\ufffdI never got into her music. Her drug / alcohol abuse ruins her credibility for me. (Hendix had a strong record of enormous talent before he became a junkie).
I find this incredible. I can guarantee that most of the music you know and love was made by people who were out of their flaming boxes when they dreamed it up.\ufffd Absolutely off their kites.\ufffd Stoned out of their gourds.\ufffd baked.\ufffd Roasted.\ufffd Six kinds of Wednesday.\ufffd Smashed.\ufffd Toked.\ufffd Why apply one set of rules to the people whose music you happen to like and not to others?\ufffd Frankly I don't care one iota if someone is a junkie or not if I like their music.\ufffd All three members of Cream were blasted out of their little red wagons when they wrote and made their music.\ufffd Is it any good?\ufffd Of course it is.\ufffd If you don't like it then it's a matter of taste, but to say it's bad because they used drugs is little short of idiotic.
Notice - you said that 'her drug / alcohol abuse ruins her credibility for me'.\ufffd I mean...where to start?\ufffd None of (say) Amy Winehouse's music sounds like she was tottering about the studio in a state of intoxication; barely any marketable label (like...oh I dunno...Island) would tolerate that fiscal waste these days.\ufffd So what you are actually saying is that because she used drugs her music is no good.\ufffd If you meanrt something else then maybe you could articulate it a bit better, but that is what your words say.
I don't much care for drugs.\ufffd I didn't much care for Amy Winehouse's music either.\ufffd But this kind of
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I'll stick with music made by musicians who indisputably make, write and perform\ufffdtheir own music and don't need gaudy and tacky stage shows, secret songwriting teams, \ufffdand alarmist political\ufffdtactics and causes\ufffdto draw attention to themselves.
I think you will find without any doubt that Winehouse, Madonna and Lady Gaga write/wrote and performed their own material.\ufffd Certainly the latter two are two women very much in command of what they do.
Secret songwriting teams?\ufffd Really?\ufffd Like who? I think you'll find that most songwriters (or secret teams) are probably quite motivated not to be secret because being secret means less money.\ufffd The days of Tin Pan Alley writers churning out song after song on the odd chance that one will hit paydirt are long behind us.\ufffd
I don't know who you are referring to about 'alarmist political tactics', but it sounds weird.\ufffd Bear in mind that one Elvis Presley was possibly the most alarming thing that the sheltered bits of the USA had ever seen at one point.\ufffd Mostly because he reminded people how babies are made.\ufffd That was something terrifying.\ufffd And it sold records.\ufffd And it was still terrifying enough to ban bits of him from the screens of the nation's TV sets.\ufffd Deeply alarming.\ufffd Well, maybe not.\ufffd Perhaps that was a mantle better reserved for Little Richard.\ufffd He must have seemed like a thermonuclear device.
And....gaudy and tacky stage shows?\ufffd This from someone who like prog rock?\ufffd This one hit me like a brick in the face! Can you possibly be serious???
EXHIBIT 1: http://cdn.crooksandliars.com/files/uploads/2010/04/genesis_petergabriel_live_2954b.jpg
EXHIBIT 2: http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Millennium/General/1999/02/25/codpiece.jpg
EXHIBIT 3: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/94/240935102_c05b4e74ac.jpg
EXHIBIT 4: http://www.keyboardmag.com/uploadedimages/keyboardmag/articles/emerson_opener_web.jpg
EXHIBIT 5: http://yesmuseum.org/images/RickOnIce.JPG
I can stop any time you like.
\ufffdThat's why I like prog - not a Labatts or McDonalds\ufffdad\ufffd or association in sight.
Given the above I'm not surprised. It wouldn't pay.\ufffd
-- Mike Dickson, Edinburgh