Expression
Tonight I saw Daniel Lanois play at Massey Hall in Toronto. The concert was packed with people who all seemed to understand the importance of what was happening. We all cheered and hollered, but during the songs the room was dead silent as people took in every sound and fed back incredible excited energy to the stage. I must say that I have more of the albums that Lanois produced than albums of his own music. By the end of the show I think it was clear to me and everyone else that Daniel Lanois is not only a great music producer, but an incredible songwriter and performer as well. I listened intently, watched, and took in every moment of the show both enjoying the sounds and thinking about what music must mean to this man.
The way he played guitar and sang was really interesting. It wasn’t about notes or chords or rhythm or timbre. It was about expression. Expressing feelings, waves of energy and calm, ideas and recollections through the voice and the guitar. And I realized at this moment something that I should have realized so long ago but my classical upbringing and my own stubbornness prevented me from realizing, is that apart from the human voice, the electric guitar is the most versatile and expressive instrument that exists. There is of course the loudness, rock and phallic element to the guitar which are all definitely part of the overall appeal. But the more I learn about it, the more I realize that the electric guitar is really the most incredible instrument ever created.
I grew up playing the violin and all the while I wanted to play the keyboards because it was the digital age and synthesizers and MIDI were the coolest things ever. I never got very good at the piano, it just wasn’t my thing. I never got into the guitar when I was younger because I wasn’t really into the rock music scene, my friends either programmed computers or played in the school band. Violin was tough because it wasn’t very loud and when I got a pickup for it, distortion sounded like crap and made my violin feed back really easily. Singing was the one thing that really fit. Although I did a lot of experiments with voice manipulation and processing using electronics, there was still something missing. That ability to strum some strings and have millivolts be amplified into room-shaking chords and searing solo lines just by the action of your fingertips and a tiny plastic triangle. Surely nothing can express emotion or connect people with a song like the human voice, but when all you want to say can be summed up in a melody or a chord progression or a certain timbre, the guitar has the ability to speak in a way no other instrument can.
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