I didn’t know what to expect when I first cracked the cover, but then I’m not much of a fan of rock star or music biz bios, my only prior experience being The Real Frank Zappa Book. No, Bill is not Frank, although I have tremendous respect for both men; Zappa being the iconoclast composer/guitarist armed with biting wit and Bruford the pioneering progressive rock (and eventually jazz) drummer with a hunger for exploration and a thirst for improvisation. While Zappa’s book is filled with usually humorous and sometimes outrageous tales along with his own take on socio-political topics of the day, Bruford’s offering is comparatively understated. Nothing tabloid-shocking here. No confessions of drug-rehab, groupie orgies, or snippy gossip of former band-mates or associated rock stars, although there are some nice asides considering people like Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, Phil Collins, and Tony Levin, to name a few.

To be sure, Bruford is very good at putting pen to paper and knows how to turn a phrase. The book is written in an easy, conversational style, almost stream-of-consciousness in some respects. At one point you’re in the middle 1990s at a King Crimson rehearsal and a few pages later it’s on stage with Yes in 1970. There are humorous moments and several scenes that point up the craziness of the music business, but there is quite a bit of Bill’s inner thoughts on these pages. In fact, the latter chapters tend to be a more focused peek inside Mr. Bruford’s skull, or least his thoughts of what’s going on in there.

Clearly, he is no ordinary “rock star” and I simply cannot imagine him ever being involved in one of those horrendous rock TV reality shows. No, Bruford spins an image of a Clark Kent-ish super musician. If he were your neighbor you might think that he was a university lecturer or perhaps an architect, but at night, he magically trades skins and becomes the poly-rhythmic percussionist of King Crimson or Earthworks fame. In the music industry, this sort of apparent normalcy is perhaps every bit as heretical as Zappa ever was. Blasphemous, even.

In rock musician’s terms, I’m an extremist – practically a terrorist. I occupy a position slightly to the right of Attila the Hun. I look like Marks & Spencer Man. I subscribe to an English middle-class 50s blueprint for lifestyle and morals, and I like to be in bed by 11 o’clock if at all possible. I have one wife and one family, all of whom are entirely functional. I am unable to brandish a broken home, an unhappy childhood, poverty, addiction, malnourishment, or a child-beating father as evidence of my street credibility. I don’t drop my aitches or affect a different social status to the one into which I was born, and yet, I have more in common with Johnny Rotten or Patti Smith than I do with the tattooed and spandex’d ‘alternative’ corporate rockers – Megadeth, Metallica, Motorhead – assiduously peddling their Daily Mail version of the ‘rock’n'roll lifestyle’ from the Jacuzzi-laden shag-carpeted private 747s so beloved of the tabloids. I have a different version. And what is this revolutionary creed to which I subscribe? I practise a musical instrument assiduously in order that I might come to know myself, and I don’t think it’s a joke. I write music and join and lead bands to demonstrate that deployment. I try to get better at all things musical. And I don’t think your opinion on whether I’m successful or not in these modest endeavours is particularly relevant. I mean, c’mon, how anti-establishment is that?

The Clark Kent of drums or not, it is clear that Bruford was first and foremost a jazz drummer who wound up in rock before getting back to his jazz roots. Jazz got his blood pumping. As he says, perhaps he was too jazz for rock and too rock for jazz. But it’s a moot point as he has declared himself “retired from public performance” these days.

If I can find any fault with this autobiography it’s that Bruford’s tendency toward self-deprecation, like the icing on a birthday cake, can sometimes be applied a bit too thick. Indeed, his tendency for self-criticism and self-doubt loom ever-larger as the chapters progress, to the point where he is hardly able to play at all. He ponders the “athleticism” of the new crop of drummers and their blinding technical skill. How can he match it? Bill, no one ever expected you to be omnipotent. You’re not running for president of the universe or even “world’s best drummer”, whatever the heck that’s supposed to mean. You have brought joy to many a listener and inspired a great number of young musicians, and it is only right and proper if some of them surpass their former master for how else does the human enterprise improve? As Sir Isaac Newton said, “If I have seen further than other men it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants”.

Perhaps it would have been easier if William Scott Bruford had been born 10 or 15 years earlier. Perhaps then he would have been the UK’s answer to Joe Morello. But if he had, then there wouldn’t have been a Close to the Edge, a Red or Discipline; no If Summer Had Its Ghosts, no Sound of Surprise, and we’d all be the poorer for it.

Those are some shoulders you’ve got there, Bill. Thanks for all the tunes.

More info on Mr. Bruford at www.billbruford.com

I just received my profile from a recent blood test. Here’s what it said.
Total cholesterol: 204
LDL (bad cholesterol): 131.6
HDL (good cholesterol): 57
Triglycerides: 77

The total is computed as LDL+HDL+Tri/5. These are fairly typical numbers for me as compared to the last half dozen years, although my HDL usually is a few points higher and my LDL and tri usually are a few points lower. This 204 would normally place me at borderline high. However, my doctor is not very concerned, and neither am I. Why?

