Pynchon introduces him [McClintic] in a remarkable section
(p. 47 in my Bantam edition) with a whole series of
links, allusions, echoes, and satirical reflections
of the late 1950's and Ornette Coleman's legendary "Five
Spot" appearance in Greenwich Village. The section
starts with several of the New York cast arriving at
a Greenwich Village nightclub called "The V-Note"
(p. 48):
1. V for the title of the novel and an elusive woman,
object of a novel-long search by one of the characters.
2. V as in the Roman Numeral for Five = Five Spot. This
famous club featured Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane
(1957) in a legendary engagement; it was the nightclub
where Ornette Coleman first opened in November 1959
(and where he played a number of times over the following
years)
3. V-Note. The Note = Half Note. Another Greenwich Village
club, and another venue at which Coleman played during
the period
McClintic Sphere is playing onstage when the group enters.
"Sphere" is Thelonious Monk's middle name
(Monk was a frequent performer in the village at the
time and, as noted, is closely associated with the Five
Spot). McClintic may be an echo of Coleman's unusual
first name. (The only jazz musician with a somewhat
similar first name would be Kenny Dorham, whose given
first name was McKinley. He performed regularly in New
York during that period and may be associated with groups
that played the Five Spot).
James Stanley, of Dunedin, New Zealand, adds: "Ornette
Coleman, along with Don Cherry, spent time at the Lenox
school of Jazz in 1959 (his first year in NYC), and
of course Sphere spends time in Lenox during the course
of the novel as well. More supporting evidence for the
association between two of the best artists in their
respective fields."
p. 48 "He blew a hand-carved ivory alto saxophone"
--obvious reference to the plastic alto saxophone which
Ornette used in the late fifties, evidently because
it was cheaper than a metal sax and because it gave
him a more flexible sound. "...with a 4 1/2 reed"
Also a reference to the 4 1/2 strength reed which Ornette
used in Los Angeles (described by Don Cherry in a famous
passage in an interview with Joe Goldberg).
The next paragraphs include some nice descriptions of
the reactions in the audience, from those who simply
left, to those from other groups who were unwilling
to reject it, to those few who liked it. This directly
echoes the reports in Downbeat about Coleman's
first appearances at the Five Spot in 1959:
"The group on the stand had no piano: it was bass,
drums, McClintic and a boy he had found in the Ozarks
who blew a natural horn in F". This is an echo
of the Ornette Coleman Quartet, and the natural horn
may be a reference to the unusual pocket trumpet which
Don Cherry favored at the time. (Cherry was, of course,
from Los Angeles).
"The bass was small and evil-looking and his eyes
were yellow with pinpoints in the center". I have
no idea which of Ornette's bassists this refers to --
possibly David Izenzon? The bassist at the time
was Charles Haden, by no means small and evil looking.
The next paragraph is a biting description of some of
those in the audience, "mostly those who wrote
for Downbeat magazine or the liners of LP records...".
(Reader Clay Thurmond also points out that Sphere's
playing is described here as "something else"--which
is the title of Coleman's first LP on Contemporary Records
recorded in 1958).
On the next page (p. 49): "Since the soul of Charlie
Parker had dissolved away into a hostile March wind
nearly a year before...". This is too early for
Ornette, but only by three years. Parker died in March
1955 which would make this early 1956. In 1956 Ornette
was still an unemployed, unknown musician in Los Angeles.
He did not arrive in New York city until the fall of
1959, and the controversy, the club names and the rest
of the allusions belong to that specific period. On
the same page: "'He plays all the notes Bird missed,'
somebody whispered". Another allusion to the impact
of Ornette, who received a lot of attention as the next
alto saxophonist after Parker to move the music forward...
The lyrics of the Pere
Ubu song "Navvy" specifically refer to McClintic's
use of the terms "flip" and "flop."
The lyrics are as follows:
"Navvy"
I've got these arms & legs that flipflop
flip flop
I've got these arms & legs that flipflop
flip flop
I've got these arms & legs that flipflop
flip-flip-flip, I have desire
"Freedom!"
I have desire
"Somewhere to go!"
(Boy! that sounds swell)
In my ears I heard a hurricane blow
In my ears I heard a hurricane grow
In my ears I heard a hurricane glow
I have desire
"Freedom!"
I have desire
"Somewhere to go!"
(Boy! that sounds swell)
I've got these arms & legs that flipflop
flip flop
I've got these arms & legs that flipflop
flip flop
I've got these arms & legs that flipflop
flip-flip-flop, I have desire
"Freedom!"
I have desire
"Somewhere to go!"
