[Jandek] COVERING JANDEK SONGS.

[Simon Greenwood]

I knew that someone would say this even as I wrote the mail... it's  
not that the music couldn't be transcribed or the words be written  
down and sung by someone else, but that it isn't necessary.

It is a natural habit of most musicians to want to play other  
people's music, and there's nothing wrong with that at all, but it  
would seem to me that the way in which Jandek's music is made and the  
philosophy behind its creation makes covering it unnecessary from the  
point of view of the creator: the music exists at the time of  
creation and the recording exists as a document . I have had an  
interest in free music for a long time, and one of the aspects of  
that is that the act of creation is more important than the  
documentation. This is the opposite of modern popular music, and also  
something that the Representative seems to appreciate very well.

In short, I'm not saying 'don't cover Jandek' or 'you can't cover  
Jandek' but more 'why cover Jandek'  as I believe that is counter to  
the thinking behind the music. The best way to do it would be to take  
a lyric and reinterpret it with the instrument(s) of your choice.  
This would be more true to  the artist's intention. Or something.

Simon