Through The Earwormhole Part III: The Canterbury Scene

    In the beginning (1964-1967) there was The Wilde Flowers. The Wilde Flowers begat Caravan and Soft Machine. Thus The Canterbury Scene was born and for a time in the late 60’s and through the 70’s it was good. There was much cross breeding in The Canterbury Scene and many musicians played musical chairs between the various different lineups. Most likely this accounts for the common thread of musical sensibilities between the assortment of bands.

Canterbury Scene Family Tree

Canterbury is a cathedral city filled with (at times) ringing bells and church organ music. Canterbury bands used the organ as a lead instrument - filtered through a Wah-wah pedal and fuzz distortion ala Jimi Hendrix. The music was also heavily influenced by the improvisational quality of Free Jazz.

There is another aspect of Canterbury Scene music that sets it apart from other forms of Progressive Rock. It has a nonsensical quality. A whimsical literary quality. A silly humorous aspect that feels refreshing and liberating and reminds us not to take ourselves too seriously.

It comes from…

Lewis Carroll. It comes from…

Edward Lear. It comes from…

Spike Milligan. It also comes from…

Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe

The Goon Show and Spike Jones and the City Slickers and early Monty Python.

A good place to start...

If Robert Wyatt is the Canterbury Scene’s prodigal son, then Daevid Allen was the court jester.

Daevid Allen or “Divided Alien” co-founded Soft Machine in 1966 and Gong in 1967.

In 1960, Daevid Allen left his birthplace of Melbourne, Australia to live in The Beat Hotel in Paris.

He moved into the room that had been recently occupied by Peter Orlovsky (left) and Allen Ginsberg (right).

To make a living, Daevid Allen sold the “International Herald Tribune” around the Latin Quarter of Paris. The same year that saw the release of Jean-Luc Godard’s groundbreaking French New Wave film - Breathless.

Explore The French New Wave

Whilst making his rounds, he came into contact with experimental musician Terry Riley who helped immerse him in the Paris jazz club scene.

Terry Riley Guide

Sun Ra

Inspired by having met William S. Burroughs and excited by Sun Ra’s musical experimentation, Allen formed his first trio with the 16 year old son of his landlord - a young chap by the name of Robert Wyatt.

They performed music for a theater version of The Ticket That Exploded.

In 1966, Daevid Allen and Robert Wyatt joined Kevin Ayers and Mike Ratledge to form Soft Machine.

Daevid Allen Interview

After a tour of Europe, Daevid Allen was refused re-entry into the UK because his visa had expired. He went to Paris instead and participated in the 1968 Paris Protests.

NPR: The 1968 Paris Protests

For him, “participating” meant handing out teddy bears and reciting French poetry.

Robert Graves

After Paris, Allen turned up in Deya, Majorca where he met poet Robert Graves and recorded his 1969 album Majick Brother with Didier Malherbe - a flautist he had met in a cave on Graves’ estate.

In 1970, Daevid Allen hooked up with his old mate Robert Wyatt and recorded the album Banana Moon.

In 1971, Gong released Camembert Electrique and then between 1972 and 1974 Gong completed their Flying Teapot Trilogy (aka The Radio Gnome Trilogy) which consisted of Flying Teapot, Angel’s Egg and You. The trilogy was influenced by Bertrand Russel’s “Russel’s Teapot” theory.

Russell's Flying Teapot Theory For Dummies

At the time of the trilogy, Gong was signed with Richard Branson’s burgeoning Virgin Records which was riding high off the phenomenal success of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells.

In May 1977, Gong performed a one off show in Paris which featured Sting, Stewart Copeland and former Soft Machine guitarist (and Robert Fripp collaborator) Andy Summers performing as part of Mike Howlett’s band Strontium 90.  

Sting, Stewart Copeland, Henry Padovani (1977)

A double live album featuring a portion of the concert was released in 1977 entitled Gong est Mort, Vive Gong.

Robert Wyatt played on four Soft Machine albums called (wait for it) First, Second, Third and Fourth. All of these albums are highly influential and critically acclaimed (especially the first three) but Third is generally considered to be a masterpiece.

The album followed quickly on the heels of the landmark Miles Davis album Bitches Brew.

Third features four free form jazz compositions - the shortest clocking in at 18 minutes 12 seconds. The trio of Mike Ratledge (organist) Robert Wyatt (drums and vocals) and Hugh Hopper (bass) was accentuated by the addition of Elton Dean (saxophone) Lyn Dobson (saxophone and flute on Facelift) Jimmy Hastings (flute and clarinet on Slightly All The Time) Rab Spall (free jazz violin on the coda to Moon In June) and Nick Evans (trombone on Slightly All The Time and Out-Bloody-Rageous).

