Performance and Popular Music History, Place and Time
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Performance and Popular Music History, Place and Time :ah Edited by IAN INGLIS University ofNorth umbria, UK ASHGATE © Ian Inglis 2006 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission ofthe publisher. Notes on contributo Ian Inglis has asserted his moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, General Editor's pr to be identified as the editor of this work. Acknowledgements Introduction Histe Published by Ian Inglis Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company Gower House Suite 420 'Ladies and gel Croft Road 101 Cherry Street CBS TV,Febn Aldershot Burlington, VT 05401-4405 Laurel Sercoml Hampshire GUll 3HR USA England 2 Bob Dylan: Ne Lee Marshall I Ashgate website: http://www.ashgate.com 3 When deep SOt British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Festival, June J Performance and popular music: history, place and time. Sarah Hill (Ashgate popular and folk music series) 1. Popular music - Performances 4 The road not tc 1. Inglis, Ian, 1948 Studios, HollY' 782.4'2164'078 Ian Inglis Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Performance and popular music: history, place and time / edited by Ian Inglis. 5 Land of the fre p. cm-(Ashgate popular and folk music series) 1969 Includes bibliographical references. Mike Daley ISBN 0-7546-4056-6 (hardcover: alk. paper}-lSBN 0-7546-4057-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Popular music-Performances. I. Inglis, Ian, 1948- n. Series. 6 Ifanything, bl: December 6, 1 ML3470.P452005 Norma Coates 781.64'078--dc22 2005005231 7 Watch that rna July 3, 1973 ISBN-IO: 0 754640566 HBK Philip Auslant ISBN-lO: 0 754640574 PBK Typeset in Times Roman by N 2productions. 8 Patti Smith: TI Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall. Sheila Whitelt: 9 Print the truth: Hall, Manche~ Sean Albiez 1 usicians in the ,ull together in Chapter 10 Ids (Smith and 1 'I need contact' - rock'n'roll and ritual 1 Peter Gabriel: Security tour, ,I 1982-83 , \ I Jeffrey Callen \ 1 \ From the back of the concert hall, the five-person ensemble, four dressed in simple black clothing and one in simple white, proceeds through the crowd, playing drums. \ \ As they reach the stage, the synthesizer takes up the same rhythm and the band 1 members pick up their instruments and don headsets. The singer, dressed in white, re \ appears from the back of the stage, his face, now clear in the stage lights, in stark I black and blue make-up that recalls, to some, a shaman from some non-specified culture and, to others, the image from his latest video. I Peter Gabriel's Security tour in 1982-83 (also known as 'Playtime 1988')l crystallized a moment in rock performance. The visual and auditory images that created the particular aesthetic of Gabriel's performances drew heavily upon his experience in the British progressive rock group Genesis, and also incorporated the minimalism ofperformance art, the immediacy of punk rock and a frequently disorienting use of auditory and visual elements from African, Asian and Native I American sources. As the leader of Genesis in the early 1970s, Peter Gabriel had helped move rock performance to new levels of theatricality; after leaving the group in 1975, his work was increasingly characterized by socially conscious lyrics and atmospheric, rhythm-driven music. Gabriel explored this new territory through an increasing employment of computer technology and non-western musical sources. The intertwining ofthese elements reached its peak in 1982, with the album Security, whose sound was highly 'technological' while remaining viscerally human, and eclectic in its musical sources without crossing the line into exoticism or stereotype. In his early post-Genesis performances, Gabriel had moved away from the extravagant showmanship of his later years with the group in favour of a minimalist stage presentation. Now, with the Security tour, Gabriel sought to move back towards a theatrical presentation built around the minimalist aesthetic that had characterized his previous solo performances. The album, and the tour of Europe and the United States that supported it, thus marked a turning point in Gabriel's career and sealed his impact on rock performance. 