Y’know, I’m second to no one in my admiration for Brian Eno’s artistic talents, both musical and visual, but to imply in some way that on his new album he’s created a new form is, well, too much. He’s not the first to approach spoken word as though it’s musical, or to match it with music.

Eno says in the liner notes to “Drums Between the Bells”: “I hope this record will signal the beginning of a new way for poets to think about their work, and for audiences to think about poetry.”

I can’t imagine what this “new way” might mean, given:  Steve Reich’s Come Out (1966), Gil Scott-Heron’s The Revolution Will Not be Televised (1971), or, well, my own stuff, which I recorded six years ago or so and will one day get around to putting up on iTunes. These are all examples of spoken word (poetry) set against music. Eno’s new album is spoken word (poetry) set against music. How revolutionary.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 9th, 2011 at 2:19 pm and is filed under Eno, Brian, Music, Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.