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| From | "Jason Damas" <jason.damas@gmail.com> |
| Subject | Re: Truly Vermin |
| Date | Fri, 10 Dec 2004 08:47:12 -0500 |
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<< I, probably much like J-me Vermin, (although, I am not speaking for him
on this count) don't really care whether "Pantera's" guitarist was killed
because in the great book of rock and roll hierarchy, Pantera is hardly a
hair on that rats ass. >>
I don't want to veer into prolonging the debate, but since I've been so
ensconsed in the music world for so long (mostly by working at Newbury),
I've known a lot of people who love metal, and--perhaps this is shocking to
some of you--the metal guys are actually really, really nice. The diehard
fans, not the ones who buy nu-metal (which isn't anyone anymore, frankly)
really really love the stuff, are amongst the most LOYAL fans of any act
that you'll ever find, and know their manners. I know it isn't what you'd
expect.
And a lot of these people really loved and RESPECTED Pantera. They and
Sepultura sort of came out of the extreme metal scene at a time when more
mainstream (aka "hair") metal was running on fumes and sort of defined the
sound of metal in the 1990s. That sound was one that was more aggressive and
less mainstream (hence why you didn't hear much Pantera on the radio,
despite selling many records) than what had immediately preceeded it, but it
was one that was much more in touch with the music-loving tendencies of
these metal fans than, say, Warrant was. A few of them liked Damageplan (the
band that Dimebag was playing in at the time he was shot), but I think that
was mostly because they were just so loyal to Pantera that they'd give a new
band by some of the same guys a chance.
Now, again, I don't listen to Pantera records and I'm not surprised that
there aren't many (any?) people here who do. But everything I've ever seen
about this guy apart from his stupid nickname suggests that he was not only
a talented musician but a genuine guy, so I certainly think it's worth
giving a "rat's ass".
And just one more aside, as a response solely to Paul Myers' post: he's
gotten it exactly right. Having worked directly with the public in almost
every job I've ever had, I've noticed a steady and consistent downtrend in
the way people treat each other. If you can't muster about a hello or thank
you or even get off the cell phone when you're buying something at a store,
if you can't bother to even ask for something in the form of a question and
instead bark "EMINEM" from two aisles away, then it effectively says you
don't have a shred of respect for the person on the other side of the
counter. I think this is merely a symptom of the problem and don't take it
personally at all; it merely relates to the fact that people (at least here
in the US) care less and less about other people.
--Jason
http://www.livejournal.com/users/danabnrml9
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