Yes, this is one of those Posts. Totally driven by a random song heard on the radio.
So, since it is Friday and we have ‘made it’ through a week, let’s just relax and watch some videos and consider the issues confronting the Doctrine, all in a laid back way. (When was the last time you heard that expression)?
I know, let’s do a Post using made up questions from Readers!
Q: What is it about the frenetic energy of the scotts? That Prima guy in the video from yesterday, all over the place, is he for real?
A: Glad you asked (lol). Yes, he is ‘for real’ (“what is this ‘dated idiom’ day?”), setting aside the ‘why’ of the question, this excessive activity is of a twofold nature. One – scotts (and if anyone doubts that Louie Prima is a scott, then get the fuck out of my blog) just have a lot of energy and virtually no (interior subjective) life. This energy comes out in a form that is purely physical. Watch Louie in the vid, he is the star of the show; he is on stage and clearly the center of attention, but it is not enough, (it is never enough). So he waves his hands and arms, does everything/anything to assure himself that everyone is watching. (Not quite accurate, there is not enough established mental life within to justify the idea of ‘assuring himself’.) He can’t help himself. Anyone with a 3-5 year old boy or a puppy will recognise this behavior. Glenn has submitted the tee shirt phrase (…when are they coming out?! I want one now!…) : Scott: I scream therefore I am, which is a great one for his people. But, relating to scottian energy levels you also have the expression: “a scott alone in a room…isn’t”
Q: OK, I can dig that (…!!60’s anachronism Tour bus…now arriving at Gate 69!!) Then how do you explain that second video. Why would someone be so very weird on purpose. Can’t she see everyone laughing?
A: Ah, you mean the clarklike female doing the cover of “If six were nine”? Lol. This ( I would love to be rogerian enough to claim that this choice was consciously deliberate), is a perfect comparison of a clark and a scott. It is also an (equally) perfect illustration of the limitations of a scott. (I assume that Readers have spent enough time in the ‘Pages’ to know the characteristics of clarks, scotts and rogers…)
So let’s talk about these two videos/musicians.
Both are performers. Both are presenting (their) own interpretations of a song, but more to the point, both are performing for an audience. The distinction is made because to perform implies that the performer is aware that others have done what they are doing and they (Louie or Erika) must distinguish their version. (“Make it their own”, as glenn is fond of saying).
But look at both of these performances, side by side.
Louie is only concerned with making sure that the audience pays attention to him. What a scott. Since this is music, the test is: close your eyes…listen. What do you hear? With Louie Prima’s performance, what you hear is mostly the audience…laughing at his antics, and occaisonally applauding. That and a ‘hit all the notes,( sort of), singing’, because as it totally clear, Louis is singing because that is the thing that he does as an excuse to get up in front of the audience. (The audience is applauding in recognition of a song they have heard before). If we are talking ‘artistry in music’, one can only say, “poor Louie, poor, poor Louie”
Now to Erika. The total opposite. She is all about performing a song creatively. She is barely aware of (an) audience…she is totally into her music…from her vantage point (which we all know is in far, far, outer space.) What a clark. (Slight digression: clarklike females have special characteristics that are culturally driven, to wit, the clothing. “Hey Erika, did the Salvation Army thrift truck crash into your house this morning while you were getting dressed? Damn.)
But let’s pay attention to what she seems to be doing.
(At this point our scottian Readers will be at a disadvantage. They tend to know what they like and ‘fuck all that other crap’ serves to deal with other music styles).
Anyway, speaking as a fan of Jimi Hendrix, the things this Erika person is doing is at a (comparable) skill level to Louie’s playing to an audience. The sounds she creates…with some toy amplifier…just incredible.
But to look at these two, side by each. They are perfect examples of their type, no… they are perfect examples of the characteristic expressions of their type.
The scottian performer: in a conventional setting with supporting performers who ‘know their place’, Louie wears the costume appropriate to his milieu, and he has only one concern: to make sure the audience reacts/responds/pays attention to him.
