Posted on 08/28/2006 10:40:29 AM PDT by 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.
That's what attracted me to early Pink Floyd - the eerie minor-chord sound. So different from Yummy Yummy Yummy I Got Love in My Tummy.
Yeah, that guy was the real deal. I guess Iggy was too ugly for mainstream appeal like Cobain. Same with the Ramones, they could sell out tours but not any albums. Hey speaking of which, check out this video of them from 1974 at CBGBS..Talk about a mind blower, this must literally be one of the first gigs they ever did, if not the first gig...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWHAL_q1ne8
Mann recorded it. Springsteen wrote it.
An great cover of an excellent Nine Inch Nails song.
Here you go, Iggy Pop 1970, 4 years before the Ramones, yet the Ramones are called the Godfathers of Punk. Explain that one to me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD_XCECbAEU
Aerosmith did cover "Come together". Not bad - same arrangement as the Beatles..............FRegards
well that just goes to show you that Im a lousy music cricket ;)
Comparing it to my and the current American generation's music that is/was, with some exceptions, either whiny and self-aborbed, or angrily rebellious, I find myself thinking: Music for Grownups versus Music for Adolescents. Look at the pictures, for the past what, 30, 40 years -- the "serious" young rock band poses for the camera, nary a smile among the musicians. The setting is gritty, somber. "This is serious work that weighs heavily on us," they seem to be saying. Dopes.
Wow. Great find, and a BUMP.
By the way, I remember picking up Barrett's 'Madcap Laughs' back in college (circa 1975) and it was terrible. But although this writer mentions Barrett's inspirations on his old band he fails to mention the most important and obvious: 'Dark Side of the Moon'.
That's pure speculation. Those two guys were definitely not wimpy go-alongs.
The big band guys were no angels, either. Don't let the snazzy suits fools ya...
And Nashville calls itself "Music City" and the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame went to Cleveland.
Sometimes there's just no justice.
I saw a Sprinsteen concert in 1974 when he didn't have a whole lot of his own material. He played a lot of oldie covers and the concert was outstanding. I remember it was the first time I ever saw a disco ball.
Well I meant music wise. Iggy had the idea, but his songs where a lot of basic three chord stuff where Cobain had come up with a lot more complicated melodies and pushed punk further. I don`t care what anyone says, but you listen to that album Nevermind, the music in that thing is brilliant. I`m not talking about the words, but the music. Listen to Lithium or Drain you, it isn`t the usual punk but music that brings it to a whole new level.
Amen, there is Iggy, the rest are posers.
Another excellent post, Finny ~ especially love this sentence of yours:
That stuff infuses the spirit with goodness.
Oooh, sorry! Springsteen wrote "Blinded by the Light" and "I Came for You", both of which Manfred Mann recorded. They are found on Springsteen's "Greeting from Asbury Park" album.
And don't forget Iggy's brilliant, Oscar-worthy performance in Snow Day!
I know they did. But the Beatles did it first, and calling it an Aerosmith song is like calling "It Ain't Me Babe" a Turtles song. Or calling "Needles and Pins" a Tom Petty song. (See the post I was responding to.)
You entirely misread me. Whether or not these people were or are "angels" is wholesale irrelevant. Music is the ONLY relevant factor, because music is language that transcends visual or verbal cues. The lyrics could be in Chinese, for all I care. It's the MUSIC that inspires you to feel good, optimistic, energetic, mature, in charge -- or MUSIC that inspires you to rage, depression, self-pity, adolescent arrogance, or darkness.
But I'd be willing to bet you quite a lot that pound for pound among musicians, there's been a LOT more despair and junkie-ism rampant in one kind of music than in the other.
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