cambridge are right there; Area 4. I love the neighborhood feeling of Area 4 and the smell in the Summer (except on trash day.)
Not long after we moved in we answered the door one day and met Jefferson R. Smith, candidate at the time for City Council. He was a very nice guy, and Inmanian himself, and affordable housing was at the top of his agenda. Unfortunately, he lost. More and more families and businesses are being forced out of Cambridge. Inman and Area 4 still have more working-class families than a lot of Cambridge, though.
So, in short we should initiate a cultural exchange, at Vellucci Park and local businesses. Then we can establish an independent philosophical development and entertain other possibilities for the city's atmosphere than pure liberal prudence and homogeny.
@dGabeEvau
Note: Since I wrote this last Spring, already the area has changed; at least temporarily, for the worse. We have lost our close neighbor Out of the Blue to Central Square, although I was happy to help spread the word to save the gallery and raise awareness for their fundraising efforts to relocate. Also, in a trend consistent with the literary atrophy of America, Lorem Ipsum bookstore has closed. Bukowski's has been closed for months due to renovations; according to the Boston Globe they will be open again soon...just in time to come in from the cold to warm up and celebrate New England's heritage of booze, poetry and greasy food....on an apparent up-note, Christina's Spices has moved a few doors down from its previous location, which was connected to Christina's Ice Cream; the new spot looks really nice; I haven't been in yet, but just looking at the sheer assortment of hot sauces on the wall makes my mouth water (and my nose run.) Haveli, Inman's perennial Indian restaurant, closed about a year ago...that was a shame; it was a great place to grab buffet, my wife and I had eaten their for our anniversary years ago, and, most fondly to me, last winter I shoveled out a path in their parking lot and in front of the store in exchange for a free lunch! It is now January 5th, 2015; hopefully we can look forward to great things to come for Inman Square this year.
With Harvard and Central losing a lot of what had made them so culturally relevant, and interesting, in the name of commerce and decency, being streamlined, gentrified and marginalized until unrecognizable as living communities of free-thinking individuals, what hope remains for this greatest of cities in which the most powerful army on Earth was first gathered to deflect the advances of Empire and Tyranny from the British Crown? This modern Alexandria, home of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology?
Although a hot-spot for yuppies, surely, Inman has not yet been crowded out by students and hipsters, and still retains that stamp of individuality than only and organic community displays, while also showing signs of a new embryonic intellectualism and art. It would bring great joy to see a new birth of creativity on American soil, in this stale age of rigid and nervous boredom.
Inman has all the makings for an artistic/literary Mecca. First, there are the bars. Beer has long fueled American thought and creativity, and there are several interesting places to drink--- what we need are more interesting people to drink there. Bukowski's serves good beer and tasty, Cantabrigian bar-food. The staff there are very friendly, particularly the waitress who put up with the obnoxious comments of my friend, who was mooching beers off us; I made him at least leave her a tip. Being named after an iconic poet, I think it would make sense to start hosting poetry readings there. It would bring a higher sense of culture. There's also a cute little bookstore next door, Lorem Ipsum---why not get drunk and go read literature late in the evening? As you stumble tipsily down the sidewalk, bubbles float through the air. You could also drink at The Druid, or cram into the Lilly Pad to hear music. What Cambridge really needs is a revival of the local music scene.
We could play in the open air of Alfred Vellucci Park, right across the street from Rosie's Bakery. Children playing with sidewalk chalk, hippies singing folk-songs, the old-timers and semi-bums of the neighborhood sitting, smoking, watching and talking. Host some real Happenings, make this the new Harvard Square, Vellucci the new Pit, sans the less genuine elements, the excessive filth and drugs and all that. Maybe just some teenagers with a can of beer in their pocket, smoking a joint. It's a short walk up Cambridge Street to the High School and the Library, which has become far more popular than when I was at the High School. Inman is perhaps not as superficially attractive to young people as Harvard Square --- when we were teenagers we were pulled in by the scene of quirky people in Harvard --- but there is the potential here for a depth of culture absent elsewhere.
Further up Prospect Street, toward Central Square, you've got The Field, a nice, cozy Irish bar. You can even get a good meal there. Before that even, on Prospect is Out of the Blue Gallery. Lots of cool, funky local art in there; we got a housewarming gift from there. They also do lots of cool stuff, poetry readings, I've played music there a couple times, sidewalk chalk and yard sales; an eclectic place for reviving the local art scene, if only heads would get involved; we need more patrons of the arts, of real art, in Cambridge. Anyway, I've met some pretty interesting people there. And of course XO, beloved dog that you're bound to see lying down outside. Whole Foods right across the street, they should link up do something art/healthy food oriented.
