Jon Lord - BBC Special

 

Not sure if I think it is "good" or not. I'll reserve judgement as I can not make up my mind on this ... as I have a massive history of classical music and modern music, and then rock, jazz and everything else.

 

I think it is very good. And the guts to compose that when most people are simply thinkink about a song for radio is important as well ... it tells you that your goal in life is more than the 15 minutes of fame!

 

If I listen to this with yesterday's ear ... I find it nice, but not original. It would be a Boston Pops of sorts for my ear, and while interesting, in is quite conventional in its aproach to expression, intent, and emotion as classical music. I could not help thinking that something was missing.

 

I have two other examples of this with "yesterday's ear":

 

1. Jan Garbarek, with a Symphony written for him by Keith Jarrett. I still have it, and when I bought that album 35 years ago, I did not like it too much. It was nice, but not great, and felt ... a bit contrived and not really well defined, other than ... just another jazz moment with an orchestra.

 

2. Darryl Way and Francis Monkman also had a Symphony for Violin right after Darryl Way spent his little time in Wolf, a smaller group right after his break from Curved Air. That piece, also sounded weak and not very strong then, but I could not figure out why and I think I was missing a rock bass, or similar to make the violin work harder and more dedicated to making the music more powerful.

 

When I listen to all three of these pieces today ... I get to the end, and I go ... WOW ... that's amazing ... because you and I know what it takes, and the guts required to put together something like that and tell radio and the record company to stuff it ... and do your thing! And the moment that brought this home for me, was hearing Jon Lord say ... "everything I had imagined in the piece ... there it was ... ", which is, one very powerful moment when the vision meets the reality, and you know you are not only alive, you know your life was worth living and you just got your "payoff" ... you can die now ... happy to no end ... knowing that your dream worked ... and worked well!

 

I can't say that Darryl Way, or Jan Garbarek will feel the same way ... but I hope they realize and understand, the depth and dedication and that someday, others will see that and will also try to play it and show ... the great work that you guys put together ... that rock fans do not know how to appreciate beyond the 3 or 4 minute limit that they have in their listening attention.

 

So ... give it a spin and a go. It might not synthesize today in your head ... but one day, after hearing Mozart, or Beethoven, you will put on one of these accidentally, and then go ... yeah ... that's allright ... that is quite allright!

 

And you will know that this generation off the 60's did do something about their music that is quite adventurous ... and worth listening to, with yesterday's ears, or today's ears, and for me, hopefully with tomorrow's ears as well!

 

But I can tell you that the "experience" is already set inside my own experience, so if I don't hear it again, it's ok ... the music feeling already lives inside me.