BRIAN ENO HIS MUSIC AND THE VERTICAL COLOR OF SOUND by Eric Tamm (c) 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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................................... iv PART I – ENO IN THE WORLD OF MUSIC.........................................................................................1 CHAPTER ONE: ENO’S WORK IN PERSPECTIVE ............................................................................ 1 CHAPTER TWO: BACKGROUND AND INFLUENCES ................................................................... 10 CHAPTER THREE: ON OTHER MUSIC: ENO AS CRITIC .............................................................. 19 CHAPTER FOUR: THE EAR OF THE NON-MUSICIAN .................................................................. 29 Art School and Experimental Works, Process and Product ................................................................. 29 On Listening ........................................................................................................................................ 30 Craft and the Non-Musician ................................................................................................................ 32 CHAPTER FIVE: LISTENERS AND AIMS ......................................................................................... 38 Eno’s Audience .................................................................................................................................... 38 Eno’s Artistic Intent ............................................................................................................................. 41 “Generating and Organizing Variety in the Arts” ................................................................................ 43 CHAPTER SIX: THE COMPOSITIONAL PROCESS ......................................................................... 47 Equipment ............................................................................................................................................ 47 Systems of Composing ........................................................................................................................ 56 Verbal Expression and Lyrics .............................................................................................................. 59 CHAPTER SEVEN: THE MUSICIAN AS PHILOSOPHER ................................................................ 64 Ultimate Realities ................................................................................................................................ 64 Culture and Information ....................................................................................................................... 66 The Masculine and the Feminine ......................................................................................................... 67 Politics ................................................................................................................................................. 69 Metaphors and Images ......................................................................................................................... 70 PART II - ENO’S MUSIC......................................................................................................................72 CHAPTER EIGHT: TAKING ROCK TO THE LIMIT ......................................................................... 72 The Albums .......................................................................................................................................... 73 CHAPTER NINE: ENO’S PROGRESSIVE ROCK: THE MUSIC ....................................................... 80 Assaultive Rock Songs ........................................................................................................................ 83 Pop Songs ............................................................................................................................................ 86 Strange Songs ...................................................................................................................................... 88 Hymn-like Songs ................................................................................................................................. 91 Instrumental Pieces .............................................................................................................................. 91 CHAPTER TEN: THE AMBIENT SOUND .......................................................................................... 98 Long Ambient Pieces ........................................................................................................................... 99 Short Ambient Pieces ......................................................................................................................... 105 CHAPTER ELEVEN: COLLABORATIONS ...................................................................................... 112 ii With Robert Fripp .............................................................................................................................. 112 With David Bowie ............................................................................................................................. 117 With Talking Heads and David Byrne ............................................................................................... 119 CHAPTER TWELVE: ESSENCE, HISTORY, AND BEAUTY ........................................................ 122 The Music’s Essence ......................................................................................................................... 122 The Music’s History .......................................................................................................................... 124 The Music’s Beauty ........................................................................................................................... 127 GLOSSARY .......................................................................................................................................... 130 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................................. 139 ENO DISCOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................................... 158 Solo Progressive Rock Albums ......................................................................................................... 158 Solo Ambient Albums ....................................................................................................................... 160 Rock Collaborations .......................................................................................................................... 161 Ambient Collaborations ..................................................................................................................... 163 Rock Productions ............................................................................................................................... 163 The Obscure Label ............................................................................................................................. 164 Other .................................................................................................................................................. 164 OTHER MUSIC CITED ....................................................................................................................... 166 Epilog – 1989-1995 ............................................................................................................................... 172 Eno's Music of the 1990s ................................................................................................................... 173 Eno on the Internet ............................................................................................................................. 176 Bibliography Update 1995 ................................................................................................................. 178 Discography Update 1995 ................................................................................................................. 180 About the Author ............................................................................................................................... 182 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