By The Landlord
“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.” – Albert Einstein
“The world is real. Consciousness is the illusion.” – Craig Bruce
“Illusion is the first of all pleasures.” – Voltaire
“Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.” – Douglas Adams
“What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that case, I definitely overpaid for my carpet.” – Woody Allen
Everything, arguably, is just a matter of perception, fizzling up through the extraordinary distorting prisms of our senses, our brains designed to phase down the constant pounding and pulsing of blood behind our eyes and in our ears, instead to reach for distraction, to create patterns and stories, to see and recognise faces, and to sense and snuggle as comfortably as possible into our strange worlds. Is it all illusion? Perhaps. Countries, borders, races, individuals, ownership? In theory, all just a human construct. When entering a certain frame of mind and reference, everything is illusion.
But if only that applied to my latest gas and electricity bills.
From cold reality to lightbulb moments of perception or simply being gaslit, this week then our song topic is all about juggling this very idea, playing with what is real or not in the interplay of our senses, and how we perceive. This topic, is something ideally that’s central to lyrics of any song nominated, or at least playing a prominent role.
We’ve had some slightly overlapping topics in the past, such as authenticity and fakery, or the invisible, but illusions are tangibly (and intangibly) on different ground.
They might come through in many forms – visual, perhaps from random tricks of the light to those cleverly constructed, auditory, olfactory, or via distorted memory, or any combination, as well as those made by society itself, such as via gossip and hearsay, the media, and other willing or careless misrepresentation. This could turn into a vast topic, and be applied literally everything, but the key to unlocking it is that the song must consciously play on that idea in some way.
First up, as ever there’s a gathering of vigorous minds visiting the Bar (a place that is, of course, indisputably real) eager to discuss this idea, and as succinctly as possible across a range of contexts. Getting the first serving, we’ve already heard from Albert Einstein, but with his theory of relativity he adds that “the distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.” So with that in mind, we’re doing this topic last year and next year but also now.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author for historical fiction (how apt for this topic) Herman Wouk is here too, however declaring that “illusion is an anodyne, bred by the gap between wish and reality”.
But while that remark is made as a cold abstract, surely what powers the idea of illusion are emotions, and they colour the feel of any song about this idea. What kinds of perception or illusions are emotional?
The great linguistic and political thinker Noam Chomsky declares that, “If we choose, we can live in a world of comforting illusion.” It’s a tempting, and regular choice. Yet joining him, Arthur Koestler adds that “nothing is more sad than the death of an illusion.” Almost certainly then, illusions are something we need to create or cling to, in order to cope with grim reality, to manage or, just as much, to be managed.
Reaching for his regular’s beer tankard, Friedrich Nietzsche is here too, opening up a whole other can of worms, particularly religion, when adding that: “There is another old illusion. It is called good and evil.”
And the author Alan Moore’s in the house too, extending that to another huge, yet connected philosophy: “As far as I can see, it's not important that we have free will, just as long as we have the illusion of free will to stop us going mad.”
A couple of other writers are around too. “The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true,” says John Steinbeck.
Meanwhile another literary great, Mario Vargas Llosa, has dropped in to give his own country and cultural perspective: “Since it is impossible to know what's really happening, we Peruvians lie, invent, dream and take refuge in illusion. Because of these strange circumstances, Peruvian life, a life in which so few actually do read, has become literary.”
Another great escape into non-reality is the world of movies. “The secret to film is that it's an illusion,” adds George Lucas, whose personal reality seems to have never left that of the Star Wars franchise since 1977.
“Yes,” adds Juliette Binoche, making a sudden, surprise visit. “Being a famous actress may give you a sense of being important, but believe me, it's just an illusion.”
The US rapper Talib Kweli brings us back to this idea with politics, applying it American foreign policy. “We're in an illusion about what our role is in world politics and foreign affairs, and our policies are killing and destroying and doing a lot of things that we are not aware of.”
Politics is of course all about illusion, but if only we could say that same for its protagonists and what they actually do, from a series of recent calamitous British prime ministers to the he persistent trouble-making warmonger Vladimir Putin with his assault on Ukraine, who with his own team, is an arch creator of illusion. Unfortunately, however the duplicitous motives are portrayed, the reality for its victims is very real.
Film and politics have cleverly intertwined the idea of a illusionary war in the 1997 film Wag The Dog, starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro, in which the latter plays Conrad Brean, an advisory expert in mass media communication who, topically, can manipulate politics, press and public. He hires Motss Stanley (Hoffman) a director and a producer who creates a movie masquerading as news footage, that appears to depict a real war (with Albania) in which the US are forced to participate, as deflection from a scandalous trial for the US president. “We're not gonna have a war, we're gonna have the appearance of a war,” says De Niro, as Brean.
