marantz@null.DEC (Josh HL01-1/S09 DTN 225-4394) (02/28/85)
> Posted: Mon Feb 25 12:57:43 1985 > > I saw the David Byrne interview where he interviews himself. > He asked himself why the big suit. His answer (roughly) was that > music is understood by the body before the head and he wanted to > emphasis this point with the big suit. > > Gee, does this mean I can just put on a B-52's song and dance my > ass off, instead of sitting there politely and quietly contemplating > the meaning of the song. Yes. > > There's a radio station in this town (KFOG) that says they play > "quality rock". What the heck is that? The B-52's "music" is excellent to dance to. If that's all music means to you, then your point is taken. But some people like to listen to music as an end in itself. In other words, sometimes I like to go to my room, close the door, crank the stereo, and just listen. In those situations, I can't stand the B-52's. If you listen closely, you'll see how little there is in their music. It's still fun to dance to, but if I want to just listen, there's another world of rock music that is intrinsicly interesting enough to pay full attention to. Tastes differ here, but when I want to just listen, I'll turn on Yes, King Crimson, old Genesis, Gentle Giant, Peter Gabriel, Talking Heads, Rush, The Beatles, Soft Machine, Pink Floyd, and sometimes Jethro Tull, Roxy Music, Led Zeppelin, The Who, UK, Rennaisance, Steely Dan, Chicago, and many others. By the way, some of this music has "meaningful" lyrics, and some of it doesn't. What's more important (at least to me) is a combination of musicmanship, originality, enough complexity to stand up to repeated listenings, and other qualities. If it has "meaning", that's just gravy. Perhaps that's what KFOG calles "quality rock". -Joshua D. Marantz "If you think that it's pretentious, you've been taken for a ride." -PG, 1974