A thought and a Song

“Beauty, no doubt, does not make revolutions. But a day will come when revolutions will have need of beauty.”

―
Albert Camus,

The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt

An artist cannot change the world. The very act of creating a work of art depends upon and marks limits of Samsara (cyclic, normative existence). Look at all the things that the aesthetic world
offers over the actual: a sense of order; beginnings, middles and ends; concision, love, reason, and (gasp) a point. The artist creates all these things in a work of art because this is what the world can't give. The birth of the work of art is the acknoldgement of the impotence of the artist.

A work of art can change the world and In C by Terry Riley did just that. In C shattered across the classical world and exploded into the world of pop. In the straight world it was the rebellion against serialism and a return to melody and to interpretative performance.  Yet this is nothing compared to it's effect on popular music. Every time you hear a synth bed beneath a song, you are hearing Terry Riley. The Who were such big fans they named Baba O'Riley after him. Eno assisted in the recording of a version of In C in 1989.



Here's a link to the wikipedia page on In C to give you the geeky reasons why it is so fucking cool.



And here is a version from the Festival Gram'Off/On à l'ARSH - 21/04/2012, which I think is just amazing. Enjoy!