Done up in Blueprint Blue

There used to be a show on PBS called “The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross.” Bob Ross was the painter with an afro and beard who spoke in a really soft voice and painted “happy trees.” He was doing ASMR before ASMR was a thing. I was always mesmerized by Bob Ross. He would start off a show with a blank canvas and 30 minutes later, he would have a landscape masterpiece. Along the way he would do things that wouldn’t make sense or would make the viewer cringe. Often times while watching his show I’d scream at my TV, “Bob, what are you doing!” but then he would make what seemingly looked like a mess, look beautiful.  When someone is really good at something there’s almost nothing more pleasurable than to watch them do what they’re really good at.

The above video is Donald Fagen from Steely Dan doing what he’s really good at. In it he works through some of his hit songs with Warren Bernhardt, breaking them down and showing how the songs evolved during the songwriting process. What’s really amazing is that a lot of his songs are nothing more than basic blues arrangements that have been slightly modified and “jazzed up.” If you’re not a musician this video will probably be boring to you as he talks a lot about the music theory behind his songs and it can get rather complicated at times. If you are a musician I have no doubt that you’ll enjoy this video and will probably say “wow” at least once.

There are very few musicians like Donald Fagen anymore as the audience for this type of sophisticated music is getting smaller and smaller. Sadly, when our schools want to cut spending, the music and art programs are usually the first to go. To quote my friend Jameson, “should we not aim towards an environment that fosters each person’s capacity to recognize and appreciate [art].”

I think we should.

 

Blessings