In the other direction you've got the highway and Union Square. Somerville and East Cambridge are right there; Area 4. I love the neighborhood feeling of Area 4 and the smell in the Summer (except on trash day.)
Not long after we moved in we answered the door one day and met Jefferson R. Smith, candidate at the time for City Council. He was a very nice guy, and Inmanian himself, and affordable housing was at the top of his agenda. Unfortunately, he lost. More and more families and businesses are being forced out of Cambridge. Inman and Area 4 still have more working-class families than a lot of Cambridge, though.
So, in short we should initiate a cultural exchange, at Vellucci Park and local businesses. Then we can establish an independent philosophical development and entertain other possibilities for the city's atmosphere than pure liberal prudence and homogeny.
@dGabeEvau
Note: Since I wrote this last Spring, already the area has changed; at least temporarily, for the worse. We have lost our close neighbor Out of the Blue to Central Square, although I was happy to help spread the word to save the gallery and raise awareness for their fundraising efforts to relocate. Also, in a trend consistent with the literary atrophy of America, Lorem Ipsum bookstore has closed. Bukowski's has been closed for months due to renovations; according to the Boston Globe they will be open again soon...just in time to come in from the cold to warm up and celebrate New England's heritage of booze, poetry and greasy food....on an apparent up-note, Christina's Spices has moved a few doors down from its previous location, which was connected to Christina's Ice Cream; the new spot looks really nice; I haven't been in yet, but just looking at the sheer assortment of hot sauces on the wall makes my mouth water (and my nose run.) Haveli, Inman's perennial Indian restaurant, closed about a year ago...that was a shame; it was a great place to grab buffet, my wife and I had eaten their for our anniversary years ago, and, most fondly to me, last winter I shoveled out a path in their parking lot and in front of the store in exchange for a free lunch! It is now January 5th, 2015; hopefully we can look forward to great things to come for Inman Square this year.
Friday, June 6, 2014
Keith Matthew Thornton, Poet Laureate of the English Language
The most significant poets in American history have been, with several exceptions, Black. Sure, there were the Beats, there was Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson. But the most financially successful poets, of any race or nationality, in fact, have been the white musicians and songwriters who appropriated African American song forms, notably the blues, jazz, and rock and roll. Although some of these composers were creating work of artistic and cultural relevance, in their own right, nonetheless they profited from the creation of Black America, just as our nation was founded on the blood and sweat of Black slaves.
It was, in fact, a slave who was one of the earliest known Black American poets. Dave the Potter was both a skilled worker and literate; he etched in his clay pottery simple yet profound verses which told the tale of his life and times, and echo universal human truths and feelings. There have been successfully published and known Black creators of written verse as well, such as Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, Amira Baraka…but the most influential contribution, in fact the single cultural product of any true value which America has put forth, is Black music.
Much of this is simple, plaintive lyric verse such as the call and response of the blues. There were certainly many who incorporated more 'sophisticated' word-play and mainstream Americanisms, such as Chuck Berry, who ingeniously hit a wider (whiter) audience as the Father of Rock and Roll; but for the most part this music confined itself to the Dionysian pathos of lyric poetry. We could replace Archilochus with Leadbelly as the hero of Dionysian poetry in The Birth of Tragedy. Mainstream white music tended to be more Apollonian, focusing on appearance and technical display rather than true depth of feeling and universality.
The parameters of rap music allow it to convey a greater depth of intellectual consideration than the passionate call-and-response of the blues. Sometimes this leads to shallow superficiality, and in fact materialism. But it also paved the way for the true synthesis of the 3rd element, which Nietzsche erroneously (and critically) identified as the 'Socratic' force of reason and reflection, corrupting the artistic perfection of Greek Tragedy, which perfectly blended the Apollonian and Dionysian art impulses into that 'mysterious union.' I would substitute the term 'Hermetic', to be more alchemical, and true to the Greek Deities. The ancients knew there to be three forces in the universe; in Ayurveda this light, mental energy is called Vatta.
It would take a poet with a truly scientific insight into both the deeper pathos and the more superficial impressions of everyday life to fully merge these three forces in poetry and music, crowning the great artistic medium of the 20th Century with the most brilliant stanzas ever written.
