Rock n' Roll Friend (Part II)

In the Previous episode....

We met Friend. An ex- friend of mine who didn't just love hard rock (& Roll).  The dude breathed in hard  rock and sweated rock & roll from his skin pores. (Did I mention that he was an experienced rock drummer?) We also met me...a person positioned on the other side of the musical spectrum... fanatically preferring softer, groovier and more melodic musical genres. So , we met  2 people both crazy about music but crazy about radically different types of music.

The stage was set for a showdown.. a clash of musical civilizations. I described how I believed  that Friend thought of my taste as ridiculous, unartistic...lacking spine and edge. In short, Wanky. I, on the hand, thought of his taste as noisy, unrefined and unromantic. Wanky, in short.

I felt put on a musical defensive. You'd feel the same way too if your best musical stuff was not taken seriously and never allowed to play to end. So I decided to launch my own  offensive against Friend.

Let the Musical Imperialism Continue...
How did I fight back? Here's how. For some reason, Friend really wanted to play in a raggae cover band that I was trying to put together. This desire of his continues to remain a mystery to me. He was a fantastic rock drummer. That could not be disputed. But at that time, he knew nothing about raggae ...much less, the attitude, spirit and  techniques needed to keep raggae rhythm and dress it up in ways that support that kind of band. So I was skeptical. But I didn't say so. To be fair, what he might have lacked in prior knowledge of the genre he compensated for with enthusiasm for the band project. The enthusiasm created a certain amount of curiosity for the genre. I decided to cash in on this curiousity and use it as weapon in the our music cold war.

I made Friend a mix tape (Literally cos I mean cassette tape ..yep..this is an ancient story!) with songs that would form "the band's" repertoire. I remember the first song on the tape was a tune called "Ravers" from a band called "Steel Pulse".

  

                                     
As it turned out, I couldn't have chosen better tune to bait someone like Friend into the world of raggae. It's rebellious. It's lively. And coming from where he comes from, it's different and exotic. Also, let's not forget the context he is listening to this in... it's for the making of a band. A band in which he would be drummer. And there is plenty of interesting things the drummer does in this tune. Allow me to point just one of those interesting drumming elements out.

In the video above from position 0:20 till 0:27, the voice sings: "In the mood for love and you feel like dancing ..tonight.. Rub-A-Dub Rub-A-Dub Rub-a-Dub." Notice how the drummer joins  the voice for the Rub-A-Dub Triplets and concludes the series with a wicked crash.

Cool stuff..any drummer will tell you that!  Friend actually pointed this out to me.  So in ways like this,  Friend slowly opened his ears to let raggae in. First, he opened them up technically..as a drummer. To learn his part. But then gradually and sub-consciously, the spirit of the genre also got to him.

And the Winner is.....

Long after the band project idea (which, by the way, never saw the light of day or even the dark of night) the dude was still listening to Steel Pulse. He had researched his way to other raggae acts like Burning Spear, Culture, Peter Tosh, Luciano, just to mention a few.

As it turned out, there was  considerable natural common ground between punk rock and raggae. The beginnings of raggae outside the mainstream of popular music as well as the anti-establishment , anti-capitalist posture of the early prophets of raggae are just 2 of many elements that would make a punk rock head feel at home with raggae. That was the case with our Friend.

I planned and schemed to crusade my taste (or a part thereof)  on Friend. The raggae seed that I cleverly planted in Friend's consciousness grew into a tree. He did not abandon his rock ways but  I succeeded in  shaping his music taste in a significant way. Can I claim victory? Did I win this silent cold war?

Not really. Here's why not. In war, you attack and get attacked. His "attacks" had  impact on  me. I started questioning some of the stuff I thought was good music. (in a healthy way, I still do). I realized from the war that indeed  music can be "too sweet". Too fluffy. Candy-like in a way that can be pukey. My eyes and ears opened to spot that. Don't get me wrong.. I still like my sweet music. And no one can stop me from thinking that Boyz II Men's "end of the road" for example, is good music. Good music inspite of the boy band vibe, the targeted-at-the-ladies lyrics and all that. Despite all that: Those boys CAN sing! Those harmonies are GOOD!

I started to scan songs through what you may think of as a Too-wanky-? filter. If the verdict is positive, that alone  does not make me dismiss the song as candy floss and therefore garbage. I try to see if there are redeeming factors (should it be taken with a sense of humour? what is the over-all emotional impact? Do I still like the tune for some unexplainable reson?). Also, I have  stopped pre-approving on the basis of genre, artist or album. In other words, I take each single song on it's own merit. Just because a tune is from a particular genre or artist doesn't make it good or bad in my ears. I let each song justify whether it deserves my ear's time or space in my collection (now all digital, by the way).

In my humble opinion, that's how things should be. So I see this outcome as a positive impact of the war. But I must admit that I have  carried some wounds too. I would have liked not to have to vet songs so carefully. I sometimes miss those days when I didn't have justify or apologise (to myself or others) for any song I liked or disliked. That's an era that I have lost for good.

I would like to be a fly on the wall of Friend's mind to see first hand, what the impact of the war has been on him. Or whether he even sensed a war going on.  I can only guess. I think he was much more fanatic about his taste than I was. I don't think he questioned his taste much. I don't even think that he acknowledges the truth about the path raggae took into his life. I don't think he admits to himself now, many years (centuries!)  after, that he owes the origin of his raggae taste to that tape that I made for him. I know this because some years after the tape, he started to TRY to lecture ME on what GOOD raggae music was! He started to hint that he knows raggae better than I do! (What a cheeky young fella..right?)

M.N.B.W.S.P 

When I look back, I realize that the begining of the end of the friendship coincided with this. Now, I know what you're thinking.. "What does the music have to do with the friendship? ...Isn't it far-fetched to connect the end of a friendship with friendly discussions on music?"

 I think I have (again!) far exceeded the maximum number of bloggable words for  a single post  (who made those "rules"..anyway?) I am one of those grumpy old men who need a lot of words to make a "simple" point. I think that so-called "Simple points" are most often not THAT simple after all. The devil, they say, is always in the details. I like to chase the devil from the details to the surface..and that takes words.. so can we please, have an increase in the Maximum Bloggable Words for a Single Posting (MNBWSP) ?

Next time, (Soon. I just have to get this blogging rhythm thing tight... soon) I will continue the story. I will show how simple, trivial discussions on frivolous things like music can actually shed light on where people stand on deeper topics like world view which in turn  indicate whether people really share ANY common ground...any basis for friendship.

So stay tuned for Rock n Roll Friend (Part III)

Till then, drop me a feedback note to let me know you've been here. Tell me what you think of my topics, issues raised..whatever. Also, if you are a fellow blogger, let me know where I can find you so I can check your stuff out and (hopefully) get wiser.

Peace.

Ciao!