Early in the week, I was tossing around the idea of writing about how it’s now possible to buy non-DRM music through iTunes, limited to some tracks on EMI (and surely there will be more selection in the near future). But what more is there to be said about all that? Then, as I was nearing sleep last night, one part of my brain told another part that I should write about how at some point in many musicians’ careers they decide that they no longer have to listen to the opinion of anybody else when making new music, because they have decided that they know better, that they are in possession of a talent that no other human could possibly develop. Then they go off and record that lute album that they’ve been wanting to make. And the world rolls its collective eyes and forgets about them. The premise was going to be that artists need somebody to tell them no.
But then I got into the shower this morning, where all the good thinking is done, and I torpedoed that idea, deciding that there are plenty of counterexamples. Lots of people do produce interesting music, without considering a single outside opinion. So what leads to a really crappy album by somebody who has demonstrated the ability to produce things of genuine quality? It is just our perception? Is it that we get locked into expecting the same things of people, such that we are unable to appreciate anything that they produce which is outside the lines we’ve drawn around them? Well no, that wouldn’t explain the lute album. It must be that specialness bit that I mentioned before. The artist feels that anything he does is worthwhile and the masses should worship him for it. That could certainly explain the lute album. But what to make of early 70s Mick Jagger? He certainly had a specialness complex then, but it’s hard to take issue with Sticky Fingers. Maybe his complex was just an act, and he didn’t really internalize his aristocratic bent until the 80s, when he became a cartoon character. That seems like a good thesis. I should develop that. In the meantime, though, I’m gonna make some awesome shampoo horns.
I know only one thing: that when I went to Half Price today, someone had sold their whole Black Oak Arkansas vinyl collection. Needless to say, it is now in my possession.
Who needs new music?
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
i eat sparrow eggs for breakfast. mmmm.
It’s a recipe of sorts isn’t it?
Much failure goes into each teeny bit of success. And, it’s part taste. Then there is the artist type. Some artists hit on something at some point in their career that works and they keep doing that. Those artists may be more consistent but album by album it can get old. Other artists constantly need to try new things. They are more likely to put something out that doesn’t work but perhaps are more likely to get to something really outstanding.
It’s part of the argument of why there is no bad or good art, each allows you to learn from it.
That’s why I like to record a song with a band early in the hashing out stage. Even if in the early stage the song sounds cruddy, the band can hear the good stuff even if it’s not really in the recording.
shower more often. your genius has found its true outlet.
Sparrow eggs give you gas something fierce, I hear.
Hi Justin. You have fantastic eyes, just like mine haha and the polka dots and ed grimly do are pretty cool too. I almost used your picture for the new NAPcast, except I was going to switch your eyes.. and then didn’t want to bother with asking your permission so I went the easy escape route with Gummo.
I’ve been thinking about this post, and I can’t quite figure what your angle is. I can tell you this though. The reason I don’t take instruction well, is usually because the instructor is an overbearing self absorbed control freak who has no appreciation for documenting music and the greater jam sessions of life, (if only to save conceptual art for later manipulation) and is impatient to the point that you can only get ONE song out of 100 recordings.
You can only go through so many soul bearing sessions where everything is deleted because it isn’t perfect… and is someone elses vision.
I don’t need advice because my music sucks and I know it. It wouldn’t be mine if it was “good”.
Sometimes I’m too hard on my husband.
disregard my last post. I just read it and I don’t know what the hell it means.
I meant to say I dig the photo.
I couldn’t figure out what my angle was either. I was basically just trying to figure out why it is that some musicians get so self involved that they don’t realize that what they are producing is crap. And, yeah, crap is subjective (trash, treasure, etc), but since the offending musician produced treasure at one point, I have to assume that he and I share a mutual appreciation for that particular trasure and maybe even mutual disgust for the things I think of as trash.
And yeah, as Kilian says, some people constantly need to try new things. I am, in fact, probably one of these people, so I can certainly understand that impulse. But the conflict is in then foisting that on an unsuspecting public, if you know it’s bad. Or maybe you don’t know it’s bad.
I had sparrow eggs for breakfast yesterday and I didn’t get gas. I guess one man’s gas is another man’s, uh, not gas.
I think we can assume that they don’t know it’s bad although they may assume the audience will be small.
It’s like the story that re-emerges over and over, how the one song the artist never thought would be a hit becomes her fan favorite.
It’s like shows too. This happens all the time to me: I think the show sucks and my friends in the audience say it was one our best or I think the show is great and my friends come up to say how sorry they are that we suck so bad.
Good post, gave me a good laugh… my Dad only makes lute albums.