Tolkien had a similar theory. He believed that since God is a creator and man is made in His image, man has inherited the desire to create, resulting in art and storytelling.
I recently watched a documentary called "Picture My Face" on the Canadian band Teenage Head (named after the classic Flamin' Groovies album of the same title) who is a very influential band that never quite broke out. They formed as teenagers in 1975 and quickly gained ground as local favorites before almost breaking out. However, a stroke of fate caused them to have a road accident and sidelined the band for nearly a year and stopped their momentum entirely. Then, despite struggling for over 30 years, their lead singer (and childhood friend) died in 2008. The documentary was made in 2017, almost ten years after that and just as they were gearing to release a compilation of found tracks closed studios returned to them. All their stuff was out of print, too.
I was expecting the documentary to cover their career and background, but there was a lot of talk on suffering and overcoming grief and how it relates to music. These guys are old now, in retirement age, and watching it was an interesting experience.
The guitar player is the brother to a Catholic priest who was interviewed and talked about how despite the fact they took different paths, they do connect. He presses on about how their party music (called mindless in many circles) deals with overcoming suffering and pushing through it. Which it does. They wrote about partying and having a good time, but also the bad and the downside and how to survive, which ended up being their entire career. You see, the guitarist still deeply misses the singer, the two were close friends for so long, and the entire documentary really emphasizes that brotherly relationship the band had.
There is one part in particular where he was talking about the music he made with his friends and its power and I swear for a moment his face looked exactly like it did in the photos of when he was a kid starting out. It's hard to explain, but I couldn't help but see that rock n roll master still there underneath the weight of suffering and the passing of years threatening to forget him. the documentary ends with him regaining his courage and going back out to make music again.
The power of art isn't just to connect us with the audience, our peers, or God, but also to ourselves: to remember that part of us that is core to who we are. They no more could stop playing than writers can stop writing. That is their calling, and it is embedded in them forever.
There's something to that, and I've been thinking about it a lot recently.
That’s beautiful man. I get it too. I never had much success, but there was nothing like creating music with my friends, whether it was in grade school, high school, college, or as an adult, and I miss it and, most importantly, THEM, deeply. I still think about my buddies in my old high school band and how everything we did felt like more than just having a good time. Art is powerful like that.
I’ve never heard of Teenage Head. Where’s a good place to start with them?
Nov 27, 2023·edited Nov 27, 2023Liked by Alexander Hellene
Their first two albums (the self-titled and "Frantic City") are considered their best. The first one came out in 1979 and has an early New York Dolls-style punk vibe and the second branches out a bit more in other rock styles. Either of those would be the ones to get into first.
While I never really liked much before 2112 and fell off after Roll the Bones as I shifted to more of an industrial/wave/trance mode, so cannot speak to later albums, Presto is actually my favorite studio album by them.
I never had the hit-or-miss feeling with Rush that they leaned out to far trying new things, or were too self-indulgent or playing to impress the musicians, or whatever that I often did with Yes, ELP, and other namecheck prog bands of the era. They always managed to thread the path of musical intricacy and accessibility to a general-ish audience
Interesting! Presto took a while to grow on me but, like Hold Your Fire, it’s a truly beautiful album full of well-crafted SONGS, and Geddy’s voice is the star of the show (singing Neil’s excellent lyrics, of course).
Good point about Rush keeping the throughline throughout all of their changes. I think it was in large part because, at their core, they remained a hard rock/proto-heavy metal band, whereas many of their prog contemporaries came to prog rock from classical or jazz or avant garde; they started weird whereas Rush started normal and then got weird. Rush also attacked everything, including their melodic keyboard stuff, with aggression, energy, and volume, which helped.
Funnily enough, Geddy Lee has often said that the story of Rush was pushing too far so their reach exceeded their grasp. I’m just sad they’re gone because to my ears they never lost it and were still making vital music until the end.
