https://www.angelfire.com/art2/dream/index.html
writegirl2000@hotmail.com
Did you ever hear the song “LSD” by Aliotta, Haynes, and Jeremiah? It’s a late 60s song about Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. LSD runs up the coast of Lake Michigan, it’s curvy, a beautiful view of the city, and of course the hippies loved the abbreviation.
Saturday night I had the pleasure of seeing Aliotta, yes he’s still performing, at a little dump here in my town. My pal Zorrid took me. Maybe twenty people showed up. Another twenty or thirty came in during the first set. Aliotta was calling it a private party. Luckily most of the Yuppies that wandered in left within a half hour which cleared the way for a lot of howling and dancing and pure fun.
Musically, Aliotta and his now band “The Groove Machine” are amazing. Young bands seem to want loud for the sake of loudness, and think nothing of drowning out the lyrics. That didn’t happen here. Full-throated, in-your-head music complimented by a light machine that threw amorphous lava lite shapes in pink, yellow, and blue all over the walls. The ever-changingness of the images made the walls seem alive!
Zorrid is like 54. He is an original man. He loved “LSD” when it first came out, as he says, “...back when people could have sex and not think about AIDS.” So at break I snagged Aliotta (as a present to Zorrid) and it became a big lovefest! There they are talking about LSD and they find out that they were both in bands in neighboring Chicago burbs! They did the battle of the bands, played at a place called “The Fickle Pickle”, and dated some of the same women! Ha! I could tell that they had the same sensibility, but I had no idea they were music blood brothers!
Aliotta handrolls his cigs and he showed me his glowing nipple lighter, haha! He is the father of a 1-year-old with another baby due next month…a Christmas baby. He said it took him a long time to get to the fatherhood part. I think that’s true of obsessed/possessed peeps. The passion is so strong little else can enter. My dad was 54 when I was born, so I can dig it, but the bad part is that maybe the older dad won’t be around for that long.
Anyway after talking to us the band went outside on break, maybe a 420? Zorrid who had been up since 5:30 a.m. was starting to fall out so I said we could leave anytime and we took off. The band was just coming back in and they begged us to stay, “The second set is even better.” They hustled us back into the club and Aliotta brought over a CD for us. That was cool and yes the second set was amazing. Aliotta has such vocal range.
Here’s the part I wanted to talk to you about. They did “LSD” again and Aliotta did the same outrageously wonderful antics…exactly the same as the first time during the first set.
When I took Zorrid home I commented on that. I complained that what I thought was so fresh and spontaneous the first time was simply a “do-again.” Zorrid said, “Oh no. That is his signature piece. You want it to be the same. You want him to be able to do it again and again and not mess with it. That is the ritual that he plays all of the rest of his music off of. You don’t mess with the ritual piece.”
That opened my eyes. It is what you and I have been talking about…ritualizing one’s work. Is this how its done?
I’d love to have your input on this, seeing that not only are you wise to ritual but you are a musician as well.
Thanx for the Kubrick link on alchemy. For me the piece pointed out the necessity of symbolism in one’s work.
One day will will all glow, and not from radiation.
P.S. BTW, I'm 5'7 1/2", almost 5'8". I usually say 5'7", build mostly, it seems, of legs. Does that mean anything alchemically? Is it about displacement of space?
