Musical opinions by musicians: everybody's got 1...or 2...

["BING E BONG"]

No, of course you don't.

There's the old Lou Reed quote which ends 'three chords and you're getting into jazz', which might have had a detrimental effect, in the long term. I don't know. I guess the punks would have gone with it anyway.

["BING E BONG"]

Mark E Smith was king of this kind of thing for a few years. I used to love those 80s interviews where he was shooting his mouth off. So much rubbish, of course, but said with such conviction.

[fange]

Oct 28, 2024 15:35:20 GMT "BING E BONG" said:

No, of course you don't.

There's the old Lou Reed quote which ends 'three chords and you're getting into jazz', which might have had a detrimental effect, in the long term. I don't know. I guess the punks would have gone with it anyway.

Reminds me of the famous saying attributed to Ian Stewart, that he disliked playing minor chords and called them "Chinese music".

["BING E BONG"]

Ha ha!

[rayge]

Oct 28, 2024 15:13:39 GMT fange said:

1) No. I think you've misunderstood my motivation in asking the question. You and I tend to differ about a few things musically, and I was wondering if there was something underlying it. I still think that people who make music tend to have different views to mine about recorded sound.

2) All musicians, indeed all people, events and phenomena, not to mention art forms, are basically, intrinsically meaningless. Meaning is an attribute ascribed by the receiver of information. As far as I think of him at all, I believe Simmons is a worthless piece of gnat-shit, thick as mince - real Adam Ant levels of pig-headed venality - and he means nothing to me. I've never listened to his music and I never will. And his opinions on everything are irrelevant to me.

3) No, but my utter non-musicality means I do think differently about the subject.

[fange]

What did poor Adam Ant ever do to get lumped in the same basket as Mean Gene?

Like everyone, I think we both have some shared loves and some differences, Ray. We both seem to love some early swing, 50s rock and roll, doo wop and R&B, etc. even if we may not express that love in the same way.

[Sneelock]

You folks cut Gene Simmons a lot more slack than I do.
I think he's too much of a dick-wad to be humble so he dismisses people who he'll admit are more skilled players.
Have they made a gazillion dollars? do their dragon boots snort smoke? well, how good can they be?

[adamcoan]

Everyone needs dragon boots Snee.

[Sneelock]

smoking is a filthy habit.mine chew gum.

[harrylemon]

I pay as much attention to Simmons as I did to musos slagging punk rock.

[fonz]

I understand where he is coming from, and I say that as someone who loves 'virtuosity for its own sake'. I have expended half my life trying to attain some technical level on an instrument that I never will achieve, inspired by the Vais and Petruccis of the rock world, and the di Meolas and McLaughlins of the jazz (fusion) world. It is futile. Beyond wanting to prove something to myself, no one else will ever care. Few enough people really care about the aforementioned virtuosi, whereas some folks want to get buried in Kiss Koffins and the like.

Let's face it, more people will remember his band and their imbecilic music than all the other stuff that I rate so highly. It's a bit more glandular, and yeah, simple tunes. The OGWT etc

But Simmons is Simmons. He's only about 50% correct on anything he says.

I listen to a ton (tonne?) of jazz, and the older standards are definitely hummable-they had to be. There needed to be a tune that people could relate to, to give context to the improvisation that comes after the head. The MD observation upthread is ludicrous, unless you want to take a really narrow view of his output in the early seventies.