"I remember rehearsing 'Next Time Might Be Your Time' withBlue onthepiano and really working hard togetall thelyrics of one linesung in time to take a breath and plunge intothenextline. He laughed when I pointed outhehadn't left me much time to take a breath, saying he hadn 't thought about thatbecause his fingers didn't have tobreathe from one measure to thenext!" Patrice Manget NEXT TIME MIGHT BE YOUR TIME (1) Hey Baby, Hey maybe I'm forgetting to say That I stayed with you because I wanted to And you were sovery kind You listened to mytroubling mind Said leave all thathist'ry behind And deal with lifeasit's offered you (3) Dear Companion , We could be inArizona or France , What will theworld be like when we see each other Free of all circumstance? What difference does it make? Why don'tyou take a break from Whatever puts the pressure on you? (2) Hey Honey, You know we'll treateach other justfine Oh, if we make thespace To have thegrace of a natural scene I will listen to you You wiII listen to me And make it up in ourown time (4) Oh , listen, Can you move back to before you were born To thistime and place and Having to trace who you are day after day? There must have been the light Before thestories took away thesight We're notattached or separate in space (Chorus) You know the next time might be your time To "love and honor", to take the bother To see thisthing through Isthatwhat friends are here for? (Chorus) Lyrics by "Blue"GeneTyranny (Robert Sheff), first performedat the Trust in Rock concert, Nov. 4 - 6, 1976, Un iversity Art Museum , Berkeley, California. Patrice Mangel: Vocal Tony Johnson: Drums Karl Young:Tenorsax Maggi Payne: Flute "Blue" Gene: Fender-Rhodes & RM I electric pianos, polyMo09 synthesizer Steve Bartek: Electric and acoustic guitar, bass Peter Gordon:Alto Sax , tenor sax solo ArthusStidfole: Bassoon "I firstmetBlue when I was a graduate student at MillsCollege. Although Blue was onthefaculty, I never took a course withhim, but wewere partof thesame musical community andwere friends. This was an environment steeped in experimental music, but weboth hadperformed overtheyears in various rock music groups. This was clearly a partof ourmusical psyche, but was keptsubdued within thenewmusic environment, which was conceptually driven andrather austere from thelistener's perspective. We produced a concert in November 1976at theUniversity ArtMuseum in Berkeley which was titled 'Trust in Rock'. Over a period of three days, wepresented compositions by 'Blue' Gene, Craig Hazen andmyself which was performed byan ensemble withrockinstrumentation, andincluded songs and extended pieces. When Lovely Music Records invited 'Blue' Gene andmetocontribute albums for theirfirstsetof releases, much of thesource material was themusic from 'Trust in Rock'. (My ownalbum, 'Star Jaws ', was recorded around thesame timeas 'Out of theBlue ', uses thesame musicians, andwas released concurrently.) Regarding myrole asco-producer: Blue hadbeen a recording engineer in themultitrack studio at Mills, in addition to performing his faculty duties. A longtime practitioner of electronic music, Blue is also a master recording engineer andmixer. 'Out of theBlue', features hisgorgeous music, butis also a cleardemonstration of hisstudio artistry. Asco-producer, myjob was tohelp conceptualize, to encourage progress andmake gentle suggestions, to help findthemusicians, and, mostly, tolet themusic flow. " Peter Gordon FOR DAVID K. This composition is one of several in which popular music style material was expanded with newmusic techniques - including the songs in "No Job, No Warm, No Nothing" (1974), music for Phil Harmonic's "Stars Over San Francisco" (1976), and the music for Robert Ashley's opera-for-TV "Perfect Lives" (1978 - 1982). The initial instrumental, scored for tenor, alto, and baritone saxophones, woodwinds (flute, clarinets, bassoon), electric guitars, bass, drums, clavi net, keyboard synthesizer and tack piano, is a mixture of contrasting musical sections (discursive, tender, and aggressive) which are combined in various ways. This mixof emotions, notoften copacetic norcomplementary, was inspired bya reading of footballer David Kopay's coming-out-of-the-c1oset book. The three dynamic types exist asa behavioral language "for David K." to take onwhen engaged in thefootball world, butobviously heis notstuck withthem for hisactions and speech. The initial title of the song , "David Kopay (Portrait)" , seemed to imply thatthose dynamics are him, and since that is notthe case, thetitle was changed. Using the same musical material, a "version for memory and memoryless keyboards" * was created in 1996. Various gestures, short phrases from the melodies, repeating harmonies, and soon, are spontaneously chosen in live performance, and played (inputted) to a computer sequencer keyboard. These elements then continue to loop in a contrapuntal, hocketing manner (like an obsessive, rhythmic memory) while the soloist