A Sensitive Dependence on Initial Conditions (or random events that changed music)

droid

droid

Well-known member
OK, Im looking for life changing and/or random events that had a major influence on the personal lives of musicians and/or the history of music - a couple of examples:

Geno Washington turning up at a party with a couple of Ian Brown's mates, and convincing Brown that he had what it took to be a rock star. Apparently it was Washington's enthusiasm that convinced Brown to join the band.

http://louderthanwar.com/night-ian-brown-met-geno-washington/

Neil Young driving his hearse around LA and just happening to drive past Stephen Stills and Richie Furay, going on to form Buffalo Springfield and... well the rest is history.

Glyn Johns being made head chorister at the age of 11 at his local church.

Eno attending a lecture by Pete Townshend about the use of tape machines by non-musicians in 1969.

Tim Smith giving Dizzee his first cubase assignment, or rather, Langdon Park school benefitting from free cast off computers from Canary Wharf companies: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2003/sep/21/urban.dizzeerascal

The more random the better.
 
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CrowleyHead

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Microscopic, but YG was originally just gangbanging, but he came to prominence as a rapper and dancer in the jerk movement because his little brother started dancing and he wanted to support him to encourage him to stay away from banging. Its mentioned in a documentary on Jerk somewhere on youtube.
 
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PiLhead

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the accidental meetings that led to band formations and therefore could easily have not happened, these seem the most counter-factual generative - like Sioux and Severin meeting at the Roxy concert at Wembley

but others - seems fairly likely that Eno would have come across other things that would have shown the creative potential of tape machine - ian brown probably had enough of dormant ego that something would have fanned it enough to become a lead singer - maybe not that band at that juncture though
 
Benny Bunter

Benny Bunter

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Obv he was allready an accomplished musician but i always found the story of robert wyatts accident before making rock bottom (and getting married) very moving and inspirational.
 
droid

droid

Well-known member
PiLhead said:
the accidental meetings that led to band formations and therefore could easily have not happened, these seem the most counter-factual generative - like Sioux and Severin meeting at the Roxy concert at Wembley

but others - seems fairly likely that Eno would have come across other things that would have shown the creative potential of tape machine - ian brown probably had enough of dormant ego that something would have fanned it enough to become a lead singer - maybe not that band at that juncture though
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Ha yes, sure, although the Washington encounter seemed to have made an enormous impact on Brown, and who knows... Eno says that was the moment he realised he could be a musician.

The band formation thing is an angle alright, if you look at classified ads alone - without the independent music press and fanzine scene in the UK & US, there'd be no Smiths, no Metallica, no....MOTLEY CRUE!
 
droid

droid

Well-known member
Benny B said:
Obv he was already an accomplished musician but i always found the story of robert wyatts accident before making rock bottom (and getting married) very moving and inspirational.
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Absolutely - its kind of a despite rather than a because though - or maybe a mix of both?
 
droid

droid

Well-known member
PiLhead said:
the accidental meetings that led to band formations and therefore could easily have not happened, these seem the most counter-factual generative - like Sioux and Severin meeting at the Roxy concert at Wembley
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Thats a good one, there must be tons more... but I guess once a band like Roxy existed, it was inevitable it would attract like minded people.
 
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PiLhead

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what would Sabbath have sounded like if Tony Iommi hadn't injured his hand in the factory accident? more conventional, less heavy?

seem to recall there was some contingent peculiarity to do with how Peter Hook developed his bass style - it was a really cheap, or defective instrument, and he had to play it more like a baritone guitar. he learned to play it the wrong way, and by the time he realised, it was too late - something like that. sorry, the full memory is eluding me and i can't be arsed to look for his memoir.
 
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PiLhead

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well, Dylan's motorbike accident is a classic pivot

i don't really care enough about Dylan to be able to speculate, but obviously if he'd died, or been paralysed, then that would have been curtains on any later recording career

on the other hand if he'd been less injured - broken neck i think it was - then maybe he would not have done the whole retreat from it all, back to rootsy / simple music, woodshedding with The Band etc - which was enormously influential in terms of redirecting rock away from psychedelic excess and back to its roots

still i think i've read that the accident was more or less his excuse to retreat, something he wanted/needed to do anyway
 
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CrowleyHead

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Neil Young's son is born with cerebral palsy and he has to learn to communicate with him via computer technology, hence Re-Act-or
 
droid

droid

Well-known member
The Dylan thing, I think, has been overstated. As you say, I reckon it was an excuse to become a recluse more than anything else.

I guess Im really looking for positive events... if you had the power to influence things, would you damage a promising guitarists hand in an accident? Knock a folk rock superstar off his motorbike at the height of his fame? Throw an accomplished drummer out of a window? I think the outcomes would be far too uncertain.

That said, this is all great stuff, thanks. And to add another morbid one - Michael Jacksons Pepsi hair fire. Precipitated a downward spiral of addiction and depression and plastic surgery obsession.

Neil Young's son is born with cerebral palsy and he has to learn to communicate with him via computer technology, hence Re-Act-or
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Thats one that was bad for everybody.
 
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CrowleyHead

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Disagree but w/e.

Another one is Johnny Thunders getting himself on Gimme Shelter in the crowd of a Stones show, and then watching himself on the screen dozens of times swearing it wouldn't be the last time or something like that.
 
sufi

sufi

lala
TE Lawrence was on his way to meet with the British Union of Fascists, with a view to assuming leadership when he fell off his bike...
 
droid

droid

Well-known member
Without slavery there would be no Western rock/pop canon. The blood and violence of colonisation, displacement, deprivation and mass migration provides the most fertile ground for musical innovation & development.
 
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sufi

sufi

lala
droid said:
Without slavery there would be no Western rock/pop canon. The blood and violence of colonisation, displacement, deprivation and mass migration provides the most fertile ground for musical innovation & development.
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Joaozinho-Orando.jpg
 
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mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
droid said:
Michael Jacksons Pepsi hair fire. Precipitated a downward spiral of addiction and depression and plastic surgery obsession.
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I don't agree. I think it was the moment he attained enlightenment - he literally BECAME the lightning flash, that was the problem - and from there on in, everything he did was an attempt to explicate the moment of enlightenment he'd had, when he became a walking matchstick.
 
Glacial 718

Glacial 718

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Eno getting hit by a taxi -> being unable to turn up the volume on quiet music recordings while bedridden in hospital -> his ambient works
 
droid

droid

Well-known member
Yeah, I think thats the obvious Eno one. Figure it might be worth the risk to hit him with a cab in return for 'on land'.
 
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PiLhead

Well-known member
that's a killer one, the Eno

however i think it's actually three concatenated or sequential pivots - there's the accident (and him not being killed, which would open up a whole other counterfactual universe - no Remain in Light, no U2 imperial phase, no Low/Heroes/Lodger etc), but also the fact that some fuckwit broke the stereo in the hospital (it was also i think that one speaker was bust as well) and another left the volume turned so low, and also that Judy Nylon came round not just with a bunch of grapes and some flowers but an album of harp music i think it was. If she'd brought him an album of calypso or some rousing brass band music I don't think ambient would necessarily have resulted, even at semi-inaudible levels.
 
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