Comments on: sometimes i question my ability to pick friends

By: Sonja

Sonja — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 01:08:00 +0000

thanks for an informative and highly amusing blog – loved it….

All music is subjective and when you get to a certain age – although not quite as old as the codger smitch linked you find none of it matters anymore. You like what you like and who the hell cares why….

I have to stand up and say though that I just don’t much like Radiohead. I’m with Shane on that one.

By: Shane

Shane — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:37:58 +0000

First of all, there is way too much loyalty to a guy who can’t even clearly speak his own name. They have a word for people like that: Mentally Challenged. At some point, nostalgia for the past needs to be broken by the reality of the future. It’s like people saying Jimi Hendrix was the best guitar player ever. He may have been pretty damn good and wrote some amazing tunes, but if he were alive today he’d be an average player. I’m sure some of you want to slap me twice now.

It is true that this all comes down to the marriage of songwriting versus execution, and what makes someone “brilliant” or what have you. But everyone has different tastes and opinions on this and I think it just becomes an annoying tirade about “Musicality of our culture” or some other boring topic of epic repetition.

The point is, I can’t stand his voice. The songwriting and the music itself might be good (though I have an issue with some of that rhyming), but I have a hard time enjoying something and putting it on my “All time” list if it makes me want to break the CD in half and slit my throat with the jagged edges. Which, consequently, I would probably also do if I started listening to Radiohead.

I love you all though.

xoxox

By: jimmymontreal

jimmymontreal — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:18:26 +0000

I can understand where Shane’s coming from, just don’t agree with him. The song itself is far more important than its execution, as smitch argued. Indeed, I was thinking of doing a post on great bands featuring lead singers with annoying voices to demonstrate this. (See: Built to Spill.)

But now I’m thinking of a different argument entirely: that too-perfect execution can absolutely ruin a song. (See: Pernice Brothers.)

Postscript: Shane, for a good Elliott Smith starter kit, I’d pick up nothing other than “either/or.”

By: smitch

smitch — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:52:36 +0000

I think you have great friends. But seriously, Shane -- first I find out you don't like Radiohead, and now this? If I didn't know better, I'd assume you looked like this and that this was your favorite band. The whole "does Bob Dylan suck at singing so bad that it prevents me from being able to listen to/appreciate his music" question is obviously one that's been debated at length, and raises a whole host of broader questions. For me, the most relevant one is whether technical execution or song-writing is more important in making music "good." Again, for me, Bob Dylan -- and Blood On The Tracks in particular -- is the primary example of why I think it's song-writing, not execution, that really brings it home. The two tracks at the beginning of that album and the two at the end are four of the greatest songs ever written. Of course, there's a point at which the vocals are so bad that they render the whole thing unlistenable (to pick a singer I know mgdistrict loathes, imagine Nico singing on Blood on the Tracks), and for Shane (and many others), Bob Dylan is clearly past that point. Anyway, give him an open-hand slap in the face for me, too.