(Boy! that sounds swell)
At one point in the novel
McClintic is talking to a technician who is explaining
the binary system to him: "he had found out from
this sound man about a two-triode circuit called a flip-flop,
which when it was turned on could be one of two ways,
depending on which tube was conducting and which tube
was turned off: set or reset, flip or flop" (p.
273). McClintic immediately relates it to an idea he'd
had about the word "flip," as in "flipping
out" or going crazy: "This word flip was weird"
(p. 272). As in a binary circuit's "on/off"
con-figuration, he felt that a human brain could oscillate
between the poles of flip and flop: "if a
computer's brain could go flip and flop, why so could
a musician's. As long as you were flop, everything was
cool. But where did the trigger-pulse come from to make
you flip?" (p. 273). He makes up some "nonsense
words" (p. 273) to go along with the idea, words
clearly echoed in the Pere Ubu song "Navvy":
Gwine cross de Jordan
Ecclesiastically:
Flop, flip, once I was hip,
Flip, flop, now you're on top,
Set-REset, why are we BEset
With crazy and cool in the same molecule… (p. 273)
[note how the capitalized letters spell "BEER"!]
McClintic believed that during World War II everything
"flipped," while within Harlem's jazz scene
everyone "flopped." He envisions a way to
end the oscillation between being either "cool"
or "crazy": "the only way clear of this
cool/crazy flipflop was obviously slow, frustrating
and hard work. Love with your mouth shut, help without
breaking your ass or publicizing it" (p. 342) and
comes up with his resoundingly famous statement "keep
cool, but care" (pp. 342-343).
Other significant Pere Ubu connections to Pynchon have
been suggested by David Hoare:
"I've been looking for more Pynchon references
in Ubu's music, David Thomas seems to have a great fondness
for the number '49' or '149',a recent tshirt (and possibly
album cover) bears 'US 49' on the front, a song from
their third album is called '49 Guitars and One Girl',
and a track from Dub Housing ends with him yelping 'there
she goes..on cloud 1 4 9!", usually I'd put down
use of the numerals 149 and 49 to be a mystical reference,
but it seems like Ubu's music seems to have Pynchonian
Leanings. Ubu are never shy about dropping casual literary
references, whether it be Heart of Darkness or Pynchon,
so it is likely that it they are also Pynchon references.
The way these nods and winks to 'high art' are thrown
around is probably due to Thomas' philosophy of being
'too pop for the art world, too art for the pop world'.
Also...have you seen the logo for David Thomas' disastrodrome
project...it looks very familiar, like a WASTE horn
styled into a trumpet. (speaking of which, here in aberystwyth
a great many mailboxes have a WASTE-esque muted horn
illustrations...and the first numerals of the town's
postcode are 23...) http://www.projex.demon.co.uk/sobank.html"
Pere
Ubu History
Pere Ubu's music is a
disorienting mix of midwestern groove rock, "found"
sound, analog synthesizers, falling-apart song structures
and careening vocals.
Singer David Thomas named
the band after the protagonist of Ubu Roi, a play by
Frenchman Alfred Jarry. The single, "30 Seconds
Over Tokyo" b/w "Heart of Darkness",
released in 1975, was the first of four independent
releases on Hearpen Records and, along with Television's
"Little Johnny Jewel," signaled the beginning
of the New Wave. In the early to mid-70's, Pere
Ubu was part of a fertile rock scene that also produced
15-60-75, Mirrors, The Electric Eels, Rocket From The
Tombs, Tin Huey, Styrene Money, and Devo.
The group's first album,
The Modern Dance, sold only 15,000 copies initially
but it was a startling work that influenced an entire
generation of bands, e.g. REM, Husker Du, Joy Division,
etc. Its follow-up, Dub Housing, was the masterpiece,
"an incomparable work of American genius."
Pere Ubu toured Europe extensively in 1978. Late in
1979, Tom Herman left and was replaced by Mayo Thompson,
the guitarist from 60's Texas psychedelic-rock legends
The Red Crayola. The Art Of Walking followed,
a challenging stew of inside-out song structures. The
band stopped playing together in early 1982 just as
the progressive-sounding Song Of The Bailing Man
was released.
In 1981, Thomas recorded
the first of two albums with British folk-rock guitarist
Richard Thompson. Three more solo albums kept the nucleus
of Ubu alive and working together. The last of these,
1987's Ubu-like Blame The Messenger, led to the
reanimation of the Pere Ubu project. The clattering
work called The Tenement Year, recorded for a
British label (Fontana) headed by Ubu fanatic Dave Bates,
introduced the two drummers lineup of Krauss and English
prog-rocker (and long-time fan) Chris Cutler (Henry
Cow, Art Bears, Cassiber).
Teamed with another Ubu
fan, producer Stephen Hague (Pet Shop Boys, New Order),
Ubu shifted gears for 1989's Cloudland. Tired
of touring and the grind of it all Ravenstine retired
to take up a career as an airline pilot for Northwest.
