The Mellotron Group

Captain & Tenile anyone?
 
 
 
In a message dated 7/25/2011 5:59:28 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
mike.dickson@gmail.com writes:

 
 
 
On 25/07/2011 12:44, Chris Dale wrote:



 
 
I 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.   Absolutely off their kites.  Stoned out of their gourds.   
baked.  Roasted.  Six kinds of Wednesday.  Smashed.   Toked.  Why apply one set 
of rules to the people whose music you happen  to like and not to others?  
Frankly I don't care one iota if someone is a  junkie or not if I like their 
music.  All three members of Cream were  blasted out of their little red 
wagons when they wrote and made their  music.  Is it any good?  Of course it 
is.  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'.  I mean...where to  start?  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.  So what you are actually saying is that because she 
used drugs  her music is no good.  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.  I didn't much care for Amy Winehouse's music 
 either.  But this kind of 



 
 
I'll stick with music made by musicians who indisputably make, write  and 
perform their own music and don't need gaudy and tacky stage shows,  secret 
songwriting teams,  and alarmist political tactics and  causes to 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.  Certainly the latter two 
are two women  very much in command of what they do. 

Secret songwriting  teams?  Really?  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.  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.  

I don't know who you are referring  to about 'alarmist political tactics', 
but it sounds weird.  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.  Mostly because he  reminded people how babies are made.  That was 
something  terrifying.  And it sold records.  And it was still terrifying  
enough to ban bits of him from the screens of the nation's TV sets.   Deeply 
alarming.  Well, maybe not.  Perhaps that was a mantle better  reserved for 
Little Richard.  He must have seemed like a  thermonuclear device.

And....gaudy and tacky stage shows?  This  from someone who like prog  
rock?  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_ 
(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_ 
(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_ 
(http://farm1.static.flickr.com/94/240935102_c05b4e74ac.jpg) 
EXHIBIT  4: _ht
tp://www.keyboardmag.com/uploadedimages/keyboardmag/articles/emerson_opener_web.jpg_ 
(http://www.keyboardmag.com/uploadedimages/keyboardmag/articles/emerson_opener_web.jpg) 
EXHIBIT  5: _http://yesmuseum.org/images/RickOnIce.JPG_ 
(http://yesmuseum.org/images/RickOnIce.JPG) 

I  can stop any time you like.



 
 
That's why I like prog - not a Labatts or McDonalds ad   or association in 
sight.





Given the  above I'm not surprised. It wouldn't pay.  

-- 

Mike Dickson, Edinburgh