May 20ths

[Notes from research for my “Cusp” book on boundaries and the sea-change of 1966. I believe it was an issue of Life].

5/20/1966: “The Big Snoop”—Electronic snooping, fascination with espionage “ Space Age” advertising copy/slogans, article on the “Free University”, “teach-ins”, “new madness at the discotheque”, exams to see who gets drafted (“score high and die”), article: “electric guitars bring a rash of teenage combos”, issue on Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf shatters every rule of Hollywood propriety— a test of how far a film can go.”, 8-track advent—American Motors will offer 8-track continuous loop tape. cartridge unit as optional equipment on 1967 models, Headphones gaining popularity, Revolver top LP, pop music is considered “hot”, jazz is “cool”, Jazz release: Tony Scott, clarinetist (Music for Zen Meditation) Jazz new releases: John Coltrane Live at the Village Vanguard, Ahmad Jamal Heat Wave, Marianne Faithful.

5/20/2025

This is funny considering what the original was. In 1995 I was saying that the song reminded me of Louisiana and arose from the metaphor of arteries being like rivers. This AI version was performed by a really good band in a smoky bar outside of Baton Rouge circa 1978. It's fun to play with AI but it’s a "processed food". Also interesting that there was a Battle of Blood River which is something that would have been impossible to know. The internet extends the meaning of something in retrospect. A common comment that people made about in then was that it was about war.

Another interesting analogy for AI-generated music is the old coffee vending machine, which combined the lowest quality coffee, water, cream,and sugar, you’d make a selection, the cup would drop, and the coffee would fill the cup. This is how AI music works as well, where instead of selecting options like “black no sugar”,  “black no cream”, you select the vibe and the instruments. This is not uninteresting to me, but no one really wants to use vending machines for everything when there are other options.