Into Deutschlande...

Tangerine Dream TANGRAM (1980)

(PIC: the castle at Aschaffenburg)
Long 6 hr ride today......The mechanistic..sequencer-beat vibe and analog sound of Tangerine Dream has appealed to me for ages since I first heard them, probably some movie soundtrack. Most people are familiar with Tom Cruise getting laid on the train in Risky Business...that's Tangerine Dream on the soundtrack...

Then in the early 80s a couple things happened for me:

I stumbled across John Scheafer (SP??) and his amazing show NEW SOUNDS on WNYC in, um nyc, the public radio station. I had been listening to this station a lot at night-- studying with orchestral music on. I'm one of those snobs who insists on NOT calling it all classical music.

Classical is JUST ONE period of the music people are usually referring to when they say that -- there's a bunch of subdivisions, like musiqua antiqua, baroque, plainchant, romantic, modern, 20th c., minimalist, 12-tone, serial - -all kinds of terms to define WHAT period/style you're talking about. But much like the words "rock" or "jazz" it's become the catch -all phrase, accurate or not. SO- i'm cool with it but I try to not use the term erroneously.

So i had been listening to a lot of classical, and one night in 1983 after 11:30 or so, very stoned I'm sure, I flipped on my FM receiver (remember those...?) and WOW..this amazing music was coming out-- It was Laurie Anderson's "From The Air". I grabbed a cassette within seconds and was getting it all down, you did that almost daily in those days....and I STILL have the tape...(Interesting aside -- we JUST missed running into Laurie today -- she was checking into the hotel we were at, playing the same venue tonight - Adrian is of course an old dear friend, he was bummed that he wasn't gonna run into her. They did a couple records and a concert-movie back in the 80s...He DID see her solo show in Nashville a few years ago, tho' and they stay in touch a bit)

So I went on to become a giant fan of NEW SOUNDS, listening religiously every night and on sat and sun afternoons...taping EVERY SHOW until it became ridiculous... from that show I learned about Michael Hedges, Philip Glass, Scott Johnson, Laurie Anderson ..Steve Reich, Popul Vuh, Pierre Bensusan, got deeper into Eno, plus all kinds of Indian, African and one of my favorite types of music -- Balinese & Javanese Gamelan....

The other thing was --It just so happened in New Brunswick, NJ, where I was hanging out a lot, there was the greatest record store i have ever been in, just about. Except maybe Amoeba in San Fran..

CHEAP THRILLS was run by very cool people..but also it was part owned by a distro company in nearby Plainfield. Or maybe the guy Ed who owned Cheap Thrills was part owner of the distro , I forgrt. Either way -- they would get TONS of cut outs of great euro-avant stuff like Gong, Mike Oldfield, PFM, Gentle Giant, Cluster, Eno, the Canterbury stuff, Genesis, Synergy, FM, Saga, YOU NAME it. And LOTS of Tangerine Dream. So thru that whole period I built up a massive TD collection... LPs at Cheap Thrills would go for $1.99-$5.99, typically, it was insane, You DID NOT walk out of there without 20 Lps, every time !! It was nuts. And they would get new stuff, 1000s of pieces..it seems like DAILY....

So i built up this giant collection in no time of all the TD albums....it was a peak of my weed-smoking and mushroom days, and this music goes great with nodding out on some bud....pulsing...hypnotic trance-inducing trippiness...you would imagine these guys in some cold dark Berlin studio with all their proprietary Oberheim gear....taking acid and just creating these synth masterpieces....

I finally got to see them in 1986, it was great, really cemented my love for synths, the whole thing. A love that endures to this day with my Moog Voyager in my basement-studio and occasional visits to the Moog headquarters in my hometown......

Ludwig Van Beethoven
Symphony No. 1 in C Major
Symphony No. 6 in F Major
Overture: Leonore No. 3 Op . 72A
etc

Ahh Louis of the Beet-garden. Germany's most famous composer of his era. Love this guy.... he has the same fate as Led Zeppelin, and my other fave of the period Haydn (who taught Ludwig a few times) it's easy to overlook his genius 'cos everyone goes on and on about him...... and like Zep -- his most pedestrian, yet fine-in-it' s-own-right stuff gets worn into the ground.