improvises spontaneously ona "memoryless" piano. This combination creates a rich contrapuntal duo that can be directed by a single performer onto many emotional and conceptual pathways. "Blue" Gene: Clavinet, tack piano, polyMoog synthesizer Steve Bartek: Electric guitars, bass Peter Gordon: Clarinet, alto sax, tenor sax solo Arthur Stidfole: Bassoon Maggi Payne: Flute Chuck Clark:Tenorsax Steve MacKay: Baritone sax LEADING A DOUBLE LIFE (1) He is in the blue distance He is getting nearer She is in the blue distance She is getting soclear (I don't know wheretheycame from I don 't know how we gothere I just turned myback and suddenly You were here) (2) Oh boy, sometimes it seems like it takes forever And then with your friends It takes no effort at all Oh it could be a past hurt Attachmentillusion That makes distance betweenme Leading a double life (3) On the other hand , you know It takes some language An agree ment forthe moment Making dreams ring true So with theresistance Comes an angel's assistance Bringing it closer and closer Leading a double life (4) She is in the bluedistance She's a visitingwonder He is in the bluedistance He's a dream come true (Am I sleepingandwaking Or just turning over A cellular wonder Leading a double life? A cellularwonder Leading a double life?) Lyrics by "Blue" GeneTyranny (Robert Sheff), first performed at theTrust in Rockconcert, Nov. 4 - 6, 1976, UniversityArtMuseum, Berkeley, California. "Blue" Gene: Piano, polyMoog synthesizer Lynne Morrow, soprano JaneSharp, soprano A LETTER FROM HOME Scored for voices and electro-acoustic instruments. This piece is a procedural score with harmonic, melodic, rhythmic, and verbal materials that may assemble in different ways. The first realization (1976) was made for this record . The uniting structure that underlies both textand music is the Doppler Effect (simultaneous amplitude, phase, frequency and time modulation) presented asa metaphor for thedevelopment of consciousness (with the unchanging sense of presence as "home base"). This first recorded version begins withthe sound of a train passing that exhibits all the characteristics of the Doppler Effect; various acoustic instruments were added to emphasize thetranslation from natural to acoustic sound. The text, written bythe composer in the lighthearted style of a letterfrom an unnamed friend, discusses the development of consciousness over three "sizes" of time: (1) over thousands of years (based on theworkof Julian Jaynes), (2) within a person's lifetime from childhood to adult perceptual illusions (based onthe workof Jean Piaget and others), and (3) at micro-levels (e.g., involuntary events, sudden feelings/thoughts). An echoing chorus samples parts of the spoken textand "sets them to music". There are jokes about playing in bands, about not being able to geta tune outof your head, about illusions likethe clock which seems to slow down or speed updepending onyour mood, and soon. The music develops through a tree of "branching harmonics": the basic progression (I , V, IV, I, 11#, IV) is constantly transformed asthe harmonic of one fundamental root becomes the new fundamental root and generates newharmonics (and chord voicings), and soon. This process seems to beone of natural growth and spacetime distortion. These harmonies are heard both in theirsteady development and in non-metric "smears" - increasingly longer "trains" of chords that pass through the stereo space (emulating theactual train heard at theoutset of the piece). From these harmonies, simple signature melodies are generated, and gradually more complex rhythms are generated (in "current" and "accumulating" modes), and the emotional "meaning" or tension of the constant drone changes as it is surrounded by newharmonies. There have been several other realizations of this score since theoriginal. In 1986, a new rhythmic textwas tried outwith stories in three sizes (biographical , historical, micro-level) with tableaux vivante (kitchen scene, sitting ona ranch fence, etc.) beautifully staged bythe Otrabanda Theatre Co. In 1991 , an instrumental version for piano, marimba and vibraphone was made using the melodic, ascending harmonic, and rhythmic material. Also in 1991 , a kind of rock version for piano and two electric guitars playing the "current rhythm" and "accumulating rhythm" parts was created. In 1996, the chart of "branching harmonics" was used asthe wellspring for a piano improvisation with dancers Trisha Brown and Steve Paxton. In 2002 this same chart was the basis of a piano improvisation onthe CD Take Your Time. Currently, a "compressed/flash" realization is being assembled viacomputer. Kathy MortonAustin: Narration Lynne Morrow, soprano Jane Sharp,soprano Peter Gordon:Alto Sax, tenorsax Magg i Payne: flute BobDavis: 12-String guitar Barbara Higbie: Fiddle AnneKlingensmith:Violoncello E. Jedidiah Denman:Acoustic bass Joel Ryan: computer pattern "Blue" Gene: Clavinet, RM I electric piano, synthesizer,matrix