First of all, I have only one risk factor (being a male over age 45). Second, my HDL is on the high side for men my age and this leads to a favorable LDL/HDL ratio of only 2.3. Further, at 5’10″ and 142 pounds, my BMI is about 20.5. As an avid runner, my resting pulse is in the low 50s, my blood pressure is typically 110/70 (and sometimes as low as 105/60), and a recent echo cardiogram showed no problems. OK, so what’s the beef? Surely mitigating factors and health status need to be considered instead of a single number, right? Yeah, but there’s more to it than that. It’s an unfortunate but true observation on my part that people tend to focus on the one number and that number can be misleading. I know a lot of people who can recite their total cholesterol value but have no idea of the “numbers inside”. I doubt that they are atypical.

Consider two men with minimal risk factors, Ralph and Larry. For the sake of simplicity, let’s assume both have a triglyceride value of 75. Ralph’s LDL and HDL are 140 and 30 while Larry’s are 125 and 65. Ralph’s total cholesterol is 185 while Larry’s is 205. If we just look at the total, Ralph seems to be in a much better position than Larry, yet Larry’s LDL is considered safe while Ralph’s is borderline high, and similarly, Larry’s HDL is considered protective of heart disease while Ralph’s is definitely too low.

Knowing the tendency of folks to “like it simple”, I wonder why there isn’t a single “cholesterol index” that could combine these considerations. Why do we bundle all forms together when high HDL is considered protective, yet it raises the “scary” total? It seems that a fudge factor could be added for the LDL/HDL ratio (just like there’s one for triglycerides). I think it would be a little easier for people to grab onto, and then their doctor could look at the numbers inside and the patient’s lifestyle, and offer the most promising strategies to combat a too-high index.

Oh, and my doc says I should probably watch my diet a little closer. I tend to agree as I do have a tooth for the cookies.

Update: Here’s a short bio video with some nice bits of Louie playing and some rather unique kit layouts.

Yes, I want him to fail. His policies are liberal policies and I want liberal policies to fail. I want conservative policies to succeed.

I find this to be a stunning argument because what it really says is “I am an unrepentant partisan ideologue. I am a political clown.” It’s a shinning example of us-versus-them, as-long-as-my-side-wins-at-any-cost hackery. I guess it’s nice to know that his position isn’t personal against president Obama, but how can you hope for failure when the national (and indeed, global) consequences of failure are so dire? Someone might argue that they suspect certain policies to fail, or fear that certain policies will fail, but that’s completely different from hoping that they do. There were a great number of Bush policies that I expected would fail (and they did), but I didn’t, for example, actively hope that the Iraq war would turn into the king of colossal clusterfucks.

Apparently, for Rush and idiots like him, it is more important that your political ideology and your personal biases and prejudices be confirmed true than for the myriad problems facing the country and its citizens come to a just and fruitful end. And while a bulbous red rubber nose makes a clown easily identifiable at 100 paces, statements such as Limbaugh’s are every bit as telling but much farther reaching.

Oh, and a 500 milliliter bottle is only $60, on special. Stop by and order yours today, and while you’re at it, check out some of their other great “products”.

Popular Western music for some reason doesn’t really “go” for this kind of thing. Pretty much it’s all 4/4 with the occasional 3/4 ballad. Is it because people have a hard enough time dancing to 4/4 let alone 7/4 or 11/8? Is it because they were never introduced to it? I don’t know. But I do know of a few relatively popular tunes that were not written entirely in 4/4 or 3/4 (or an obvious derivative like 6/8). I’m thinking Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, and Sting.

Anybody care to guess the tunes?

(And to hear something that is a little closer to “normal”, try this, which is based on a melody I wrote for my wife while we were kayaking one afternoon)

Who says the Bible can’t be a source of hilarity?

(hat tip to vdrums.com)

I’m skeptical. No doubt the games are a lot of fun for people who can’t play a musical instrument and they’re probably preferable to your average shoot-em-up. Further, it’s a decent wager that they do pique interest to the point where the kiddies bug mom and dad to buy them a guitar or a drum kit. But these games, while they mimic real instruments, are nothing like real instruments. It’s more like air guitar with props. This really hit home when I saw a video of the band Rush playing one of their own tunes on one of these games and not scoring particularly well.

I’d wager that once the reality of learning an instrument kicks in, junior’s new guitar will soon find a home in the corner gathering dust while waiting for the eventual indignity of placement next to an old stack of gardening magazines at the spring garage sale. Certainly, some kids will stick it out and eventually reach a level of at least modest proficiency, but how do we know that simply offering them real instruments at an early age wouldn’t be at least as effective? If all these games do is create a new generation of “table beaters” instead of competent drummers, haven’t we taken a step backwards?

There are few things that I love as much as playing musical instruments. I don’t know if other people get (or would get) as much enjoyment but there is something to be said for an artistic outlet that grows with you, challenges you, and allows you to express yourself (even if no one cares to listen) throughout your life. I always encourage people to give it a try no matter what their age.

I’m just not sure that pretending to do it is the best way of introducing it to people.