Skip to comments.
The needle and the damage done
Times Herald ^
| 8/27/06
| Gordon Glantz
Posted on 08/28/2006 10:40:29 AM PDT by qam1
click here to read article
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 121-140, 141-160, 161-180, 181-195 next last
To: mysterio
My 2 cents, fwiw.
Cobain was a genius. A sick genius, but a genius none the less. If you listen to his lyrics they are pretty guteral and sick. I think he killed himself because he LIVED that stuff.
Cash was okay but not my cup of tea. He was an icon, much like Elvis, who also didn't write his own music. It isn't music critics who decide who is great, it is the people. The people loved Cash and Elvis so who are the "critics" to decide if they were worthy or not.
Neil Young WAS one of my favorites of all time. Learned to play from his songs. His liberalism turns me off but he isn't vehemenent about his POV and has always understood that of others. Plus, he still makes good music--it just doens't get played on the radio anymore.
Bruce Springsteen? I'll never understand how he even got a record deal. His only talent was being "The Boss" and leading a capable band through working man's anthems.
161
posted on
08/29/2006 5:58:15 AM PDT
by
subterfuge
(If Liberals hated terrorists like they hate Bush the war would be over by now)
To: bassmaner
Pearl Jam is another disappointment. IMO, the first 2 albums were brilliant and the next 3 were average, but as soon as Eddie Vedder & co. became obsessed with politics their music started to suck. They may not be foreigners, but their Bush-bashing has become absolutely sickening, and I can't even listen to their classics anymore without getting angry about their leftist insanity.
I can at least respect Pearl Jam in that unlike the Dixie Chicks they aren't whining about people not listening to them for their political views. On Storytellers Eddie Vedder said that what he was writing about was something he felt strongly about and that if people didn't want to listen that was fine.
Last night on Rockline Tom Morello gave a similar answer about people being turned off by his politics in particular and the political nature of some of the songs on Audioslave's new CD. He said if people were disappointed in his politics he hoped they remained so because he was going to remain true to his beliefs.
I find these views to be refreshing when compared to so many entertainers who b***** and moan when their word isn't taken as absolute truth.
162
posted on
08/29/2006 6:42:22 AM PDT
by
Mr. Blonde
(You know, Happy Time Harry, just being around you kinda makes me want to die.)
To: Mr. Blonde
You make a good point - they're at least consistent and unapologetic about their anti-American views. It just galls me to hear these tirades from artists that I once respected (and still do on some level).
Let's face it: Eddie Vedder and Tom Morello are not stupid people, but they're hopelessly misguided. I've always wondered what it would be like to have people like them do a 'thought experiment' on what life would be like in America if their ideas became the law of the land ... and give them a copy of 'The Gulag Archipelago' to explain to them what actually happens ...
163
posted on
08/29/2006 7:24:16 AM PDT
by
bassmaner
(Hey commies: I am a white male, and I am guilty of NOTHING! Sell your 'white guilt' elsewhere.)
To: KevinB
If you want to know what kind of guy Clapton is, consider he screwed his best friend George Harrisons wife, Patti Boyd, and even went so far as to confront Harrison at a party by saying, "I`m in love with your wife, what are you going to do about it?" Gee, What a pal!
164
posted on
08/29/2006 7:37:15 AM PDT
by
Screamname
(A second plane has just hit the second tower, this is a coincidence. - Katie Couric, Sept 11th 2001)
To: Hoodat
Jaco Pastorius ping. I thought I was the only person on earth who had heard him. btw, your description of his abilities was spot on.Thanks... I once described him as the "Jimi Hendrix" of bass to a friend who was a HUGH Jimi fan, and he got all upset. Then I turned him on to some of Jaco's music (like "Portrait of Tracy" and Weather Report's "Byrdland.") And he saw some of Jaco's stage performances as well. Short of lighting his Fender Jazz Bass on fire, Jaco's stage presence was remarkably like that of Jimi's.
Mark
165
posted on
08/29/2006 10:12:36 AM PDT
by
MarkL
(When Kaylee says "No power in the `verse can stop me," it's cute. When River says it, it's scary!)
To: ForOurFuture
ahhh yes. I've had that list in my head for a long time--Stevie Ray was on it. In the bustle of having a thread that was relevant to the list, I forgot him.
Stevie Ray was amazing (and thats not my style of music at all). The impact of his death may never be known.
