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Doug Harvey, Ruptured Rationalist Hubris Spews Glossolalia Plane, 2007 |
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WHEN THAT GREAT SHIP WENT DOWN BY WILLIAM AND VERSEY SMITH, 1927 REMIX: DOUG HARVEY, RUPTURED RATIONALISTS HUBRIS SPEWS GLOSSOLALIA PULME, 2007 The Titanic disaster inspired a number of ballads and was particularly popular with African-American musicians, who were aware of the irony that Jim Crow Laws, that enforced segregation, had forbidden African-American passage on the ship. Perhaps they felt that the ship’s owners received divine retribution. The utterly alien quality of the Smith’s sound conjured an image of the Titanic as a modern Tower of Babel, hemorrhaging garbled technical symbols across the 20th century - in spite of the cult that insists it is still afloat. Harry Smith was one of the central voices in opposition to this delusional trance state. Doug Harvey is an artist, writer, experimental musician and art critic for the LA Weekly. His co-curatorial retrospective of psychedelic poster artist Rick Griffin opens at the Laguna Art Museum in June 2007. http://dougharvey.blogspot.com |
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