Tolkien had a similar theory. He believed that since God is a creator and man is made in His image, man has inherited the desire to create, resulting in art and storytelling.
Like usual, Tolkien says it best, and is where I think I first heard this analogy. Always appreciate discussing the master.
I recently watched a documentary called "Picture My Face" on the Canadian band Teenage Head (named after the classic Flamin' Groovies album of the same title) who is a very influential band that never quite broke out. They formed as teenagers in 1975 and quickly gained ground as local favorites before almost breaking out. However, a stroke of fate caused them to have a road accident and sidelined the band for nearly a year and stopped their momentum entirely. Then, despite struggling for over 30 years, their lead singer (and childhood friend) died in 2008. The documentary was made in 2017, almost ten years after that and just as they were gearing to release a compilation of found tracks closed studios returned to them. All their stuff was out of print, too.
I was expecting the documentary to cover their career and background, but there was a lot of talk on suffering and overcoming grief and how it relates to music. These guys are old now, in retirement age, and watching it was an interesting experience.
The guitar player is the brother to a Catholic priest who was interviewed and talked about how despite the fact they took different paths, they do connect. He presses on about how their party music (called mindless in many circles) deals with overcoming suffering and pushing through it. Which it does. They wrote about partying and having a good time, but also the bad and the downside and how to survive, which ended up being their entire career. You see, the guitarist still deeply misses the singer, the two were close friends for so long, and the entire documentary really emphasizes that brotherly relationship the band had.
There is one part in particular where he was talking about the music he made with his friends and its power and I swear for a moment his face looked exactly like it did in the photos of when he was a kid starting out. It's hard to explain, but I couldn't help but see that rock n roll master still there underneath the weight of suffering and the passing of years threatening to forget him. the documentary ends with him regaining his courage and going back out to make music again.
The power of art isn't just to connect us with the audience, our peers, or God, but also to ourselves: to remember that part of us that is core to who we are. They no more could stop playing than writers can stop writing. That is their calling, and it is embedded in them forever.
There's something to that, and I've been thinking about it a lot recently.
That’s beautiful man. I get it too. I never had much success, but there was nothing like creating music with my friends, whether it was in grade school, high school, college, or as an adult, and I miss it and, most importantly, THEM, deeply. I still think about my buddies in my old high school band and how everything we did felt like more than just having a good time. Art is powerful like that.
I’ve never heard of Teenage Head. Where’s a good place to start with them?
Their first two albums (the self-titled and "Frantic City") are considered their best. The first one came out in 1979 and has an early New York Dolls-style punk vibe and the second branches out a bit more in other rock styles. Either of those would be the ones to get into first.
Nice! Thanks. Canada’s music scene is largely unknown here in the States. Too bad.
While I never really liked much before 2112 and fell off after Roll the Bones as I shifted to more of an industrial/wave/trance mode, so cannot speak to later albums, Presto is actually my favorite studio album by them.
I never had the hit-or-miss feeling with Rush that they leaned out to far trying new things, or were too self-indulgent or playing to impress the musicians, or whatever that I often did with Yes, ELP, and other namecheck prog bands of the era. They always managed to thread the path of musical intricacy and accessibility to a general-ish audience
Interesting! Presto took a while to grow on me but, like Hold Your Fire, it’s a truly beautiful album full of well-crafted SONGS, and Geddy’s voice is the star of the show (singing Neil’s excellent lyrics, of course).
Good point about Rush keeping the throughline throughout all of their changes. I think it was in large part because, at their core, they remained a hard rock/proto-heavy metal band, whereas many of their prog contemporaries came to prog rock from classical or jazz or avant garde; they started weird whereas Rush started normal and then got weird. Rush also attacked everything, including their melodic keyboard stuff, with aggression, energy, and volume, which helped.
Funnily enough, Geddy Lee has often said that the story of Rush was pushing too far so their reach exceeded their grasp. I’m just sad they’re gone because to my ears they never lost it and were still making vital music until the end.