166
posted on
08/29/2006 10:34:43 AM PDT
by
Jaysin
To: DieHard the Hunter
Yeah, I know that one! On the CD I've got, it's a little over 12 minutes long. Love it. This CD also has a young, beautiful, and sultry Peggy Lee singing "Why Don't You Do Right." She sure knew how to sing with a big band. The vocals were short and sweet and to the point, and then she'd step out of the way and let the band do its stuff. Saw a film clip of her singing the song once with Benny Goodman's band, and MAN O MANISCHEVITZ, no one can touch her. Slightly pouty, sulky, sexy, and the hint of a smile, as she commands her man, "Get outta here and get me some money, too." Jessica Rabbit did a pretty good version of the song in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," but Peggy Lee has her beat hands-down.
I fell for your jivin' and I took you in.
Now all you've got to offer me's a drink of gin --
Why don't you do right, like some other men do?
Get outta here, and get me some money, too.
167
posted on
08/29/2006 12:02:25 PM PDT
by
Finny
(God continue to Bless President G.W. Bush with wisdom, popularity, safety and success.)
To: omniscient
168
posted on
08/29/2006 12:10:28 PM PDT
by
visualops
(artlife.us)
To: qam1
Guys who were in some of his early bands have recounted how they would be in one room partying while he'd be in another writing songs.
Way back in the olden times a friend was dating Springsteen's lighting guy and we got tickets and backstage passes for a gig in Hartford on the Born To Run tour. I remember walking down a hallway and looking through a door to the garage and seeing Springsteen sitting in the van alone while everyone else was roaming around partying.
169
posted on
08/29/2006 12:18:23 PM PDT
by
visualops
(artlife.us)
To: Jaysin
the guy from Lynard Skynard
?
Lynyrd Skynyrd's lead singer/primary songwriter Ronnie Van Zant, plus guitarist Steve Gaines and vocalist Cassie Gaines died in the 1977 plane crash. Guitarist Allen Collins survived the plane crash but suffered paralysis and, eventually, died in a car accident.
170
posted on
08/29/2006 12:29:32 PM PDT
by
visualops
(artlife.us)
To: ClearCase_guy
that's not what I got from him at all - he's saying that great artists short-changed us by limiting their ability to use their gifts and shouldn't be eulogized for it.
171
posted on
08/29/2006 12:35:28 PM PDT
by
Frapster
(Don't mind me - I'm distracted by the pretty lights.)
To: Zon
I agree - I wish Bill Waterson would continue producing Calvin and Hobbes. *sigh*
172
posted on
08/29/2006 12:36:16 PM PDT
by
Frapster
(Don't mind me - I'm distracted by the pretty lights.)
To: grellis
Nobody could convey alienation and loss like Floyd, though. It all comes down to taste, doesn't it? I'd amend that to, "It all comes down to one's taste for how to achieve feelings of alienation and loss." This is a delicate subject, but I since I was itty-bitty listening to the lilting joy of Paul Desmond's saxophone, I've believed that music is exceedingly powerful and profound to one's mental state. Certain kinds of music are as self-destructive and hedonistic as drug and alcohol abuse, and PLEASE UNDERSTAND that I am all for the freedom to indulge in self-destructive behavior. It's just that publicly, we recognize that smoking cigarettes (my own particular vice), alcoholism (my own PAST particular vice), doing hard and soft drugs like cocaine or pot (both my particular vices in the past at times to rather heavy degrees), are self-destructive, and everyone is quick to factor them into the equation of a messed-up life.
I firmly believe that indulging in depressing, alienating, angry, violent, whiny, self-pitying music is every bit as potentially self-destructive as drug and alcohol abuse or smoking two packs a day. And as with cigarettes, I abhore laws that presume to RESTRICT my freedom to indulge in tobacco, and my freedom to indluge in/reject alcohol and other drugs. Those are our own personal struggles that the legal system cannot and should not presume to resolve for us. But when I drank too much, or smoked too much, or did too many drugs, I KNEW and ADMITTED even to myself what was going on. The problem with music is that our pop culture pretends negative and adolescent music into adulthood is not significant of anything. Simply put, it is very significant.
