Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music is so well established as a canonical text that you'd think Smith must've had tenure somewhere like Harvard ... he didn't. And it's easy to miss how perverse an idea the Anthology originally was.
As Greil Marcus wrote in the book that launched a thousand ships, Invisible Republic:
For generations before him, Smith's family was deeply involved in the more marginalized traditions of American mysticism — the Knights Templar, the Freemasons, the Theosophists. Smith often claimed to be Aleister Crowley's illegitimate son.... the Anthology was disguised as a textbook; it was an occult document disguised as an academic treatise ... This was in Harry Smith's grain. A polymath and an autodidact, a dope fiend and an alcoholic, a legendary experimental filmmaker and a more legendary sponger, he was perhaps most notorious as a fabulist. He liked to brag about killing people.
The Anthology as Tarot Deck, by The Celestial Monochord July 5, 2008
When you first read the fake newspaper headlines in Harry Smith's liner notes for Volume One of his Anthology of American Folk Music, you're forced to stop what you're doing, sit down, and read them all very closely.Harry knew what he was doing.
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MooPig Critical Thoughtists might have something to say--
Few people could appreciate this George Plimpton approach to a Tarot Card game that uses a codex of folk music as mentioned above: "And it's easy to miss how perverse an idea the Anthology originally was."
MooPig CT's think that the intent of the word perverse is used in today's context of worm wood and progress. "However, it occurs to us that the writer is referring to the origins of folk music which is always been the land. Mundane observations of soil, animals, procreation, birth and death, add up in folk songs."
Every life is a song in the hearing heart of God, and some are actually remembered by humans, the lessor infinite beings.
MooPig always appreciates masterful use of satire to get a thing noticed. "Celestial Monochord is one sneaky bastard with that witted slaughter... folksy genius... and we likes it." mpw-cta
MooPig Wisdom Critical Thought Area
(Go ahead -- Read entire article(s) by Celestial Monochord HERE: Retrieved in part for review and lampoon today.)
2 comments:
A mystic guide to folk music doesn't suprise me at all; see some of Jocelyn Godwin's books for details on all the magic skeletons in our music closet. I always credited Scriabin in class for creating the forerunner of the modern rock concert lightshow, but he was actually trying to open a door to the spirit world. Actually, I guess we're all still trying to do that in some form.
Sorry I almost missed your comment...
since few tread these halls: hehe
I do not remember when I first latched onto the idea that music is a function of the spirit. I suppose in my teenage years, when I contemplated "gifts of the Spirit."
It occurred to me back then that there is no law against certain acts of humans. Kindness, cheerfulness, patience... wisdom, and they showed up later in bible studies as fruits of the spirit.
So naturally I gave it the function: that there is no law against music.
When I used to follow my friends' bands around in the early '60's I noticed that the technical barbarisms were of huge concern in all performances. Instead of the auditorium functioning as the sound capture, the electronics were responsible for touting the concerts. Ouch to famous architects who built exquisite theares!
A blown breaker or smoking amp... not uncommon in the "Unscripted 60's."
Dead Microphones were a trip on intro's, funny sound of a pickup not picking up... like scraping strings on a child's toy.
Remember the roadies running around the stages to fix things as they broke?
That is why "folk and before" traditions of spiritualism's in music enterprises must be the longest standing tradition of Music Muse... from Druid to Jesus...
In response to your universal there about the rock concert lightshow... this had to be an evolution in context of the above. Only the reality of it has had to wait for a system that does not alarm Fire Chief Inspectors to danger of ignition.
Michael Jackson is living testimony to the developments of this standard of Stadium Rock Pop Concert light shows. I have to salute him for taking one for the Pyro-technics... no?
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