Actually, Ribot's maiden voyage didn;t function well at the time of its release. Nobody liked it all that much. I worked in a record store when it came out, and the people who were excited that it came out were soon enough the people who were not thrilled to have sat thru it. Ribot's reputation was really made off those three Waits albums, and SPIKE. Little wonder such a huge reputation was made. The live version of "16 Shells" fr BIG TIME still delivers. As for the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, they definitely came up with a sound that was theirs. I have to respect that, even if I'm not a fan. Few people ever do that. My personal "white intellectual funk out" record was the second Ambitious Lovers album. Still sounds good to me, too. It's really slick, but that works in the context of the record. I never got the sense that Ribot owed that much to Quine, whose playing I also know quite well (or rather I did up to about that time -- I can only listen to so much Lou Reed). sh
Although the Rootless Cosmopolitans stuff sounds quite outdated now, I think it was a good album for the time. While many bands in the early 90's were trying to figure out how to blend funk and rock in the trendiest way and the results were... well, the Peppers. Ribot managed to incorporate those and pop, free-jazz, noise, etc in a coherent way. I know many who could do without "The Wind Cries Mary" though. It sounds a bit better in the Shrek live album. It's a pity that Robert Quine is so underrecorded, specially considering how much Ribot owes him.
Best,
Efrén del Valle
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