Not a good mood in Normal entries

There was this flautist named Jean-Pierre Rampal. He passed in 2000. I doubt there was any fanfare or mourning, not around here at any rate. I had the great good fortune to see him sometime in the early seventies (I’d just be making a date if I listed one, I do want to say 72 for no particular reason at all). My dad took me and afterwards we went backstage and talked to him (Both my dad and I had played the MSU auditorium, and my dad actually knew the guy, so we had ways and means). I was sort of into Jethro Tull at the time. Jean-Pierre’s set included rock, classical and jazz; it’s a college town.

My respect grew for Ian Anderson, front man for Jethro Tull, because This genius flautist, this man touched by god, covered some Tull song. I dug a thumb drive out of the glove box while driving, so it wasn’t a considered choice, and it started with a bunch of my favorite Tull songs. You know, for the most part, they kind of sucked. I mean there’s like three songs of theirs that I wasn’t embarrassed to be listening too. I could blame a lot of shit on going out without my back fully functioning (cranky, cranky cranky) but that doesn’t account for how saccharine that band was. Saccharine is closer to what I mean than suck, suck covers a multitude of tunes; they knew how to play their instruments. It’s just that they only had the two kinds of songs; snotty positive and snotty negative. One of their biggest hits, Aqualung, managed to do both. I also realized that if my paw was 100 percent and I took a month to retrain my chops, I could do any Ian Anderson riff that’s been recorded. Mostly he played a sort of linear rhythm flute riff. What impressed most of the fans was how he could make a flute growl. All you need is a pick up, well, all you need for audience to hear a flute growl is a pick up.

During the short iteration of the band Traffic, they recorded two albums, where they had a full band, not just guitars and a rhythm section, there was a great rock flautist in the band. I’ll be damned if I ever caught his name. Classic rock radio will still play Low Spark of high heeled boys, on the long version the guy has a full solo; it’s transcendent and effer-fucking-vescent. The only Ian Anderson solo I can think of that’d get him a bronze medal behind Traffic and Jean-Pierre, is in the song living in the past. It reminds me a bit of the Organ solo in Yes’s Roundabout. Yes, was not a bad band but it’s really hard for me to listen to any old yes songs, they are a bit too precocious and naïve and spandex. I can’t recall if they were a spandex band, but their sound makes it seem like a lot of aqua net and spandex went into a performance. I used to call those high pitched big hair bands castrati bands. Some of my friends thought that was a compliment. Some of my friends were awfully pretty.

As I was shouting at my dashboard “Perhaps your Bunghole in the Jungle is thick as a brick you pretentious twat” the whole jean Pierre rampal thing hit me. What I remember most about speaking with him was how very humble he was. Um, yeah, my boast about time and paw power letting me play all tull songs? It’s not about my prowess, the flute isn’t my first or even second instrument. I don’t consider myself very good and I can find some character witnesses who would attest to that, I’m just saying with a bit of critical listening, Ian Anderson wasn’t … shit, I don’t know if he was good or not, I know he didn’t have to be to play Tull songs. The band was mostly Schtick. Doesn’t mean he wasn’t better. Any musician or actor who can make a living playing deserves recognition, that alone is some feat. As shitty as, say, the Sex Pistols were, they were paid musicians. Johnny Rotten might even have known how to play.

Ok, I’m going to look for a rampal song that’s sweet and to the point, I have no idea what I’ll find on youtube, but I’m going to find and post like a good boy in his twilight.

Shit that was difficult. That song up there isn’t a great showcase, but it’s sweet. It’s a better showcase for Bolling.