The Mellotron Group

"There is such a fine line between stupid and clever."  David St.Hubbins

 

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-----Original Message-----
From: newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Mike Dickson
Sent: Monday, July 25, 2011 5:59 PM
To: newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [newmellotrongroup] So - The train wreck finally wrecked

 

  

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_liv
e_2954b.jpg
EXHIBIT 2:
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Millennium/General/1999/02/2
5/codpiece.jpg
EXHIBIT 3: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/94/240935102_c05b4e74ac.jpg
EXHIBIT 4:
http://www.keyboardmag.com/uploadedimages/keyboardmag/articles/emerson_opene
r_web.jpg
EXHIBIT 5: 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