|
Puff Daddy, Author Of Kashmir (With Apologies To Borges) |
home News New Reviews Reviews Archive Interview Archive Hall Of Fame Links Contact |
The original work, "Come With Me" composed by the pop genius Sean "Puff Daddy" Coombs is easily and briefly etymologized. Two pieces of unequal value inspired this undertaking. One was that architectural fragment of The Mission, "Tower Of Strength", which outlined the theme of total identification with a specific author. The other was one of those parasitic tracks by Kingdom Come. Like any man of good taste, Puff detested these useless carnivals, only suitable - he used to say - for evoking plebeian delight in anachronism, or (what is worse) charming us with the primary idea that all epoches are the same, or that they are different. Any insinuation that Puff dedicated his life to the writing of a contemporary "Kashmir" is a calumny of his illustrious name. He did not want to compose another "Kashmir" - which would be easy - but the "Kashmir." It is unnecessary to add that his aim was never to produce a mechanical transcription of the original; he did not propose to copy it. His admiral ambition was to produce pages which would coincide - note for note and line for line - with those of Led Zeppelin. "My intent is merely astonishing," he said on MNN on April 1st, 1998. "The ultimate goal of a theological or metaphysical demonstration - the external world, God, chance, universal forms - are no less anterior or common than this tune which I am now developing. The only difference is that philosophers publish in pleasant volumes the intermediary stages of their work and that I have decided to lose them." And, in fact, not one note of a rough demo remains to bear witness to this work of years.
The initial method he conceived was relatively simple: to know Northern Africa well, to re-embrace Aleister Crowley's communication with his guardian angel, to fight against punks and new wavers, to forget musical history between 1977 and 1998, and to be Led Zeppelin. Puff Daddy studied this procedure but rejected it as too easy. To be, in the 90's, an epic rock writer of the 70's seemed to him a diminution. To be, in some way, Jimmy Page and to arrive at "Kashmir" seemed to him less arduous - and consequently less interesting - than to continue to be Puff and to arrive at "Kashmir" through the experiences of hitmaker Sean "Puff Daddy" Coombs.
|