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Back in Stadium Rock again! I’ve written a fair bit about this concert in the descriptions to other songs from it. I would never have thought 35 years later I’d be sitting in a Tokyo hotel room trying to write about it for something called a RU-vid Channel.
I’ve played a wide range of music from behemoth rock like this in front of noisy thousands, through to ‘chamber’ improvised duets where you could hear a pin drop. At one end my instrument was the most expensive electro-acoustic drum set ever assembled, featuring two Simmons SDX units running in tandem (and, at Madison Square Garden, failing in tandem), and at the other a small but precise rental set of Tamas. I’ve spent most of my time inbetween these two extremes, one end of which is represented here. I don’t valorise one over the other, but my preference is for interactive music in small spaces. Usually the bigger the venue, the more ‘automatic’ (and sometimes automated) the performances tend to be.
The Order of the Universe is about as ‘heavy rock’ as I get. Beyond this, I’d simply be play-acting, and fooling nobody. The point of the back-rack, by the way, was so that listeners at the back of several thousand people might see what the drummer’s hands were doing, and thus identify the source of the percussion sounds. I’ve been to plenty of shows where the drummer has hidden himself and his hands behind a wall of instruments, so all you see is some flailing around the edges. Drums look great, sound great, and as it is at the very heart of the music, the rhythmic engine should be easily visible.
One big distinction for me between this ’Yes’ music and the early Yes of the 1970s that I helped give birth to, was that I wasn’t in on the inception of ‘Order of the Universe’ or any of the ABWH music. I didn’t help create it; these drum and percussion parts are not mine. That may seem like a small thing to you, but to me it’s a barrier against feeling that it is completely me up there on stage. There is perhaps a weaker emotional connection. It’s sort of a half me: Bruford-lite. Early Yes was full me. Earthworks is also fully-leaded.
Just to back up, Jon Anderson had approached back in England and asked me to come play on his next solo record. High quality demos already existed, so there would be no sitting around arguing about musical direction, or whether the bass should be playing G sharp or G natural. No blood on the floor, like in the old days. It would all be in the sunny Caribbean, so no problems with that. Sounded pretty much like the dream session gig. I don’t remember any talk of touring, until I turned up at Heathrow and met Steve Howe and the group’s manager. I had the feeling the project had been undersold; this was all going to be higher profile that I necessarily wanted or imagined.
At the studio, much of the percussion was well pre-programmed. All I had to do was re-record the drums, sprinkle some fairy dust on it, and give it whatever humanity I could. That was possible, but by now we’re talking session work, requiring nothing like the involvement or commitment to a band that I was used to and, notwithstanding the blood on the floor, I tend to prefer. The band environment, King Crimson and Earthworks especially, has given me the space to help produce the handful of interesting albums I’ve had the good fortune to be a part of.
I don’t really do superlatives. As many an interviewer knows, its’s not going to be useful asking me for the best bass player, the thinnest guitarist, the most tuneless singer, the worst gig I’ve ever had, the best musician I’d love to work with. Somehow, we’re all different people. Give guitarists Fripp, Torn, Belew, Howe, the late Allan Holdsworth, Ralph Towner or Kazumi Watanabe the chord of Emi7 to play, and goodness only knows what you’ll get back. They’re all different people exercising different choices, in turn reflecting their views on life, art and the order of the universe! Good groups are all about how different people act and react in specific musical situations. Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, and Howe are going to combine in one way; Fripp, Belew, Bruford and Levin in another. Long live difference.
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20 авг 2024