Date: Thu, 12 May 2005 06:17:09 -0700 (PDT) From: Hersh Forman 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