Keith Matthew Thornton is the greatest poet in the history of the English language. His achievement goes beyond his technical mastery of the medium. Few rappers, or spoken-word artists, have such a variety of cadence and vocal inflection in their art. That dynamic delivery of phonetics is something the printed page is simply unable to capture. Keith's brilliance transcends his intellectual genius; of any artist I have ever heard Keith has the most completely independent voice…not just in terms of the subjects he chooses to rhyme about; it is truly that here one comes into contact with an individual human mind, free of, and yet at the same time making use of every artifice of expression in order to convey his mood, his thought-process, his sensation of relative humidity and every other variable of the human experience, beyond simple (yet powerful and evocative) emotional symbols which poetry has relied upon for centuries, at least.
When Kool Keith is discussed or even mentioned, it is usually to talk about how 'strange,' 'weird' and 'crazy' he is. Certainly this is a great part of his appeal. Keith is creative and unique, an anomaly for sure, and he has done a great job of building (and living up to) this reputation himself. At the same time, it is only too easy for the press to marginalize his artistic output and cultural significance, particularly as his abilities and intelligence could be threatening to the controllers of mainstream white media. Just as Jimi Hendrix being cast as the 'Wild Man from Borneo' helped to reduce the anxiety he provoked among white (British) musicians who had grown comfortable in their appropriation of a Black American medium (the blues,) so the removal of Keith from the spotlight and focus on his eccentricity allowed for the expedient and rapid demise of mainstream rap music during the time of Bad Boy's over-budgeted MTV videos and the subsequent appropriation of superficial markers of hip-hop culture by mainstream white America.
Even without the issue of race, madness is characteristically used as a way to scapegoat tremendous, visionary artists with the potential to alter the mass consciousness, for better or worse. Another amazing poet of American popular culture, Jim Morrison was crippled and destroyed by his own role of insanity, in which he was inspired by the French poet Arthur Rimbaud's 'derangement of the senses in order to achieve the unknown.' In fact, Rimbaud is the only poet of the previous millennium comparable to Keith in lyrical acuity; and when it comes to this new age, just forget it. I don't think anyone writing today could even fill-in-the-blank on a Dr. Seuss book. Certainly 'Rockets on the Battlefield' or "No Awareness' are poems comparable to Rimbaud's absinthe-induced 'Season in Hell.' When we confine ourselves to the English language, there is simply no parallel…"Shakespeare's gone, don't even think about him."
Perhaps this very linguistic framework is the key to Keith's ability to convey perfectly all the psycho-sensory nuances of the human existence. In many ways, English is decidedly un-poetic. The lack of sonance and the prevalence of stiff, unwieldy suffixes characterize the Germanic languages in general, making them far less melodically viable than, say, the Latin-derived family. Yet somehow the frankness and candor of our language allow for a simplicity in verse comparable to ancient Greek lyric poetry.
A posterity with any cultural integrity whatsoever will include the name Thornton with those of writers such as Homer and Aeschylus. It is high time for a credible, authentic press media to acknowledge Keith's role as master poet, as musical innovator, even philosopher. It is his ability to capture the tiniest detail that others might not notice, or take for granted, in any case not write about as the subject of 'grand poetry,' that sets him leagues above the rest. It is this cinematic quality, like LSD revealing the individual blades of grass where the average person would simply see a lawn that needs mowing, that propels his metres into mental activity, 'traveling at the speed of thought' and manifesting inside the rapt mind of the listener.
Keith is this Hermes, this Thoth, who Morrison himself predicted (in an interview with PBS) would emerge in the post-rock era, after European and African music had been thoroughly fused in the creation of the true Apollonian/Dionysian synthesis of rock-and-roll, to speak and to sing over recorded media, taking what had emerged in Jamaica as 'toasting' over the instrumental recordings of reggae hits in the streets by popular sound-systems, and was then imported to the Bronx by Kook Herc as Hip-Hop, and making it a grand and epic art-form comparable in technical consideration as well as cultural import to the classics of the Ancient World. It is no accident that Keith himself grew up in the Bronx, amidst the birth of Hip-Hop, channelling the urban experience into the ultimate reflection of America's transient and manifold soul.
suggested reading:
Friedrich Nietzsche, "The Birth of Tragedy"
Amiri Baraka, "Digging: The Afro-American Soul of American Classical Music"
It was, in fact, a slave who was one of the earliest known Black American poets. Dave the Potter was both a skilled worker and literate; he etched in his clay pottery simple yet profound verses which told the tale of his life and times, and echo universal human truths and feelings. There have been successfully published and known Black creators of written verse as well, such as Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, Amira Baraka…but the most influential contribution, in fact the single cultural product of any true value which America has put forth, is Black music.
