Thrown Any Stones At Anyone Lately?

Track of the Week

TRACK OF THE WEEK: “Throw the First Stone (A Psychedelic Soul Suite)”—A ramble in 3-parts:

Part I: A string quartet from Stockholm (courtesy of my friend Bil Bryant) plays over a frenzied live band encore* in Japan, performed by bassist Jerry Renino, guitarist Wayne Avers, and drummer Sandy Gennaro. Call this an act of xenochrony, a recording studio technique where parts are lifted from their original context and placed into a different work. Composer Charles Ives invented this approach after he noticed parade bands blending with one another by “chance,” so he harnessed this blend by design.

Part II: A Talking Heads-influenced song that observes journalists, TV evangelists, and politicians engaged in petulant name-calling. The street level phrase “throw the first stone” means “be quick to blame, criticize, or punish.” It stems from an incident recorded in St. John’s Gospel. A mob of religious men are preparing to stone an adulterous woman to death, and they confronted Jesus about it, like he should commend such a harsh punishment. Instead, Jesus calmly said, “He that is without sin among you, throw the first stone at her.” One by one the men drifted away because of the truth: All have sinned and need to self-judge before judging others.

Part III: More xenochrony, quoting J.S. Bach, “Greensleeves,” and the fade to “All You Need is Love” (Beatles), etc. while segueing to dreamy riffs on resonator guitar and keyboards.

The term xenochrony comes from a Greek word meaning “strange and alien time.” Time can be chronology, or a collection of images and memories stacked together at will. Stravinsky said, “Music is but another way to measure time.” Current events may seem strange and alien, but we have an opportunity to make the best of the time. Now.

* Music sample courtesy of the late Davy Jones (Monkees) who co-produced this track.

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