well, i tried to go to ireland and
they wouldn't allow me to because of the i.r.a. (irish republic army,
one of the many local religious murder gangs - teejo).
i.r.a.
god, frightening....
most likely it was from fear of the raccoons
and mountain lions you might take along (laughs)... so, you
never made it to ireland?
no, they didn't allow it, damn.
why? were you threatened by the ira, or
did you have friends who were republican sympathisers?
oh, no! no, the plane wouldn't go.
(laughs.) i hate that: wilful machinery...
you're an old-style adventurer, aren't you? you went down the - so to say
- amazon kind of rock 'n' roll?
well, i....
in a helicopter!...
i'll tell you the truth: i..., i don't know
what 'rock 'n' roll' is.
okay.
i know the midnighters. does that sound familiar
to you?
the midnighters? no.
they are a rhythm and blues group, i guess.
yeah.
'annie had a baby'....
yeah, but the baby wasn't called rock
'n' roll.
the baby was too bold.
i know. rock 'n' roll is no longer bold
- it is a bit cowardly, in fact...
er, that's exactly what í think...
yes...
can i play you a tune?
that would be a treat.
allow me to turn this on.
don van vliet plays
two songs: duke ellington's 'take the a-train', and 'i don't know'
by sonny boy williamson II...
untitled drawing
for mr. b - don
van vliet 160680
how was that?
wow, who was that?
that was sonny boy.
oh my god, it sounds so fresh, like the
paint isn't overworked. it sounds so fresh, while it is very difficult
to let those chords sound fresh, but i think that that was the discovery
of the whole movement. that's an original recording, right?
he plays horrible harp.
wow!
horrible harp. uh-huh!
yeah, extraordinary.
yes.
and who's the girl
that sings, the woman who creates her own language, a jive...
betty rochelle. rocher
(pronounced
in french), to be precise.
in ireland we would
say roach.
that's cool.
did you play that on that on cd or vinyl?
must ask the boss.
(calls
his wife.) jan? jan! jan, was that a cd, or vinyl?
jan van vliet:
vinyl.
vinyl.
yeah, just like i thought. even across
the phone you can kind of feel the groove of it. it's
just different, don't you think?
right.
it really is.
are you suspicious of all the, say, digitalising of everything nowadays?
i hate it.
yeah?
i hate it, you hear me. goddamn sons of bitches.
nowadays it are
binary numbers. what to do with a óne and a zéro?...
exactly! (laughs.)
i know. there's something about the physical
thing of the needle in the groove, it's like sex and it's a contact sport.
right. (laughs.)
i think the digital recordings have a
personality, but it is the personality of formica. it is a shiny surface.
some music can sound good on it, some hip hop, because they've got lower
end. but i agree with you, vinyl is a solution.
tell me what hiphop is.
oh, hip hop is an amazing thing. hip hop
is how - it's an interesting subject - how black people use technology
to discover africa.
ah god, i wish they would quit killing the
beasts.
the what?
elephants.
yeah.
and the lions.
yeah.
