28
The apparent contradiction between this statement and Eno's own criticisms of the trap of
repetitiveness that befalls rock musicians may be partially resolved if we recognize his posi-
tion as a straddler on a fence between two worlds: "I have different circles of friends, and
some of the people I know come from so-called serious music backgrounds and others are
from popular music backgrounds. And whenever I'm with one group, I'm always defending
the other."
13
Out of the vast array of rock musicians active in the 1960s, Eno has found only a handful in-
teresting enough to bring up in interviews. In 1980 he wished to set himself apart from what
he called the "cultural myth" represented by groups like the Rolling Stones a myth that
has to do with the view of the musician or artist as an impulsive, drug-
taking romantic. I don't reject that view, I know some artists like that
and they do good work as well. But there's another kind of artist who
thinks about what they're doing and talks about what they're doing
and wants to articulate it and who doesn't believe as some do that talk-
ing about it reduces its mystique or deflates the work ... I think you can
make a work richer by seeding it with a number of connotations,
which you can do by talking about it. I suppose my difference from
[groups like the Rolling Stones] is that one has the sense they impro-
vise at almost every level. I don't except at certain levels.
14
Onstage, especially during the 1970s when they increasingly played to audiences numbering
in the tens of thousands, the Rolling Stones' musical act was notoriously unpolished but this
was part of the whole myth: the Stones were cultural symbols who just happened to sing and
play instruments, and they played out of tune, played sloppily and lost the beat, almost with a
vengeance. They were allowed to, because part of the whole idea of rock music at that level
was that it was music that anybody could play. When Eno would say he was not a musician,
however, he meant something quite different, as we shall see later in this chapter, he resented
the kind of musical thoughtlessness epitomized by the Rolling Stones. He indeed used impro-
visatory techniques himself, but always in the context of a larger plan in the context of the
process of shaping an immaculately polished musical product. His interest in improvisation
was reflected in his appraisal of Bob Dylan albums like Blonde on Blonde of 1966. He sus-
pected that Dylan had used a technique of writing lyrics rather like his own: "When I've got a
set of sounds that I think works musically in an interesting way, then I listen to those sounds
and try to make them into words. It's a bit like automatic writing, the way you scribble until
words start to appear."
15
Eno has singled out a number of musicians whom he feels consciously sought to realize the
potential of that grand new musical instrument the recording studio: Glenn Gould (whose
technique of recording many performances and editing them together Eno greatly admired),
Jimi Hendrix (who would fill as many as twenty-six separate tracks on a thirty-two-track tape
13
Rob Tannenbaum, "A Meeting of Sound Minds: John Cage and Brian Eno," Musician 83
(Sept. 1985), 106.
14
Charles Amirkhanian, "Brian Eno interviewed 2/2/80 for KPFA Marathon by C. Amirkha-
nian, transcribed 10/29/83 [by] S. Stone," unpublished typescript, 13.
15
Frank Rose, "Eno: Scaramouche of the Synthesizer," Creem 7 (July 1975), 70.