I first heard THE BEATLES “Number 9” when it was initially released. Bill Chifon’s older brothers were into THE BEATLES and Bill, Joe Polgar and I started running around the Alameda Elementary School playground in the fourth grade carrying cardboard guitar cutouts (I’m sure I have suggested this in an earlier article [heading into my third year of penning this site has definitely left me befuddled]). Bill C. ALWAYS got to be John Lennon, and I alternated between Paul and George – though I’m not quite sure as to who ran around with Ringo’s drumsticks.
Well, again, even though this article is dated the 15th of May – I’m actually writing it on Tyler’s 18th birthday: May 25th – and this has contributed to the essay title of “Anachronism” – my musical nom de plume (for those not in the know): connoting things that are out of sense, and, out-of-time (where I invariably find myself). Son Tyler always gives me pause – he has become my strangest relationship of all: either there is so much communication that the necessary and sufficient condition has overflowed, or, there has never been any communication at all…
Let me pull these strands together (Tami A. I promise I’ll read your latest stuff – I’ve just been overwhelmed with pulling semester’s end together [and I hope you caught ‘White Wash’ – which is what you need to do to start making your mark…])…I liked ‘em, Tami A. You are definitely perfecting sexual innuendo – whether intentional or not!
I played “Birthday” from THE BEATLES White Album onto Tyler’s voice mail this morning – seeking to give him a birthday wake-up. Then, I listened to the balance of The White Album – which I haven’t listened to in years. The “listening” propelled me all the way back to 1968 — when Bill Chifon’s brothers actually spun #9 around backwards on the turntable and we listened to those lyrics: “I buried Paul.”
After listening to #9 again – I realized that every avante garde and experimental musical sound or atonality was birthed by this madcap fusion. I could recite band-after-PINK FLOYD-band that was influenced by this very strange hodge-podge piece – but “name dropping” ain’t the-name-of-my-game! Unless the name happens to be ANACHRONISM.
Like THE BEATLES, I’ve been “the first” in a number of things. I certainly would NEVER deign to suggest that anything that I’ve done musically would ever approach a BEATLES tune – but I’m pretty sure that I’ve put some ideas and concepts “out there” before anyone else…
Take for instance the see-through plastic jewel case: Before I put out ANACHRONISM: For Those Still Awake and Those Who Never Slept (a tribute to my fertile time and acceptance of inertness for 20 years [I like to refer to them as the ‘Rip Van Winkle’ years]) – everyone was issuing their CDs in jewel cases with a black binding. I felt that Sister Monika’s artwork would lose its effect with the black binding – that the black binding would be a stopper to the flow of the art. I very much liked the effect of the clear plastic binding, and now, 10-years-after – everyone is doing it!
And now that I’ve mentioned Sister Monika (one-of-the-few-times), I recall us talking about the collective unconscious, and, how we’re all hooked into this common brain pool, and earthly success is often determined by how quickly one pulls an idea from the Brain Pool and exploits it in the earthly realm. I started writing a vampire novel at least 16-years-or-so-ago (maybe 20) – and now I see many of my ideas in “True Blood”; “Moonlight”; and, “Twilight.”
I’m even starting to see my thoughts and sentiments in this here oasis from chaos expanded in articles in my beloved Times and in magazines – which leads me to believe that folks are latching onto my ideas and running with them: the greatest form of flattery for me!
And I think that I am getting closer to mastering a tone that doesn’t offend – but simply stimulates or satisfies…déjà vu…