Well, you did what you believed in, which is what we should all do.
Besides, what kind of life style is rock success anyway? Especially for a
couple of jewish kids from Seattle...
Indeed. Part of what turned me off rock music is the culture that surrounds
it. Anthony Braxton says it best: "You are what
you listen to".
They, and other groups like them were certainly a major inspiration, in the
sense you say: If they could do it, why not us? Unlike the Fugs, however,
I did have a pretty strong knowledge of music theory, although no one else
in the group did. I already knew a fair amount of harmony, counterpoint,
etc, just from self training. As you said, it is easy to pick this stuff
up, especially if you are mathematically inclined. My problem has never
been the theory, it has been the technical skill on an instrument, which I
still do not have. I can read through the Jazz Theory book, for example,
and all seems clear. However, when reading, you can take your time. When
actually playing in "real time", you need to be lightening quick, which
seems to take years of practice. I have just never invested this time,
although I am starting to now. Thus, some of our songs were rather complex
for a rock group, and I routinely used chords like D13(flat5)flat9, and knew
well when I was playing inside or outside. But little of it was improvised,
I had to slowly work things out in advance, learn to play it bit by bit
myself, and then show it to the rest of the band bit by bit. It was
tedious, which is why we only had a grand total of about 15 songs after 3
years of playing.
