on 6/28/02 9:06 AM, Patrice L. Roussel at proussel@ichips.intel.com wrote:
On Fri, 28 Jun 2002 08:39:46 -0700 skip Heller wrote:
SY are going to have an interesting time of getting older, moreso than most bands. On the other hand, has anyone in history in any medium ever aged LESS gracefully than the Rolling Stones while still getting respect?
I don't understand the rock/image biz.
I think that the reason is quite simple:
They have given us so much that we can allow them to get older and irrelevant (creatively speaking) and still respect them (without expecting any breakthrough with each record).
In short, we like them despite themselves :-).
The problem that you are raising would make sense if they had not done anything. I don't care what the Stones have been doing in the past 20 years, but for what they did in the '60s and '70s, they deserve all my respect (which I am sure they can live without :-). I still listen to them (old stuff) and often hum one of their songs. In short, that are still actual... with their old stuff.
I think that, but I also think they're disrespecting the audience and legacy that that music built by putting out crap under the Rolling Stones brand name. You want the quality to go in before the name goes on. Instead, you get the name without the quality.
Since you are talking about the Stones, don't you feel that the improv scene is also similar (in its uncritical attitude toward the icons): we keep on raving about people who produced their breakthrough 30-40 years ago (Taylor, Brotzmann, Bailey, Parker, Coleman, etc). Yes, we don't throw our underwears at them, but is the infatuation so different? And even when we are not talking about these gods, it looks like we are looking for them behind almost 90% of the actual improv production.
I agree, and I think it's much the same as rock star adulation. You have guys who are less musicians that icons of a cause. And I prefer my musicians be people whose music I like rather than people whose music I used to like but whose efforts I respect (Bill frisell, I'm talking to YOU). Also, I think calling people "Gods" is silly. I have friends who are regarded as Gods in some quarters, and it hasn't helped them a damn bit. if anything, it makes them insulate themselves, and that's no fun for anyone (turns going to a Laker game into a paramilitary operation). Last I heard, Cecil Taylor had to pay to get on the subway same as the rest of us. Until such time as that's changed, he's mortal with the rest us. He just happens to play better piano and write worse poetry. skip h