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Message: 4
Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2004 14:20:25 -0400
From: "Dave Smey" <dsmey(a)mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: thoughts on Zorn
To: <zorn-list(a)lists.xmission.com>
Message-ID: <002c01c474cf$a3c70d00$a31cf7a5(a)mshome.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Dave Smey wrote that "Zorn is interesting and appealing because he does seem
totally unfiltered and honest, and on the surface he seems to not care what
anybody thinks. If you told him you couldn't stand a particular record he
made he'd probably say something like "then don't listen to it." This is an
appealing image of freedom - freedom for the artist, freedom for the
audience. But of course, you have to be particularly successful or
antisocial to *afford* this kind
of freedom."
I would emphasize that phrase "on the surface." Although "Zorn literally
claimed that a great piece of art says 'fuck you!' It's quite a different
model than, say, art as 'communication,'" it strikes me as absurd and
disingenuous for an artist-- particularly one given to performing publicly,
writing musical pieces dedicated to friends & influences, and disseminating
on a regular basis recordings of said performances and compositions--to say
with a sneering tone that he couldn't give a shit what people think of his
work. I interviewed William Burroughs back in 1988, and I asked him a
question about trying to communicate with an audience, to which he gave me
his standard-issue bad boy reply that he didn't write to communicate with
others. (His published letters to Ginsberg & Kerouac betray this nonsense:
most of "Naked Lunch" was taken from letters he wrote to them.) I asked him
if, then, he were stranded on a desert island, would he keep on writing. To
which he petulantly responded "that's not fair." Of course it was. I called
his bluff. He had something to say, something he believed in. And he said it
well. And many people from around the world liked what he had to say--his
vision of the world--and how it said it. So why pretend he wasn't flattered?
(Part of the tough-guy attitude he had cultivated over the ages. A "kinder,
gentler" Burroughs is now emerging from the biographical record, often in
Burroughs' own words.)
My point is, that unless Zorn is a montrous egomaniac--and I've seen
nothing, heard nothing, read nothing that indicates he is--unless he's a
monstrous egomaniac, he *does* write and perform to communicate, as does any
other artist--painter, writer, musician, etc--who actively seeks a public
forum (a gallery, a magazine or book appearance, a concert or CD). Somebody
who doesn't care what others think, doesn't listen to what others have to
say. It's a form of shouting (like those so-called "debate" programs on TV).
Who wants to listen to music like that? Who wants to work in a band under
those conditions?
That said, I'm sure his priority in writing and performing is to do
something that satisfies his own criteria of excellence. Of second priority
is probably his hope that others--maybe only his closest friends--will enjoy
it, too.
More Dave Smey: "Actually, Zorn is one of the few artists I really like who
I'll personally forgive for not pleasing me." There are artists--and I count
Zorn among them--who, even when they faulter, faulter in interesting ways. I
have something like 80 of Zorn's CDs, and I'll be the first to say that not
every note is a miracle. But he has good ideas--sometimes unsuccessfully
executed. Sometimes he has ideas that probably looked good on paper but
which didn't pan out when performed. I think those are valid points to
(constructively) criticize; to evaluate a work on the terms it set out for
itself and how well it succeeds in (a) meeting those goals and/or (b) being
goals that produce interesting work.
On the whole, Zorn strikes me as an artist who constantly challenges
himself, as a composer and a performer, who finds inspiration all around him
(which you can only do if you find the world endless fascinating), who more
often than not succeeds in creating works of lasting value and beauty; and
who is able to cull from the people who perform with and/or for him their
own personal bests.
What else can you ask from a guy?
Tom Bowden
