When finishing up the previous post (which had sat around unfinished for weeks, poor thing) I got to the bit about where artists’ ideas come from and remembered an anecdote I think I heard on the radio about 20 years ago, but have never encountered since.
Igor Stravinsky, when asked what he was thinking of while composing The Rite of Spring, once replied* “Fresh air and cheese, plus a lot of electricity.”
Incidentally, googling stravinsky +air +cheese +electricity will take you to a bunch of Frank Zappa sites.
* Allegedly! i.e. according to me.
Hadn't heard that one, all I'd heard was the primitivistic death fantasy about the vestal virgin being sacrificed to the God of Spring, or something. Cheese and electricity, eh?
Ah yeah, all that pagan sacrifice stuff was just a clever Russian ruse to distract you from the secret electric cheese.