Klezmer, most classical (especially baroque, for me), and bluegrass is FANTASTIC music. Have you caught any Dawg music yet -- a kind of blend between bluegrass, swing, and jazz? Ala Dave Grisman? Or the incredible music of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones (banjo and harmonica that gives you goose bumps)? Yes, in much of it there's melancholy, reflection, sadness, even tragedy expressed, but it's not self-pitying. Not that Pink Floyd was ... I just sensed evil in Pink Floyd's stuff. I sense goodness and optimism even in sad classics and especially Klezmer.
173
posted on
08/29/2006 12:40:33 PM PDT
by
Finny
(God continue to Bless President G.W. Bush with wisdom, popularity, safety and success.)
To: Screamname
If you want to know what kind of guy Clapton is, consider he screwed his best friend George Harrisons wife, Patti Boyd, and even went so far as to confront Harrison at a party by saying, "I`m in love with your wife, what are you going to do about it?" Gee, What a pal! Believe me, I'm not defending Clapton. I should point out though that at the time Clapton made his move the Harrison marriage was largely over and George was shagging everyone in London, including Ringo's wife Maureen.
I did qualify my first post by saying that over the last twenty years it appeared that Clapton was a pretty good guy. I knew he was a scumbag during the drug and alcohol days but thought he'd gotten himself together. You've given me a different take on him and I'm glad you did.
174
posted on
08/29/2006 1:54:29 PM PDT
by
KevinB
To: KevinB
That`s true too, all this stuff happened when he was wasted so maybe now that he is sober (is he?) maybe he is cooled down.
175
posted on
08/29/2006 2:30:13 PM PDT
by
Screamname
(A second plane has just hit the second tower, this is a coincidence. - Katie Couric, Sept 11th 2001)
To: Boiler Plate
"Neil always wrote better when wrote about things he really understood unlike Ohio and _Southern Man_."
---
"Well I heard mister Young sing about her
Well, I heard ole Neil put her down
Well, I hope Neil Young will remember
A Southern man don't need him around anyhow
Sweet home Alabama
Where the skies are so blue
Sweet Home Alabama
Lord, I'm coming home to you"
Not all Southern men would agree with your assessment about Niel Young knowing what he was talking about when he wrote "Southern Man." A lot were offended by that song and Lynyrd Skynyrd went so far as to take a jab at Young in their song "Sweet Home Alabama" after "Southern Man" came out.
176
posted on
08/29/2006 2:44:18 PM PDT
by
TKDietz
(")
To: TKDietz
I am not sure you read my post correctly. I think Mr. Young was wrong in Ohio and Southern Man. Especially Ohio, the Kent State shootings were exactly what the young Marxists where after. The poor fools who got shot were simply expendable bodies for the cause.
177
posted on
08/29/2006 3:13:34 PM PDT
by
Boiler Plate
(Mom always said why be difficult, when with just a little more effort you can be impossible.)
To: Boiler Plate
I didn't read your post correctly. You said "unlike" and I read it as "like." I kind of liked that Ohio song though. I always liked Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young harmonies. I saw Stephen Stills in a small venue more than twenty years ago and he was awesome.
178
posted on
08/29/2006 5:26:42 PM PDT
by
TKDietz
(")
To: TKDietz
There is no question that CSN&Y wrote some beautiful music. I flat wore out at least two copies of Four Way Street and got to see them play about 20 years ago. They pretty much defined the term "Tight Harmonies".
The funny thing is Stills had tried out for the Monkees, but fortunately was turned away.
179
posted on
08/29/2006 7:51:37 PM PDT
by
Boiler Plate
(Mom always said why be difficult, when with just a little more effort you can be impossible.)
To: Mr. Blonde
![](http://image.listen.com/img/356x237/2/2/2/9/509222_356x237.jpg)
Soundgarden, early 1990's
Probably one of the best heavy rock bands of their time, and Chris Cornell is arguably one of the best rock singers ever. I have a bootleg of them playing in either 1989 or 1991 (might have been the 1991 tour with Guns n Roses) and it has a version of "Beyond The Wheel" that absolutely SLAUGHTERS. Cornell's vocal range on that song is amazing, and stands as a true testament to his abilities as a vocalist.
ps: Audioslave sucks, they're trash, and Cornell should be ashamed he lowered himself to that. He doesn't need the money and nobody in that band is fit to wipe his ass, in terms of musical or songwriting ability.
180
posted on
08/30/2006 6:43:46 AM PDT
by
t_skoz
("let me be who I am - let me kick out the jams!")
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 121-140, 141-160, 161-180, 181-195 next last
Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson