Brian Eno • • • His Music and the Vertical Color of Sound
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BRIAN ENO • • • HIS MUSIC AND THE VERTICAL COLOR OF SOUND by Eric Tamm Copyright © 1988 by Eric Tamm DEDICATION This book is dedicated to my parents, Igor Tamm and Olive Pitkin Tamm. In my childhood, my father sang bass and strummed guitar, my mother played piano and violin and sang in choirs. Together they gave me a love and respect for music that will be with me always. i TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION ............................................................................................ i TABLE OF CONTENTS........................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................... iv CHAPTER ONE: ENO’S WORK IN PERSPECTIVE ............................... 1 CHAPTER TWO: BACKGROUND AND INFLUENCES ........................ 12 CHAPTER THREE: ON OTHER MUSIC: ENO AS CRITIC................... 24 CHAPTER FOUR: THE EAR OF THE NON-MUSICIAN........................ 39 Art School and Experimental Works, Process and Product ................ 39 On Listening........................................................................................ 41 Craft and the Non-Musician ................................................................ 44 CHAPTER FIVE: LISTENERS AND AIMS ............................................ 51 Eno’s Audience................................................................................... 51 Eno’s Artistic Intent ............................................................................. 55 “Generating and Organizing Variety in the Arts” ................................. 59 CHAPTER SIX: THE COMPOSITIONAL PROCESS............................. 63 Equipment........................................................................................... 63 Systems of Composing ....................................................................... 75 Verbal Expression and Lyrics.............................................................. 80 CHAPTER SEVEN: THE MUSICIAN AS PHILOSOPHER .................... 85 Ultimate Realities................................................................................ 85 Culture and Information....................................................................... 88 The Masculine and the Feminine ........................................................ 89 Politics ................................................................................................ 91 Metaphors and Images ....................................................................... 93 CHAPTER EIGHT: TAKING ROCK TO THE LIMIT............................... 96 The Albums......................................................................................... 97 CHAPTER NINE: ENO’S PROGRESSIVE ROCK: THE MUSIC ......... 107 Assaultive Rock Songs ..................................................................... 110 Pop Songs ........................................................................................ 114 Strange Songs .................................................................................. 116 Hymn-like Songs............................................................................... 120 Instrumental Pieces .......................................................................... 120 ii CHAPTER TEN: THE AMBIENT SOUND............................................ 128 Long Ambient Pieces ........................................................................ 129 Short Ambient Pieces........................................................................ 138 CHAPTER ELEVEN: COLLABORATIONS ......................................... 146 With Robert Fripp.............................................................................. 146 With David Bowie.............................................................................. 151 With Talking Heads and David Byrne................................................ 154 CHAPTER TWELVE: ESSENCE, HISTORY, AND BEAUTY.............. 158 The Music’s Essence ........................................................................ 158 The Music’s History........................................................................... 161 The Music’s Beauty........................................................................... 166 GLOSSARY ......................................................................................... 170 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................. 178 ENO DISCOGRAPHY .......................................................................... 192 Solo Progressive Rock Albums......................................................... 192 Solo Ambient Albums........................................................................ 193 Rock Collaborations.......................................................................... 194 Ambient Collaborations..................................................................... 196 Rock Productions.............................................................................. 196 The Obscure Label ........................................................................... 196 Other................................................................................................. 197 OTHER MUSIC CITED......................................................................... 198 Epilog – 1989-1995.............................................................................. 201 Eno's Music of the 1990s.................................................................. 202 Eno on the Internet ........................................................................... 205 Bibliography Update 1995................................................................. 207 Discography Update 1995................................................................. 209 About the Author............................................................................... 211 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to take this opportunity to thank Professor George Skapsi at California State University, Northridge, for his enthusiasm with regard to the study of music, which did much to whet my appetite for further work. This book grew out of my doctoral dissertation research conducted in the Music Department at the University of California, Berkeley. I owe a debt of gratitude to a number of faculty members there: John Swackhamer, whose broad view of contemporary music and sense of humor helped me see the light at the end of the tunnel, Bonnie Wade, whose interest in a wide range of world music has always been refreshing, and who supervised an independent study that led ultimately to this book, Anthony Newcomb, who gamely steered my research through its early stages, Christopher Brown, who with good cheer and open-mindedness took on a fruitful advisory role, Olly Wilson, whose course in Afro-American music was one of the highlights of my studies at Berkeley, and whose continuing scholarly and personal involve- ment with that tradition set a valuable example for me, and Philip Brett, my dissertation ad- viser, who was a delight to work with, offering many valuable suggestions, and whose firm editorial guidance taught me much about writing itself. Professor Charles Hamm of Dartmouth College served as an active yet unofficial reader and adviser from the very earliest stages of the dissertation, and for his penetrating comments, informed by a lifetime’s study of popular music, I am grateful. I do not know exactly how to express my deep feelings of admiration and obligation towards Robert Fripp, the most effective teacher with whom I have ever had the privilege of studying music, whose Guitar Craft XII seminar in 1986 opened up many a door for me, and who was primarily responsible for leading me to undertake a study of his colleague Eno’s work. I would also like to thank Professor Howard DeWitt of Ohlone College, who lightened the research load considerably through his encyclopedic knowledge of rock’n’roll and massive record collection, Charles Amirkhanian, Joshua Kosman, and Joe Paulino, who supported the project from early on and were kind enough to loan me a number of obscure records and tapes, Lin Barkass and Anthea Norman-Taylor at Eno’s management firm, Opal Ltd., London, who answered my queries about Eno in a timely fashion and supplied several pertinent arti- cles and brochures, and Betsy Uhrig of Faber & Faber for her warmth and editorial assistance in the preparation of the final manuscript. This book could not have been written without the constant support of my wife, Kristina Hol- land, who agreeably proofread typescripts and put up with long stretches of anti-social behav- ior on my part. Finally, I must thank my daughter Lilia, now six years old and no great Eno fan, for helping me keep everything in perspective. After repeatedly playing Eno records on the home stereo and running on about how wonderfully “mysterious” the music is, I asked her one day if she liked it. “Turn it off!” she said. “It makes me feel like I am a mystery.” iv CHAPTER ONE: ENO’S WORK IN PERSPECTIVE Brian Eno (b. 1948) is a contemporary British musician and artist whose public creative ca- reer began in 1972 with his synthesizer playing for the rock group Roxy Music. Through se- curing a niche in the music industry and by building up an audience for his progressive rock music, Eno has been able to diversify his creative efforts considerably. He is a prime example of a new type of composer who has drawn freely on the resources of many types of music and ideas about music. These include a variety of popular