Newsgroups: bit.listserv.allmusic
Date:         Wed, 6 Jan 1993 08:07:10 EST
From:         Ken Koester <MAINT2@ERS.BITNET>
Subject: The Day the Music Died (VII): I Can Name That Tune in. . . .

Home (Charleston, SC) for the holidays:  I don't get back there much, so when
it comes to the local radio stations I am totally (and blissfully) clueless.
Nonetheless, I am driving to the local filling station & scanning the dial.  I
happen upon an oldies--I know it is, because I hear about 4 notes of this song,
instantly recognize it, though I haven't heard it in, oh, 12 years or more.
About the time I realize I know it, I'm amazed at the recognition flooding into
my brain; I've only heard it maybe a dozen times at most, back in my palmy IU
grad-school days.  I never bought it (remember?  No rotating object with the
sharp pointy thing back then--I only did the Dave Grisman Impulsive Purchase
schtick once), never looked for it in the store, don't know the group that did
it--can't even be sure the title is correct:  "My Sharona".  (Or some such;
resident Olde Farts who want some easy boni points can, I am sure, fill in at
their leisure.  As you will see further on, Gentle Reader, this is not the
point.)

Scanning a different station:  this time it takes a dozen bars or so to get
"Walk Right In".  True, it's the instrumental break, and true, it's a little
before my time, but I probably heard it quite a bit more than the first song.
What's the difference between my ears?  (Lest ye misunderstand, I:  do *not*
claim any extraordinary talent for song recognition; *do* think that most of
us can do as well (or poorly).  Ability is also not the point here.)

What I'm talking about is distinctiveness.  The first song has an extremely
distinctive instrumental refrain.  It immediately sets itself apart from
everything else I've listened to.  Not just the beat, the melody, or chords,
but also such things as the tonality & phrasing.  (Also *not* the quality of
the music:  I've heard many many better songs in my life.)  It's this way with
a lot of the music I like (but not exclusive to it).  Probably 2 notes of Ian
Anderson's flute would identify Tull, even if I had never heard the song
before.  2 or 3 notes would distinguish Blind Faith from Cream or Derek&theDs.
And so on, for group after group.  Even a group that changes tracks in mid-
stream, like the Dead, even then, *something* about the sound seems to remain
distinctive all the way through.  I mean, I'm talking about instant recall, so
quick you don't even have a conscious memory of remembering the music, so quick
that it beats the vocalized sound of the words of the song title or group in
your brain.  It's the scary sensation you get when you instantaneously judge
that something, some situation, some sight, some insight is absolutely perfect
& complete in itself.  (All right, it's a gestalt.  There!  You happy now?)
In order to get that recognition, the notes *themselves* have to be
distinctive & they have to connect to something inside you without any effort
on your part.

What is that something?  (Yes, Gentle Reader:  the *question* is the point!)

You didn't really think I was going to answer, did you?  Because if you did,
all I've really got is the cliche that the answer is going to be different for
each and everyone of you who has followed me this far.  Although, if you
pursued it far enough, you'd probably decide that all the answers were the
same.  Which is the cliche follow-up to the cliche, yes, I admit it.

Perhaps a better point is what you make of the first point.  There's a lot of
music that I can't, for one reason or another, perform this little trick on.
Rap music, for example.  Sans vocals, I doubt if I could tell any of the songs
apart, no matter how long I listened (if you haven't gathered it by now, using
the lyrics to identify the song is a cop out!).  Heck, even the voices wouldn't
give me a clue.  Does that mean that the music is inferior in some way?  Or
that you think it is inferior in some way?

Probably no to the first, and unfortunately, probably yes to the second one.
There isn't a one of us free from prejudice, and one of the traits of prejudice
is its failure to distinguish among things, people, what have you.  The
depressing thing about bias is that your judgement might even be right--but
since you've made it for all the wrong reasons, it will sit there like a
perfectly useless lump atop your shoulders.

If you're a musician, one further point:  how do you get that sound?  How do
you find it?  How do you recognize it?  How do you keep it?  How do you know
when it's time to throw it away?  (I am reminded of =The Glenn Miller Story=
film with Jimmy Stewart.  The first half of the movie is all Glenn's search
for The Sound, which he finds by accident when his lead trumpet player splits
a lip & he has to re-score for clarinet.)

PS--I'm listening to a Christmas Eve concert on the radio.  I've gotten it in
midstream.  It's early music, but I've never heard it before.  Yet I've heard
the sound.  The conviction grows on me:  it's the Folger with Scott Reiss on
recorder & Johana Arnold on vocals.  Sure enough, I'm right:  the Folger live
at the Frick.  A big ego-boo:  now I'm identifying the music before I've even
heard it.  Well, the musicians anyways.  Far out, man.
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