From: "Stewart Mason" <flamingo@t...>

> I guess what I'm asking is...okay, Ryan Adams is a self-destructive
> boozehound who's heading pretty much straight towards total career
> implosion. So was Emmit Rhodes. (The liner notes of FAREWELL TO PARADISE
> are jsut as "whiny" and "paranoid" as anything I've ever heard come out of
> Ryan Adams' mouth, frankly.) So how come Ryan Adams is "hilarious" when
> Emmit Rhodes is this heart-wrenching tragic figure?

I guess because Adams is not destitute, not mentally ill from a clinical
standpoint (presumably), not an aging diabetic and, at under 30, still young
enough to get his act back together.  Plus, Emitt was clearly a victim of a
time when musicians knew a hell of a lot less about what they were getting
into, with respect to the business, than they do now.  It's certainly
natural for one's heart to go out to someone who went through as much crap
and bad fortune as he did.

I don't know that anyone equates a "hilarious" phone call with someone being
a hilarious figure.  Along those lines,   would guess that if we really saw
Adams as a tragic figure we wouldn't have had the same response to his call.
Had Elliott Smith made the same phone call three years ago, I'm sure we'd
have seen it as the product of an extremely troubled mind and wouldn't have
viewed it as funny in the least.

David