Having, being, enflaming

[imomus]

Today I have a mixed bag of things I want to signal:

1. My latest column for Frieze gazes at the art world through the prism of Erich Fromm's book To Have Or To Be, which influenced me in a post-materialist direction when I read it, aged 20, in 1980 (the year Fromm died). It's possible to experience the art world in having mode (objects, collectors, acquisitions, profit, auctions, investments) or being mode (experiences, relationships, sensations), but my article wonders just how symbiotic these modes are; does the being-mode of some depend on the having-mode of others? It's a chance, also, to re-examine Fromm's fusion of Marx and Freud: "The person exclusively concerned with having and possession is a neurotic, mentally sick person; hence it would follow that the society in which most of the members are anal characters is a sick society."

2. The next thing I want to draw your attention to is a couple of rather good cover versions of my songs. I don't know who Amanda Palmer and Steven Wilson are, but they seem to command sizeable and passionate audiences. And they've both covered songs of mine rather well. Here's Steven Wilson doing The Guitar Lesson:

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And here's Amanda Palmer, on tour this month, singing I Want You, But I Don't Need You to a gratifyingly appreciative crowd (but also, I think, stretching them a little with the song's casual brutality):

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3. Finally, I want to flag some free downloads of three records by my favourite early 80s synthpop band, The Passage. I should really write a big long entry about The Passage one day; how their music is a complex triangulation of the concepts of fear, love and hope, a structure echoed in recurrent musical motifs which tinkle and thunder like themes in some great didactic synth-rock opera, how the political vision of this band was the most intelligently left-wing of any of the British 1980s bands, how the transition from night to day, from PM to AM, symbolizes their belief in revolutionary change, how they courted The Fall (unrequited) and slated Anderton, Manchester's evangelical chief of police (even more unrequited, despite a shared love of biblical references), how Witts recruited pretty, big-lipped, floppy-haired Andy Wilson and -- judging by the sound of his voice on some of these songs -- drugged him too, possibly with the Hoffmann Laroche products he loved to sing about, how The Passage is what Hanns Eisler might have sounded like if he'd started a synth band and signed to Cherry Red, how Witts now teaches in the music department at the University of Edinburgh.

I love The Passage, and now -- thanks to this cache of illegal downloads on Castles in Space -- you can too:

The Passage: For All And None 1981 (description here).

The Passage: Degenerates 1982 (description here).

The Passage: Enflame 1983 (description here).

When Cherry Red asked me to list my 15 favourite tracks for a feature on their website called My Favourite Flavours, my list began and ended with The Passage. More Top 15 lists here, including Cornelius's, which includes an album of mine called, apparently, Circus Maximamus ("I’d like Momus to make another record like this"), and poet Simon Armitage's ("Nick Currie is one the all time narrative songwriters and wordsmiths").

For full listening pleasure, though, you should get LTM's CD re-editions of The Passage albums, which include extra tracks, singles and radio sessions. Last week I sent LTM a cassette of The Passage live at the Manchester Ritz for a Passage live release they're preparing. Rarely has Retro Necro sounded so good.

Comments

[obliterati.livejournal.com]

Steven Wilson is the singer for Porcupine Tree, they put on a great show actually. I got to see them in Portland last Spring and learned that prog somehow became a big thing with teenagers while I wasn't paying attention.

Nice blue sky in your formatting up there mister sir!

[andalus.livejournal.com]

C'mon! You're pulling our leg here, you sly scottish fox. Amanda Palmer was the better half of the Dresden Dolls, who have done some fabulous covers in their day, and is now struggling a bit as a solo. But clearly this glowing momus-mention will put her back in the hearts and minds of the white-face-paint-and-corsets-wearing public.

[aeazel.livejournal.com]

As has already been stated, Amanda Palmer was (they're on indefinite hiatus) half of the Dresden Dolls.

She's actually been covering this song for a while, but I believe with this tour has been doing it more consistently.

Was at that particular concert, in fact. Was quite amazingly theatrical.

