Before Watercolors digs back into introspection (which I will get back to next week) we have River Quay, extending what appears to be the introduction of the sound of the Pat Metheny Group. The center of gravity of “River Quay” is the hook spelled out in that very compact chorus.
Although Pat is fond of saying that all of the Metheny group music feels like it’s a part of one long song, my ear wants to categorize along the lines of “main contributor” vs. “decoration.” While this seems like an arbitrary distinction to make, it’s hard to escape the feeling that some musical constructs seem to have more of an inevitability than others. The chorus of this composition, though quite simple, has that weight — as though Metheny’s music could not have existed without this short collection of phrases.
It used to really bother me when I’d hear parts of Pat’s music used as the backdrop to local community service announcements on the television. Looking back at those moments, they now feel like yet another part of that group song…or at least my version of it.
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Mark,
I understand your comments about hearing something akin to MPG in an elevator, first annoyance, then joy. It’s the accessibility, without the usual attendant compromises, that make Pat and Lyle’s music so unique, successful throughout the world and worth traveling hundreds of miles to see performed live, as I have done. Can’t wait to go to Va. Beach to see the Unity Band in February! And looking forward to a PMG reunion, at last.
Back in my younger days, I had a period of being a charter member in the full-fledged Pat Metheny Crusade. My tireless efforts were to convert all semi-intelligent and apparently literate humans to the joys and enlightenment that could be obtained by taking the Metheny plunge. My motivation was simple. Pat’s music and wisdom had changed my life for the better, why wouldn’t this be the case for everyone else? I would snap into action almost anywhere: parties, school seminars, dorm rooms, bars, bus stops. My pitch was simple. It had all the originality of a drug dealer (“You gotta try this stuff man”). If I sensed my subject was approaching out of reach, in the musical sense, I would lay “River Quay” on them. My feeling was that this was the perfect “foot in the door” tune for a newcomer. It had a hook, but it also demonstrated some key PMG concepts and sensibilities. (On the other end, if I felt like they could handle it, I would give them something meaty to start with, like “Are you going with me?”, or maybe even “San Lorenzo”).
I have since pulled a 180. I am now the “anti” converter. I don’t feel that impulse to “turn on” the masses anymore. At this point, I just consider myself very lucky to have found something that consistently brings me so much pleasure and joy. No other artist/musician even comes close for me.
There was one guy in college who nibbled at this very proposition. “River Quay” was enough for him to take the next step. I made him a mix tape of Pat’s music (it was 1995 after all), which I thoroughly enjoyed making by the way, and gave it to him. I would see him from time to time, but the tape, or Pat, never came up in any conversation. I never asked, either. Maybe he hated it. Maybe he kind of liked it. Maybe he taped the latest “Stone Temple Pilots” record over it, who knows.