Manipulation of society is often about stirring up sides and emotions via illusion. In Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat's Cradle, comes this analogy: “On the day they dropped the bomb Frank had a tablespoon and a Mason jar. What he was doing was spooning different kinds of bugs into the jar and making them fight....I can remember other bug fights we staged later on...They won't fight unless you keep shaking the jar.”
It is this passage that has variously led to many various online misquoted attributions to figures from Mark Twain to David Attenborough about black and red ants in the jar. Nevertheless the analogy rings true the different species only begin to fight when the insects are under duress, and the key question is, of course, “Who shook the jar?”
Art as genre, is all about illusion. James Turrell, whose installations are all about using natural light and the distortion of colours in context, tells us that “I like illusion when it is so convincing that we might as well see reality this way - I like to present to our belief system something that is convincing, that 'we know not to be.’”
And with a different style, inspired no doubt by more famous figures from Rene Magritte to Salvador Dali, here’s a pleasing optical illusion painting sailing into view by Robert Gonsalves:
Robert Gonsalves’ Ships
But behind art, or indeed the fashion world, which is all about appearances, there’s whole world of money and business. Here’s the hat designer Philip Treacy: “Fashion is an illusion. It's a multibillion-pound industry that has to appear frivolous. Designers work and work and work, all night sometimes.”
But as this is a music topic, let’s invite a few musicians to talk about different sides of illusion in their work.
“I'm happy to feed the illusion that I'm a lazy recluse,” declares The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas, mischievously, ironically debunking that cliched rock star image.
“I believe in illusion - I don't believe in magic,” says rapper Estelle.
“I don't have any illusions anymore,” declares a grumpy Roger Daltrey, who is now more concerned with breeding fish. “The illusion that rock 'n' roll could change anything - I don't believe that. I've changed.”
You couldn’t get two more contrasting figures than Daltrey and Rufus Wainwright, but here they are, magically appearing in the same place. Here’s Rufus, with contrasting perspective about his career: “I am under no illusion that I will ever be the greatest opera composer in the world, with Wagner and Verdi and Strauss before me. I think my work could fit very nicely into musicals, though.”
And finally, from our clutch of musical visitors, here’s another Roger, a Mr Waters of Pink Floyd, who, despite the reference to a song from the distorting prism covered album The Dark Side of the Moon, says this about society, though he’s not exactly been detached from the things he describes in all the business wrangles of the band: “There is no 'us' and 'them'; it's an illusion. We are all human beings, and we all have a responsibility to support one another and to discover ways of wresting the power from the very, very few people who control all the cash and all the property.”
Finally then, for stimulation, let’s enjoy a few illusions of various kinds. As you read this, you may be staring at your laptop at your desk, but what else is there? Enjoy this cleverly constructed video:
And here’s another compelling compilation of visual illusions:
Illusions don’t have to be visual, their might also be auditory, including a reference in a song to illusory words heard or things said. But on a music front here are some clever tricks of sound:
And previously mentioned in the topic of invisibility, here again is an excellent study by composer David Bruce of musical illusions found in the music of Hungarian-Austrian composer György Ligeti, inspired by MC Escher, also with refence to Beethoven and Alban Berg, as well as Mandelbrot fractal patterns.
But back to the visuals, here are a few fun exercises. These two images are apparent test to see whether your right or left hemispheres dominate your senses:
What colour are the circles?
Does this spin clockwise or counter-clockwise?
And meanwhile, if you fancy a little bit of a trip, stare at the centre of this moving image video (at the central red dot) for around a minute, and then look away, perhaps at at your hand, or the wall. The result is pretty freaky:
Harder to see though, in this music video by SUUNS, can you glimpse hidden images?
Finally, and for just clever, entertaining fun, enjoy this video trailed at the top of this piece. It features a series of optical illusions to accompany the song Come, by the French singer-songwriter Jain. The video is made by the directing duo of Greg & Lio, also with some Escher influences:
So then, it’s time to turn your illusions into some kind of playlist reality, and the illustrious educational illusionist helping that happen is this week’s guest guru, the magical Maki! Please nominate your songs in comments below until Monday 11pm UK when the virtual bell will sound before puns round off the topic. It’s happening.
New to comment? It is quick and easy. You just need to login to Disqus once. All is explained in About/FAQs ...
Fancy a turn behind the pumps at The Song Bar? Care to choose a playlist from songs nominated and write something about it? Then feel free to contact The Song Bar here, or try the usual email address. Also please follow us social media: Song Bar Twitter, Song Bar Facebook. Song Bar YouTube, and Song Bar Instagram. Please subscribe, follow and share.
Song Bar is non-profit and is simply about sharing great music. We don’t do clickbait or advertisements. Please make any donation to help keep the Bar running: