Letters to the Editor
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What a bunch of immature morons
Shut up and play yer guitar.
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Didn't the Guardian just do this two years ago?
Yeah, they did:
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,11710,1365982,00.html
What a complete waste of time.
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About time!
I clearly remember the first time I heard the Doors; I was a pre-teen in Detroit, riding around with my friends, transistor radios pressed to ears, the mighty CKLW at full blast. "Come on baybe light my fiah, come on baybe light my fiah, try to set the night on FIYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH". "What is this, some kind of joke parody song?", we laughed.
Dreadful pretentious crap. Thank you Craig Finn. Another reason to love Hold Steady.
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Well, whatever
I mean, sure, some of the comments are funny, but in the end you have a bunch of people who aren't nearly as talented as those they're denigrating trashing work they can't hope to match. It reveals their own pettiness and petulance more than anything else.
George Burns said, "If you were married to Marilyn Monroe, you'd cheat with some ugly girl," and that comment applies to this. The most wonderful thing in the gets old after a while. Sometimes we need to take a break and come back to something to regain our appreciation.
I've gotten sick of all of those records at various points in my life, and come back to them and loved them all over again. So what? The fact that we want something different doesn't mean great art stops being great art. It means we enjoy variety in our lives.
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Dylan
I was never a fan of Bob Dylan's back in the 60's, and while I liked a few of the great hit songs like 'The Times They Are A Changing' and 'Blowing In The Wind', I found a lot of his stuff grandiose and tedious.
However, Dylan is a great iconic figure and my tastes have improved, so a few months ago I did a bit of research to find out what was his best album and bought Highway 61 Revisited.
It has one or two good songs, but for the most part it is awful. I guess my taste has not improved that much after all.
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i can think of few things more BANAL than "brimful of asha"
and anyways, zappa said it best.
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These grapes - SO sour!
Great. A pack of talentless also-rans, criticizing their betters. How very cutting edge. When I want to read the blithering opions of barely literate glue-sniffers, I now know where to go.
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WHO THE FUCK IS CRAIG FINN ANYWAY?
Twenty (ten? five?) years years from now no one will have an answer for that question, mostly because no one will be posing it. Millions, however, will still be listening to the Doors. So fuck you, you whiny twerp. And that goes for all of you. Cornershop? Are they still around? One of the most boring one-note bands of all time, and this little wanker has the gall to criticize DARK SIDE OF THE MOON?
Just goes to show, whether it comes from bad musicians or bad writers, rock criticism has always and will always bite ass.
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Critiques are generally a waste of breath
People like what they like. Those who attach any worth to someone else's **purely subjective** critique lack the personal resolve and esteem to formulate their own unbiased opinions.
Sheep.
Time to stop paying attention to what others think.
Think for yourself.
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Pink Floyd = Biggest Bores Ever
I'll take Cornershop over Pink Floyd any day of the week. I never heard a Pink Floyd song that didn't want to make me stab myself in the ears with a knitting needle. Boring, pretentious, whiteboy self-indulgent noodling. Blech!
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No Zappa, please
I know he's a genre-busting genius, adept at everything from screaming guitar rock to avant garde classical excursions. But honestly — does anyone actually ever listen to Frank Zappa. Not as an academic exercise, but simply because you were driving home from work Tuesday and thought, "Man, I'd love to listen to 'Uncle Meat' when I get home."
Or anything he did.
Maybe I'm just still bitter that I spent nearly $30 my freshman year of college, which was in 1982 when $30 bought a lot of beer, to buy 'Uncle Meat.' My Bible at that point in my life was the first edition of the 'Rolling Stone Record Guide.' I devoted myself to buying all the five-star, 'essential' albums, of which 'Uncle Meat' was one.
I listened to it over and over, angry with myself for not getting the 'genius' of it. Then I realized it just was unlistenable.
And frankly everything else I've ever heard from Zappa is just so smugly pleased with its cleverness and/or high wank quotient.
In fairness, he probably was the smartest rock star around and his death took away a trenchant social critic.
But I still never feel like listening to 'Uncle Meat' after a day at work, or ever.
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Arcade Fire and The Strokes
I can see people getting into a discussion/argument over which is more overrated/boring/tired/whateve with The Beatles, Pink Floyd, and Nirvana. But these two amused me.
Yes EVERYONE has heard enough, for a while, of Neon Bible in the past 2-3 months. The same with Amy Winehouse, Mims, and Fall Out Boy. But most overrated of all time? A little premature, maybe just most overrated of 2007. Since its the UK, why aren't the Klaxons or Arctic Monkeys on the list yet?
It must be different in the UK, but I can't imagine The Strokes being interesting enough to enough people for anyone to be tired of them, just general indifference. Why The Strokes and not The Libertines/Pete Doherty?
In their absence, this article signals it's okay to love Blur and Oasis again in the UK. Preparing Guardian and NME readers for the umpteenth BritPop revival, now that New Rave is tired.
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Sounds Like Sour Grapes to Me
... or the usual garbage where a "critic" proves his chops by disparaging a sacred cow. I could get in the papers too if I said that "Hamlet" sucks and "Huckleberry Finn" is racist drivel. The problem is, it ain't.
These days, it takes more courage to admit you admire something than it does to cut it down. Result of a cynical age, I guess.
As for classic albums I dislike, I would have to vote for "Dark Side of the Moon." It's not a terrible album, just listless, and I don't like the chatter between the cuts.
I also can't warm up to Van Morrison's "Astral Weeks," for a similar reason. The music meanders and lacks the tight feel I like in rock music.