Revolution 9

Hi,

If you hear the 7 Christmas shows that the Beatles did for their fan club, you will find that there are a lot of individual things and tastes flowing ... and if you listen to all 7 in one night, you can see how their relationship begun falling apart ... first getting weird, and then in the last show, at least one of them does not show up at all.

I think that their "strengths" were now synthesizing to something they each wanted to do on their own ... the LET IT BE bootlegs (there were over 20 of them with various versions and details!) ... showed that they were already on the fritz when it comes to playing together, and helping put together something strong and valuable ... and the WHITE ALBUM, I always thought was an idea, that could have been similar to UMMAGUMMA (much later!) ... which was a sort of one side for each member on the LP.  So, in this sense, GM was right, but he knew that his ability to curtail their individual rights and desires, was going to be a serious issue ... and it only went on to give us one more album which was, likely, their best.

That REVOLUTION #9 has no structure, direction or point ... is an important comment on the state of things ... I keep telling you guys get  portable recorder, go downtown and turn it on as you walk a few blocks and make sure you go past a stadium and a few other public events ... like a small demonstration for the "Society of the Small Angels", complete with posters and what not ... etc, etc, etc ... and when you go home and listen to it ... THERE IS NO STRUCTURE, THERE IS NO DIRECTION AND THERE IS NO POINT ... except one that fits all three ... that we ignored ... YOU ... did go for that walk, and saying that those three elements did not occur to you  when you decided to just turn on the recorder, ends up making things weird, and more difficult to discuss.

I believe it was intentional and that all of them agreed to it ... though you and I probably think that George would never do that, and Paul could not make it sound like Michelle, and Ringo could not figure out how to use his drums ... but John ... he didn't care and did it anyway. And while many dislike it, still, it is one of the best statements about the "art" of the rock music bands, and how so many people make too much hullaballoo about nothing ... of course, including daily events!

I see I was not clear. 9 has no beginning, middle, end. Musical form even, or especially in musique concrete is vital. Especially for such a length of time. A few features to stimulate interest are always welcome.

It is as though the above walk was taken and this recording is like a piece of litter stick to one's shoe.

Oh well, it could be worse. It could be 40 minutes worth.

I wonder how people might've reacted had edits been used in between tracks instead, or even as well as the final edit.

I think you're too radical here and I'm more with The Anders. The Buddhists know a lot about the problems with thinking, and they also know how hard or even impossible it is to switch it off. Surely one could measure that, technically, the mind is still at work during improvisation. What happens comes from somewhere. The Buddhists teach that you can't switch off the mind, you can just put yourself at a distance and let it do its stuff, without getting entangled with it. But you've got to watch it, otherwise it may take over without your realising it.

Czukay and Schmidt were highly academically trained, Liebezeit was an experienced professional with a wide range of musical experience. Karoli probably not that much (but Czukay was his teacher), and I don't know about Damo, but there was a lot of background to their improvisations and it shows. The Beatles were very intellectually curious, Lennon had *ideas* inspired by the avantgarde stuff he got into for sure (I'd assume the same for Chris Karrer, Falk Rogner, and others in Amon Düül II; Chris had all this interest for Sufi and Eastern culture, these things don't happen in a vacuum).

There is a role of non-thinking in the sense of letting onself go and go with what comes up inside and outside at any moment in present, but thought will happen and cannot be stopped and suppressed, and needs to be used constructively in an integrated way - it needs to be stopped from taking over, but it will still be there, and will play its role.  

For people like me into avantgarde experimental music, often improvised, it sure makes a lot of sense, despite the lack of beginning, middle, end, form, as you put it. You may not get the interest but that doesn't mean it's impossible to get.

Jean Luc Godard .... everything (art, film, mostly) has a beginning, middle and end ... not necessarily in that order. (paraphrased ... because folks still don't believe that there were arts that were experimenting).