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January 3, 2013

What we can learn from Brian Eno and Frank Zappa

6 Comments

Two of my favo­rite artist heroes are Brian Eno and Frank Zappa, two musi­cians who first hit the big time about forty years ago. I was first tur­ned onto them in my late teens.

Both became tra­di­tio­nal rock stars around the same time, Eno pla­ying with Roxy Music, Zappa with The Mothers Of Invention.

They could have done was most rock stars do: Make a cou­ple of records, get a cou­ple of hits in the radio, spend the next x-decades tou­ring, living on a tour bus, pla­ying the same songs night after night to ado­ring fans in towns in Cle­ve­land, Chi­cago, Des Moi­nes, Little Rock…

And yet they chose not to, after only a cou­ple of years in the lime­light. Both were highly inte­lli­gent, visio­nary peo­ple, and no much how attrac­tive the sex-drugs-and-rock-n-roll thing can be to young peo­ple, the typi­cal rock n’ roll lifestyle was boring and infan­tile to them.

So they evol­ved. Their music star­ted get­ting more and more classical/avante guarde/out-there.

And now, four deca­des later, they’re titans, res­pec­ted by the smar­test and inte­res­ting dudes in the busi­ness. Poor ol’ Zappa died a few years ago, but Eno is still thri­ving, and STILL cons­tantly evol­ving, doing inte­res­ting work.

I guess their les­son taught me that, just because you found the stan­dard win­ning for­mula, doesn’t mean it has to stay for­mu­laic; that allo­wing your­self to re-invent, evolve and push out your edges into unk­nown terri­tory is not just OK, it’s essential.

At least, it is if you want to keep things interesting.

The other thing they taught me, that it’s OK to be weird, that it’s OK to be smart, and that it’s OK to shun com­mer­cia­lity, even if you’re a rock star. That just because all the idiots are doing it a cer­tain way, doesn’t mean you have to, as well.

And so I try to incor­po­rate that into my own work… and you can too, even if you’re not an artist or a rock star, even if you have a nor­mal job.

Sure beats doing the long hair and span­dex cir­cuit in Cle­ve­land, Chi­cago, Des Moi­nes, Little Rock…

Tags: Ambient Music, Brin Eno, Frank Zappa, Rock n' Roll

6 Responses to “What we can learn from Brian Eno and Frank Zappa”

1. Stergin says:

   January 4, 2013 at 11:18 AM

   Couldn’t agree more.…especially when you say that ever­yone can learn a big les­son from them

   Reply
2. Ariana says:

   January 5, 2013 at 9:12 AM

   I appre­ciate the sen­ti­ments you sha­red here! It is help­ful and encou­ra­ging to me.

   One of the things I think that is impor­tant for inno­va­tors is to really get com­for­ta­ble with uncer­tainty and change. We must always be in motion! Without motion we are stag­nant, and gras­ping to main­tain the sta­tus quo. It isn’t easy but the cha­llenge is a rewar­ding one if for no other rea­son then to learn and grow, and the­re­fore truly live!

   Reply
3. matthk says:

   January 6, 2013 at 7:15 PM

   An impor­tant point, ele­gantly made.
   I’m sad because I’m not Hugh Mac­Leod.
   I’m sad because I’m not Steve Jobs.
   I’m sad because I’m not Javier Maris­cal.
   I’m sad because I’m not Robert Dow­ney Junior.
   I’m very happy because I’m not Sarah Palin.
   I’m mostly sad though because I’m not ‘me’ and I think that’s the root of most sadness.

   Thanks for the les­son,
   mhk

   Reply
4. matthk says:

   January 6, 2013 at 7:18 PM

   I’d be less sad if you had a proof rea­der
   as the omis­sions and typos in this article almost (almost!) got in the way of the mes­sage.

   Reply
   • Hugh MacLeod says:

     January 7, 2013 at 11:27 AM

     Yeah, good thing I got the typo police watching my every move

     Reply
5. Revue du Net PerForMens #1 « PerForMens says:

   January 8, 2013 at 5:30 AM

   […] Ce que Brian Eno et Frank Zappa nous appren­nent, par Gaping The Void. […]

   Reply