Robot Emperor
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Re: Music of the mad.
Aug 17, 2011, 11:36
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Such a sprawling subject but two issues do spring to mind. The exploitation of the genuinely troubled and the cold eyed exploitation of the reputation of artistic merit that the label of madness can bring.
In the art world those considered to be making outsider art are characterised by their lack of concern over what happens to their work after it is completed, its creation is their only concern, an act of exocism. There are dealers in work from asylums and community care groups where people hunt for bargains. Not a comfortable image. However I cannot think of many recording artists where there is a lack of concern for their completed work. What is the saying? Their eccentricity stops where their income begins.
I suspect that it has become a cliche and that, apart from a very few exceptions, those who have created highly regarded work through madness would have created a greater one if not so afflicted.
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Toni Torino
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Re: Music of the mad.
Aug 17, 2011, 11:46
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Robot Emperor wrote:
In the art world those considered to be making outsider art are characterised by their lack of concern over what happens to their work after it is completed, its creation is their only concern, an act of exocism. There are dealers in work from asylums and community care groups where people hunt for bargains. Not a comfortable image.
This great thread has made me think of Stephen Wiltshire.
In the late 80s he appeared on a tv programme about autistic artists. His particular "gift" was to be able to draught astoundingly accurate depictions, usually buldings, but mirror-imaged. I remember being suspicious at the time as his pics were hung in boardrooms and the like, that his agent would tell him to draw someting and he would draw it. Seems like she did right by him, but she nust have profited as well.
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head-first
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Re: Music of the mad.
Aug 17, 2011, 11:53
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I agree with all that's been said here, too, and especially about Nick Drake. Listening to 'Black Eyed Dog' is a harrowing experience. Wasn't he borrowing the idea from Robert Johnson, who also suffered from depression?
For me, the same goes for 'Closer', which sounds exactly like what it is, a map of a suicidal mind.
But I've always thought that Beefheart really had it together, and knew exactly what he was doing. During some interviews he would talk about the psychological effect of syncopated rhythms, in breaking up habitual expectations and conventional states of mind. He was a canny chap.
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singingringingtree
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Re: Music of the mad.
Aug 17, 2011, 12:01
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is anyone else familiar w/ The Ceramic Hobs? Mad and proud:
http://ceramichobs.livejournal.com/
http://blastitude.com/17/CERAMICHOBS.htm
AND their most recent recordings are easily their best (and maddest)
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IanB
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Re: Music of the mad.
Aug 17, 2011, 12:11
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Robot Emperor wrote: I suspect that it has become a cliche and that, apart from a very few exceptions, those who have created highly regarded work through madness would have created a greater one if not so afflicted.
That is a beautiful thought.
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Lawrence
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Re: Music of the mad.
Aug 17, 2011, 12:11
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Yeah I forgot Armand Schaubroeck -- think he went to jail for breaking in and safecracking a church if I'm not mistaken? Yeah, me knowing Armand personally he definitely fits what we're talking about here. In the early 80s on local TV there was a piece about him and how he'd blast every TV and radio he had at home and read comic books(!)
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IanB
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Re: Music of the mad.
Aug 17, 2011, 12:12
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Squid Tempest wrote: IanB wrote: Beefheart I think is a very good example of someone who transcends all this...
He might well be ill for all I know
Yes, really rather ill. Dead in fact!
He's dead? Golly, I really do live in 1973!
Only kidding. Slip of the tenses.
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Lawrence
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Re: Music of the mad.
Aug 17, 2011, 12:13
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If only Michael Jackson was much more interesting...
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The Sea Cat
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Edited Aug 17, 2011, 12:20
Re: Music of the mad.
Aug 17, 2011, 12:18
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IanB wrote:
And, as you say, there are a lot of liars (you say actors) out there and I would extend that category to the many whose rock n roll shtick is based squarely on a (manufactured) perception that the extremes of excessive use of drugs and alcohol can be sustainable for years at a time and even form the basis for a successful life as an artist and as a human being. Myth making of the most damaging kind. Most long term addicts I have come across in rock are liars, bores and bullies rather than seers or shaman and very few civilians have the support and infrastructure that a rock star has at his or her disposal.
I've always found the Keith Richards mythos that so many have aspired to ludicrous.Not big, not clever. Keith admits that he's not dead because he's wealthy enough to have been getting an excellent supply, knows how to handle it, and blood transfusions myths aside, the all important infrastructure that you mention.
Anyone, regardless who, and in this case rock stars/famous musicians who manages to sort themselves out and come back from the brink re. a terrible addiction, they're the ones to respect. Addiction is a road we could all be on. Give me Alice Coooper and his golf, Bert Jansch, Rick Wakeman, a now sober Ronnie Wood, any day. Fuck cool. A lot of the music 'meeja' took the piss out of Chris Martin for being an avowed teetotaler. Fair play to him, dreadful music aside.
Drugs and booze does not make great art. It is peripheral at best.
A touch of pyschedelic opens doors, but as George Harrison said, you use it to cross to the other shore, and then leave that boat behind.
Cleaning your act up, getting your life back, recovering and surviving, now that IS cool.
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charlbury
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Re: Music of the mad.
Aug 17, 2011, 12:46
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I'd add Robert Calvert to the list; a sufferer from mental illness whose creativity and imagination was nonetheless towering.
Was at the Wilderness Festival this weekend and got to see Daniel Johnston. I have to say that, as he shambled on stage and had to grab some gaffa tape to stop the pages of his songbook blowing in the wind, then asked what country he was in, it was quite sad. That said, his singing was in tune much more than in any other live recording I've heard, and he was obviously enjoying himself when playing with a full band. He was being heavily mindered by someone though (his brother/manager?). Nonetheless, his playing and sales of his music and art fund the care that he needs - I think he now lives semi-independently, having lived with his very elderly parents long after they were reasonably able to take care of him.
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