Much of this is simple, plaintive lyric verse such as the call and response of the blues. There were certainly many who incorporated more 'sophisticated' word-play and mainstream Americanisms, such as Chuck Berry, who ingeniously hit a wider (whiter) audience as the Father of Rock and Roll; but for the most part this music confined itself to the Dionysian pathos of lyric poetry. We could replace Archilochus with Leadbelly as the hero of Dionysian poetry in The Birth of Tragedy. Mainstream white music tended to be more Apollonian, focusing on appearance and technical display rather than true depth of feeling and universality.
The parameters of rap music allow it to convey a greater depth of intellectual consideration than the passionate call-and-response of the blues. Sometimes this leads to shallow superficiality, and in fact materialism. But it also paved the way for the true synthesis of the 3rd element, which Nietzsche erroneously (and critically) identified as the 'Socratic' force of reason and reflection, corrupting the artistic perfection of Greek Tragedy, which perfectly blended the Apollonian and Dionysian art impulses into that 'mysterious union.' I would substitute the term 'Hermetic', to be more alchemical, and true to the Greek Deities. The ancients knew there to be three forces in the universe; in Ayurveda this light, mental energy is called Vatta.
It would take a poet with a truly scientific insight into both the deeper pathos and the more superficial impressions of everyday life to fully merge these three forces in poetry and music, crowning the great artistic medium of the 20th Century with the most brilliant stanzas ever written.
Keith Matthew Thornton is the greatest poet in the history of the English language. His achievement goes beyond his technical mastery of the medium. Few rappers, or spoken-word artists, have such a variety of cadence and vocal inflection in their art. That dynamic delivery of phonetics is something the printed page is simply unable to capture. Keith's brilliance transcends his intellectual genius; of any artist I have ever heard Keith has the most completely independent voice…not just in terms of the subjects he chooses to rhyme about; it is truly that here one comes into contact with an individual human mind, free of, and yet at the same time making use of every artifice of expression in order to convey his mood, his thought-process, his sensation of relative humidity and every other variable of the human experience, beyond simple (yet powerful and evocative) emotional symbols which poetry has relied upon for centuries, at least.
When Kool Keith is discussed or even mentioned, it is usually to talk about how 'strange,' 'weird' and 'crazy' he is. Certainly this is a great part of his appeal. Keith is creative and unique, an anomaly for sure, and he has done a great job of building (and living up to) this reputation himself. At the same time, it is only too easy for the press to marginalize his artistic output and cultural significance, particularly as his abilities and intelligence could be threatening to the controllers of mainstream white media. Just as Jimi Hendrix being cast as the 'Wild Man from Borneo' helped to reduce the anxiety he provoked among white (British) musicians who had grown comfortable in their appropriation of a Black American medium (the blues,) so the removal of Keith from the spotlight and focus on his eccentricity allowed for the expedient and rapid demise of mainstream rap music during the time of Bad Boy's over-budgeted MTV videos and the subsequent appropriation of superficial markers of hip-hop culture by mainstream white America.
Even without the issue of race, madness is characteristically used as a way to scapegoat tremendous, visionary artists with the potential to alter the mass consciousness, for better or worse. Another amazing poet of American popular culture, Jim Morrison was crippled and destroyed by his own role of insanity, in which he was inspired by the French poet Arthur Rimbaud's 'derangement of the senses in order to achieve the unknown.' In fact, Rimbaud is the only poet of the previous millennium comparable to Keith in lyrical acuity; and when it comes to this new age, just forget it. I don't think anyone writing today could even fill-in-the-blank on a Dr. Seuss book. Certainly 'Rockets on the Battlefield' or "No Awareness' are poems comparable to Rimbaud's absinthe-induced 'Season in Hell.' When we confine ourselves to the English language, there is simply no parallel…"Shakespeare's gone, don't even think about him."
Perhaps this very linguistic framework is the key to Keith's ability to convey perfectly all the psycho-sensory nuances of the human existence. In many ways, English is decidedly un-poetic. The lack of sonance and the prevalence of stiff, unwieldy suffixes characterize the Germanic languages in general, making them far less melodically viable than, say, the Latin-derived family. Yet somehow the frankness and candor of our language allow for a simplicity in verse comparable to ancient Greek lyric poetry.
A posterity with any cultural integrity whatsoever will include the name Thornton with those of writers such as Homer and Aeschylus. It is high time for a credible, authentic press media to acknowledge Keith's role as master poet, as musical innovator, even philosopher. It is his ability to capture the tiniest detail that others might not notice, or take for granted, in any case not write about as the subject of 'grand poetry,' that sets him leagues above the rest. It is this cinematic quality, like LSD revealing the individual blades of grass where the average person would simply see a lawn that needs mowing, that propels his metres into mental activity, 'traveling at the speed of thought' and manifesting inside the rapt mind of the listener.
