Musicians, Philosophizing

Found an (unintentionally) funny/ironic 1981 Musician Magazine interview between Robert Fripp and Joe Strummer. A snippet:

M: What’s the role of technique in all this?

F: Technique is part of what you do in order to get there. But when you’re there, you really don’t give a shit about technique.

S: Right, it’s a combination of innocence and expertise.

F: …and the more technique you have the more you throw away, and that gives you more authority. If you can only play one chord, and you play it with all you’ve got, that’s pure. If you can play 10,000 chords, but you play one that’s pure, it has an authority which the others don’t.

S: As Kierkegaard says, “Don’t fall in the cup of wisdom that you drink from.” What he’s saying applies to music, too. All those flurries of notes and runs are like falling in, when all you have to do is drink.

M: (To Strummer) That reminds me of that great line in “The Sounds of The Sinners”: “Waiting for that jazz note…

S: …Right, looking for the great jazz note that destroyed the walls of Jericho. You hit it. That’s what we’re after.

M: In a way, that’s what I felt happened that night I saw your show at the Palladium. There was this extraordinary energy coming through—a real feeling of oneness and unity. Is that what music is capable of? Is this what you’re aiming for?

S: Well, gosh, (laughs) maybe it has something to do with the price of the hot dogs that night. I don’t know, maybe you’re asking the wrong people.

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