That California Jangle

David Crosby's tone-deaf comments upon the death of Eddie Van Halen reminded me of my long-standing annoyance with the solipsism of 60s/70s California hippie culture. I remember in particular the front porch hangs I used to have with Elijah Pritchett, and how our mutual animosities to that hippie culture came to be animated primarily by one band: The Byrds.

I also have to admit that my first interest in rock music was The Byrds, from a band biography and four song seven inch sampler I got from Scholastic Books when I was in grade school; obviously the book was deeply sanitized to the point of not at all being useful as a story of the band, but most of the band's music goes down pretty easy, so there wasn't much need for sanitizing that, save holding off on some of the band's more obviously druggy songs (though it really seems "Eight Miles High" was on there . . . but of course, that was a song about flying in an airplane lol). I don't remember exactly what was on the record, but one song did stand out: "Lover of the Bayou". That one was dirty.

Anyway, it got me to wondering if I was just done with The Byrds, so I did what it is I do: put together a giant Spotify playlist, based on fan's favorites from the band, and immerse myself in it until I figure it out. This was, in fact, probably the first band I did that with, many years ago, when I joined Spotify not too long after its birth. The playlist was just over three hours to start (three hours is kind of the magic playlist number for me, because that was my average DJ shift on WQAX back in the day). Unlike the Bob Dylan playlist that I have been working on this year, which started out at just over six hours then was lightly trimmed back to about five and a half, the Byrds playlist was cut down to under an hour and a half after I lived with it for a while. A lot of The Byrds's output leaves me cold and bored; some I consider downright repulsive (Crosby's "Triad" immediately comes to mind). The sheer length of the playlist was overwhelming to me as well: I could never handle that much Byrds. On the other hand, once I got it to the point that it would fit onto a 90 minute tape, it became a useful playlist, and one I listen to a fair amount. I emailed Elijah to let him know of my work, but he remained unconvinced.

To be fair, I did have to follow it up with a Minutemen playlist when I listened to it last Tuesday.

Anyway, here it be:

And yes, "Jesus is Just Alright" is on there. And yes, I'm still down with "Lover of the Bayou". And yes, if this band disappeared into the mists of time, I would barely miss them. But here it is.

The Byrds Power Rankings: Most Overrated/Underrated

1. Graham Parsons/Gene Clark
2. David Crosby/Clarence White
3. Sweetheart of the Rodeo/Younger Than Yesterday

The 4 x 4 Mixtapes

 So, yeah . . . string quartets.

Turns out that string quartets are among my favorite classical music forms, along with large ensemble symphonic pieces and solo piano (or exclusively piano recordings, be they solo or multiple - Ives's pieces for two pianos tuned a quarter tone apart are stunning). I tend to approach composers I am interested first through either large ensemble symphonic-style pieces or through string quartets. I think in general the reason I like string quartets is that they put compositional ideas in stark relief, without having them buried in potentially obfuscating orchestrations. For my own creative education, they are also important for studying how string instruments relate to each other, which is important if you ever find yourself in a room full of guitar players & you don't want to sound like a jam band.

Several of these pieces are benchmarks for me. I discovered the Debussy a couple years back when I was on a Debussy binge. Interestingly, this is one of the pieces that I have a clear favorite version I listen to: the Kodaly Quartet plays this faster and jauntier than most, and it's definitely how I like it. The next to cuts are performed by the Kronos Quartet, a gateway drug for classical music in general and string quartets in particular. Their Black Angels album made a huge impression on me. The pieces they play are notable as well: Gorecki before he went all tonal, and perhaps the best known female composer in the west, Sofia Gubaidulina. Shostokovich was another binge for me, and I think his string quartets are his real signature, not the more famous symphonies. Beethoven follows up some twelve tone & modernist guys, and is in turn followed by the out-of-time Bartok. Rochberg & Carter round out the first mixtape, from late mid-century when tonality was gauche (Rochberg) and modernism was hip (Carter).

The second mixtape starts with Mr. Twelve Tone himself, Arnold Schoenberg, and travels through Schnittke to Steve Reich's minimalism. Morton Feldman's pointillist abstraction is up next, then side one rounds out with some lovely Brahms. Side two devolves into that time Karlheinz Stockhausen sent up the members of Arditti Quartet each in their own helicopter to play a string quartet, the loopy bastard. Apparently Karl was a bit less concerned about his carbon footprint than his reputation as an avant-garde enfant terrible. Side two is rounded out by two of my favorites, Ives and Ligeti, who are perhaps less known for their string quartets.

Indeed, you can, if you wish, dub these on to 90 minute cassettes and play them in your 81 Tercel. But why bother? Hit the Spotify button and enjoy.

String Quartet Power Rankings:

1. Beethoven (late)
2. Bartok
3. Gubaidulina
4. Shostakovich
5. Debussy
6. Carter