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Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous
I agree. I want my artists to be creative and creating NEW art pushing the boundaries. When artosts become formulaic they are almost no longer artists but simply machines. They are trapped and confined by self created boundaries. I want NEW music otherwise frankly I'm not interested or it just doesn't keep my attention.
Then again i am a Deadhead and shit, the Dead don't even play the SAME SONG the same way twice let alone make music that always sounds the same  |
Ok, so the Dead.
Actually this is pretty relevant to the discussion about TLOP, which is turning out to be almost a live, interactive album mastering experience. We hear a version, react to a version (like the live stream), and our reactions play a role in the next version. When you look at it that way, it's almost like the entire book is being rewritten here. I stopped listening to the version on Tidal days ago, but I swear the last time I heard it it sounded different. Maybe it was the quality of the device speakers, or maybe the album is being treated and altered live in front of the world, leading us to ask "what's the REAL TLOP?" Just as I posited that the entire TLOP project was an attempt to address the question of "Who's the REAL Kanye?" ... (a theory that I really should have printed, because I've seen it come up elsewhere and I could use some lawsuit cash moneys.)
This reminds me of the Dead in more ways than one. Obviously those of us who know the Dead intimately know that the album versions of songs were often almost incidental. Try falling in love with the American Beauty version of "Friend of the Devil" and then trying to find a love version that evokes the same feeling... Or even has the same meter.
So there's an obvious parallel there. But there's also the fact that, frankly, it can be really hard to be a Dead fan just as it can be hard to be a Ye fan.
However, I put my headphones on and blasted the shit out of the live stream of TLOP because Kanye's so unpredictable that for all I knew, it was going to be the only time I heard it. I needed to be a part of that.
This is the case with the Dead as well. Unfortunately, if you haven't see the Dead live, you haven't really experienced them. They were/are the most "of the moment" band in contemporary rock music. Like you said, seeing their shows is like being part of the band. They interacted with the audience, and the mood of the experience, automatically. Without consideration. Creating new moments on the spot that often went on to define songs (see the Live Dead version of "Dark Star"). All versions are exquisitely different. This can be absolutely infuriating, but it's also what makes the Dead the Dead. In that sense, and in the way they absorbed the mood of the audience and the audience listened to them, they created something new and let you out your stamp on their songs. Ever wonder why those Deadheads you know have, like, four or five giant cd books of shows, or three iPods containing nothing but Dead? This is why. Whether they were reaching backward in time and capturing a bluegrass feel, or reaching forward to improvise some bizarre genre concoction, they were always stretching their arms.
In a way, as much as I love the Dead's studio albums, they exist only as snapshots of what those songs sounded like at that time. They share this quality with jazz greats. The never. Stopped. Growing. While this might not always make for a great
discography, it's the mark of true creative genius. The Grateful Dead resisted stasis at all costs. But unlike the Beatles or Kanye West, they did their growing and expanding perpetually, not just album by album.
Kanye West resists stasis as well. This is a mark of many of my favorite artists... the need to question limitations, definitions, etc. I love Sonic Youth because their entire premise as a band was to stretch the limits of groove, harmony, beauty and chaos in music. They didn't play by any rules but their own. That's why I'm not irked that Thurston's recruiting an Adele producer for his new album. And I don't care if Kanye West needs to keep tweaking this shit forever.
If he pulled a Drake and hedged his bets, he could have called TLOP a mixtape. If he had, if it was, I doubt anyone would be disappointed. But I digress. The fact that he's bending the rules of what "albums" are may have irritated me, but it also proves that he's still on his grind... still absolutely refusing to be put in any kind of box.
Of course, the Dead did the same thing. Many Dead fans don't even listen to the studio albums. I'm not one of them. Don't know about you, but that's whatever. The magic is in the experience that is created during the periods of experimentation. I count myself lucky that there's all this Kanye out there, more for me to wrap my brain around.
But yeah, the Dead were good at improv and stuff.
