Angus MacLise | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Angus William MacLise |
| Born | (1938-03-14)March 14, 1938[1] Bridgeport,Connecticut, U.S. |
| Died | June 21, 1979(1979-06-21) (aged 41) Kathmandu, Nepal |
| Genres | |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, poet |
| Instruments |
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| Formerly of | The Velvet Underground |
Angus William MacLise (March 14, 1938 – June 21, 1979) was an Americanpercussionist,composer,poet,occultist andcalligrapher, known as the first drummer for theVelvet Underground who abruptly quit due to disagreements with the band playing their first paid show.
Angus William MacLise was born on March 14, 1938, inBridgeport, Connecticut, the son of a book dealer. Despite some formal training as a percussionist, his playing style became so idiosyncratic that many assumed he was self-taught.[2]
MacLise was a member ofLa Monte Young'sTheatre of Eternal Music, withJohn Cale,Tony Conrad,Marian Zazeela[3] and sometimesTerry Riley. He contributed to the earlyFluxus newspaper VTre, edited byGeorge Brecht, and was also an early member ofthe Velvet Underground,[4] having been brought into the group by flatmateJohn Cale when they were living at 56Ludlow Street[4] inManhattan.Lou Reed recruited his friendSterling Morrison, whom he knew fromSyracuse University, and the initial line-up of the Velvets consisted of Reed, Cale, Morrison and MacLise.
MacLise playedbongos andhand drums during 1965 with the first incarnation of the Velvet Underground and he was also capable of playingtabla,cimbalom andtambourine. Although the band regularly extemporized soundtracks to underground films during this era, MacLise never officially recorded with them, and is often considered something of a shadowy, legendary figure in their history.[by whom?] Demos recorded during this period are included on thePeel Slowly and See box set, but MacLise plays on none of them because (according to John Cale) he did not appreciate the need to turn up on time.
Cale describes MacLise as "living on the Angus calendar", showing up to gigs hours or even days after the band had finished.
When the band's first paying gig in November 1965 arose, MacLise quit, suggesting the group wereselling out. He was replaced byMoe Tucker, resulting in the "classic" lineup of the Velvet Underground.[citation needed]
In 1966 when Velvet Underground lead singer and guitaristLou Reed was in the hospital withhepatitis, MacLise rejoined the group for a five-day run of performances at Poor Richard's in Chicago, June 21–26, 1966 during theExploding Plastic Inevitable performances, sharing duties withGerard Malanga, whom Angus had taught to playtabla. Cale took over lead vocals and organ, drummer Maureen Tucker switched tobass and MacLise drummed; by now, Tucker's idiosyncratic tribal style of drumming was integral to the group's music.[citation needed]
During anExploding Plastic Inevitable performance in 1966, MacLise showed up half an hour late and carried on drumming for half an hour after the set had finished to compensate for his late arrival.[5][6]
By this time the Velvet Underground had found some recognition (if not great financial success) and MacLise was anxious to rejoin the group, but according to the notes of the box setPeel Slowly and See, the VU's primary songwriter andde facto bandleaderLou Reed had specifically prohibited MacLise from rejoining the band full-time due to his erratic behavior.
After leaving the Velvet Underground for good, MacLise moved toBerkeley, California. He married Hetty McGee[7] in awedding ceremony atGolden Gate Park inSan Francisco, presided over byLSD guruTimothy Leary.[5] Together, they had a son named Ossian Kennard MacLise, who was recognized byRangjung Rigpe Dorje, the 16th Karmapa, as a reincarnation of a Tibetan saint, ortulku, and at age four became aBuddhist monk.[8] The MacLises travelled toCanada,France,Greece andIndia, before finally settling inNepal.
A student ofAleister Crowley (he was working on a script for a film version of Crowley'sDiary of a Drug Fiend before he died), he began to blend Tibetanmysticism with his music to create sound through variousdrone techniques.
A heavy drug user who was never particularly mindful of his physical health, MacLise died ofhypoglycemia and pulmonarytuberculosis at the Shanta Bhawan Hospital inKathmandu on June 21, 1979, aged 41.[5][6] The cause of death has also been attributed tomalnutrition.[2] He was cremated to the traditions ofTibetan Buddhists in a funeral pyre.[5][9]
MacLise recorded a vast amount of music that went largely unreleased until 1999. These recordings, produced between the mid-'60s and the late-'70s, consist of tribal trance workouts, spoken word, poetry,tape cut-ups andminimalistdroning andelectronics, as well as many collaborations with his wife Hetty. In 2008, she bequeathed a collection of her husband's tapes to theYale Collection of American Literature.
Selections can be found on:
MacLise also collaborated withTony Conrad,John Cale andLa Monte Young on several other recordings:
He worked on soundtracks for several underground films byPiero Heliczer, and appears in at least two:Venus in Furs andSatisfaction (1965).[10][11] He also worked on the soundtrack forVoyage, a short film byJerry Jofen.[12]
As co-founder of the Dead Language Press with Piero Heliczer, MacLise published works by influential writers, including early work by theBeat poetGregory Corso.[10]
Englishexperimental music groupCoil regarded MacLise as an important influence in the later years of their career; lead memberJhonn Balance referred to MacLise as a "a liminal genius and, alongside such people asIra Cohen, largely and unjustly semi-neglected",[13] and the title of their albumAstral Disaster is an intentional tribute to MacLise's archival releaseAstral Collapse.
In May 2011 a major retrospective exhibitDreamweapon: The Art and Life of Angus MacLise (1938–1979) was mounted by the Boo-Hooray Gallery in Chelsea, New York City. The exhibit features the contents of a recently discovered suitcase containing photographs, notes, poetry, and 100 reels of music. In addition to the gallery exhibit, there are sound installations at Boo-Hooray's second location in Chinatown and film screenings at the Anthology Archives.[14][15]
In 1965, a work by MacLise titledRites of the Dream Weapon was included in the New Cinema Festival (also known as the Expanded Cinema Festival), an extensive series of multimedia productions in New York presented byJonas Mekas and featuring the work of such artists asRobert Rauschenberg andClaes Oldenburg. Mekas was impressed with MacLise, writing in theVillage Voice, "The first three programs of the New Cinema Festival – the work of Angus McLise [sic],Nam June Paik, and Jerry Joffen [sic] – dissolved the edges of this art called cinema into a frontiersland mystery."[16] MacLise's entry also made a lasting impression on the playwrightRichard Foreman, who praised it years later in an interview.[17] According to Sterling Morrison, Andy Warhol's multimedia shows (Andy Warhol Uptight and theExploding Plastic Inevitable) were based on similar works by MacLise and Heliczer, which they called "ritual happenings."[18]
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