The clarklike performer: small venue (surprise!) with supporting musicians who are clearly all rogers (who probably feel sorry for Erika and are there to provide her with their superior musical support), Erika seems to wearing whatever she bumped into at home, (with some sort of dress to make sure no one thinks she is weird). And her only concern is to perform the music, to create something that is true to the original, but clearly a creative act.
God, I love this Doctrine thing. I mean, seriously, this little discussion about two wildly different musicians in terms of clarks and scotts is a totally impressive testament to the validity and efficacy of the Wakefield DOctrine. Tell me I’m lying…
Ok time for one last question…
Q: How long are you going to try and keep this one-a-day pace up?
A: That was a stupid, self-serving question…try again
Q: Given the musical topic what kind of videos will you have to close, can you discuss them first, before we listen?
A: Yes, yes we can. The first is a really odd choice ( lol, as if…)
(If you did not immediately think of Madeline Kahn…you need to go watch Blazing Saddles again)
(btw this is the song that attached itself to me yesterday afternoon, like one of those little ‘landmine’ shaped stickers you get walking through a field…)
Ok, (I know that you did not sit through the whole thing…)
Anway…running late for work…Steven…take us out…
About clarkscottroger
Love the Edith Piaf thing. I’m sorry, but Erika would do just as well with her “act” at home. Nobody gives a shit Erika. Try to think of some kind of way to make yourself stand out from the crowd why don’t ya. Holy shit! Erika, you want to be an artist–but all you became is a curiosity. Reveling in your weirdness is not art. Your act seems to say..”Help me! I’ve become so weird I can’t find my way back to normal!” Sorry…Erika pisses me off. Love Steven Wright. I do not hate clarks. Just Erika. Louie is a performing artist. He is also far more than a “hit all the notes sort of” singer. His style of scat singing is unique and engaging. His jazz phrasings and melodic departures from the written notes are vocal improvisational artistry at its best. And he does it while carrying on, goofing off, and acting like a clown. Talk about total committment to pleasing an audience. And he makes it look easy. It is not. I have read that his performances were heavily rehearsed. Every move and nuance was thought out and planned to create a sense of immediacy and nonchalance. He was an inveterate womanizer and died young of alcoholism. More proof that he is a real artist. Erika will die young from boring herself to death. Don’t get me wrong. I’d DO her. But I wouldn’t spend much time talking to her afterward. Maybe I’d say something like, “Hey listen…I gotta run..” –and I’d get the fuck out quick before she started talking about how different and weird she is. I don’t mean this in a bad way…
Interesting follow-up Comment and a challenge in the ‘defintion of terms’ aspect of any discussion of what is a subject value. Is (musical) artistry measured by the audience response or is it solely measured by the individual? Not such an obvious question or (answer). As a scott, glenns’ measure (of artistry) is the effect of the individual on the pack. As a clark it is all about the individual (meaning both the critic and/or the artist.
By glenns’ definition, Stephen King is (a) superior artist to Shakepspeare because more people read his books.
Am not in total disagreement with this, however, as often happens the subject (the ‘target’) becomes altered by the process (of discussion). In music or art or literature, the Heisenberg Principle (with a slight paraphrasation) exerts itself, (i.e. the act of observation alters the observed).
I would submit that to another person, ‘scat singing and jazz phrasing’ by Mr. Prima is essentialy the same thing as Erika did with her $10.00 amplifier and her voice. It is all a matter of (musical) taste.
As to Louis’s holding the attention of the audience…stop by the monkey house at the zoo…see that group of people at the cage, laughing and enjoying ‘something’ as a group? They are mezmerized, riveted by something, they can’t take their eyes away, they respond as one, laughing, saying ‘awww’ as one.
But the larger question is relevant; as a scott, not only is glenn measuring/judging the behaviors of others by ‘scottian principles’, he his ownself is offering us a glimpse into the world he experiences, i.e. the world of a scott.
…damn! what a Doctrine.