We recently re-ran an early Rock Town Hall (blog edition) piece by Townsman BigSteve on his visit to Seattle’s Experience Music Project (EMP). I was just in Seattle for a quick weekend work trip, and during my 2 hours of free time I made sure to check out this museum with my own ears and eyes. BigSteve’s piece had me stoked!
My hotel room offered a fantastic view of the body of water and mountains surrounding the city. The city itself was surprisingly unkempt and weatherbeaten, dare I say “grungey,” but the natural setting was impressive. Straight ahead, maybe a mile away, was the Space Needle and what looked like a colorful clump of molten plastic. This was the EMP building.
I thought about taking the monorail over to maximize my 2 free hours, but wisely, as it turned out, decided to walk. A block into my walk, the monorail train I probably would have caught had broken down on the tracks. Fire engines and rescue ladders blocked 5th Street. I crossed over to 6th Street and caught whiff of some doughnut factory. Doughnuts do not smell that good when baked en masse.
“That whole guitar-smashing/amp-humping routine of Jimi’s, as slightly embarrassing and calculated it would seem when artists following his footsteps would try it, seemed sincere and even necessary for the evolution of rock when Pete Townshend and then Hendrix did it”
Was Cobain brave or foolish for attempting to walk with giants?
Cobain was brave for many other things, in my opinion, but his guitar-smashing/amp-humping routine seemed no more powerful than what any of us might have done out of a desire to be part of that tradition. What do you think?
I’m truly ambivalent but I did think it was funny how indignant people were about that SNL appearance, often making a big show of re-enacting how bored they were by it. Even if their reactions were more nuanced, they seemed just as peeved as my parents would be.
On the other hand, the whole tradition has a privileged, “carpenter disrespectful to his tools” quality that bugs the grandson of the Depression in me.
Still, if he was only aiming to get himself in the footnotes of rock history, Cobain must be pleased somewhere that no discussion on the politics of guitar-smashing can be held without mentioning his name.
-db
(just finishing up his vacation and getting into the swing of things….)
Yeah I’m not really interested in science fiction, so I forgot all about that part of the museum. It’s true that the inside is not as out there as the exterior of the building. It seems like there’s a lot of wasted space, like they haven’t quite figured out yet all of what’s going in there.
One thing that exhibit does in reinforce the once-in-a-lifetime aspect of Hendrix. Even with all the artifacts of his upbringing and apprenticeship, he still seems to have come out of nowhere. Genius is always a quality that cannot be adequately explained, but Hendrix is a special case.
That EMF building is ugly as all heck. It looks like a melted Visible V-8 Engine model kit.
Jim said “…Hendrix (who played on a Covay single I don’t know)”
I say: What Covey track did he play on besides Mercy Mercy? Do you recall the name?
I don’t recall the name. I’ve been meaning to look it up.