What can I say about the Third album that has not already been said. It is an essential album of The Canterbury Scene.

It is an essential album period.

In 1970 Robert Wyatt released his first solo album The End Of An Ear. He left Soft Machine a year later, after the recording of the Fourth album.

In October of 1971, Wyatt formed Matching Mole which is a pun on Machine Molle - a french phrase meaning “Soft Machine”.

Matching Mole on Rockenstock - 1972

They released two albums - Matching Mole in April of 1972 and Matching Mole’s Little Red Record in November of 1972.

The album’s aesthetic is a reflection of Wyatt’s increased political radicalism - possibly influenced by his fellow bandmate Phil Miller (guitar) who had lived in Cuba during the revolution.

The album’s title refers to Chairman Mao’s “Little Red Book” published in 1964.

The cover art is reminiscent of propaganda posters produced during China’s Cultural Revolution.

It was produced by Robert Fripp and featured Brian Eno playing synthesizer on the track Gloria Gloom.

On June 1, 1973, an inebriated Robert Wyatt fell from a four story apartment which resulted in him being paralyzed from the waist down and confining him to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

Two of his former bandmates, Dave Sinclair and Phil Miller, went on to form Hatfield and the North. They recorded two albums - the eponymous Hatfield and the North in 1974 and The Rotter’s Club in 1975.

The 2001 novel The Rotter’s Club by Jonathan Coe took it's name from the album. The novel holds the record for the longest sentence in English literature at 13,955 words.

This feat was inspired by a Czech novelist named Bohumil Hrabal who wrote a book using one sentence called...

Dancing Lessons For The Advanced In Age

Dave Stewart from Egg played keyboards.

Before you ask - No, not the Dave Stewart from Eurythmics.

Egg’s two most notable albums - 1971’s The Polite Force and 1974’s The Civil Surface are both examples of the use of puns for titles.

The 1977 concept album Kew. Rhone. featured lyrics by Peter Blegvad who made great use of anagrams, palindromes and other verbal games. Blegvad lived in New York City in 1975 where he was a background animator for Peanuts films.

Mont Campbell, who doubled on bass guitar and vocals for Egg was also a member of National Health.

He later contributed music to the Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire soundtrack.

Another key part of the Canterbury Scene is the influence of the psychedelic counterculture i.e. psychotropic drugs, eastern religions and music - for example the droning elements of Indian ragas.

So…. let’s make a Canterbury Cake, shall we? Here is a list of the ingredients.

1.  Church organ sound used as a lead instrument and accentuated by fuzz distortion and Wah-wah.

2. The improvisational quality of Free Jazz as embodied by the way out there musicians like Sun Ra.

3. A healthy dose of British humour - Spike Milligan, The Goon Show, Monty Python and Spike Jones.

4. A nod to the whimsical literary tradition of Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll.

5. The expert musicianship of Progressive Rock.

6. A healthy dose of psychedelia.

Mix it all up and bake for an hour at 360 degrees and I think you might have it.

The Essential Albums

Caravan - In The Land Of Grey and Pink

Daevid Allen - Now Is The Happiest Time Of Your Life

Egg - The Polite Force

Gong - The Radio Gnome Trilogy

Hatfield and the North - The Rotter's Club

Matching Mole's Little Red Record

National Health

Soft Machine - Third

Kevin Ayers - Joy Of A Toy

Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom

John Greaves & Peter Blegvad - Kew. Rhone.

The cover of Kew. Rhone. is an 1806 painting by Charles Wilson Peale called Exhuming The First American Mastodon.

Peter Blegvad was also a member of Slapp Happy along with Dagmar Krause and Anthony Moore. In 1974, the band moved to England where they briefly merged with Henry Cow.

Be sure to check out the comprehensive documentary Romantic Warriors III: Canterbury Tales to learn more.

Trailer for RWIII

I’ll close with Gong performing “I Never Glid Before”.

Director Lucas or: How I Stopped Listening To Jaded Contrarians and Learned To Love Episode I

Director Lucas or: How I Stopped Listening To Jaded Contrarians and Learned To Love Episode I

Sometimes you have to swim upstream against the tide of popular opinion to find the real truths in life.

