Reply To: JoCoJollyGoodShoAGoGo – The UK Tour
Dangerous territory, but we’re responsible adults, aren’t we? Let me quote from one of my favorite and much-linked-to pieces of internet writing, Clay Shirky’s essay A group is its own worst enemy.
The religious pattern is, essentially, we have nominated something that’s beyond critique. You can see this pattern on the Internet any day you like. Go onto a Tolkien newsgroup or discussion forum, and try saying “You know, The Two Towers is a little dull. I mean loooong. We didn’t need that much description about the forest, because it’s pretty much the same forest all the way.”
Try having that discussion. On the door of the group it will say: “This is for discussing the works of Tolkien.” Go in and try and have that discussion.
Now, in some places people say “Yes, but it needed to, because it had to convey the sense of lassitude,” or whatever. But in most places you’ll simply be flamed to high heaven, because you’re interfering with the religious text.
I’ll stick out my neck and go a little bit beyond Angelastic [ETA: Huh? That’s Jmonkee!] and Colleenky. From what I’ve seen live, and from live videos, his emphasis in on doing a show, not on showing off skilz on the guitar. Skilz he has aplenty: singing and songwriting spring to mind. And in the recordings he shows a great aptitude for arranging, as well as for playing instruments in a setting where he gets to concentrate (temporarily) on nothing but getting a good performance to disk. The role of the guitar in the live shows is mostly just to keep a basic accompaniment going so he can do the Important Stuff. With a handful of exceptions, this seems to consist of strumming; the exceptions being the songs with distinct picking accompaniments. When an instrumental solo is expected, like the guitar solo in RYB, it gets kind of shrugged off – “We’ll take the guitar solo as read, darling”.
On the self-deprecating/in-joke front, I find myself wondering how to read the handful of “jazzy” chords he sometimes throws in. In Birmingham, I recall him doing a sharp-9 chord in a a prominent part of a song (forgotten which one now) where it’s completely out of style. It certainly wasn’t a slip, since he emphasised it in both volume and body language – something like a “jazz grimace” 😉 I’d like to read it as “Look what chord I learned yesterday”, done as an ironic take on people who would do exactly that kind of thing seriously.
Since I dared to agree with JoCo that the guitar aspect of the live show wasn’t the highlight, let me hasten to add that I am blown away by the vocal arrangements with P&S, especially Tom Cruise Crazy.