I almost choked on my Coco Pops when the party political broadcast for the Lib Dems came on the TV. There was Nick Clegg wittering on about “time for change” and all of that. It was of absolutely no interest, but I still kept staring at the broadcast, spellbound. Something was happening on a slightly subliminal level and an emotion was stirring.
One minute in and I knew what it was: under Clegg’s drone was a barely audible musical soundtrack. I knew the track. Why wouldn’t I? It’s the most-played song ever on my MP3 player and one of the most beautiful pieces of music you can ever hope to hear.
The track is An Ending (Ascent)by Brian Eno, his brother Roger, and Daniel Lanois – and a weird cult surrounds it. Few people have heard it, but those that have go into rhapsody about it.
Over at dezji.wordpress.com they say that the song has “an astonishing psychological resonance with a lot of people. You’ll find a surprising number of passionate testaments acclaiming it as the greatest, most moving piece of music of all time. It’s difficult to work out how it has the immense power that it undoubtedly does possess.”
Not that difficult if you consider the song's history. It was written in 1983 for Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks, which served as the soundtrack album for a remarkable film called For All Mankind. This Oscar-nominated documentary featured previously unseen Nasa footage taken by the astronauts on the Apollo moon missions. That's why the track has that other-worldly feel. But there's something else that distinguishes it from a typical ambient-sounding minor chord key progression.
Some of the stuff written about An Ending (Ascent)borders on deranged new age neo-hippy nonsense: "With closed eyes, it really is possible to drift into a state that borders on blissful rapture listening to it" etc. Furthermore, you will also see plenty of comments about the song that testify to its ability to "unlock" emotions and memories – even inhibited grief.
But back to Nick Clegg for a moment. The track is being used by his party because Eno has somehow ended up, at the age of 61, as the Lib Dem’s “Official Youth Advisor”.
So here’s the conspiracy theory – and feel free to spread it around. Clegg is doing so well in the opinion polls ahead of next week’s UK election because the almost subliminal music used on his party’s political broadcast induces, according to dezji.wordpress, “a kind of mesmeric joy not a million miles away from the effects produced by mild doses of hallucinogens”.
That all solved, you can get serious again and conclude that the use of Eno's An Ending (Ascent)in a political broadcast is the most imaginative use of music in politics to date.
Politicians, rather distressingly so, are all too keen, particularly at election time, to portray themselves as being au courantwith popular music tropes and trends. Think Bill Clinton having Fleetwood Mac play on the White House Lawn, Tony Blair inviting Oasis for wine and finger food at 10 Downing Street, and Gordon Brown once name-dropping Arctic Monkeys as his fave listen. It's all just too hideous for words.
If music was the deciding factor, the Lib Dems would walk the election next week. Over at Tory HQ, they’ve been wheeling out Take That’s Gary Barlow to warble a few songs at every opportunity, usually with shots of Dave Cameron clapping hopelessly out of time in the background.
Indeed, so uncool is the Conservative leader in the eyes of musicians that even Keane slapped a cease-and-desist notice when the Tories began using their Everybody's Changingsong at party rallies. Cameron was also slapped down by Paul Weller after he said The Jam's Eton Rifleswas one of his favourite ever songs.
“Eton Rifles is about class war,” Weller said in a statement directed to Cameron. “If you can’t take the time or have the intellect to see what the song’s about, you haven’t got much chance of running the country, have you?”
As for New Labour, they’re finding that all the usual musical suspects are hiding behind the couch when Party Central comes looking for cool musical endorsements. Post-Iraq, nobody wants anything to do with them.
That is, except for Blur drummer David Rowntree, who is standing as a prospective Labour MP for the cities of London and Westminster seat. "We almost certainly won't win," he helpfully remarked to the Guardianlast week.
