Music of the Day, 23 May 2024

not enough eyes to see

I have a confession: another musical love has started to claim some of my time. After thinking about it intermittently for years, a couple of weeks ago I finally dug out my flute and my music books, and began to relearn how to play it. My tone is unsteady, my embouchure needs a lot of work, and even though I can read music still and remember most of the fingerings, neither is as reliable as I’d like. I’m both relieved that I recall a lot of it and humbled by how much I need to regain.

And I’m loving every minute of it.

Each time I practice, I observe some improvement, which further motivates me to keep at it. And even though the book I’m using is at the absolute beginner level,¹ I’m already thinking ahead to when I can play some real music. (Yes, I’ve played some very simple tunes from the book, such as “Merrily We Roll Along,” but that isn’t scratching my itch.) So I decided to try to find a suitable rock piece as a goal to play.

Beyond the obvious Ian Anderson—whose music I’ll likely not be able to play in this lifetime—the only other rock flautist that came to mind was Peter Gabriel. The luscious flute riffs in “Sledgehammer” aren’t within reach either. Besides that, they weren’t played on a shakuhachi flute²; Gabriel used an E-mu Emulator II synthesizer to create those parts. Scratch that candidate. So, I took a step back and searched for famous rock flautists.

I’m embarrassed to say that after I saw today’s featured flautist on the list, no song came to mind. I had to then track it down—and when I did, I was right to be embarrassed, because I adored this song likely before I was a flautist myself.

I’m pretty sure I heard “Undun” back in 1969 when it became a hit for The Guess Who, but I have no specific memories of it from then. I certainly couldn’t have appreciated the intricacies of it via AM radio, or even FM radio once I discovered its existence. Burton Cummings’ vocals are so gentle and restrained at the beginning that it almost doesn’t sound like him. The laid-back guitar also belies what’s coming. Only Garry Peterson’s drumming provides an early clue, and his playing masterfully matches Cummings’ shifting intensity.

There’s subtle flute support in the bridge, which I’d not noticed before; it’s in its lower register and adds an eerie quality to the music. I can definitely cover that once I get the notes figured out.³ The solo is more complex than I remember, but once I get my embouchure back to form for playing in the higher register, I should have enough dexterity for its lovely ornamentation. #Flutegoals for sure, but attainable in a reasonable time frame with sufficient practice.

I always thought of “Undun” as a fairly trippy song, partly because of the floaty guitar and syncopated “Tcha!” vocals in the intro and later. Cummings’ scatting is trippy, too; I’d forgotten about it. Today I learned that Randy Bachman wrote the lyrics after seeing a girl at a party OD on LSD, so the adjective is apt. His guitar work is lovely here, and don’t sleep on Jim Kale’s nice bass work.

The version I posed above is the full version from the Canned Wheat album; it has a tasty little country guitar and bass melody at the end. Be sure to listen through headphones or earbuds to enjoy its trippiness. The Guess Who aren’t appreciated nearly enough these days—and that goes triple for Burton Cummings’ singing. Every time I listen, I’m awed anew.

1. and trust me, that’s where my overall skill level is

2. a Japanese bamboo flute played like a recorder is, rather than a Western flute

3. I have decent relative pitch for someone who hasn’t played in decades… perhaps because I listen to so much music, and also did some singing when the kids and I regularly played Rock Band