Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-7pwfn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-13T23:19:52.679Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘A magic science’: rock music as a recording art

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Paul Clarke
Get accessRights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Jimi Hendrix once claimed ‘I'm working on music to be completely, utterly a magic science’ (Henderson 1981, p. 337). It is a description that fits not just the best of Hendrix's own music, but the best of all that late twentieth-century music in which the ability to capture and control sounds (on tape or disc) has become a means of extending old musical forms and traditions, and establishing new possibilities for them. Throughout his career, Hendrix drew nourishment from his musical roots in black traditions, but it was not until the summer of 1967 that he plugged himself fully into the new possibilities opened up by the technology of sound recording. Hendrix had already proved himself something of a musical ‘magician’ in the ancient sense in that he attempted, through music, to mediate between order and disorder, using his guitar as an expressive extension of himself to flirt with the danger and power of musical disintegration (for the parallel with non-Western musical practice see Shepherd 1977, p. 72; Mellers 1973, pp. 24–6; Clarke 1982, pp. 227–9).

Information

Type
Part 3. Modes of Musical Production
Information
Popular Music , Volume 3 , January 1983, pp. 195 - 213
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

References

Books and articles

Clarke, P. 1982. ‘The artist in the studio: relations between language and music in the making of contemporary rock songs’, unpublished MA thesis, University of KeeleGoogle Scholar
Christgau, R. 1969. ‘Rock lyrics are poetry (maybe)’, in The Age of Rock: Sounds of the American Cultural Revolution, ed. Eisen, J. (New York), pp. 230–43Google Scholar
Cole, H. 1974. Sounds and Signs: Aspects of Musical Notation (London)Google Scholar
Eno, B. 1982. ‘On record’, Sunday Times Magazine, 31 10, p. 94Google Scholar
Esslin, M. 1961. The Theatre of the Absurd (London)Google Scholar
Esslin, M. 1973. Pinter: A Study of his Plays (London)Google Scholar
Frith, S. 1979. ‘Listening to lyrics’, in The Ilkley Literature Festival 1979 Programme (Ilkley, Yorks.), p. 17Google Scholar
Frith, S. 1980. ‘Try to dig what we all say’, The Listener, 26 06, pp. 822–3Google Scholar
Henderson, D. 1981. S'cuse Me While I Kiss the Sky: The Life of Jimi Hendrix (New York)Google Scholar
Hoare, I. 1975. ‘Mighty, Mighty Spade and Whitey: black lyrics and soul's interaction with white culture’, in The Soul Book, ed. Hoare, I. (London), pp. 117–68Google Scholar
Johnson, L. K. 1975. Dread, Beat and Blood (London)Google Scholar
Keil, C. 1966. Urban Blues (Chicago)Google Scholar
Laing, D. 1970. The Sound of Our Time (Chicago)Google Scholar
Leigh, S. 1973. Paul Simon: Now and Then (Liverpool)Google Scholar
Marcus, G. 1977. Mystery Train (New York)Google Scholar
Mark, M. 1979. ‘It's too late to stop now’, in Stranded: Rock and Roll for a Desert Island, ed. Marcus, G. (New York), pp. 11–28Google Scholar
Martin, G. and Hornsby, J. 1979. All You Need is Ears (London)Google Scholar
Mellers, W. 1973. Twilight of the Gods: The Beatles in Retrospect (London)Google Scholar
Middleton, R. 1972. Pop Music and the Blues (London)Google Scholar
Parsons, M. 1969. ‘Rolling Stones’, in The Age Of Rock, ed. Eisen, J. (New York), pp. 118–20Google Scholar
Perkins, V. F. 1972. Film as Film (London)Google Scholar
Poirier, R. 1969. ‘Learning from the Beatles’, in The Age of Rock, ed. Eisen, J. (New York), pp. 160–79Google Scholar
Ricks, C. 1980. ‘Can this really be the end’, in Conclusions on The Wall: New Essays on Bob Dylan, ed. Thompson, E. M. (Manchester), pp. 47–9Google Scholar
Rogers, D. 1976. ‘Varieties of pop music’, in Pop Music in School, ed. Vulliamy, G. and Lee, E. (Cambridge), pp. 5–32Google Scholar
Saal, H. 1975. ‘Dylan is back’, in Bob Dylan: A Restrospective, ed. McGregor, C. (London), pp. 105–8Google Scholar
Shepherd, J. 1977. ‘The musical coding of ideologies’, in Shepherd, et al. , Whose Music?: A Sociology of Musical Languages (London), pp. 69–124Google Scholar
Southern, R. 1962. The Seven Ages of the Theatre (London)Google Scholar
Stevens, W. 1966. ‘Selections from “Adagra”’, in Modern Poets on Modern Poetry, ed. Scully, J. (London), pp. 153–8Google Scholar
Willis, E. 1975. ‘Bob Dylan’, in Bob Dylan: A Retrospective ed. McGregor, C. (London), pp. 89–105Google Scholar
Wishart, T. 1977. ‘Musical writing, musical speaking’, in Shepherd, et al. , Whose Music?: A Sociology of Musical Languages (London), pp. 125–53Google Scholar

Records

Ian, Dury and the Blockheads. 1979. ‘Waiting For Your Taxi’, Do It Yourself, Stiff Seez 14A (London)Google Scholar
Johnson, L. K. 1978. ‘Five Nights of Bleeding’, Dread, Beat and Blood, Virgin vx looz (London)Google Scholar
Redding, O. 1965. ‘I've Been Loving You Too Long’, Best of Otis Redding, Atlantic k60016 (New York)Google Scholar
Sedaka, N. 1962. ‘Breaking Up Is Hard To Do’, RCA 1319 (London)Google Scholar
Simon, and Garfunkel, . 1970. ‘The Boxer’, Bridge over Troubled Waters, CBS 563699 (New York)Google Scholar
Extracts from ‘Waiting For Your Taxi’, ‘I've Been Loving You Too Long’ and ‘Sail Away’ quoted by permission of Warner Bros. Music Ltd. The extract from Linton Kwezi Johnson's ‘Five Nights of Bleeding’ appears by permission of Virgin Music Publications Ltd.Google Scholar