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| From | "Sager, Greg" <greg.sager@bankofamerica.com> |
| Subject | Re: Stones to tour ... |
| Date | Thu, 12 May 2005 11:23:32 -0500 |
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Date: Thu, 12 May 2005 06:17:09 -0700 (PDT)
From: Hersh Forman <hiforman@yahoo.com>
To: audities@smoe.org
Subject: Re: Stones to tour ...
Message-ID: <20050512131710.60697.qmail@web53007.mail.yahoo.com>
You tryin' to say you like those songs???
Who, me? Naaaah ...
This is very reminiscent of one of my favorite pieces from the classic
*CREEM* era of the late seventies. It was a J. Kordosh piece entitled,
"Rush: But Why Are They In Such A Hurry?" It was screamingly funny, mostly
because Kordosh was smart enough to let Neil Peart hoist himself upon his
own petard; it was impossible after reading that article to see Peart as
anything other than one of the most pretentious musicians on the planet
(even by prog-rock standards, which is really saying something). It was so
good that I can still remember large bits of the article to this day, even
though I haven't read it in over twenty years. Keep that in mind as I
attempt to reconstruct this from memory:
The article starts off on the wrong foot in journalistic terms, because
Kordosh can't get Geddy Lee to accede to an interview. Seems that the
Gedster had taken offense to a *CREEM* joke piece in an earlier issue that'd
had a composite rock-star character in it named "Geddy Lee Roth". Peart did
agree to sit down with Kordosh on the record, and it soon becomes apparent
in the article that this was mostly because Peart loved the sound of his own
voice and had a heavy tendency to pedantic ranting. It also became clear
that, if he had a sense of humor at all, even an electron microscope
wouldn't have been able to detect it.
Peart began the interview by excoriating Kordosh and his magazine for the
"libelous and destructive slander" it had perpetrated upon his bass player
and friend, and suggests in no uncertain terms that *CREEM* should either
issue a printed apology to Geddy or close its doors in shame. He hints
darkly that there would be serious repercussions for that particular piece
of satire. Kordosh, wondering what exactly Rush intended to perpetrate upon
his employer, asks him if there will be some sort of litigation involved.
Peart's response, "Are we talking crimes or morals here?" leads Kordosh to
suggest in the article that Peart, for all his speechifying, clearly spends
a great deal of time talking out of his fundament.
Moving on, Kordosh muses in his article that he had entered the interview
puzzled as why Rush appeared so intent onstage upon not making any mistakes.
"This struck me as strange, since their entire repertoire is a mistake unto
itself." (The article is full of such snarky comments about Rush's music,
another one being, "Geddy played -- excuse me, strapped on -- a Rickenbacker
bass.") He asks Peart why Rush is so hell-bent upon recreating their studio
material note-for-note onstage. "I mean, I've seen the Stones slop up songs
beyond belief. I once saw Keith so stoned onstage that he went into the riff
from "Brown Sugar" right in the middle of "Honky Tonk Women". It was pretty
cool, actually. It sounded OK."
"You don't like them," Peart says in response. Kordosh writes, "He didn't
say it like it was a statement of disbelief. He said it like it was a
command."
"I think that they've written some good songs," replied Kordosh.
"There's nothing to their music at all," insists Peart.
"I think that they know how to connect with people musically," Kordosh
retorts defensively.
"That's because they're whores."
"A strong word ... a very strong word."
"Yes, but not necessarily a judgmental one. It all depends upon how you feel
about prostitution. Are the Stones astute marketers? Yes. Do they place any
intrinsic value upon what it is that they're playing? No."
The article was full of such gems. Peart described the Who as "a bubblegum
band" and later made some denigrating comment or other about Paul McCartney.
Kordosh writes, "I didn't say anything in response, but it occurred to me
that, however harsh a term one wanted to use to describe McCartney's
mercenary tendencies, the bottom line was that he could write, sing, and
play music better than Rush and the entire National Hockey League combined."
Now, Hersh, it's not as though I'm saying you're an arrogant snob like Neil
Peart. It's just that it's impossible for me to read your reply without
thinking of that long-ago *CREEM* story about Rush in which Peart said much
the same thing about the Stones as you just did ... only he was deadly
serious.
Gregory Sager
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