Saturday 28 December 2019

Henry Flynt & The Insurrections ‎– "I Don't Wanna" (Bo'Weavil Recordings ‎– Weavil 02) 1966/2004


In his quest to rediscover the original white american primitive inside himself, Henry Flynt moved from making forward looking drone music, back to the hillbilly version of folk from the Appalachian mountains. Just as English folkies of the 50's  and 60's rediscovered thousands of untouched ancient English folk songs still doing the rounds in the forgotten parts of north america,like visiting a folk music museum, so Flynt rediscovered the earliest forms of American music, which,like everything else in the USA,had formed from the folk musics brought over by the emigrants to the new world.
Sporting a nifty Buddy Holly with a Phd look, a decade before David Byrne and Elvis Costello, Henry turned his back on the Intellectual experimentation in the east village, to try and reset the american culture back to Year Zero, before bluegrass and Rock'n'Roll. The Pol Pot of Pop.The result were these recordings from 1963-66 for Henry's conceptual Electric Bluegrass band,The Insurrections, that seemed to have been stored cryogenically,waiting for the end of the world.
This attitude had many similarities within the Punk Rock movement, who instead of erasing Stockhausen from the musical History books, the'Punks' (for want of a better word) wanted to erase Emerson, Lake and Palmer, and start again. Sham 69 also had a song called "I Don't Wanna" for example; a similar kind of modern English folk song assembled from the more basic elements of imported american culture, which was akin to Henry's version.Except Sham actually managed to encapsulate Flynts dream of 'Cognitive Nihilism' without even trying. Henry Flynt was obviously,and inescapably a middle class intellectual,who was trying to think himself out of existence, whereas Jimmy Pursey was just doing it because he had to....brain wot brain!.....(that is until he was got at and did that avant-garde dance piece on BBC2......if you want a jolly old chuckle click here!). Evil psuedo-intellectualism gets us all in the end.
So far I can't recall Henry Flynt doing any hillbilly or contemporary dance in his career so far?
This Hillbilly rock stuff has indeed captured the creepiness of middle america very nicely.It sends a shiver down ones spine,its the sound of 'Stupid' resurrected, rather than insurrected ,by someone who escaped it to become part of the Marxist Intelligentsia,and then felt a need to go back again.It displays a dissonance, both musically and cognitively.He's managed to subscribe to and then reject almost everything in his lifetime so far.He just can't seem to make up his mind can he?
I think they have a candy bar in the US called this?....."Oh Henry!"

Tracklist:

A1 Uncle Sam Do 2:52
A2 Good By Wall St. 2:59
A3 Go Down 2:55
A4 Corona Del Mar 3:00
A5 Missionary Stew 4:30
B1 Jumping 3:03
B2 Sky Turned Red 2:33
B3 I Don't Wanna 3:18
B4 Dreams Away 7:29


3 comments:

Luke said...

It pleases me to know that DOD(?) still exists in 2019 (and hopefully into 2020!). In an era of confusion it's good to know that some things don't change.

Kzka said...

Pinhead elitist!

Psychfan said...

Thank you. Very nice blog!