Keith is this Hermes, this Thoth, who Morrison himself predicted (in an interview with PBS) would emerge in the post-rock era, after European and African music had been thoroughly fused in the creation of the true Apollonian/Dionysian synthesis of rock-and-roll, to speak and to sing over recorded media, taking what had emerged in Jamaica as 'toasting' over the instrumental recordings of reggae hits in the streets by popular sound-systems, and was then imported to the Bronx by Kook Herc as Hip-Hop, and making it a grand and epic art-form comparable in technical consideration as well as cultural import to the classics of the Ancient World. It is no accident that Keith himself grew up in the Bronx, amidst the birth of Hip-Hop, channelling the urban experience into the ultimate reflection of America's transient and manifold soul.
suggested reading:
Friedrich Nietzsche, "The Birth of Tragedy"
Amiri Baraka, "Digging: The Afro-American Soul of American Classical Music"
Thursday, June 5, 2014
Amnesty International Proposes the Decriminalization of Prostitution
Amnesty International is calling for the complete decriminalization of prostitution, or "sex work", at least between "consenting adults."
Read AI's Proposal
This is a very convoluted issue and perhaps there is no one right solution to the questions it raises.
The so-called "Swedish Model" of policy does to me seem the best approach, criminalizing pimps and johns rather than the prostitutes themselves. Many women, even if not actually forced or coerced into prostitution, nonetheless engage in prostitution out of desperation and lack of other employment opportunities.
On the other hand, many turn to drug-dealing from a similar lack of prospects, and it would seem absurd to criminalize drug addicts and not the pushers. However, in this case the prostitute is the primary victim of the industry, not the buyer. The pimps and traffickers are the real criminals, however; perhaps the right to associate and form brothels, taking the economics into their own (or at least a less insidious representative's) hands would offer better protection and conditions to these (mostly) women. Indeed, that is one of the main points that Amnesty International is making, that by decriminalizing the sex industry, prostitutes would have better working conditions and not be targeted by the police. Violence against prostitutes is taken for granted as they are seen as criminals and socially disgraced.
The Proposal seems to take the johns' side, claiming that buying sex is part of their right to "life enjoyment and dignity." To me this seems ridiculous. However, they should not be the prime target of law enforcement either, especially when they are sometimes entrapped by undercover police officers offering sex for sale.
But the Proposal would protect traffickers, while claiming that violence, enslavement, and involvement of minors should still be prohibited and enforced...in fact in the wider context of the sex industry, these elements are inseparable.
I would go further and say that currently there is far too much permissiveness.... somehow prostitution is allowed to persist through classifieds and online, in a direct-to-consumer market.
Pornography should also be regulated; in any case hard-core pornography is in point-of-fact a form of prostitution, albeit a contracted form, where the person(s) being paid for sex is paid by a third-party.
I found this article engaging as well
Read AI's Proposal
This is a very convoluted issue and perhaps there is no one right solution to the questions it raises.
The so-called "Swedish Model" of policy does to me seem the best approach, criminalizing pimps and johns rather than the prostitutes themselves. Many women, even if not actually forced or coerced into prostitution, nonetheless engage in prostitution out of desperation and lack of other employment opportunities.
On the other hand, many turn to drug-dealing from a similar lack of prospects, and it would seem absurd to criminalize drug addicts and not the pushers. However, in this case the prostitute is the primary victim of the industry, not the buyer. The pimps and traffickers are the real criminals, however; perhaps the right to associate and form brothels, taking the economics into their own (or at least a less insidious representative's) hands would offer better protection and conditions to these (mostly) women. Indeed, that is one of the main points that Amnesty International is making, that by decriminalizing the sex industry, prostitutes would have better working conditions and not be targeted by the police. Violence against prostitutes is taken for granted as they are seen as criminals and socially disgraced.
The Proposal seems to take the johns' side, claiming that buying sex is part of their right to "life enjoyment and dignity." To me this seems ridiculous. However, they should not be the prime target of law enforcement either, especially when they are sometimes entrapped by undercover police officers offering sex for sale.
But the Proposal would protect traffickers, while claiming that violence, enslavement, and involvement of minors should still be prohibited and enforced...in fact in the wider context of the sex industry, these elements are inseparable.
I would go further and say that currently there is far too much permissiveness.... somehow prostitution is allowed to persist through classifieds and online, in a direct-to-consumer market.
Pornography should also be regulated; in any case hard-core pornography is in point-of-fact a form of prostitution, albeit a contracted form, where the person(s) being paid for sex is paid by a third-party.
I found this article engaging as well
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