[akabe.livejournal.com]

thanks for enlightening me on Fromm. never read him but it looks like the guy's written the script for my life.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

He's one of the underrated philosophers of the 20th century -- but really rewarding to read. The Art of Loving is the other book of his that really bowled me over.

[tropigalia.livejournal.com]

uuuuuughhhhhh amanda palmer.

UGH.

[tropigalia.livejournal.com]

i woke up feeling the need to tell you that this woman touts her music as "brechtian punk" when last time i checked, one of them wrote 95% of their lyrics about how they are crazy and bitter but don't know why nobody loves them and one of them didn't. you can also see that her keyboard says KURTWEIL and it makes me irrationally angry because then i expect her music to be something other than 10 minute long whiny piano ballads.

and she wears a corset and a bra as clothing and UGHHHHHH

[trickseybird.livejournal.com]

I like her because she sings catchy songs about abortion :D

[eptified.livejournal.com]

The sound you hear is my friend Gabe exploding -- three of his favorites here, with you and ms. palmer and porcupine tree. Dude is a sucker for melodrama.

[dlgladwin.livejournal.com]

As pointed out above, Steven Wilson is the singer and main composer of Porcupine Tree, whose love of prog just possibly prompted him to cover The Guitar Lesson because of its resemblance to the How Dare I Be So Beautiful? section of the 1972 Genesis epic Supper's Ready, from the album Foxtrot.

Now, i wonder whether Mr Wilson covered the song for this reason, consciously or unconsciously? I'd guess the latter, if the influence came to bear at all, because his cover is faithful to the original. Surely if he'd wanted to point out the resemblance, he'd have alluded in the arrangement to the quiet section of Supper's Ready that comes before the visit to Willow Farm...

A flower?

[mcgazz.livejournal.com]

I'll confess to having seen Porcupine Tree live a few times. Wilson's version of the The Guitar Lesson is rather nice - I'm not sure whether he's brought something out in his version, or it's just that *everything* he covers ends up sounding like Genesis.

Palmer's cover of I Want You, But I Don't Need You, OTOH, is a bit shit. She's not very good, she gets the words wrong, and I reckon she'd curl up and die without the hideously fawning and reverential crowd she's patently got at that gig. By the looks of it, she could have just stood there and farted and the crowd would have applauded until their palms bled.

[kumakouji.livejournal.com]

Having just read your article, and a large chunk of the google books preview, I've ordered a copy of Fromm's book.

The first thing that struck me was the buddhist undertones of his thoughts, but I wasn't sure whether I was projecting that understanding onto his writings. Then I read a review on amazon.co.uk in which someone wrote: " Anybody who has been influenced by books written by Buddhist authors will particularly benefit from reading this, although it is probably a more difficult read than these." and it confirmed what I suspected.

I could be wrong, and I'm reserving proper judgment until I've read the book, but I think the reason you see the symbioticism of having and being within the art world is because you perhaps misunderstand fromms "being". You've all too readily cast yourself as the "goodie", the "being" aspect, in contrast the "baddies", the coveters, the "having" aspect. You see yourself as a shining post-materialist. In doing this, you've failed to recognise the "having" of the ego.

A few pages down from the preview you post, Fromm states that desire for status prompts consumption (of new cars). This is "having". The artist is just as capable of desiring the acquisition of social status (ego) as the art dealer is capable of desiring art for monetary reasons (material). That's exactly why "doing and making nothing might be the most effective way to be active and productive."

But then what of this?: ‘In the very attempt to suppress having and consuming, the person may be equally preoccupied with having and consuming’. The way I see it, it's of the same line of thought as this Zen story --

"Two traveling monks reached a river where they met a young woman. Wary of the current, she asked if they could carry her across. One of the monks hesitated, but the other quickly picked her up onto his shoulders, transported her across the water, and put her down on the other bank. She thanked him and departed.

As the monks continued on their way, the one was brooding and preoccupied. Unable to hold his silence, he spoke out. "Brother, our spiritual training teaches us to avoid any contact with women, but you picked that one up on your shoulders and carried her!"

