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Eno admired Hendrix's choosing to limit himself to a restricted range of timbral possibilites.
Unlike the many rock musicians, particularly in the age of synthesizers, who waste time and
energy chasing after novel sounds, Hendrix "always worked with a Stratocaster and a particu-
lar type of amp,"
33
searching for a deep understanding of this setup.
Frequently in the studios, you see synthesizer players fiddling for six
hours getting this sound and then that sound and so on, in a kind of
almost random search. What's clear, if you're watching this process, is
that what they're in search of is not a new sound but a new idea. The
synthesizer gives them the illusion that they'll find it somewhere in
there. Really, it would make more sense to sit down and say, "Hey,
look, what am I doing? Why don't I just think for a minute, and then
go and do it?" Rather than this scramble through the electrons.
34
In this context, Eno cited Glenn Gould once again: "He has been working with the same piano
for years and years. Clearly he understands that piano in a way that no synthesizer player alive
understands his instrument."
35
In addition to Hendrix's guitar playing and approach to the
electronic situation, Eno found his lyrics exemplary: citing the "strange and mysterious lyrics"
of "Little Wing" from Axis: Bold As Love (1968), he said:
All the best lyrics I can think of, if you question me about them, I
don't know what they're saying, I really don't, but somehow they're
very evocative ... [Hendrix] has given you the impression that he's say-
ing something, and it's being said with an intensity of some kind, and
that's the important thing.
36
In 1978 Eno discussed his changing views on black "funk" music in these terms:
I used to have this little badge which said, "Join the Fight Against
Funk." Because in 1974 or `75, I absolutely despised funky music. I
just thought it was everything I didn't want in music. And suddenly, I
found myself taking quite the contrary position ... I suddenly found
that, partly because of what [David Bowie] was doing and one or two
other things mostly Parliament and Bootsy and those people I sud-
denly realized that if you took this a little bit further it became some-
thing very extreme and interesting. And Bowie did, it was like "grand
funk." It was so exaggerated that it became a new form, it wasn't just
schlocky gloss.
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In another interview from the same year, Eno extended this view of funk:
Donna Summer was actually the beginning of this idea for me ... Be-
cause to me a lot of the most interesting things in electronic music
33
Jim Aikin, "Brian Eno," Keyboard 7 (July 1981), 45.
34
Aikin, "Brian Eno," 45.
35
Aikin, "Brian Eno," 45.
36
Aikin, "Brian Eno," 64.
37
Kurt Loder, "Eno," Synapse (Jan./Feb. 1979), 26.