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.
L0L this guy is a music cricket?(critic)
I hope he knows that Manfred Mann wrote blinded by the light
Yeah but before Cobain, punk rock was pretty much still an underground music that really hadn`t been pushed to it`s limits. It was all pretty much "Punk rock is defined as playing as fast as you can, wearing a pin trhough your nose, and slam dancing.. the end."
What Cobain did was bring a new slant to it by slowing it down, blending hippie culture with the punk image and making it sound more explosive. Probably not intentionally, but when they first came out it was like a breath of fresh air, relief from all the MTV hairspray bands. Nirvana just completely laid to waste that whole horror show that was going on in the `80`s, bands like Warrant, Poison, Extreme, just nightmare la di da bands. But of course the result was 9 gazillion Nirvana imitation bands which has brought us right back to those la di da bands of the `80`s.
If there is anything that suprised me about Nirvana, it was the fact that they were signed at all, not that they sucked, but that they didn`t fit the current cookie cutter mold. I think it was just a buzz they created by touring, getting out there and record companies wanted them.
Neil always wrote better when wrote about things he really understood unlike Ohio and Southern Man.
So?!? You could say the same thing about "The Knack" destroying Disco in the late 70s, doesn't mean the still didn't suck either.
Cash wrote great tunes.
Who could forgets such memorable ditties as
"flushed from the bathroom of your heart"
or
"dirty ol egg suckin dog"?
;-)
But the quality of someone's art should judged on it's own merits or lack thereof.
Agreed. And whether we chose to like it or not, it is the very fact that some of these folks toyed with drugs that maybe inspired them. Maybe I should say that the folks who are "out of the box" are out not only in their art, but also in their social customs and ways of life.
And Kris and Shel wrote some greats for Cash :>}
Hell. I had a secretary in the '80s who came in fired up about this "new" song by Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks - "Needles and Pins". Most younger rock fans haven't a clue.
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.
I was visiting at a Cancer Research Center last week and heard a chilling comment from a nurse. She said "when drug addicts get cancer, there's nothing we can give them that will touch their pain." She looked down and spoke more - quietly. When she was through, I knew she seen the depths of hell...
See post #31
It`s true...I use to work with a guy who told me back in the late `70`s he installed carpet for them at the Dakota. He said they had two rooms, one was completely white, everything down to the furniture, tables, couches was white and the other room was the exact opposite, completely black and they wanted white carpet for the white room and black for the black room. He said it was insane, Yoko would be in the same room and would tell her assistant what she wanted and the assistant would tell him. She couldn`t talk to him directly even though she was in the same room because she was just stoned out of her mind, paranoid as hell.
He didn`t meet John, but he heard later on it was because he was hiding in his room the whole time. That dude was doing some major dope, I don`t care what anyone says. I mean you just have to look how skinny he was right before he died with those huge bags under his eyes. That is a heroin look, that wasn`t no diet. The guy was only 40 yet he looked 50. The guy would have probably Od`ed anyway if he wasn`t shot.
Wow. Never been a fan of Young, but truer words were never sung.
I was being flippant more than anything. I always enjoy an opportunity to bash Yoko.
There is little doubt that acid caused Barrett's career. My guess is that his problems occurred because he took it to the extreme. Waters and Gilmour have so stated in interviews.
There is no doubt acid changed John's personality. It probably had to do with the sheer volume he took. He once boasted that he took literally thousands of trips. Then again his drug of choice moved to heroin once Yoko was on the scene. The rest of the Beatles took acid too, but not to the same degree, and seemed to have come through it pretty well. John was clearly the most disturbed of the four and his transformation would support your view that those with mental problems should stay away.
My feelings exactly.
I never cared much for Springsteen, but I've seen Neil Young perform several times, and his live performances were quite good. But any foreigner (Young is Canadian) that puts out a song called 'Let's Impeach the President' will never get another nickel of mine, no matter how good he was once upon a time.
Pearl Jam is another disappointment. IMO, the first 2 albums were brilliant and the next 3 were average, but as soon as Eddie Vedder & co. became obsessed with politics their music started to suck. They may not be foreigners, but their Bush-bashing has become absolutely sickening, and I can't even listen to their classics anymore without getting angry about their leftist insanity.
Well, I'm not advocating anything, but at the same time, I'm not discouraging anything. People have to make their own choices and learn in their own way at the right time.
One of the most telling things I ever saw was in the movie "Edward Scissorhands". I remember the row after row of pastel houses and neatly trimmed lawns and shrubs.
Many folks love living that way. Some don't. I tend to think that truly artistic people would spend about an afternoon in a place like that and beg you to quickly plunge the knife into their heart. And give it a twist just to make it interesting!
-John Prine-
His live shows back then were amazing. Too bad he's become such an ass.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.