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| From | "Jim Kauffman" <jkauff@verizon.net> |
| Subject | Re: 25 overrated thingies |
| Date | Tue, 27 Nov 2007 18:38:45 -0500 |
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Where to start?
> -----Original Message-----
> From: audities-owner@smoe.org
> [mailto:audities-owner@smoe.org] On Behalf Of Stewart Mason
> Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 1:23 PM
> To: audities@smoe.org
> Subject: Re: 25 overrated thingies
>
> 3. The Band: God knows I'm not the only one who thinks their
> '70s work became increasingly flaccid and mediocre, but
> honestly, I don't even think the second album is all that.
> The Band are the quintessential example of a group unable to
> match a killer debut album.
At least until Stage Fright.
>
> 4. The Beach Boys: Yes, yes, Brian Wilson is a genius. I am
> not disputing that. But there is a strain of Beach Boys fan
> that elevates the band's post-SMILEY SMILE era (say, WILD
> HONEY through HOLLAND, albums on which many genuinely
> brilliant songs are paired with tripe like "Student
> Demonstration Time") over both the early surf-and-car hits
> and, inexplicably, golden age albums like SUMMER DAYS (AND SUMMER
> NIGHTS) and TODAY, which are nearly as musically inventive
> and lyrically solid as the justly-celebrated PET SOUNDS. Yes,
> 20/20 and SURF'S UP are solid records that were unfairly
> ignored at the time.
> No, they're not as good as "When I Grow Up (To Be A Man)."
When Bruce Johnston brought an acetate of Pet Sounds to London, Keith Moon
was very disappointed.
> 8. Nick Drake: I truly believe that if Nick Drake's albums
> had been commercially successful in the early '70s -- as they
> deserved to be -- then he would be thought of today roughly
> as people think of, say, James Taylor. That is, the hipster
> crowd wouldn't give a crap, because he would no longer have
> the whole "poor misunderstood genius"
> tag.
Nick's still not as respected as James Taylor. In all these years, he's
never sold
anything near the numbers of Sweet Baby James. Anyway, James was able to
make heroin addiction and suicide subjects of cute, sing-along songs--way
beyond Nick's talents.
> 9. Bob Dylan: Even taking into account the large number of
> stinkers he's delivered over the years, Dylan's mantle as
> Spokesman Of His Generation is so ossified in people's minds
> that it's now received wisdom. I have actually met people
> whose exposure to Dylan consists of general familiarity with,
> say, most of the '67 greatest hits album, yet who nonetheless
> believe he's one of the all-time greats. When people don't
> even have to know your music to say that you're brilliant,
> you're officially overrated.
The only person capable of seriously overrating Dylan was Alan Ginsburg. No
one who changed the course of pop music the way Dylan did can be considered
overrated. The Beatles and the Stones were playing Moon-June pop songs and
R&B covers before Dylan blew the lid off. If he never did anything but "Like
a Rolling Stone" and Blonde on Blonde he still couldn't be overrated.
> 10. The Eagles: Maybe it comes from spending my key childhood
> development years (ages 7-14) between 1976 and '83 in
> Boulder, Colorado, which at the time was basically Laurel
> Canyon East, but for me, the Eagles will forever be
> associated with dudes in fringed buckskin jackets and
> enormous turquoise jewelry doing coke and chatting up
> teenyboppers on Pearl Street. That level of druggy narcissism
> just permeates the Eagles records for me, especially HOTEL
> CALIFORNIA and THE LONG RUN, and makes it more difficult to
> fully enjoy even the songs of theirs I like. Props to
> Henley's '80s solo records, however.
The Eagles never rated enough to be overrated.
> 21. Bruce Springsteen: Maybe I'm just too middle-class.
> Maybe growing up in rural communities and college towns in
> Texas and Colorado didn't give me the proper Rust Belt
> archetypes. But hearing Springsteen, with very few
> exceptions, just leads me to think "Yeah, I see what he's
> doing and all, but...it don't move me."
You had to be there live, in 74 and 75. Made a believer out of me.
> 25. Neil Young: My opinion of Neil Young will probably
> forever be colored by the fact that I came of musical age
> during the '80s, a period where he came off as a rather
> pathetic, hacky has-been who had lost his way. Now, of
> course, it's more obvious that he's just ornery and willful,
> and as much as I admire that about him, I still (with
> relatively few exceptions: his Buffalo Springfield songs,
> ZUMA, that great Massey Hall solo concert that got released
> earlier this year, "Like A Hurricane," etc.) like his music
> much more in theory than in practice.
Neil is just, well, Neil. I'm not sure he's actually overrated, because
everyone loves some of Neil's work, hates some of Neil's work, and couldn't
care less about most of Neil's work. The man's got every critical opinion
covered.
Jim K.
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