It’s an odyssey because I keep getting sidetracked and have no idea when it will be over!
Well
first of all, I need to say that I am not going to write everything that I
currently have to say about music in this section of the writing. For one
thing, I still haven’t finished going through the suggestions from the comments
on the Stereogum blog on Rolling Stones 100 Greatest Guitar Songs.
I
know I have had a lot of time to do so, but there have been a few issues. One
is that sometimes I just want to listen to good music, and I resent listening
to things that make my ears bleed. I will be listening to something, and just
ask myself why, when there is so much wonderful, beatiful music in the world,
am I listening to this crap?
Obviously
the answer is that I am finding good stuff too. It’s not all awful. Some of it
is good, and some of it is innocuous, and some of it I love. A lot of it I
appreciate. I don’t think I will ever be a huge Iron Maiden or Black Sabbath
fan, but I get why people are now.
Tool
I just keep hating more. I still think song length is an issue, like if it
ended after three minutes I wouldn’t like it, but it is the additional seven
minutes that pushes me into hate. Also, I think it may be gender specific. I
remember when guys would try and dissuade me from liking Matchbox 20, and
thinking that maybe the band was just for girls. So far it’s been all males
defending Tool to me, and girls agreeing with me, so maybe Tool is for boys.
You guys can have them. I won’t stop you.
I
don’t like Pavement, but listening to them and reading about them, I get why
Malkmus is a big deal around here, though he sounds like kind of a jerk. That
doesn’t always turn people against you when you’re a musician though. I just
ended up feeling really sorry for Scott Kannberg.
That’s
focusing more on the negative. On the positive, it is doing this that has led
me to Richard Hell and the Voidoids, and to Gang of Four. I can’t believe I
have gone so long without knowing Gang of Four existed! (And yes, I concede
that my favorite finds being punk bands could indicate that I’m not really
stretching all that much.)
To
be fair, the song that was suggested was “Love Like Anthrax”, which has been my
least favorite of theirs, but I can see how it was the one suggested because it
seems to me that their other songs are more bass-driven, and even though a bass
is a guitar, no one seems to be suggesting great bass songs for this. Perhaps
that would be a different list, and perhaps led by Blister in the Sun? I don’t know—I’m
still learning.
And
I am learning a lot. For example, I saw “Lucille” on there by B. B. King, and I
thought I knew what it was, but it sounded nothing like I expected. What I had
in mind was a song by Waylon Jennings. I like B. B. King better. Search and
Destroy is on there, and I thought that was a Metallica song I knew, but that
is Seek and Destroy, and Search and Destroy is by The Stooges.
The
other thing that is slowing me down is the sheer volume of comments. I have
made it through all of the single song suggestions, and the ones where people
suggested multiple songs by the same artist, and am now working through things
where there needs to be some comparison. For example, one person suggested
Sonic Youth’s cover of “Touch Me I’m Sick” by Mudhoney. Well, without listening
to the Mudhoney version, it would feel inadequate.
Also,
there are things that are confusing, because people are not always clear, and I
am not usually in the know. Someone wrote Built to Spill by Doug Martsch. I
thought Built to Spill would be a song, but it is a band that Doug Martsch is
in, which has a lot of songs. That leads to the other issue, when people just
post bands. The blogger mentioned Erik Rutan and Teenage Riot close together,
so I thought that was him, but it’s not. It’s Sonic Youth and the Ataris, and I
am pretty sure he meant Sonic Youth, but I am not sure, so I have to listen to
both, and decide what Eric Rutan songs to try.
With
a lot of them, I can listen to the band, but am I really finding their best guitar
work without guidance? For example, Bowie is on there. He has a large catalog,
and some of it is certainly more guitar-driven than others. It’s the same thing
with Lindsey Buckingham. He gets a lot of respect as a guitarist, but I never
really noticed in any of the Fleetwood Mac I knew. It turns out that band has
had a lot of incarnations, and I have only known a small part of them.
So,
there is still a lot of listening to do, and also reading and watching of
movies. I know I will end up having a lot more to say, and I do need to get
into politics because, hey, there is more stuff coming up all the time. So, I
am going to get a little into the kind of listener I am aspiring to be, and
that will get into ethics, and perhaps that will be a good launching point for
some other things I have in mind. First though, I need to address a problem
that has been weighing on me. I don’t think I can provide the solution, but I
hope that this will trigger some efforts by others.
Also, I keep thinking that I want to do album reviews,
and then thinking that’s a horrible idea. Is it?
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