Every fucking orchestra beats the Synphonies (many of which are amazing) to death -- while his later quartets and the trio stuff like "Archduke" are things of wonder. "Wellington's Victory" is a must listen.

He should also get major props for helping to develop the PIANO AS WE KNOW IT TODAY. It was Beethoven's demands of contemporary piano manufacturers that led to them going from a wooden frame to a METAL one...so it could stay in tune better , and have more structural integrity to withstand the VOLUMES he was looking for....to compete with his massive symphonic works. He also presided over great expansion in the SIZE of the orchestra. he wanted BIGGER and LOUDER always, so as a guitarist, how could I not love Beethoven?

Chopin gets a lot of (well deserved credit for pushing the piano to prominence but his stuff sounds pedestrian and bookish to me. Beethoven is the go-to piano guy, trust me.

At Rutgers University I minored in music and to a lot of history stuff, including a fascinating class called simply "Beethoven" . that was great as the course-book was written by a psychologist/musicologist who took a deep look at the psyche of this wacky genius. His story is a great one if you ever wanna learn some of his bio -- or just love period pieces like I do - I recommend two great movies "Beethoven's Nephew" and "Immortal Beloved" with the great Gary Oldman. The former looks at the central struggle of his last several years (besides going deaf) -- which was the custody battle for his nephew, and the bitter fight with his brother's widow. Great stuff, especially seeing how the german court system worked in the early 1800s. The latter was a great movie from the 90s looking at another central theme for the never-married, childless Ludwig....he had this love of his life....never conclusively identified but guessed at with all kinds of detective work. Every couple years someone proclaims that they KNOW FOR SURE IT'S "_______________" but it remains one of the great mysteries of classical music nerd-dom.

So rolling thru the hillsides of Germany I have this on--- I like to imagine old Ludwig sitting out in a field with some wine and cheese and bread, writing the "Pastoral Symphony"

Adrian Belew Power Trio
After dealing with the DOWNSIDE to german accuracy (i had a particularly inflexible hotel clerk fuck with me and over charge us due to a mixup) Completely would not budge. Gritting my teeth - I realized this rigidity...has two sides -- it's probably what gets them to make the best machinery, design stuff with such insane acccuracy (cars, tools, electronics, war machines) , but it can be a pain in the ass once in a while. I'll still take that over complete incompetent idiocy, which usually ALSO comes with attitude, anyday. Which is prevalent all around the world in varying doses....

So on the GREAT German side-- we get to this club and they have great gear - great sound, great crew working it!

Again -- the BEST shows on this tour have been when the band has a real live ROCK CLUB vibe..in a ROCK CLUB.... it's made for the sound of this band...they dig it and feed off the audience energy..this was such a show.... And the germans are extra crazy fans..."Young Lions" had a particularly wild solo tonight... and the improv in "Beat Box" keeps going further out.... and out....(here is the Aschaffenburg crowd at the end..)

The band really dug this one as well...always the clubs are what we want....and it keeps getting better..

Tonight - Marshall cabs again - Adrian is real happy with those..we are getting into some new gear choices..What an honor to be part of this -- here is one of the MAJOR guys that shaped my idea of guitar sound, sonics, effects, guitar-technology addiction, all of it...it's great to be out there with him bringing new stuff to the table and trying new stuff, shaking it up and seeing how his mind works...

And look what is coming up at this club..dammit!! I would almost fly in for this gig....Actually Adrian tells a great story about when he saw the real Emerson Lake & Palmer... with the James Gang opening, this was 1971 or 1973 or something...and the solo in "Lucky Man" kicked his ass so much -- he immediately set a goal to "make those sounds from the guitar". So- there you have one little piece of the man's musical influence. Add in his love for Hendrix and The Beatles and you have a little more...the rest.... is from outer space!!