35
and audiences finding some sort of meaning in expressing solidarity with the Third World
through the reggae beat Bob Dylan's use of a Jamaican rhythm section on his 1983 album
Infidels being a typical case in point. Eno's interest is in the sound of the music, in the engi-
neering point of view, in what the music can teach him as a composer, if a "political" meaning
of music is important to Eno at all, it is restricted to the local level of interaction between mu-
sicians and between musicians and audience.
In addition to reggae, other non-mainstream black music has consistently commanded Eno's
favorable attention. In 1977 he remarked that the highlife music of Fela Ransome-Kuti and
Africa 70 was "the only music that makes me want to dance."
42
The experience of working
with the Ghanaian group Edikanfo was simultaneously inspiring and depressing: "All the in-
teractions between players and all the kind of funny things going on with the rhythm ... When
I started listening to the stuff that we did with the Talking Heads, it was just so wooden by
comparison. I couldn't get very excited by it anymore. I could still get excited about it in other
terms, but not in rhythmic terms any more. It seemed to be really naive."
43
We have seen that Eno is familiar with Western art music at least to the point of criticizing the
academic serialist tradition of the twentieth century and the pyramidical organization of the
classical orchestra. Such sweeping judgements aside, he has rarely talked about actual pieces
from the classical repertoire. Curious exceptions to this rule are various slow movements from
Haydn string quartets and Mozart concertos. Eno explained in 1986 what he found attractive
about such music: it "didn't produce emotional surprises, [but rather] presented an emotional
situation that held steady for quite a long time. In other words, a `steady-state' kind of mu-
sic.
44
An interviewer recently asked Eno to define his relationship to the English classical tradition
of composers like Elgar, Delius, and Vaughn Williams. He expressed guarded admiration for
it, but quickly moved on to his own agenda:
They didn't interest me for a long time, but recently I found that I ac-
tually like them ... As I grew up I saw a lot of people taking very ex-
treme positions, like "Let's make a piece of music eighteen hours
long," or "Let's make a piece of music that has only one note and lasts
for six years," that kind of thing. It's all interesting, and it's nice to
know that these possibilities exist, but I don't want to listen to them or
at least not more than once. I found that the artists I liked were aware
of these possibilities, but had taken up less extreme stances usually
one which, given the tastes of the contemporary art world, made them
look as if they were playing it safe.
45
Whether in recent English classical music or Haydn slow movements, it is evidently the sen-
suous quality that appeals to Eno, as well as the sense of restraint and balance, the drawing
back from an extreme position, whether intellectual or emotional. It is on somewhat similar
grounds that Eno has criticized recent experimental music. Tom Johnson, reporting in the Vil-
42
Frank Rose, "Four Conversations with Brian Eno," Village Voice 22 (28 Mar. 1977), 67.
43
Milkowski, "Brian Eno: Excursions," 57.
44
Hutchinson, "Eno: Place #13," n.p.
45
Hutchinson, "Eno: Place #13," n.p.