“Prometheus was trying / to invent the guitar solo. / Fire was his first draft.” – Amorak Huey, “Seven Stories About Fire”
Maybe this is an increasingly impossible experience in the age of the internet. This happened when I was 17 or 18. I was driving, and for some reason, had to listen to the radio. Usually, high school Chris was never in a car without his 64-CD case. But for whatever reason, I was tuned into Nashville’s jazz station. The DJ was giving a talk about cinematic jazz music, jazz composers and players who could really paint pictures with their instruments. I remember Charles Mingus and his album The Clown were mentioned. Either that, or when I later looked up “Charles Mingus album with spoken word,” I was directed to the Jean Shepherd-featuring album.
The song that played on the radio that day was not “The Clown,” however. I don’t remember what it was, and I’ve been searching for it ever since. It was some guy monologuing while the rhythm section vamped, and then the horns would play riffs in between his verses. Sometimes riff that played on what he said—I remember a line that went something like “my mother used to not understand jazz, but now she spends most of her nights in Tunisia” and then the horns did a little quote of “A Night In Tunisia.”
One of my favorite pieces of music is the Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquin Rodrigo. You might know it, particularly the second movement, as “the Spanish guitar song.” Miles Davis did a variation on it, for Sketches Of Spain. You’ll know the opening three notes. Go ahead, think of a Spanish guitar lick. When I post the video in a paragraph or two, see if you’re right.
I saw a performance of this concerto in high school. My parents, being string players, are big Symphony-goers. My brother and I played in youth orchestras (yes, I can play upright bass; no, you don’t want to ask me to do so). Who can remember if we saw the concerto at TPAC in Nashville or at MTSU in Murfreesboro, but I do remember the program. It mentioned the piece being inspired by the gardens at the royal palace in Aranjuez, which sailed over my head, because I assume most pre-20th classical music is written for some nobility (Beethoven’s Third, famously, was written for Napoleon, until Napoleon declared himself emperor and Beethoven tore the first page up and cried all night or something. Relatable, tbh.
What stuck with me was how the show-stopping, culture-shifting second movement was inspired both the happy early days of his marriage, but also his grief over his wife’s miscarriage. The ending major chord arpeggio—the movement, I believe, is in B minor, but ends on B major chord, I think that’s right—is supposed to be the child’s spirit ascending to Heaven, if my memory from literally 20 years ago holds up.
Okay, that second movement. See if you recognize it. I’m really partial to this recording from The Romeros:
As you can imagine, telling a 17-year-old Christian writer and musician that you can tell stories with instrumental music and even will a spirit to be sitted at the right hand of God with a simple chord leads to some devastatingly corny compositions.
One of my favorite of the prog metal solo guys (I honestly don’t love many), Sithu Aye, went so far as to write a whole novella to correspond with his Senpai III EP.
What Sithu’s getting it is really important: sometimes it’s simply fun to tell a story, even if you’re making instrumental music. Even if it’s only organizing things in your own brain. Stories are fun. Keeping art in your life is vital.
Tomorrow’s Lazy & Entitled Podcast will feature Brendan interviewing the Shipwrecked Sailor, aka me, about Burgers Or Tacos? Brendan surprised me with this, and it was a hell of a lot of fun. I talk about trying to invent a new song structure with a built-in key change using Dan Harmon’s story wheel. I talk about trying to make a HIT EM track, and we decide maybe there’s a reason that HIT EM is a thing that came to a guy in a dream. Check the episode when it comes out tomorrow. I will say that Burgers Or Tacos? is less a novel and more a poetry collection, with each track being an ode to a dish. But I did structure the album to move like a story, with the drums shifting halfway through and the acoustic guitar being an opener/intermission/closer. So maybe go listen to Burgers Or Tacos?
Yeah, let’s all go listen to Burgers Or Tacos?
Sorry you will eventually get an email,
Chris