The Mellotron Group

When did he die?
 
 
In a message dated 7/25/2011 7:19:37 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
tronbros@aol.com writes:

 
 
 
Whatever your opinion is of Ms. Whitehouse, she wrote Love is a Loser's  
Game and that is a beautiful composition.  It may even be her Yesterday.  
There are some well rounded compositions from Amy's pen in a very short  career. 
 She could well have become a songwriter's songwriter.  Regarding drugs, 
even dear sweet Justin Haystack was stoned through most  of the Moodies 
recording sessions....apparently.


M

_mellotronics.co.uk_ (http://mellotronics.co.uk/)   






On 25 Jul 2011, at 22:59, Mike Dickson <_mike.dickson@gmail.com_ 
(mailto:mike.dickson@gmail.com) >  wrote:





 
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: 
_http://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