UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA Los Angeles the Politics of Musical
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles The Politics of Musical Amateurism, 1968-1981 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Musicology by Benjamin Court 2017 © Copyright by Benjamin Court 2017 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION The Politics of Musical Amateurism, 1968-1981 by Benjamin Court Doctor of Philosophy in Musicology University of California, Los Angeles, 2017 Professor Tamara Judith-Marie Levitz, Chair This dissertation defines “amateurism” to include a characteristic set of beliefs, a body of knowledge, and a way of knowing, all organized around the principle that it is possible, and perhaps preferable, to play music without established musical knowledge. I investigate how musicians confront hierarchies, both political and epistemological, with an amateurist insistence on their ability to perform without established knowledge. Typically, established musical knowledge conforms to standards and norms of technique, training, or education, which enact a powerful regulation of musical cultures. Through my research, I found that musicians who appear to lack or reject musical knowledge entirely nevertheless rely upon a wealth of subjugated epistemes and that every musical performance draws upon some type of knowledge. I examine four examples of musical amateurism from London and New York City in the 1970s in order to describe the use of amateurism as a political tool to critique epistemological hierarchies. Each example highlights musicians who articulated participation as a central tenant of their alternative ii episteme, in contrast to established musical knowledge. Each example highlights musicians who articulated participation as a central tenant of their alternative episteme, in contrast to established musical knowledge: 1) Cornelius Cardew’s attempt to create an anti-hierarchical experimental ensemble (Scratch Orchestra) that united skilled composers and untrained amateurs; 2) the widely-accepted claim that the Sex Pistols, and punks generally, could not play their instruments; 3) how “no wave” musicians, including Lydia Lunch, drew on supposedly instinctual performance practices to supplant technical instrumental skills; and 4) how amateurism became racialized as “primitive” when white downtown musicians confronted black rap musicians from Harlem and the Bronx. Whether these musicians were authentically able to disestablish hierarchies, or whether they merely re-codified their bodies of knowledge, depends on whether one wants to give a reading that gives undue force to the political possibility of musical amateurism. I argue that these performers’ appeals to musical amateurism effectively upset prevailing notions of musical knowledge in the 1970s, even if they themselves were limited in their ability to reconfigure power structures. iii The dissertation of Benjamin Court is approved. Nina Sun Eidsheim Robert W. Fink Kenneth Reinhard Tamara Judith-Marie Levitz, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2017 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures and Examples……………………………………………………………… vi Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………………………… vii Vita ………………………………………………………………………………………… x Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………….1 Chapter 1 Cardew’s Mastery: Constructing the Amateur in the Scratch Orchestra ………………………………… 27 Chapter 2 Make Sure They Can’t Play: The Sex Pistols’ Amateur Anti-Music…………………………………………………… 82 Chapter 3 No Wave Knowledge: Lydia Lunch’s Instincts and Amateurism as an Aesthetic of Performance ………… 152 Chapter 4 Racializing Amateurism: Punk Primitivism Meets Rap in New York City, 1979-1981……………………………192 Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………………221 v LIST OF FIGURES AND EXAMPLES Figure 1.1 Cornelius Cardew, “Desire” from Schooltime Compositions 67 Figure 1.2 Cornelius Cardew, “Singing” from Paragraph 2 of The Great Learning 71 Figure 1.3 Howard Skempton, “Drum No. 1” 72 Figure 1.4 Cornelius Cardew, “Drumming” from Paragraph 2 of The Great Learning 74 Figure 1.5 John Tilbury’s concerns, from the Scratch Orchestra Discontent File 78 Figure 2.1 “Now Form a Band” Drawing from Sideburns 1 (January 1977): n.p. 84 Figure 2.2 John Lydon, Jordan, and Steve Jones at Butler’s Wharf 92 Figure 2.3 Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood’s “Smoking Boy” T-shirt 98 Figure 2.4 Photo of Maurice Spencer by Dave Martin in Beefcake 5 (1969): n.p. 99 Figure 2.5 Beefcake 5, Cover and Table of Contents 101 Figure 2.6 Steve Jones wearing the “Tits” T-shirt in 1976 102 Figure 2.7 “The No-Bra Look” T-shirt; “Painless tattoo” shirt 103 Figure 2.8 Court scene in Derek Jarman’s Sebastiane 111 Figure 2.9 Play castle from the children’s section of the Biba Superstore 112 Figure 2.10 “You’re Gonna Wake Up One Morning,” t-shirt print 114 Figure 2.11 The Sex Pistols, the Bromley Contingent, and Bill Grundy on Today 130 Figure 2.12 Cover of London’s Outrage 1 146 Figure 2.13 “How