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Patti Smith showed me what sacred music is Patti Smith showed me what sacred music is
(3 months later)
The first time I saw Patti Smith perform was in Gothenburg in the summer of 1978. She was ragged and skinny, an awkward dancer with a nose like an icebreaker and a voice like a hatchet but that evening she was the sexiest thing I have ever seen. She seemed a channel for some supernatural vitality, not merely sexual – the force that through the green fuse drives the flower.The first time I saw Patti Smith perform was in Gothenburg in the summer of 1978. She was ragged and skinny, an awkward dancer with a nose like an icebreaker and a voice like a hatchet but that evening she was the sexiest thing I have ever seen. She seemed a channel for some supernatural vitality, not merely sexual – the force that through the green fuse drives the flower.
I spent the whole next day working in an erotic delirium.I spent the whole next day working in an erotic delirium.
That is the kind of effect that rock music is meant to have, but she's the only performer who has ever done that for me. I saw her again in 2007, in a small club in Cambridge, and she was still great, though I was older, too. And then, 10 days ago, she turned up at the Fes festival of the world's sacred music in Morocco and played for a couple of thousand people in a natural arena formed by the walls of the old city.That is the kind of effect that rock music is meant to have, but she's the only performer who has ever done that for me. I saw her again in 2007, in a small club in Cambridge, and she was still great, though I was older, too. And then, 10 days ago, she turned up at the Fes festival of the world's sacred music in Morocco and played for a couple of thousand people in a natural arena formed by the walls of the old city.
The idea of a world festival of sacred music is a slightly odd one: almost all of the sacredness of any piece of music derives from the context in which it is heard: Beethoven in a concert hall is an expression of reverence for the sublime, but the same music piped into a shopping mall is simply there to choke your mind with grease. Then there is music intended for Christian worship that is now listened to for its atheist sublimity, Benedictine chant as chillout music, and the whole panoply of "world music", which almost all has spiritual roots from which it has been wrenched for mass-market consumption.The idea of a world festival of sacred music is a slightly odd one: almost all of the sacredness of any piece of music derives from the context in which it is heard: Beethoven in a concert hall is an expression of reverence for the sublime, but the same music piped into a shopping mall is simply there to choke your mind with grease. Then there is music intended for Christian worship that is now listened to for its atheist sublimity, Benedictine chant as chillout music, and the whole panoply of "world music", which almost all has spiritual roots from which it has been wrenched for mass-market consumption.
It's all rather like the little plastic tubs of forced basil or thyme you can buy in supermarkets to put on a window sill for a couple of days. Although they are technically alive, and will serve to make a salad, they'd never take root and grow properly in a garden.It's all rather like the little plastic tubs of forced basil or thyme you can buy in supermarkets to put on a window sill for a couple of days. Although they are technically alive, and will serve to make a salad, they'd never take root and grow properly in a garden.
Then there is the opposite process, of sacralising music originally meant as completely profane. This is what Patti Smith does. When I asked her, in the press conference beforehand, what made music sacred, she replied that it was an entirely subjective process, and for her encompassed everything from a song her mother had sung to Jimi Hendrix singing "Are you experienced" and the noise of the swifts wheeling above the courtyard of her hotel. Her signature tune, Van Morrison's Gloria, is a song about a girl that she sings as if it were about the glory of God, and incorporates the wonderful chilling howl: "Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine". (I know she sang it softly it on the record, but she howled it at the Bab Makina in Fes.)Then there is the opposite process, of sacralising music originally meant as completely profane. This is what Patti Smith does. When I asked her, in the press conference beforehand, what made music sacred, she replied that it was an entirely subjective process, and for her encompassed everything from a song her mother had sung to Jimi Hendrix singing "Are you experienced" and the noise of the swifts wheeling above the courtyard of her hotel. Her signature tune, Van Morrison's Gloria, is a song about a girl that she sings as if it were about the glory of God, and incorporates the wonderful chilling howl: "Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine". (I know she sang it softly it on the record, but she howled it at the Bab Makina in Fes.)
She talks a great deal about prayer, and about spirituality. But although I am sure I have read an interview in which she described herself as Christian once, what really sets her against conventional Christianity is not just her trampling blasphemy, but the optimism and democracy of her views and her cheerful pantheism. In Cambridge she paid homage at Wittgenstein's grave, to Rimbaud, whose birthday it was, and then gone off to dine at King's.She talks a great deal about prayer, and about spirituality. But although I am sure I have read an interview in which she described herself as Christian once, what really sets her against conventional Christianity is not just her trampling blasphemy, but the optimism and democracy of her views and her cheerful pantheism. In Cambridge she paid homage at Wittgenstein's grave, to Rimbaud, whose birthday it was, and then gone off to dine at King's.
When she's playing it is only the power of her feelings that comes across. The context is so determinedly one of passionate transcendence that nothing else matters.When she's playing it is only the power of her feelings that comes across. The context is so determinedly one of passionate transcendence that nothing else matters.
Curiously enough, this was much less true of the straightforward gospel choir from Chicago. They were technically wonderful but the content of their songs seemed entirely subservient to the entertainment values. Perhaps this was just as well. When I listened to them belting out that fine old gospel classic, "I'm a soldier in the army of the Lord" against a Moorish background, in a country that speaks Arabic because it was conquered by Muslims and French because it was conquered by Christians, I wondered how much of a harmless good time uplift we'd have got if they had been singing instead, "I'm a jihadi in the army of Allah".Curiously enough, this was much less true of the straightforward gospel choir from Chicago. They were technically wonderful but the content of their songs seemed entirely subservient to the entertainment values. Perhaps this was just as well. When I listened to them belting out that fine old gospel classic, "I'm a soldier in the army of the Lord" against a Moorish background, in a country that speaks Arabic because it was conquered by Muslims and French because it was conquered by Christians, I wondered how much of a harmless good time uplift we'd have got if they had been singing instead, "I'm a jihadi in the army of Allah".
It really is context, not content, that makes a piece of music sacred, or, as the rather shamanic Peter Wolf used to sing: "It ain't what you do – it's how you do it".It really is context, not content, that makes a piece of music sacred, or, as the rather shamanic Peter Wolf used to sing: "It ain't what you do – it's how you do it".
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