Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Rush plays Pat Metheny Group "Forward March"

Just listening to Rush Limbaugh and he is recreating the failed presidential bid of Michael Dukakis. He uses the odd but funny music of a seemingly out of tune marching band. I bet very few people will recognize this song as Forward Mach by the Pat Metheny Group from the First Circle album! Obviously this was a throw away bit of fun for PMG but it is funny to hear it used in this new context.

3 comments:

gymnopedies13 said...

I heard this and actually called the management of Pat Metheny, because I felt that Metheny would probably cut off his left arm before sanctioning the use of his music on the Limbaugh show. As I assumed, the management were pretty sore about it and said they were going to look into it.
Aside from that, the Limbaugh bit was about as funny as cancer.

Unknown said...

Does Pat not like Rush? I'm sure royalties will get paid. I did not realize that Pat took exception to people who played his music on the basis of political persuasion.

I always assumed that Pat's music and the message it was about was apolitical, moreover it was about accessibility, as in accessible to all, regardless of race, creed, religion, gender, politics, etc...

One of the most powerful aspects of music is that it transcends culture, language and even political persuasion. As even Lyle Mays commented, music is its own universal language with its own syntax, able to be understood by all. I cannot imagine that Pat would disagree with that.

Based on much of what Pat has said in past interviews, to him music, and Jazz music in particular, was about exploring the sonic possibilities of the form as it evolves. Allowing it to be limitless and unbounded. I fail to see how a political aspect plays into that, or even should play into that for that matter.

The form is neither hindered nor enhanced by the inclusion of political agenda, the form is essentially neutral, it just exists.

Furthermore, if it really is about exploring the sonic possibilities, why should Pat care who goes along with the ride while exploring those possibilities? Isn't that the point?

By virtue of Pat creating his wonderful music, why should it not be accessible to all (even to Rush who used it in conjunction with a parody)?

One could even argue, as the original poster in this blog has with his comment "...but it is funny to hear it used in this new context." that this was even further exploration of the sonic possibilities of the song as used in the context of the Rush parody.

For Pat and his listeners to suggest that his music is linked to some political persuasion and that somehow his music conveys those values is overly stereotypical. Are we to assume that Pat is Liberal (some would term it "Progressive") using the flawed logic that he is so because he is a musician and all musicians are "Progressives"?

Why should it even matter? Why should that even enter into the music? Isn't it all supposed to be about the form?

And to further suggest that Pat's music is "off limits" to certain people or groups, I think, is an anathema to the core rationale that Metheny puts forth as his founding principle for creating his music in the first place!

Unknown said...

precisionsignz Well, this is very interesting indeed. Would love to read a little more of this. Good post. Thanks for the heads-up.