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Conception is everything in art.
And art was very important. Until greed triumphed in the eighties and money became everything. Those with money thought they could buy art, that owning objects would get them closer to the source, gain the zeitgeist contained in the works, but this is a flawed vision, even though prices for artworks go up and up.
And we have the same thing in music. It’s been quantified. It’s all about the dollars. But art was never about the dollars, it was about conception. And after conception comes execution, but sans conception you might have a record, an album, a movie, but you don’t have art.
Art overwhelms us. Because it’s a great leap forward. Prior to experiencing it we cannot envision it, it’s outside our realm of not only experience, but thought. Then, there it is.
They call this pushing the envelope. And isn’t it funny that the astronauts got all the attention and adulation, but really it was Chuck Yeager who made the great breakthrough. And Yeager’s efforts in breaking the sound barrier were hiding in plain sight until another artist, Tom Wolfe, told his story in the book “The Right Stuff” and made Yeager legendary.
Wolfe wanted nothing to do with the movies of his books. He took the check and went to the theatre to see the finished product. Because books are different from films. At best, the director can take the source material and create something new and different, but this is rare, what we mostly get is paint-by-numbers execution, fodder for the masses, they know the story, but not the nuances.
So Brit Marling was far off my radar screen when I started to watch “A Murder at the End of the World.” But I was immediately drawn in, and then wanted to know more about her. That’s the case with great artists, you want to know everything about them, so you can try and understand how they came up with their work.
And it’s very rare that artists break through with their initial work, because at first people can’t understand it. It takes a while for it to penetrate. So I didn’t know that Brit Marling had a creative backstory, that before “A Murder at the End of the World” she and her partner Zal Batmanglij had done “The OA.”
It was hiding in plain sight, like those records in the bins that were there but you didn’t buy for years. But these two had fans, and they were the ones who hipped me to “The OA.” Which is jaw-droppingly fascinating. Slow, but riveting. While I was watching it all I could think was HOW DID THEY COME UP WITH THIS?
“The OA” could never be a movie. It wouldn’t be long enough. Series are today’s art form. Movies are passé. Singles in an era of albums. Movies just don’t go deep enough. Movies are one hit wonders, great series are “Sgt. Pepper.”
Yes, “Sgt. Pepper.”
Rule number one of the music business was an album had to have a hit single. “Sgt. Pepper” had none. And it was a concept record. We can argue whether it was the first, but it was the first with attention, and it was a great leap forward, it wowed listeners, who kept on thinking HOW DID THEY COME UP WITH THIS STUFF? Weren’t the Beatles just the Fab Four, hit single makers whose looks appealed to women, a fad? But no, it turned out they were risk-takers, who took the entire world on a journey.
But that was the sixties.
In the sixties you didn’t teach to the test, you expanded minds. College was about broadening your horizons, not getting a job. And therefore seeds were planted in people who ended up creating great art. At the time we didn’t know how much money there was in music, no one had made as much as Led Zeppelin, whose manager broke the rules, demanding 90% of the concert gross.
Yes, an artist needs a midwife. A manager. A team. Which opens doors, smooths the path. Someone who can’t create the art, but recognizes artistry when they see it.
Change, it’s inevitable and what keeps us living. The unexpected. Which is why I hate the MAGA right wanting to return to a fictitious past that wasn’t so good to begin with. And an educated elite which keeps on telling us to get off our devices. The power of a supercomputer right there in our hands, that we can control…talk about a great leap forward. But rather than journey into the unknown, those who “know better” tell us to stop and go back to the way it used to be. Just like musicians tell us to listen to the entire album. But that’s not how it works. The internet disintermediated the album, and therefore you have to think out of the box.
But most people don’t.
Because they’re never taught to think. Some artists seem to spring from nothing. But most were inspired, not only by the work of the past, but teachers along the way. I write this screed as a result of a couple of happy accidents. One was a high school teacher who insisted we write for the first five minutes of class every day, and if we couldn’t think of anything new to say, we had to repeat the last three words over and over. I didn’t even realize the benefit of this. I was liberated from the Iowa Workshop and the rest of the rewriting wankers whose books are read by few. I was inspired by musicians. Whose inspiration oftentimes comes in bolts, in a flash, as if from God, and then they lay the songs down. So many of your absolute favorites were written in minutes, in under half an hour, they were channeled by the artist, who can’t tell you exactly how they do it, just that they recognize it when they experience it.
I only write when I’m inspired. Because otherwise it’s not good. It’s an album track. Maybe interesting, but not a landmark. And you can’t create a landmark, a 10 or 11 every time out, but you keep on trying.
I’m trying to capture lightning in a bottle.
This is not a novel, that’s something different.
Did you read that story in the WSJ about the writer taking the time to watch an entire movie? Yes, it’s hard, with so many distractions, which are oftentimes better than the film you’re viewing. If you want our attention you’d better be damn good, otherwise we’re gone.
I’d like to hear a record like “The OA.” I used to come across them on a regular basis. Like the first Wire album, “Pink Flag.” What exactly was that? Or even U2’s “Achtung Baby,” the first few listens it didn’t make sense at all, then it became better than any other U2 album, even the vaunted “Joshua Tree,” because it was not just a collection of songs, but there were new sounds, it was unlike anything we’d ever heard before.
And there were people like Bowie who specialized in this. Or Dylan. This is why they’re legends, because they’re artists, they’re beholden to themselves, not the audience. Once you’re a prisoner of the audience you’re no longer an artist. The lemmings will love you, but your work will suffer, it will be standard pablum.
The first season of “The OA” is better than the second. I can almost understand why Netflix canceled it. And if you told me to watch a TV show about different dimensions I’d laugh in your face and say no. But I’ve never seen a show like “The OA.” I’m stunned it even got made. That the brass laid out cash for it. But this was the Netflix of yore, building its reputation. The woman who green-lit “House of Cards” is gone, now it’s about commerciality. But art is never about commerciality at first, that comes later, if at all. You make it and make it and you wait for it to resonate. You change, you experiment, you keep on searching for the zeitgeist.
You must have experience, the tools, which is why teenagers so rarely create lasting art. Or, if they do, there’s an aged cowriter who is really responsible. Because you have to have the skills and tools before you can create art.
But to a great degree entertainment today is left to the lower classes, who have got nothing to lose. Those from a good background don’t want to risk failing, so they get graduate degrees and go to work in finance or tech or another great paying gig. Whereas artists always create without a net.
And the deck is stacked against you. The record label wants more of what came before, same deal with the movie studios. But with so much success in the sixties and seventies, with money raining down, record labels signed all kinds of stuff. But not today, opportunity cost is just too high.
Which is why you have to create your own opportunities.
And you don’t have to tell people you’re an artist, your work speaks for itself.
It’s a life, it’s a calling. And most people calling themselves artists are not.
But some are. Like Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij. I’ve never seen anything like “The OA.” Which is not perfect, but its innovation kept me tuned in. I couldn’t take my eyes off it.
Check it out.