"Brother," the second monk replied, "I set her down on the other side, while you are still carrying her."

[imomus.livejournal.com]

That's funny, that Fromm perception actually made me think of exactly the same Buddhist story! I know it from a telling by John Cage, on his record Indeteminacy.

[spoombung.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard the original version of 'I Want You, But I Don't Need You', but Amanda Palmer makes it sound just like a Tom Lehrer song. Nice.

[electricwitch.livejournal.com]

STEVE WILSON?! He's Barbie's boyfriend bandfellow from Porcupine Tree. MOMUS I THOUGHT YOU WERE A JAPAN FAN. Or were you only into it to shag Sylvia?

Amanda Palmer, though not doing Barbie up the butt (as far as I know), is much cooler imo.

[electricwitch.livejournal.com]

She's been doing some stuff with the Legendary Pink Dots, and Wilson only wishes he were that edgy.

All my very worst and most adolescent male students like Porcupine Tree.

[electricwitch.livejournal.com]

You know, maybe Amanda Palmer SHOULD do Barbie up the butt. Then everyone would believe she really does make Brechtian punk, I bet.

Barbie lends credence to everyone, even Steve Wilson, after all.

[trickseybird.livejournal.com]

lol Amanda would totes top

[cap-scaleman.livejournal.com]

The Passage got nice cover art there. It doesn't ring 80's synth music, just odes to it.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Yes, I always like very consistent, programmatic cover art, art that makes it look like the band has planned everything in advance.

[sleepyworm.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, I think Amanda Palmer's teenage fanbase will only assume that she wrote that song! I wanted her to give credit there...

Frat Party Brecht

[(Anonymous)]

Her audience manages to make the song sound like a Frat Party anthem. "F*cking, man. No love. Love is lame. YEAH. Just F*CKING. No involvement. No consequences. JUST F*CKING. Rock ON dude. Cabaret KICKS ASS. Whoop whoop."

[(Anonymous)]

The Emulator II was only $8,000 when it came out in 1982; making it only the price of a down payment on a house.

Hmm

[teaflax.livejournal.com]

You don't know who Steven Wilson or Amanda Palmer are? You really have lost interest in music, haven't you?

I mean, whether you like them or not (I like the first a lot and can't much stand the latter), you should at least have a clue who they are. If nothing else, Amanda Palmer due to her "fat belly" controversy with RoadRunner Records and Steven Wilson because he is one of the most prolific and musically driven contemporary artists around. Porcupine Tree may the most famous of the bands he's directly involved in, but he's been in No-Man for longer. He's also one half of Blackfield and has released albums as IEM and Bass Communion and he just now released his first solo album as Steven Wilson (and it's quite good, too). All that on top of his production work.

I guess your focus lies elsewhere, but this - just like the panning of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway after one cursory listen to side 2 - just seems a little sad coming from a musician I still admire.

Re: Hmm

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Oh, I didn't know there was a connection with No-Man, I used to go to their London gigs in the 90s (I remember seeing them at the Rock Garden, and meeting them). I have some No-Man CDs Wilson may have given me himself, unless it was Tim. There was some sort of courtship or mutual admiration thing going on at the time, I recall.

[(Anonymous)]

"I want you but I dont need you" is one of my very favorite songs, of your's or anyone's, it sounds like RD Laing as a cabaret singer...and I love how well it balances pleasantness & craziness

[count-vronsky.livejournal.com]

I think of all the music you have turned me on to, The Passage are my favorite.

[(Anonymous)]

When I was having a discreet mental episode many years ago I found a copy of Fromm's "The Fear Of Freedom" in Foyles on a loose afternoon

Just absorbing the title, and a cursory read of the introduction, set me (mostly) straight after my post-university "what on earth do I do now?" ennuiful phase, a plotted course I'm still following four years later

I should actually read the rest of it sometime... and this book also. All warmth, DC

[(Anonymous)]

Amanda Palmer and the Dresden Dolls single handedly saved music.