Just like Jim Morrison, his music just wasn't that good. And also like Jim Morrison, you had to be high or drunk to like it. And how did both of those guys end up? Hmmm...another similarity.
Kurt Cobain always struck me as being very talented... have a look at his "Unplugged" performance on YouTube, for example. (I say this as someone who usually listens to classical or traditional folk music.)
You could well argue that Cobain's music had a negative cultural influence because of the miasma of depression and alienation that surrounded it, but this has also been true of some great music from the past -- Schubert's song- cycle "Winterreise" is also bathed in sadness and self- pity. And if Cobain was a drug user, substance abuse has never by itself been a disqualification from having an expressive ability.
Oh, my. We need to have a talk. The songs might have had some metaphysical themes comprehensible only while on hallucinogens or after taking a class on Hieronymous Bosch, but his voice was as deep as a Dutch oven and as smooth as silk.
I'd rank The Doors ahead of the Stones or the Dead any day. The Moody Blues were richer in musicality but far less interesting - the songs singularly centered on romance. Pink Floyd was more sublime.
One of the horrors, but also one of the great beauties of capitalism and free enterprise is that, somehow coming from nothing and struggling and contending and all those things somehow makes you more knowledgeable and more aware and stronger in a way. In other words, if there were a millionaire heiress and she said ok, I’m going to be a patroness of a band, and I’m going to set them up in a mansion in the mountains. They’re going to have everything they always wanted. They’re not going to have any economic hassles. They’re not going to have to fuck with any of these people, just make their music. You know what you’d get? A lot of shit. - Jim Morrison on the great beauty of capitalism
Kurt Cobain always struck me as being very talented... have a look at his "Unplugged" performance on YouTube, for example. (I say this as someone who usually listens to classical or traditional folk music.)
ReplyDeleteYou could well argue that Cobain's music had a negative cultural influence because of the miasma of depression and alienation that surrounded it, but this has also been true of some great music from the past -- Schubert's song- cycle "Winterreise" is also bathed in sadness and self- pity. And if Cobain was a drug user, substance abuse has never by itself been a disqualification from having an expressive ability.
Jim Morrison wasn't very good?
ReplyDeleteOh, my. We need to have a talk. The songs might have had some metaphysical themes comprehensible only while on hallucinogens or after taking a class on Hieronymous Bosch, but his voice was as deep as a Dutch oven and as smooth as silk.
I'd rank The Doors ahead of the Stones or the Dead any day. The Moody Blues were richer in musicality but far less interesting - the songs singularly centered on romance. Pink Floyd was more sublime.
Ok, so we named a stadium after Hubert Horatio Humphrey - a socialist long before socialism became fashionable.
ReplyDeleteAnd an major airport after a Nazi admirer and receiver of the Gold Eagle medal from Hitler.
Go figure.
If they were to name a bridge after Kurt Cobain, I'd think it would have to be the so-called "Bridge to Nowhere".
Never mind all the stuff named after out and out pathological liars & criminals, err, politicians.
ReplyDeleteOne of the horrors, but also one of the great beauties of capitalism and free enterprise is that, somehow coming from nothing and struggling and contending and all those things somehow makes you more knowledgeable and more aware and stronger in a way. In other words, if there were a millionaire heiress and she said ok, I’m going to be a patroness of a band, and I’m going to set them up in a mansion in the mountains. They’re going to have everything they always wanted. They’re not going to have any economic hassles. They’re not going to have to fuck with any of these people, just make their music. You know what you’d get? A lot of shit. - Jim Morrison on the great beauty of capitalism
ReplyDelete