processing, outdoor sounds * Memoryless keyboard simply means non-synthesizer or computer keyboard(acoustic piano, organ, etc.). An instrument that doesn't have memory built-in. Memoryless playing is completely spontaneous perform ance in which a musicianusing simple materials (afew tones or even just sounds in no fixedrelationship) reveals the music of the subconscious, avoiding habitand playing only in the present. There are many ways to achievethis and it takes nerve, buttrust develops over time that this built-in musical unfolding will show its ability to always amaze the performerand consequently the audience also. Inmy mind, this is the finest kind of music making, better thana socalled religious experience because you don't have to believe anything to "get there". Just intense attention and listening like in a goodconversation. The role of composers in encouraging this kind of spontaneousplaying is to provide the simple materials - theirslogan could be "We make the cars butwedon't tell youwhereto drive them." "You arebringing back some oldmemories. I doremember youworking onthealbum and, afterall these years, I could still sing youwhole sections of 'Next Time MightBe Your Time'! Oddly, I can't remember theactof recording thenarration, andnothaving a record player (isthatwhat theyused tocall those things?), I can't verify thatI was actually present andfunctioning at thetime it was recorded. I guess one needs proofof pastexistence, andI'll lookforward tohearing there-issue for thatreason, as wellas forthemore obvious pleasure of hearing yourmusic again. Mymemory ofyouduring theproject isyourfocused energy at work at theGGM console, mixing over many hours anddays, sometimes withthedoor open, allowing thebeautiful music of thealbum to waftinto thecorridors, down thestairwell andeven, perhaps ona good day, asfaroutasthepond. I was deeply impressed, as weall were, howyourmusic was unlike anyother, butat thesame time, hada natural universal appeal thatcould move people, andcould very likelysend youto thetopof the charts. We all knew, through thatintense period of bringing thealbum tolife, youwere putting your heart andsoulintoit. It's exciting thatit's coming back tolife again, andwill waftbeautifully through thecorridors of oldandnewminds." Kathy Morton Austin text from A LETTER FROM HOME, for narrator and sampling chorus - The sound of a railroad train crossing from side to side. The Doppler effect it produces is imitated bythe sounds of acoustic instruments, a country fiddle, cello harmonics, etc. The following text is accompanied (electronic keyboards, guitar, expanding analog sequencer) by the gradually "branching harmonies" from thefundamental resonance (adrone on Gwhich is held throughout the piece). The Narrator delivers the basic letter in a free speaking style while the Chorus samples thattext, sets it to music, and re-assembles the words to give them new meaning. Later this same Chorus begins to anticipate the words of the Narrator. - Dear Blue Gene, As I sit here writing you this letterI'm listening to thesound of the midnight train as it moves and changes across the hills. It reminds me of you as it travels to the back of mymind. Now that'sa pretty weird idea. I don'tknow whyit should remind me of you - sometimes I just listen and it doesn't remind me of anything. It seems to create the space and time in which it moves ... it comes from nowhere. Anyway I'm getting off the subject. I really wrote to tell you the barwe used to play at has changed hands again . Do you remember howeveryone gottogether and danced until dawn? Justlikea religion. It tookan hour to getthetunes outof ourhead. The we gotstoned and in that presence we'd talk about ourcrazy ideas. I remember you said that a child growing up, the growth of thefeeling of being inside yourself, and the sound changing over space and time were similar experiences - theirmotions had thesame shape. Oh boy. Hey Blue Gene ... moving across mymindagain ... Hey Blue ... midnight train leavin' ... Across my mind... Hey Blue whydoes it remind meofyou? ... Mymind . Hey Blue whydoes it remind me... why does it remind me?Blue ... Hey mind moving mindagain Leavin' on . Hey Blue Gene ...Ieavin' home ... mymind... Blue ...Ah... Speaking of younger people, your cousin is growing upfast. When he was fouryears old , he was sucking histhumb and waving hisarms. And aftera year, hewas grabbing hold of blankets and rugs pulling things toward himself, seeing howclose hecould get. We must have seemed like pictures on TV. Soon he started talking and opened his mouth wide to describe something big , breathing heavily in and out. To him, each breath was likea thought. When he was one year old , someone would yawn in the room and he wouldn't. He described things that weren't anywhere near him. An idea he heard one day, hewould describe as his own on the next. When he was two, or three-and-a-half years old , he'd talkto hisimaginary companion . Now he'stwelve and