I've been in that station many times and I've even "paid the piper" so to speak upon the occasion when one has been there. I can remember someone playing Bob Dylan and singing along in a much better voice than Dylan's! I wouldn't have recognized Joshua Bell or any of the thousands of classical musician's I've listened to on CD's over the years; I love them for the music and not their faces.
Thus the disguise and the point of the demonstration, not to be recognized as a Famous Amos, but to be heard.
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Thanks for the follow-up Paddy, and yes more would stop for the familiar even if it wasn’t that good. The rhythm was off; a drum would have been more appropriate. My brother followed a skirt back to Freehold N.J. in the 60-70’s. There, I had seen “the Bruce” in his not-so glory days. Leaving Vermont on my Norton to go visiting that town was worth a story or two, just in the contrast.
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Working in Oxford in the early 90s, it was not unusual to find music students combining practice with fundraising in the street, but one of the most popular was the string quartet that set up in the doorway of Marks and Spencer one Saturday afternoon - apparently with store's agreement - which drew a crowd that obstructed the buses.
I seem to recall these fine musicians were raising funds for charity rather than for themselves.Wonder what became of them. Did they become world-class soloists; join symphony orchestras, become session musicians... or take a complete change in career?
Obviously their
timing made a difference to the public reaction - as a boss, would you accept as a reason for being late that your employee was listening to a genius (sorry, Joshua!) playing an incredibly difficult piece in the subway? If you're out shopping on a fine spring Saturday afternoon, your time is your own - at least far more so than in the first instance.
Anyway, off to watch The Who at Glastonbury on TV now...
From the sublime to the gor blimey as me old Dad used to say
Highmac: To me, anyone who is willing/desperate enough to stand on the street for an audience is a charity case, but doing it for another charity doesn’t have the same flavor, it’s viewed as an act of sacrifice rather than desperation. In the end we all do what we need to do to survive and I suspect one out of the four
string quartet went on to follow a musical career and quite possibly wishing he had taken a more lucrative course.
The timing was purposeful, it was meant to measure the reaction of people “On the Go”. It was a cultural offering to a class of people who were not familiar with the nuance. It was a probe into the mindset of our governmental labor force. They reacted well by not reacting at all. The Program Stuck, drones R us.
The tax, on our basic instinct of “hunter gatherers”, when we pass by so much for the monotony of so little… or is it no more than strings screaming in our ears? Cog syndrome, is a way of life for so many. The blinders are on, the track is before you, run you fool, run!! Baahhh Bahhhh
Woke up, got out of bed
Dragged a comb across my head
Found my way downstairs and drank a cup
And looking up, i noticed i was late
Found my coat and grabbed my hat
Made the bus in seconds flat
Found my way upstairs and had a smoke
Somebody spoke and i went into a dream
ahhh dreaming is a luxury few can affordThere is honesty in 9-to-5 that says I submit my senses to your will. I will not see, hear, taste, smell, touch…give my curiosity to the world that does not submit to or promote the mechanization of my life. In turn, I will have nothing new to offer. (so let’s talk about yesterday’s news) It is no surprise that the leisure class has the time to be creative as well as to enjoy the fruits of the vine. The only person who knew who he was had an opportunity to see him for Free at the Library of Congress. He is an acquired taste as is a 95 Chateau Petrus Pomerol. I can’t imagine the folks on the train purchasing $4500.00 wine anymore than I can see them spending $250.00 for seats to listen to the screech of strings stretched across a box. But where was their curiosity? Does a mere look cause fear and challenge the monotony? If you like what you hear will your career be at stake? If you make eye contact are you saying to the man with the violin, I authorize you to be here? Does that one act put you in the OutBox, are you now not “with them”, but against them, a subversive.
These people voted with their eyes. What they were saying was that he was out of place, that he had no right to impose upon their monotony. Americans of any class or stripe do not want to be sold one more thing. They do not want advertisements printed on their toilet paper, they do not want their ears filled with anymore noise. They want to climb inside their heads and shut the world out. That’s what I think 90% of the people walking by were saying with their eyes.
