the king of pop
I went to this concert. It was in this city with these people. Some of them wore those white shirts, which was a bit strange for a rock concert, I thought. Well actually, it wasn’t a rock concert, they call it trip-hop, whatever that means. First your trip then you hop, I guess. A bit unusual – normally you’d expect a fall after a trip, not a hop. Well these people …
Anyway, the king of trip hop came, they say. So I went to see the king. I quite like they guy, his music that is, not him. But I would never say he is a king. Tricky, that’s the guy’s name, a king? No way. Well, actually he’s no Tricky either, he’s Adrian Thaws, born 1968 in Bristol, England, musician. Well, and actually not even that, you could hardly call him a musician: he is noted for a whispering sprechgesang lyrical style – that’s what Wikipedia has to say about him and I guess they are right. The guy can’t sing, he only speaks. Surprisingly he’s got no rhythm either (I had a chance to find out at the concert). Not bad for a world-famous artist. But there’s one thing this guy can do – he can make good use of other musicians, and in that there is hardly a replacement for him.
But these people. I think I have a problem with them. When he sings, pardon, says his stuff, they stand motionless, emotionless, absent-minded, white-shirted, jaded, spoiled with money. But when he says a nice word to them or lets them shake hands with him, or just brush against him, they treat him like a king, more, like a superhuman, a saviour. If Jesus was jealous he would probably envy Tricky such respect. That’s pop for you.
But I ain’t get fooled. Tricky’s just a boy, a kid. I know it. He knows it: Tricky Kid, Knowle West Boy* these are his own words. So I tell you: no king of trip-hop, pop, or any other. Just a kid, but tricky.
*Knowle West is a district of Bristol of poor reputation
The kink of pop
Funny you should make this hypothetical link between modern stardom and Jesus. A few months back The Wire magazine (whatever else) ran a feature on Tricky in which he clearly pointed to his background as the main source of his relentless chatter. It seems that being born to a dysfunctional family and spending youth on a council estate automatically gave him and the likes that pseudo-evangelical status, something the world of pop is full of. Forgive me a somewhat longer sample of his unrestricted creativity:
The Wire: Religion is a subject you’ve kept returning to in your lyrics …
Tricky: I don’t know why cause I’m not religious at all, I think its just the image we grew up with, you’re plastered with it. I used to love the biblical films when I was a kid, I’m not at all religious but I used to love watching those films. I think he’s a fascinating guy, interesting, and like I don’t know whether it’s all true or not but there is something, I don’t know there is something bred into me through films, pictures.
The Wire: Was there any religion in your family background?
Tricky: None whatsoever, not one religious person in my family. Not one. I can’t think of one.
The Wire: Where did “Cross To Bear” on the new album come from?
Tricky: The Passion Of the Christ, the scene where he doesn’t want to die. I just took that one scene and thought it was interesting the fact that Jesus doesn’t want to die, he don’t wanna do this, he wants to have kids, you were brought up thinking he went to the cross, like ‘take me to the cross, nail me on the cross’, he must have had fear he must have thought ‘fuck this I just wanna have kids, I don’t wanna die’ it was basically about that, about him wanting to stay with his woman, and his father saying ‘nah, you gotta do this’ and him saying ‘nah, I don’t care, that is you not me, I can’t do this for you’.
The Wire: Once again, it’s sung by a woman …
Tricky: Yeah, I like putting women in a male role, have the woman play the strength and the man be the weak. I was brought up, one of my uncles was in jail for 30 years and the other for 15 years. I didn’t see my Dad, I was brought up by my grandmother and my auntie so I’ve seen my grandmother fight in the street. I’ve seen my auntie and my grandmother have fistfights, I’ve seen my grandmother grab my Auntie’s arm and close it in the door and break her arm fighting over meat. So I see women as tough. They fed me, they clothed me, my grandmother taught me to steal, my auntie taught me to fight, she sent me to boxing when I was 15. For instance, if men go to war you stand in one field, I stand in another, we shoot each other, but what’s the hardest? When you are at home and you gotta listen to kids cry and you gotta feed em. That’s tough, I’ve seen no men around. I’ve seen my uncle go jail for seven years, then 10 years my other uncle, my Dad never rang. Women keep it together, keep the food on the table, defend us, defend the children, like if anyone fucked with us they would be down the school, I’ve never seen men do that for me, I’ve never seen men there for me like that. All I know is women.
Do you think the white-shirted people in Warsaw know that?
Hell knows. I’ve known only bits and pieces of that. But I suppose it’s enough to see his face, his eyes from a closer distance to know that. But anyway thanks for that.