This story is on the one hand, quite simple, but on the other, very subtle and difficult to identify.
There's a good song by James Brown and his backing vocalist Bobby Bird that illustrates this.
James Brown was known for often recording his tracks in an improvisational style.
So it happened that the two of them were having a conversation during the recording of "Talking Loud and Sayin' Nothing."
James is totally in the groove; you can hear his high when he addresses Bobby at 4:56.
Then he says something about how great the groove is that he wants to do something with the tape.
I don't know exactly what he says, but it sounds clever, and Bobby wanted to chime in. Midway through the recording, he cuts off what Bobby had already said, sounding a bit hesitant.
All Bobby can manage after that is "Yeah."
You can feel him being pushed back and having his mouth wiped.
But he calms down and finds a victim, who is, in turn, below him.
This ominous person, who can only ever talk loudly but says nothing.
This person is supposed to be sitting in the audience.
Bobby sees this person and tells James at 7:25 where he should sit.
First he says quietly, "Sit and over there."
Then James picks up on his interjection and asks him where he's supposed to sit.
Bobby sounds audibly relieved to have found someone to pick on.
For the rest of the song, the two of them repeatedly make fun of the guy sitting in the back.
But this also makes the rest of the song increasingly disjointed until the very end.
It gets to the point where Bobby loses the line at 14:11, and both of them then lose the groove a bit.
These small, inconspicuous interpersonal conflicts are what make us who we are.
They put us under pressure and turn us from victims to perpetrators without us even understanding why.
