Music Blog Four

Van Deer Graaf Generator -- “Lemmings,” “Man-Erg,” “A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers” (1971)

“Lemmings” immediately reminds me of Yes with the higher pitched vocals and extremely dense instrumentation throughout the song. The lyrics start off “I stood alone upon the highest cliff-top/Looked down, around, and all that I could see/ Were those that I would dearly love to share with/Crashing on quite blindly to the sea.” The song tells a transformative story of the lemmings, which is a story we probably all know of the lemmings following one another and jumping off a cliff to their death.

This type of lyrical story-telling is quite perfect for the progressive era and their countercultural backgrounds. As we’ve discussed in class, many of the progressive artists, even in foreign countries (aka not the U.S. or U.K.), retained many of the same ideologies of the counterculture, which were of course later modified. The progressive rock in the 1970s mirrored many of the themes of the earlier counterculture, mainly individualism, which is emphasized in Van Der Graaf Generator’s “Lemmings.” In this case, the vocalist expresses his dissatisfaction with the actions of the lemmings making decisions as a whole group and following one another to their deaths rather than choosing individualism and staying alive.

“A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers” is composed similar to classical music in that is contains eight sections and transitions throughout the song. This track also uses various pastural imagery to convey the message of individualism. Such themes are portrayed through lyrics including “Camps of panoply and majesty, what is freedom of choice?” For lyrics such as these, Van Der Graaf Generator could be considered part of the “progg” movement through its incorporation of radical lyrics.

Renaissance -- Live at Carnegie Hall (1971), PFM -- Chocolate Kings (1975) & Banco del Muto Soccoroso -- Darwin (1972)

Ash Ra Tempel -- Ash Ra Tempel (1971), Can -- Tango Mago (1974), Tangerine Dream -- Phaedra (1974), David Bowie -- Low (1977), Kraftwerk -- Man-machine (1978) & Krautrock -- Masters and Echoes (compilation 2010)

Ash Ra Tempel’s “Amboss” starts off as extremely ambient music with a growing cymbal reverberating in the background then fading out again. This type of ambient music follows the previous countercultural ideology in that the music is meant to guide the listener along a spiritual journey and find oneself through the music. The music in this case is providing the listener with a somewhat psychedelic experience that is not drug-induced. The music in “Amboss” takes a series of twists and turns that are sometimes unexpected and catch the listener off guard. The density of the music builds and grows through various progressions then dies down again. This is somewhat reminiscent of Yes’ “Ritual,” where the beginning of the song (before lyrics are introduced) takes the audience on a spiritual journey through the composition of the music and its growth and disintegration.

David Bowie was particularly interesting to me since he was not heavily discussed in class, and because I know about his impact on music through his physical androgynous appearance, so naturally I was curious in hearing what his music sounded like in the late 70s. One of the differences I immediately notice in Bowie’s music compared to the other artists in this same time period is the length of his songs. Rather than having 20-minute-long songs, Bowie sticks to the traditional 2-4 minute tracks. However, it’s quickly apparent that Bowie’s use of synthesizers and such technology make him easily relatable to other artists during this progressive era. He, however, uses the synthesizers and computer technology to emphasize the music he is already producing. By utilizing synthesizers in such songs as “What in the world,” Bowie is able to use the instrumentation to make his music exciting and different while still essentially being a pop artist. In other songs, like “Breaking Glass,” the synthesizers become more background music and are rare, or even serve as the climax of the instrumentation.

Other Bowie songs, such as “Art decade,” incorporate more classical sounding instrumentation as well as snippets of synthesizer to reveal a more futuristic music despite the overall orchestral sound of the main melody. The use of synthesizers grows throughout the song to create a more space-y and alien sound. It reminds me of space movies and aliens talking to one another.

Kraftwerk takes the use of synthesizers to a whole other level, introducing the beginnings of techno music in “Man-machine.” This album clearly represents the infatuation this era of music had with space, alien life forms and virtual reality. “Robots” continues the theme established by artists such as ELP and emphasizes the presence of robotic life on earth and technology as both positive and negative. While this song appears to be a more positive premonition of robotic life, it certainly is creepy the way the vocalists filter their voices in order to literally sound like robots while using the constant use of synthesizers to emphasize the technological progression.

Virtual reality and the emphasis on life in space is further progress with songs such as “Spacelab” by Kraftwerk through the introduction alone. The introduction uses the build-up of stretched synthesized noises to create a sense of moving through space before introducing a very quick rhythm that, in my opinion, is designed to speed up the heart beat through its constant beat. I also find it very interesting that the ability to play a beat like a machine was very appealing during this progressive era and the use of synthesizers. Also, Karftwerk is interesting in that they only use vocals that are filtered to create a technological vocal sound rather than any normal vocals.

These early- techno bands focused on the spiritual journey induced by their music and believed that by attending more events and simply engrossing oneself in the experience, they could learn more and proceed through that spiritual journey. I wonder is people who listen to modern rave and techno music still hold this ideology true? Rather than going to just get messed up on drugs, is there a significant portion of techno-lovers and rave-goers who go for reasons of spiritual relaxation and journey.

Caravan -- In the Land of Grey and Pink (1971), Gong -- The Flying Teapot (1973), Robert Wyatt -- Rock Bottom (1974) & Hawkwind -- Warrior on the Edge of Time (1975)

It’s interesting to me that Caravan falls into the progressive rock category due to their silly lyrics and less virtuoso musical abilities. Also because of the fact that they sing about sex, it doesn’t quite fit that they fall into this category, despite their minute use of synthesizers, because of the ideology of other progressive artists, case in point ELP, who denounced singing about sex in order to sing about more intellectually important concepts. “In the Land of Grey and Pink” pokes fun at the pretentious virtuoso nature of many progressive artists through songs such as “Golf Girl,” which sounds like music from the 1960s, such as The Beatles.

Immediately judging from the title of Gong’s album, “The Flying Teapot,” it appears that they have taken on a similar path of progressive music as Caravan where sillyness and imagination overrides the need to be an amazing musician. In “Radio Gnome Invisible” it sounds like they are running their fingers across their lips the way that little kids do for fun. To incorporate this as part of their music I suppose brings in a sound that probably nobody else had used up to this point, however strange it may be. Throughout the song they continue this element of sillyness through the vocal style of being short and slurry their words, which may not even be real words if you listen close enough. Further, the whole imaginary concept of their album, being about gnomes (or is it fairies) flying to a magical land in a teapot, is beyond absurd and clearly meant to be more fun than talented. However, Gong still emphasizes the concept of spiritual journey through their music, just in a very different way. In this case the only way you can actually see these creatures flying in their teapots is by making a spiritual journey through the music to be able to access it.

Hawkwind initially strikes me as a very conservative progressive band due to their dedication to countercultural ideology in the form of “not selling out.” When discussing the Isle of the White Festival, which was apparently larger than Woodstock, Hawkwind chose to play outside of the gated area in order to show the audience that they were not laying for their money and were committed to playing music for the pure joy of playing music. This ideology is something that I believe has transcended time in that underground artists today are often happy being underground throughout the duration of their existence and audiences support this through their immense dissatisfaction with artists upon actually making a living off their music and “selling out.”

Much like many other artists, Hawkwind focuses on the obsession with space and psychedelic themes. However, due to their encouragement of LSD, I believe their countercultural roots are even more apparent in that they believe their music is meant to be aided by drugs in order to gain the ful experience, whereas other progressive artists wanted their music to be the sole reason the listener was experiencing the spiritual journey.