I can't stomach individuals who hide behind groups because they can't face their own faults and shortcomings. I cannot tolerate intolerance and I often contradict contrarians. That being said, there is room in any debate for an individual to stand up and voice something different from the standard groupthink.

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace landed like a bomb in theaters on May 19, 1999. I saw it at the now defunct outside-the-mall movie theater at the Sarasota Square Mall. I was excited. My Dad fell asleep about 5 minutes in. I’ve learned over the years that his snoozing is no indication of the quality of the film. I was 26 years old at the time.

To hear the multitude of opinions now, one would be forgiven for thinking that Episode I was an abject failure. With a budget of $115 million, most of it straight out of George’s own pocket, it’s pretty obvious that Lucas wanted complete control and to get it he had to front most of the cash himself. The film made $1.027 billion dollars.

Not a bad return on investment.

This despite Jar Jar and Jake Lloyd’s performance.

Let’s look closer at the reviews. Rotten Tomatoes has a 57% “Rotten” rating and Metacritic gives it a 51 out of 100. Both ratings are the lowest of any of the 6 Star Wars films. Roger Ebert gave it 3 ½ stars. Most other ratings run the center line. The chorus of extreme derision comes from so-called “fans” on internet forums, led by a triumvirate of journalists - Brent Staples (The New York Times), David Edelstein (Slate) and Eric Harrison (Los Angeles Times).

This is not to say that there aren’t legitimate things to criticize. If you have seen the documentaries “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls” or “A Decade Under The Influence”, you will know that the two films that are generally believed to be the death knell of auteur cinema are “Jaws” and “Star Wars”. That was the beginning of popcorn blockbusters and the era of diminishing returns for truly artistic cinema.  

Like the insipid drek that followed in the wake of Punk and Prog Rock, there was a transition in Hollywood from taking chances to safe bets. That is why you see so many remakes and sequels.

In a perfect world, you would see a healthy mixture of both. Fun, escapist films alongside deeper and more compelling art films. I’ve always felt that you need both. You need time to delve deeply and immerse yourself in certain things, but you also need time to recreate your mind. There have been many studies that have shown that students who take breaks during study groups do better than those who cram information non-stop. I have always tried to find the art in entertaining films, and the entertainment in art films.

Getting back to Episode I, let us look at the two biggest areas of criticism in the film - Jar Jar and Jake Lloyd.

Jar Jar Binks was conceived as a completely digital character. In that way, Jar Jar was a success. Even if you despise Ahmed Best’s performance, Jar Jar does look like he is present in the scene. One could argue that the work done on Jar Jar in 1999 paved the way for the portrayal of Gollum in “The Fellowship Of The Rings” 2 years later.

Okay, enough tap dancing. Let’s get to it. Jar Jar is annoying. He was designed as comic relief for children. Even at this - he fails. He’s not funny. If as much work had gone into his characterization as his digital design elements then perhaps things would have been different. Rob Coleman, a lead for the ILM team, tried to avert disaster by warning Lucas that the team thought that Jar Jar was coming across poorly. Would the film be better off without him? Watch Mike J. Nichols’ “The Phantom Edit” and see for yourself.

That is, if Disney Enterprises will let you.

Jar Jar has been parodied on South Park, The Fairly OddParents, The Simpsons and Robot Chicken. Hell, even I got in on it in this illustration for my novel “The People’s Republic of Retail”.

Here’s another take on Jar Jar.

On Jar Jar & Ewoks

George Lucas did not take the criticism lying down. Here’s a quote from a 1999 BBC piece.

"There is a group of fans for the films that doesn't like comic sidekicks. They want the films to be tough like Terminator, and they get very upset and opinionated about anything that has anything to do with being childlike.”

You can read the rest of the article here…

George Lucas Fights Back!

Simon Pegg has recently revised his earlier criticisms in light of the toxicity that has arisen in fan communities in the age of Trump. I wholeheartedly agree with him.

Enough Jar Jar. Let’s move on to the next bit of criticism. Jake Lloyd’s performance.

Darth Vader is one of the most iconic figures to ever grace the silver screen. Is there any way that someone could portray him without all the things that make him… him? The black suit? The voice? It would be like portraying Iron Man without the suit. It’s a prospect that is virtually doomed to failure.

I’ve watched all six films back to back in the order that they were meant to be watched. The films are about Anakin Skywalker. They are about how one person can gain too much power, turn towards evil, and eventually find redemption. There is only one way to do this. The child has to be good. No hint of evil. The journey must be a complete one. Let’s not forget that George Lucas is the bastard child of Akira Kurosawa and Joseph Campbell.

