I was choring in the garden today. I generally listen to audiobooks in my earbuds while I work out there, but I turned my current book off today and put on a new playlist I just made yesterday (“El Rock Clásico”) instead. I don’t listen to a lot of classic rock (except I guess sort of everything I listen to is classic rock, if you consider its age…) but this playlist has a bunch of music that’s a bit more obscure. It’s all music that I liked when I was a teen and I wanted to see how much of it held up for me. Immediately cut from the list, for instance, halfway through each song, were “Badge” by Cream and “Conquistador” by Procol Harum.
However, this post was inspired by a song I have always loved that is pretty far outside my usual wheelhouse: “The Low Spark of High-heeled Boys,” by Traffic (1971–it came out one year before I did). This is a long song, decent lyrics, weird chorus. I’ll come back to it.
- Ugly Music
I’ve always loved what I call ugly music. It can be songs with “normal” structure and harmony/melody that just has ugly lyrics (Neko Case is so good at tackling ugly issues in gorgeous songs, like “Last Lion of Albion”), but usually I am referring to music that is noisy, dissonant, and powerfully delivered. The song I always use as an example of my musical taste is “Fabricoh,” by Archers of Loaf . What is it about the chaos and dissonance of these songs that I love? Presumably there are a lot of us who prefer this sort of music, even if we are a minority.
My musical tastes are pretty wide, though, and I can find ugly music anywhere. The preference even translates to jazz. Here are other good examples.
“Do You Like Me?” by Fugazi
“Jesus Christ Pose” by Soundgarden (Chris Cornell’s VOICE! Kim Thayil’s GUITAR! Has anyone ever been more 90s Seattle than Cornell in this video? No. No they haven’t.)
“Queenie” by Ethyl Meatplow (Emphatically NOT safe for work, language-wise. Carla Bozulich’s voice though, ye gods.)
“I Drown” by Barkmarket (If I ever get a speeding ticket I’ll be listening to this song at the time.)
“Tango til They’re Sore” by Tom Waits (To be played at my funeral. That piano at the beginning is so jangly and dissonant but strangely beautiful and harmonically appropriate.)
“Duet Solo Dancers” by Charles Mingus (Just. Whoa.)
“My Favorite Things” by John Coltrane (Trane’s flights of fancy on this one are otherworldly.)
- Frisson
I also experience frisson, which is the phenomenon of getting chills or goosebumps while listening to music. While I usually see this described as happening during beautiful music, but for me it happens during powerful music. I believe the response of unintentional tearing up or crying during music is related to frisson, though I can’t necessarily find a reference to bear that out (but see here for a study that examined both). I know I’ve told the story before of having to pull my truck over, pretty much crying uncontrollably, because a song came on that overwhelmed me with its beauty and power—the live version of Superchunk’s “Slack Motherfucker,” performed by fIREHOSE.
For another example, I was just scouting the Charles Mingus I wanted to include here and my wife asked me what it was. I just said, “Mingus,” and my jaw dropped open unintentionally and my eyes started watering.
Good stuff.
I’m actually not sure how related this is, but there are songs that I know how to play and sing that I literally cannot play in front of people because I start crying every time. Maybe I’m just unhinged.
- And Now, Traffic
So when you get all the way to the end of “Low Spark” (the 11:00 mark), there’s this unglued, fuzzed out guitar solo. You might even convince me that it was a saxophone or other horn run through a fuzz effect because of the way it’s articulated, except for the chords. A saxophone can’t play chords! But the song ends with two completely dissonant chord voicings that do not seem to fit. The first one holds for a minute and you’re like, goddamn, what is he DOING, then it resolves to something even more out of whack with the harmony of the song. It hits, my jaw drops open, and my eyes water. Every time. I know it’s coming and it still hits me like a freight train. It’s masterful.
That’s it. Surprising no one, I like ugly music that a lot of people find annoying.
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