Two Musical Interludes

Two anecdotes I like from the Ultraclassy World of Music:

As a young man in 1950's New York, composer Morton Feldman (sort of a minimalist New York dude that wrote dense and quiet pieces -- beautiful in a not readily apparent way) hung out a lot with Stefan Wolpe, a sort of intense German-born mad-scientist-type composer.

They were hanging out in Volpe's apartment in the Village, back when crazy composers sort of HAD to live in the Village, and Wolpe was ranting about how music had to appeal to the common man (strange, since Wolpe's music tends toward the academic).

"You need to write for the man on the street!" At which point, Wolpe points out the window of his apartment. Feldman looks out to see the man in the street, who at this self same moment happens to be Jackson Pollock.

Feldman's music does sound like that, music for a world where everybody is Jackson Pollock.

**

Frank Zappa is being interviewed by a Swedish journalist. I guess the Jonestown Massacre is still semi-fresh in the public consciousness at the time of the interview.

The Swedish Reporter: "You're song Jones Crusher, this is about how much hatred you have for Jim Jones that you actually want to crush him?"

Frank Zappa: "No. Actually that song is about a woman with extremely strong vaginal muscles."

The Swedish Reporter : "Oh... well that's very different,"