We’re talking the commitment to an ethos of a Beethoven, or Nick Drake in the final months of his life putting together Pink Moon, John Coltrane with A Love Supreme and Ascension, or Joy Division’s corpus of two albums. His discography - truncated though it is - signifies a purity and a commitment to aesthetic authenticity that we rarely get even in musical art, where that kind of thing seems well-represented. That sound hits hard, like a Joe Louis left hook, and, having been hit by Alexander’s sound, one is apt to do the Oliver Twist voice and request another. He was unique, his career was unique, and to say his sound was as well is to not provide enough credit, via understatement. He is a titan who’s never really been recognized as such, arguably the most influential rock and roll artist - though we’ll have to be careful with labels when it comes to Alexander - that few people have ever heard of. Still, the dogged listener keeps trying, which is an act of faith, because sometimes you can tell - call it a feeling in the musical bones - there is something you’re meant to hear, and hear well.įor me, Arthur Alexander is one of those musical artists with whom I just knew. We’ll encounter phrases like, “I really wanted to love such and such, but I just couldn’t get there.” Perhaps one reads about the nine sides that legendary bluesman Son House cut in 1930 and the rough fidelity is too much to overcome. There’s also what used to be called a vibe - a feeling, a sensation - that a necessary meeting has been arranged by the universe, and now all you need to do is formally locate the music, hit play, and off you go on the tandem bike. You think about how you could spend years listening to those recordings, that they’ll bring much to your life that wasn’t there before you found them. They seem like a form of art you should go for, if what you believe about yourself is true. Have you ever learned about a set of recordings and thought, “I would like to love those?” There’s an embedded knowledge you pick up on - a kind of reader’s contact high - that the recordings would match well with who you are, who you wish to be, how you’d like to think of yourself.

The beatles tell me why listen