Re: Was Lennon Incompetent?

"BlackMonk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> "brink" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >
> > "paramucho" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> > news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >
> > <snip>
> >
> > i mostly agree with you ian.  lennon was not only musically "competent,"
> the
> > whole idea of technical skill is overrated in my opinion anyway.  give
me
> > songwriting genius, great guitar tone, feel, guts, soul, honesty, and
> blood
> > sweat and tears any day over a better "technical" musician.  most of
> > lennon's work *feels* and *sounds* great, especially that late-period
> > beatles stuff.  it was only about 1972 onward where his production and
> > arrangment sound started to jump the shark and the sound and feel
started
> to
> > get lost pretty badly.
> >
> > anyway, here's my comments:
> >
> > > REVOLUTION 9: JL. A Lennon solo effort (with some spoken dialogue from
> > > George). In terms of musical complexity only Lennon could have done
> > > this track.
> >
> > i disagree, i think this is something paul could have done as well.
> points
> > obviously to john for *doing* it, it was innovative and fresh, but not
> > particularly challenging beyond that for a skilled musician, in my
> opinion.
> >
>
> It looks easy until you try it. Putting together a tape collage like that
> means creating something out of nothing, finding a way to create something
> musical using non-musical sounds, and having only his ears and his
instinct
> to rely upon. Many trained musicians wouldn't have a clue where to begin.

what do you think is more difficult, coming up with a tricky, harmonically
complex song/lyric/melody, or making a sound collage a la revolution 9?
(serious question)

lots of rap and hip hop records actually use a form of "sound collage"
technique these days (the more experimental hip hop artists like outkast,
some of beck's music for example)

i've done the "sound collage" thing before, i didn't think it was that
tough, though granted i'm using modern technology that makes looping,
manipulating, and triggering different tracks and sounds so much easier than
the "holding pencils on tape loops" method they used to mix revolution 9.
and of course it's analogous to abstract painting--"oh hey, it's easy, just
throw some paint on a canvas randomly, i can do that"--when the *art* of it
(subjective, of course) is in the composition, form, and movement that can
be discerned apart from "random noise."


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