I love music demos. A demo gives you space to grow and develop as a listener. It’s a promise. And a test for your senses. A demo trusts you, a demo relies on you, it says: “look, I might not sound awesome right now, but have a little faith, OK? Think positively. Be open. This line, this note, this pause…”. Thereupon, a music producer is a believer. A very religious man, with a complex sense of future .
I however see it similar to what reputable writers and painters do: aiming to complete and explain their ultimate work by having diaries and sketches published. Of course, there’s always a risk (or a chance) for the rough art to surpass the completed masterpiece. Take, for instance, Julien Green’s case. There is nothing in his novels to come close to the long, anxious saga of his daily existence. It is in the monotonous rhythm of his lonesome life the reader finds the ultimate intuitions and perplexities in regard to time passing.
Going back to where we started, a music demo has it all in nuce: the naked sound, the roots, the mystery of conception, the obscurely attractive humming before being shaped into boring, intelligible words.
PS: …and I say: God bless Tony Visconti because he did all those wonders with Morrissey’s Ringleader of the Tormenters that, for some reason, I can’t stop playing. Oh what a believer!
And the recommended rough art for today is: Harrison’s demo of “The Art of Dying”, Matisse’s volume “Dessins – thèmes et variations”, and Franz Kafka’s diary.
This entry was posted on Sunday, January 24th, 2010 at 12:39 pm and is filed under life 'n art. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Very touching song, I didn’t even know of its existence. Thank you!
Sorry Tony and Alex for the commentary mess ups. There was something wrong with my spam detector plugin and I deleted everything at once. Including your commentaries.
I hope I’ll find time to fix the problem. Have a great evening all. Now’s time for movies.