The needle and the damage done

Times Herald ^ | 8/27/06 | Gordon Glantz

[qam1]

When Syd Barrett died earlier this summer, you would've thought I was a personal friend or relative. My wife called. Co-workers asked if it was going to inspire a column. Old friends sent e-mails. If you don't know - which is no crime, trust me - Barrett was a founder of the classic rock band Pink Floyd in the mid-1960s.

He only stuck around for one full album before a drug addiction made him an impossible creative partner for a group that went on to do tremendous things in his stead. Some of Pink Floyd's best work - songs like Wish You Were Here and Shine On You Crazy Diamond - were inspired by Barrett's purported deep psychosis spurred by excessive LSD use. All you have to do is hear the song See Emily Play to know Barrett had potential, but he sold himself - and many others - short.

They say he somehow influenced other rockers with musical gibberish released on a pair of hurried solo albums, but that's a major reach born out of the mystique of his unfulfilled potential. It's kind of like when a bunch of ersatz art experts go to see some modern art that stinks and everyone says it's great because they either feel compelled or don't want to break ranks and risk sounding dumb.

While I was flattered to have been the immediate classic-rock go-to guy when Barrett's tortured existence came to an end this July, I could barely manage a shoulder shrug. I try to pride myself on not being easily cast under unworthy spells. I see the undeserved mystique we attach to people who have not upheld their ends of the unspoken contract they sign with those who help put them in the driver's seat of life's Rolls Royce and, well, it makes me want to vomit.

Don't get me wrong. I appreciate the collective works of Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Tim Hardin, Phil Ochs and countless others. But each loses points on my scorecard for depriving us of their magical skills for the long haul.

Another example for the generation more or less after mine would be Kurt Cobain, the front man for the grunge band Nirvana. Once upon a time, I had a good ear for emerging talent. The first time I heard U2, I knew they were special. Ditto for REM. I have obviously since lost my touch, as I can't understand why this Pete Yorn kid isn't a deity and why hip-hop is considered music, but I digress.

The first time I heard Nirvana, I heard great potential. Nothing more, nothing less. Greatness was years away. And that potential for greatness went through the 27-year-old Cobain's brain in the form of a self-inflicted gunshot in 1994. Calling Cobain a tortured artist is giving him too much credit. He was just a heroin addict who took his life, leaving behind a growing following starved for a lead voice that was not borrowed from the record collection of their older siblings or even their parents.

The reaction to Cobain's deadly action was for music critics and assorted others to attach a ridiculous mystique to his memory. He has been called the John Lennon of Generation X. If true, I truly pity that generation. Actually, I pity the dimwit who tagged him as such. Because it's not true.

He was, at best, the Syd Barrett of his generation. Some of you older folks - assuming you made it this far into a column strewn with names you don't know - are not immune.

The wife and I recently dialed up the movie about Johnny Cash, Walk The Line, on Pay-Per-View. It was a little too long, but a good flick. I give it three Stars of David out of a possible four. It included outstanding performances - particularly by the darling Reese Witherspoon, who deservedly won the Oscar for her portrayal of June Carter Cash.

But it only confirmed my belief that the myth and legend that swirls around Johnny Cash are largely unwarranted. Many ardent admirers of Cash may not realize that he didn't even write a lot of his most noteworthy songs and, considering how drugged up he was most of the time, it's no wonder.

But since he dressed in all-black outfits and played concerts at prisons - thus, adding to the overall mystique the falsehood that he was some hardened ex-con - there is a disproportionate aura. I'm not saying Johnny Cash was a bad guy. His heart was in the right place, but give me a break. A lot of younger people have oddly fallen under his spell, too.

There was a former editor here - an exceedingly bright young lady - who would go on and on about how Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young are old and tired and should never write or sing another word.

I may be blinded by the light when it comes to Springsteen, but he steered clear of drugs for the stated reason he didn't want to risk losing everything he had worked so hard to achieve. 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.

Young's song The Needle and the Damage Done is one of the best anti-drug anthems ever written and was inspired by the drug-induced deaths of a band member and a roadie. Young, whose lyrics were quoted in Cobain's suicide note, also eulogized Cobain in the song Sleeps With Angels. But Springsteen and Young should hang up their guitars and go home to their rocking chairs?

"OK, what about Johnny Cash?" I asked.

No hesitation.

"Oh yeah, he's cool," she said.

True story.

I'm not saying we should start a bonfire with works of art from those who compromised their abilities through fatal addictions. But understand that they broke a bond with society because they could have and should have given us more.

[subterfuge]

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.

[Mr. Blonde]

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.

[bassmaner]

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 ...

[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!

[MarkL]

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

[Jaysin]

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.

[Finny]

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.

[visualops]

LOL I agree with that

[visualops]

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.

[visualops]

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.

[Frapster]

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.

[Frapster]

I agree - I wish Bill Waterson would continue producing Calvin and Hobbes. *sigh*

[Finny]

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.

[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!

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.

[Screamname]

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.

[TKDietz]

"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.

[Boiler Plate]

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.

[TKDietz]

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.

[Boiler Plate]

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.

[t_skoz]

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.