imagines everything connected to everything else. The more defined a situation gets, the more hespaces out. I guess hewonders if his life is supposed to be a story. Of course, he was fivewhen outof the blue, hestarted to speak Polish and recall hispast lives. That certainly wasn't in the books. Sometimes you imagine you're in the music and sometimes you're apart from it. I remember thetime the band gave you your name "Blue" Gene. There was thefeeling thattrouble was builtintoyou, likethey say, in your genes. Both you and I know, you're no victim of circumstance. - electronic imitation of train crossing - Hey Blue ... leavin' circumstance ... doyou... doyouremember? Do ... you... mind? Circumstance ... dancing ... andthatmeans ... a long winter ... took youanhourto get the tunes outofyourhead ... Hey Blue ... is that the onlyway? the tunes inside of you... circumstance tunes the inside ofyou... is thatthe onlyway? someone thinking howbeautiful outofyourhead ... one tune blue tune ... out there . - instrumental interlude - You getyourname anddescribe inside yourmind. Of course, you dogetobsessed and at those times whatyou want to know gets toward you. How close can you get? (Ghosts appear mostly in February.) How doyou describe something which is invisible and unknowable? When thetrain goes by, what should I pay attention to? The sound, or what I see, or what goes on in mymind, or maybe all three of them at once? (Three guesses - a coincidence, a connection outside, a connection inside.) It's so beautiful to see someone thinking . Consider 4 billion people walking around with slightly different things in theirheads at any given moment. When you're in this country, all images that support living in thecity disappear. The day before you leftonthat midnight train was the day we made upthat weird theory about a history of consciousness. Of course it was just asarbitrary asanyhistory, and started 12,000 years in the past - the people are peaceful, there is nogovernment, and nothing is an example of anything. There are nowords for past, present, future or madness. It's always thefirst time. However, there is a voice that appears to each of them, barely distinct, softly in-between theother sounds of living - one side of the brain in each person is slowly sending pulses through to the other side. It is inevitable, according to this ordered-up theory, that an imaginary space somewhere in the back of your mind is occupied bysomeone called "I" thatfloats around in the same space it has created. Then we skipped a few thousand years to watch that unidentified inner voice become embodied in the voice of the ruler. Statues were in the center of town just liketoday images of ancestors with large eyes. Eye to eye contact. Time ceases to exist. A younger and older man, a younger and older woman. Eye to eye contact. Mother and child. When you talk about love, everyone's anauthority. Eye to eye do... 1... mind?... Eye to eye when you were born . Eye to eye time ceases to exist . Eye to eye what's yourname? . Eye to eye ... heywhat's the story? Do youexist? I'm inside andoutside Difference is anillusion ... (repeat) Younger ... older ... crazy Sunlight in frontof youreyes ... Sunlight inside . Tell the future . Sunlight , rain on the water ... Flashing inside ... December's past... - instrumental interlude - 8000 or maybe 6000 years ago when young women were possessed oracles and older men were hot-blooded prophets foretelling thefuture, their message was delivered in steady rhythmic verses - always the same rhythm no matter whatlanguage. From one side of the brain to the other, from invisible heaven to foggy earth. This was sunlight inside and outside without yawning or blinking. You can send your consciousness anywhere. And in the prophet's eyes, the ideas on the periphery of hisvision frame whathe sees - the possibilities are beads of lightconstantly changing intensity. He imagines the experience is always the same and always entirely outof control ... somewhere outthere. (Every 11 and 11 hundredths years, there is a cycle of increased sunspot activity. Every 11 and 1/1 Oths years, there is a cycle of mass human excitability. If something went one way and the space were somehow closed off, the idea was that something had to gothe other way. There are so many cycles, you could just aswell see the changes as random .) Someone called it peaceful co-existence, the way the waves travel through the same medium, the water, and crossed through each other, transparently without destruction. The restof thestory, Blue, was thatthe outside voices began to be heard inside 4100 or maybe 3700 years ago. People started to write laws down, and make treaties. The word was pictured in sets of two, and the ideas of history, motives, and strategies were dreamed up. These went along with war, life stories, and authorities from outer space. On the periphery of this country, someone made upthe notion that you could change yourselfbychanging your