He was replaced by Eric Drew Feldman (Captain Beefheart,
Snakefinger) who appeared on Stereo Review's Record
of The Year for 1992, Worlds In Collision, produced
by Gil Norton (The Pixies). Cutler, unable to juggle
all the demands of his many musical projects, had to
leave. Feldman followed, joining Frank Black's projects.
The last Fontana album, Story Of My Life, produced
by Al Clay, marked the end of the period of experimentation
with "outside" producers. (The intended title
was "Johnny Rivers Live At The Whiskey A Go Go.")
In 1993 Garo Yellin, playing
an electrified cello, and veteran of The Ordinaires
and several of Thomas' solo projects, was recruited
to fill the "synthesizer" slot. During rehearsals
for the Story of My Life tour, Tony Maimone left
to work in the They Might Be Giants band. He was replaced
by Michele Temple who had previously replaced him in
the Jones/Krauss 80's side project, Home & Garden.
In January 1994, again
without a major label, the band recorded demos for a
projected album, Songs From The Lost LP, intended
to be a tribute to Smile. Krauss left. Yellin, busy
with his quartet in NYC, was replaced by Robert Wheeler,
organic farmer, Ravenstine protege, and president of
the Edison Birthplace Foundation. Thomas announced that
he was now ready to become the producer for Pere Ubu
and that was what he was going to do. Raygun
Suitcase, awarded CD Review's Editors' Choice Award
for 1995, was recorded to a click track in the hope
that Krauss would change his mind. Scott Benedict, the
drummer in Temple's group, The Vivians, came in over
a weekend and recorded all the parts. The next week
he retired to take up landscape gardening. Steve Mehlman,
Benedict's replacement in The Vivians, replaced him
in Ubu.
In August 1995 Jones retired
from the road for health reasons. Tom Herman rejoined
the group for the Raygun Suitcase tours, and
together with Jim Jones recorded 1998's Pennsylvania,
a highly acclaimed album nominated by America's preeminent
rock critic, Greil marcus, as the best of 1998. In 1999
for the Fall of The Magnetic Empire Festival at NYC's
Knitting Factory, Wayne Kramer joined the group as alternate
guitarist.
Discography
Heart of Darkness / 30 Seconds Over Tokyo (Hearthan
Records HR-101)
-1975
Final Solution / Cloud 149 (Hearthan Records HR-102)
-1976
Street Waves / My Dark Ages (Hearthan Records HR-103)
-1976
The Modern Dance (only 1000 made) (Hearthan Records
HR-104) -1977
** LP ** The Modern Dance (Blank/Polygram BLANK-001;
re-release Rought Trade ROUGH-22) -1978
Data Panic in the Year Zero (12" EP 45 rpm incl.
30 Seconds over Tokyo / Cloud 149 / Heaven // Heart
of Darkness / Untitled) (Radar RDR-1) -1978
** LP ** Dub Housing (Chrysalis CHR-1207) -1978
The Fabulous Sequel (Have Shoes Will Walk) // Humor
Me (live) / The Book Is on the Table (Chrysalis CHS-2372)
-1979
** LP ** New Picnic Time (Chrysalis CHR-1248) -1979
** LP ** The Art of Walking (Rough Trade ROUGH-14) -1980
Data Panic in the Year Zero: Final Solution / My Dark
Ages (Hearthan Records HR-102/103) -1980
Not Happy / Lonesome Cowboy Dave (Rough Trade RT-066)
-1981
** LP ** 390 Degrees of Simulated Stereo (live) (Rough
Trade ROUGH-23) -1981
** LP ** Song of the Bailing Man (Rough Trade ROUGH-33)
-1982
** LP ** Terminal Tower (compilation) (Rough Trade ROUGH-83)
-1985
** LP ** The Tenement Year (Fontana) -1988
** LP ** One Man Drives While the Other Man Screams
(Rough Trade) -1989
** LP ** Cloudland (Fontana 838 237-1) -1989
** LP ** Worlds in Collision (Fontana 848 564-1) -1991
** LP ** Raygun Suitcase (Cooking Vinyl) -1995
Most important tracks on compilations:
Max's Kansas City 1976: Final Solution (Rem Records
RS-1213; re-release -78 CBS 82670) -1976 URGH! A Music
War: Birdies (live) (A&M AMLM-66019) -1981
C-81 NME Comp.: Misery Goats (NME Rough Tapes COPY-1)
-1981
Cle Magazine flex-EP: Pushing Too Hard (33rpm) (CLE-3b)
-1981
Bootlegs:
U-Men Live at Club Wow / Xmas Concert at Interstate
Mall (live; LP)