a Reporter Gathers His Facts for His Stories,” Breakdown 1 149 Figure 2.14 Cover of Hanging Around 3 150 Figure 3.1 Form and Lyrics of Teenage Jesus and the Jerks’ “Orphans” 170 Figure 3.2 Teenage Jesus and the Jerks live at Max’s Kansas City in 1978 186 Figure 4.1 “The Punk Map of N.Y.C.” Punk vol.1, no. 14 (May/June 1978): n.p. 193 Figure 4.2 “Blackout Funnies” Punk vol. 1, no. 11 (October/November 1977): n.p. 194 Figure 4.3 Concluding Verses of “Rappin’ and Rockin’ the House” 217 Example 3.1 The Main Riff of “Orphans” 171 Example 3.2 The First B Section of “Orphans” 174 Example 3.3 The Second B Section of “Orphans” 175 Example 3.4 The Third B Section of “Orphans” 176 Example 3.5 The Fourth B Section of “Orphans” 177 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I need to thank my advisor, Tamara Levitz. Tamara gave her time, energy, and attention endlessly to this project from beginning to end. Throughout those years, Tamara and I forged an intellectual comradery that utterly transformed how I think about music and history. I treasure my education with Tamara, and everything I continue to learn alongside her. Ken Reinhard introduced me to worlds of theory that shaped the ideas in this dissertation. Ken’s great dedication to education, and unflinching kindness, made this dissertation possible. Nina Eidsheim’s meticulous approach to sound and music deeply affected how I heard and thought about every sound in this project. I thank Nina for sharing her brilliance so generously. I am grateful to Bob Fink for our thoughtful dialogues and for his innovative approaches to popular music studies. Bob is a one-of-a-kind educator who effortlessly amplified my knowledge through his presence. Along with Bob, Ray Knapp and Elisabeth Le Guin served as department chairs while I wrote this dissertation and I thank them all for their enthusiastic support. Thank you to all of the top-notch teachers at UCLA who supported, challenged, and edified me: Elizabeth Upton, Olivia Bloechl, Tim Taylor, Jessica Schwartz, and Jerome Camal. Thank you to the Musicology staff for keeping it all together, and for your dedication to students: Barbara Van Nostrand, Jessica Gonzalez, Sunny Kim, and Michele Yamamoto. My friends and colleagues in Musicology built an incredible, memorable intellectual community, including Monica Chieffo, Wade Dean, Albert Diaz, Oded Erez, Gillian Gower, Alex Grabarchuck, Andrea Moore, Tiffany Naiman, Marissa Ochsner, Jill Rogers, Anahit Rostomyan, Marissa Steingold, Morgan Woolsey, and so many more. Thank you to so many great undergraduate students at UCLA who made the classroom into my lifeline. vii This dissertation was made possible with funding by the UCLA Graduate Division and the Herb Albert School of Music. Thanks to the staff at the British Film Institute, British Library, Liverpool John Moores University Library, Morley College Library, New York University Fales Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, and a special thank you to Richard Ascough for his warmth and hospitality, and for sharing his incredible Scratch Orchestra archive with me. Virginia Anderson and Chris Hobbs opened their home to me, shared their knowledge and wisdom, and welcomed me into a beautiful community of musicians. Thank you to Michael Parsons and everyone at the Union Chapel for inviting me to perform the Great Learning with them, and for enduring my questions. Paul Gorman generously shared advice and insights that formed the conceptual frame of Chapter 2. Thanks to Dan Beck for helping to track down male model photos in Chapter 2. Weasel Walter influenced Chapter 3 a great deal with his keen musicianship and historical savvy. As an amateur is always a lover, the intimate musical relations throughout this dissertation appear through a lens greatly informed by the ideas of the noted queer musicologist Kyle Kaplan. A true lover of music, Kyle embodies the heart of this dissertation. My life and my work over the last seven years have been fueled by Kyle’s rare depth of and capacity for care. The roots of this project are found in ongoing conversations with Derek Sapienza, dating back fifteen years. Derek has taught me so much about music and given me so much with his friendship. Thank you to my comrade and lifelong musical collaborator, John L. Horner. Patrick Doyle is a loyal friend and wise thinker, and I thank him for his strength and support. Thank you to Alex Kalamaroff for laughing with me and for sharpening my critical thinking. Thank you to Schuyler Wheldon for his inspiring intellect and steadfast friendship. Thank you to Mike D’Errico, whom I deeply admire as a scholar and a person. Joey Gallimore, Anna Gross, and viii Scott Rankie provided a peaceful home to write in. I have been fortunate to find inspiring friendships in so many forms, and I am thankful to Lola de la Mata, Lee Jasperse, Jonathan Kincade, Alexis Lambrou, Miriam Piilonen, Chris Walker, Anne Wootton, and Brian Wright. I am forever grateful to Leen Rhee and Devin Beecher for their hospitality, and for our memories and our bond.