108 PERFORMANCE AND POPULAR MUSIC At the end of the scene offered as the prelude to this chapter, the insistent Genesis in reject the rc l' rhythm of the drums becomes the song 'The Rhythm of the Heat', the high intensity opening of an album that is itself structured as a progression of songs of constrictiOl p' higher and lower musical intensity. The persistently slow rhythm of the album His firsl tt tracks (even the faster songs seem to be 'dragging', as if in self-parody) and I informally, VII frequent use of rhythmic displacement creates a visceral response that the time w dl simultaneously involves and disorients the listener. In the same way, the Security although tl concerts (which included some additional material from Gabriel's earlier solo a tendency ir albums) are also structured around moments of higher and lower musical energy. nervousnes sl However, in concert, the immediacy of the performance, which adds a visual touring cart: f( element to the aural elements of the songs, acts to bring a sense of completion, hehadbeco as an experience of re-orientation is added to the initial dis-orientation of the often dressi listener. glowing re' p The fusion ofvisual and aural images had been a focus ofGabriel's performances Express, hi: VI since his later years with Genesis. In fact, as one of the most commercially Control') sl a successful of the British 'progressive/art rock' groups of the early and mid-1970s, contempora d Genesis had increasingly emphasized the 'spectacle' of their music, both on Establisl albums and in concert. The epic storytelling that began with their second album he addresst: i' Trespass (1970) culminated in the 'rock opera' The Lamb Lies Down on Windshield Broadway (1974). Their albums were conceived and constructed as 'concept substantiall; albums' in which the individual songs were linked together thematically to create isolation ani \i a unified work. The 'concept album' tradition in rock'n'roll had been initiated in like tracks, t the mid-1960s with the release of three seminal works: the Beach Boys' Pet One'displa E Sounds (1966), Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention's Freak Out (1966) and 'Humd and the Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967). The format much of his had subsequently been extended into more narrative-driven trajectories by (Kamin an, albums such as The Who's Tommy (1969) and Pink Floyd's The Wall (1979) contributin,g both of which related a single story through a progression of songs within a progressive mythic presentation. This tradition, which can loosely be labelled 'rock opera', would beco: brought a frankly theatrical element to the concept album which inevitably Fingerm changed the concert performances of the works. These live rock operas melded sound that, elements from a variety of traditions, including rock'n'roll, opera, British music the cohesio hall and Broadway theatre, to create a unique and innovative genre of musical demonstratt: performance. synthesizen From Trespass onwards, the stories and characters of Genesis's songs within the s increasingly took on mythic proportions; and Gabriel's performance in his role of evocative aI lead singer became increasingly dramatic. He had begun to emphasize the use of His third costumes, masks, make-up and props to create on-stage characters that were 'part previous tw~ comic-strip horror cartoon, part Peter Pan, part faerie' (Kamin and Goddard 1984: subjects wit 50). The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway told the story of a young New York City had product: street hustler, Rael, and his journey of self-discovery and confrontation with rock roots: mortality, presented in romantic proportions via the narrative structure of a quest. identity for After the tour to promote that album, Gabriel announced his intention to leave of his live J ---~ -------- PETER GABRIEL: SECURITY TOUR, 1982-83 109 Iter, the insistent Genesis in order to redefine the direction of his career. In particular, he wished to Heat', the high reject the role ofrock star he felt was being thrust upon him, and to escape from the ssion of songs of constrictions imposed by the group's style of music. 1m of the albwn His first solo album was released in 1977; entitled Peter Gabriel, it is also, self-parody) and informally, known as Rainy Windshield. 2 He has explained that his intention at I response that the time was to jettison most of his previous stylistic associations, arguing that Nay, the Security although the strong visual sensibility of 'art rock' was an asset, the genre had iel's earlier solo a tendency to take itself too seriously (Hutchinson 1986: 71). Expressing . musical energy. nervousness about facing audiences in his home country, he chose to begin his solo ;h adds a visual touring career in the United States. Unlike the extravagant performances for which e of completion, he had become known with Genesis, he favoured a restrained, unostentatious style, rientation of the often dressing in a plain boiler suit. While some of his early concerts received glowing reviews in British music magazines such as Sounds and New Musical ~l's performances Express, his appearance on the BBC-TV show Top ofthe Pops (singing 'No Self st commercially Control') showed him looking and sounding very much like a member ofany other , and mid-1970s, contemporary synthesizer-based new wave band.