consciousness, without connections, beyond contradictions. (His blood pressure was highest at three in theafternoon, and lowest at three in the morning. When he started singing with hisfriends, someone would remember justthe words and someone would remember justthetunes.) (Two points in space, and three types of connections.) When they wentoutona date, each of them imagined his and hermom and dad had come along. A steady structure, a complete decision with only four moves. Yes and noonthefirst possibility, yes and no onthe other one. Did he need that image outside to have thatfeeling inside? Ooooh ... oooh ... oooh centered in space . happy to bedoing . one more time to write ... centered in space ... centered andstruggling and changing your mind... who doyou talkto? Who you talk tois what's ever a tune ... centered andchanging ... heywhat;s yourname? Wanting a vision beyond consciousness, ... centered andchanging heywhat's yourname? Areyouattached? Do yousee it coming? Doot-doo-doot-doot-doo. Up to the sun . Here we talk . is thata separate sound? Doot-doo-doot-doot-doo. I wonder if I have changed since I was young or has it always been this way? I guess I want a vision beyond consciousness, the way a culture can take 20 years to catch upto whatcan occur in a flash to one person - someone who's done histhinking before he realizes it. I can accept the way I pay attention to things even if every 96 minutes I getan urge to talk, eat, or kiss somebody. Yes, just anybody, Blue. And I startto pay attention to the miracles that I do know about. You know I never setthe alarm and I always wake upontime. Even in a thunderstorm, mymother would wake uponly when she heard herbaby cry. When I playa piece on the piano once, it goes on rehearsing byitselfand it's easier to play the next time. And there are the coincidences and the invisible ideas that reveal themselves anytime you startto gothrough the motions. Are they really outthere, Blue? (Going to the center of town bycalculated spirals which run down, going to the center of town randomly, all the energy is mysteriously conserved asthe bird flies.) From timeto time, I feel another world growing upamong the one I experience everyday, and it seems no conclusions can be drawn about anyone's eventual fate. Sometimes I put myfingertips on thetop of my eyes and apply pressure slightly. Then the pressure is released, and flashes of lightstill remain floating among theforms that are shaped likenetworks. That pressure to move the lights is the same astaking onanyidea to move my body. One side of the brain keeps rambling onto write you this letter, while the other side is setting it to rhythmic music, migrating from fundamental harmonics to the harmonics of those harmonics, building its own bridge. A particle of lightto a molecule to fluorescence to warmth to mybody and its rhythms and back again . We are notattached norseparate in space. (Slipping in-between the pulses of consciousness, UFOs appear mostly in April coinciding with thesudden appearance and disappearance of stars.) But anyway, it's always thefirst time. Hey Blue Gene ... moving across my mindagain ... Hey Blue ...morning train leavin' ... Across my mind... - sound of real train crossing from side to side once more - - sound of digital imitation of train moving from side to side - This train is lit bythe luminescence of thetown and thefaint morning light, and the lightit gives off. That lightdefines the area all around thetrain just asyour love defines the way you see the lifeclosest to you. Isthattoo corny, Blue? Well , you know that's howwe are here. Write soon. Music and text by "Blue" GeneTyranny (Robert Sheff), BMI All music composed 1976; Outof theBlueoriginally released1977 on LP by Lovely Music, Ltd. asLML 1061 "NextTime Might Be Your Time" and "for David K." co-produced with Peter Gordon Recorded andmixedby RobertSheff assisted byAndrew Aldrich Additional recording by Kenn Beckman, Kathy MortonAustin, Peter Gordon,Andrew Aldrich,andDavid Behrman Tony Johnsonand Steve MacKay appear courtesy of Amherst Records Recordedat The Center for Contemporary Music,Mills College, Oakland, California,September-October 1977 Digitally Filteredby Wes Marshall 2006 Digitally Re-mastered by TomGordon for Inspired-AmateurProductions, Imirage Sound Lab, Sparks, NV, September 2006 Cover art by Joey Fauerso, disc art by CharlesBroskoski photo key: p.3, Patrice Mangel (credit: F. SlopFitzgerald , left;Tom Scharf,right); p.5,Blue, 1981(credit:Philip Makenna); p.?, Blue playing thekeyboard with hiselbow, "something I amtold that I didoften inthelate60's"; p.a, Peter Gordon, 1976; p.10, KathyMorton Austin , mid-70's(credit:Pat Kelly); p.22, photos from theTrust inRock concert, November 13, 1976(credit: Melody Bums); p.23(opposite),Blue, 1978;p.24, Blue, 1981(credit:PhilipMakenna) Unseen Wnrlds P.O. Box644,Austin,TX78767-0644 WoVW.unseenworlds.net "Blue" GeneTyranny www.bluegenetyranny. com All rights reserved 0 197712007