The Hero’s Journey is a circle. In order for it to proceed accordingly, the character at the beginning can bear no resemblance to the character in motion. It is only upon their return to the beginning that we can evaluate them fully. As much as I would have liked to see Jake Lloyd put a force choke on Kitster, that’s not how it works. The tragedy is not a character who is evil and then becomes more evil, no. It is a character who is good and then turns to evil. They make a choice. A real bad one. One that they cannot come back from but through the arduous path of redemption.

This is how Vader redeems himself. This is how he brings balance to the force. Not in killing the emperor, but by saving his son.

Believe it or not, Vader unmasked right before his death is closer to his younger Anakin self than at any other point along his journey. Think about this for a moment. The two different versions of the character that we seem to like least are pictured above. What does that say about so-called “fans”? We can’t accept that Anakin was once good and that he could be again? We are more titillated by the idea of a broken down half cyborg who is subservient to the bureaucratic forces above him and who in turn murders his subordinates (and unarmed prisoners) for telling him the truth? Are we stunted as a generation, unable to see and appreciate that people can and do change? Do we find evil cooler and more sexy?

Grand Moff Tarkin is Vader’s leash holder. It is known throughout the universe. Princess Leia mockingly refers to this twisted relationship when she is captured. This frail old man is literally more powerful than Darth Vader in that he can command and control him.

George Lucas & The Cult of Darth Vader

From a June 2, 2005 Rolling Stone interview with Lucas about Darth Vader:

“Ultimately, he's just a pathetic guy who's had a very sad life.”

“He even gets pushed around by the governors.”

“So it's even more tragic, because he's not even an all-powerful bad guy, he's kind of a flunky.”

Those are a few bits that help illustrate my point. The interview is fantastic and revealing. Click on the link above the quotes and read the whole thing. You won’t be disappointed.

Jake Lloyd and Ahmed Best haunt the periphery of comic book conventions and do voice work. It’s hard not to think that their careers were cut short due to all the backlash.

Hayden Christensen seems to have fared better.

Perhaps because he got to wear the black suit.

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope was released on May 25, 1977. It changed cinema. It began the era of shifting away from social commentary films to big blockbusters.  By all accounts, George Lucas had a miserable go at making the film. He eventually made so much money that he was able to wrest creative control away from the studio execs. He couldn’t have known that at the time. He was only 33 years old.

This is an example of Islamic art. Beautiful. Intricate. It is haram (forbidden) to create an image of man since it is believed that only Allah has that power. Quite a restriction in that virtually all of western art has to do with the depiction of figures. However, the limitations have given way to a flood of creativity. Within these borders, artists find unique ways to tell stories and to represent ideas. The limitations have not stifled the flow of art, rather they have enabled it.

This is the Mosfilm logo.

The image is the monument “Worker and Kolkhoz Woman” by Vera Mukhina.

Mosfilm was founded in 1920 and is the largest film studio in Russia. Most of the great Soviet era films came out of this studio. The Soviet government intervened a great deal with regards to issues of censorship.  Russian artists, be they writers, filmmakers, painters or musicians - have all had to deal with censorship and governmental interference from the Czarist era to the modern day. The best have found ways around the censorship, and some even used it to their advantage.

The point I’m trying to make is that limitations often bring out the best in an artist. George Lucas had limitations galore on “A New Hope” and virtually none on “The Phantom Menace”.

I was thrilled when “Episode I: The Phantom Menace” came to theaters. I had grown up with Star Wars all my life. One of the fondest memories I have of a time with my mother is when we waited outside an Arizona movie theater for hours in a line that wrapped around the building to see “The Empire Strikes Back”.

Whatever criticism you may have, and a lot of it is legitimate, George Lucas kept his promise. He finished his film. At a time when I find it hard to finish a novel I’ve been working on for over four years, his achievement stands as a benchmark. I will always be grateful to him for seeing it through.

I don’t know? I find it hard to turn on an artist who has provided entertainment, broadened the borders of my imagination and provided a bit of enlightenment. He’s earned the right to make a bad call now and then. He’s earned the right to experiment without a generation of elitists throwing a tantrum.

When the smoke cleared, you had a group of jaded contrarians on one end crying about how he did not make the film that they saw in their individual minds, and you have George Lucas on the other end who did something that will last for good or ill.

With that in mind, I’ll sit through Jar Jar and Lil’ Ani…

As long as I get a little Darth Maul along the way.

And besides, there is always A New Hope for the future...