👏this is fascinating! I teach special education, I love giving the kids confidence they need to learn and be people in the world. Learning isn't all about the right answers. It's about how we get there, the ideas we have along the way!
Carl, you will never know what an absolute joy it is for us hardcore NP nerds to read posts like this. This is the kind of shit I'm here for. I love this song and the video is one of my faves, too!
Totally agree with Erin and the others! This is why I love reading your back stories Carl. Please give us more - for us hard core fans, this is why we love you and the band!
This seem like the perfect time for me to unveil my theory that the verse of "Prophets" borrows heavily from the melodic lines of the hymn "Blessed Assurance." FIGHT ME!
I like that you observe that pattern recognition can be a bit of a rabbit hole. In my mind (and possibly only in my mind) significant patterns are the ones we recognize with others…shared recognition. There have been many times I’ve recognized patterns and convinced myself (for a time) that I’m some sort of genius, only to realize later that they were misunderstandings and misrecognitions. Fair to say that I have become familiar with discreetly wiping egg off my face. All to say, your pattern is clear: working to support some thing larger than you, with love and soul. Goes back decades, it seems.
This was a delightful post to read, and I look forward to all your writings here. They are like finding cash in the pocket of your jacket, regularly…the joy is unique and unexpected.
Eagerly anticipate reading and hearing more when it comes.
That Maximum Entropy quote/this whole post made the scientist/physician in me melt into my chair. There are so many of us (doctors) who also play/love music. I figured out a while ago a big reason for that was our ability to recognize the patterns in melody :) So you know what this means Mr. Higher-Than-He-Thought IQ Newman? You'd make one hell of a doctor....
I'm really interesting in how much the process of creating art differs from artist to artist, but I can honestly say my mouth has never hung quite so open as it has when listening to Occupant backwards. Heard the hook straight away. What an amazing way to find your way to a new work.
It almost feels like the beginning of a comedy sketch (or tragic fable): a musician, sick of being unable to create anything but banger after banger, tries to disrupt his ceaseless success by playing one of his songs backwards, and accidentally creates an even greater banger. Midas the songwriter, cursed with the golden touch.
It's kind of like how Radiohead's "Like Spinning Plates" is an inversion of their song "I Will", though that's a more direct application, with some versions actually being the original tracks played in reverse.
The real talent is to recognize a pattern organically, because it’s a pattern, and not because it approximates a convention. That ability is clearly at work, both with the NPs and in Carl’s solo work. “Mutiny” is one example, alternating 4/4 and 5/4 and then laying a great melody over.
The idea that we can string any bullshit together points also to narrative. With patterns, you can math-brain it and select the dots, or you can fire up the storytelling and connect the dots.
The pattern recognition thing...that makes sense. I think that's probably pretty strong among musicians, and lyricists. I think that perceiving common patterns among disparate materials is what helps a musician write a song that hangs together in its different parts and sections. Similarly, seeing a sort of common pattern (ideas, evocations, even sonic aspects of the words) among words helps make a lyric cohere...
Heard the melody right away. So cool! (and kind of eerie)
So...the obvious question is...have you used this technique with other songs?
👏this is fascinating! I teach special education, I love giving the kids confidence they need to learn and be people in the world. Learning isn't all about the right answers. It's about how we get there, the ideas we have along the way!
Carl, you will never know what an absolute joy it is for us hardcore NP nerds to read posts like this. This is the kind of shit I'm here for. I love this song and the video is one of my faves, too!
Totally agree with Erin and the others! This is why I love reading your back stories Carl. Please give us more - for us hard core fans, this is why we love you and the band!
Now I will never be able to un-hear this. Damn you!!
This seem like the perfect time for me to unveil my theory that the verse of "Prophets" borrows heavily from the melodic lines of the hymn "Blessed Assurance." FIGHT ME!
I like that you observe that pattern recognition can be a bit of a rabbit hole. In my mind (and possibly only in my mind) significant patterns are the ones we recognize with others…shared recognition. There have been many times I’ve recognized patterns and convinced myself (for a time) that I’m some sort of genius, only to realize later that they were misunderstandings and misrecognitions. Fair to say that I have become familiar with discreetly wiping egg off my face. All to say, your pattern is clear: working to support some thing larger than you, with love and soul. Goes back decades, it seems.
This was a delightful post to read, and I look forward to all your writings here. They are like finding cash in the pocket of your jacket, regularly…the joy is unique and unexpected.
Eagerly anticipate reading and hearing more when it comes.
whoa
Amazing! Didn’t you once say that “Star Bodies” was also inspired by another song backwards? I never could figure that one out.
That Maximum Entropy quote/this whole post made the scientist/physician in me melt into my chair. There are so many of us (doctors) who also play/love music. I figured out a while ago a big reason for that was our ability to recognize the patterns in melody :) So you know what this means Mr. Higher-Than-He-Thought IQ Newman? You'd make one hell of a doctor....
I'm really interesting in how much the process of creating art differs from artist to artist, but I can honestly say my mouth has never hung quite so open as it has when listening to Occupant backwards. Heard the hook straight away. What an amazing way to find your way to a new work.
It almost feels like the beginning of a comedy sketch (or tragic fable): a musician, sick of being unable to create anything but banger after banger, tries to disrupt his ceaseless success by playing one of his songs backwards, and accidentally creates an even greater banger. Midas the songwriter, cursed with the golden touch.
It's kind of like how Radiohead's "Like Spinning Plates" is an inversion of their song "I Will", though that's a more direct application, with some versions actually being the original tracks played in reverse.
The real talent is to recognize a pattern organically, because it’s a pattern, and not because it approximates a convention. That ability is clearly at work, both with the NPs and in Carl’s solo work. “Mutiny” is one example, alternating 4/4 and 5/4 and then laying a great melody over.
The idea that we can string any bullshit together points also to narrative. With patterns, you can math-brain it and select the dots, or you can fire up the storytelling and connect the dots.
The pattern recognition thing...that makes sense. I think that's probably pretty strong among musicians, and lyricists. I think that perceiving common patterns among disparate materials is what helps a musician write a song that hangs together in its different parts and sections. Similarly, seeing a sort of common pattern (ideas, evocations, even sonic aspects of the words) among words helps make a lyric cohere...
I've always considered you of the genius category. ``All hail.''
Incredible