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Great Musician, Terrible Person
Seems Ryan Adams had a bit of tiff with Neil Finn at a recent BBC 4 Songwriter showcase. Mr. Adams has a reputation for being a bit immature. You can google the salacious details. Suffice to say that Mr. Adams was annoyed and chose not to sing with Mr. Finn. Mr. Finn called him out. Minor drama ensued.
In theory, it is all about the music. But, personality is part of the music. Of course, I don't know anything about a performer personally, so it's my own perception. Johnny Cash was the man in black. Dwight Yoakam is that mysterious skinny cowboy in tight pants. Waylon Jennings is an outlaw. As much as I hate to admit it, I root for certain musicians because I like their personality (Jamey Johnson and Ryan Bingham come to mind).
Occasionally, however, there is a performer whose music is very good, but his persona turns me off. Maybe Ryan Adams fits that. Ted Nugent, Jim Morrison, and David Allen Coe might also fit (depending on how you feel about the music). It feels a bit tiny bopper to judge on personality. But I can't shake my belief that it does affect the perception of the music.
What musician do you respect because of the musical talent but dislike because of a bad personality?
Tags: BBC, Finn, Neil, adams, musician, personality, ryan
Views: 11324
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Kim Ruehl on -
Jeff - Apologies for the closed comment section. I had absolutely no intention of closing comments. Sometimes the back end of this site does that on its own and I had no idea until just now. Comments are open.
I have to ask, though, is responding to hate with hate productive? More people in this part of the music industry have vocalized their support of LGBT rights in the past 24 hours than I've heard my entire career. It's opened a dialogue, and that part is quite constructive. Meanwhile, whether she changed her mind about her feelings on the matter or she's struggling with mental health, is it our job in the media to perform a character assassination on her? The lead singer of Scythian has been vocal about his opposition to LGBT rights of late. Are people categorically tossing their Scythian records? So, is this about the fact that someone appears to have changed their mind on something? Or what? What of Donna Summer - a far bigger gay icon who publicly denounced the LGBT community using similarly offensive language...
My point was not that I agree with Michelle Shocked (I don't - I and my family are personally affected by anti-LGBT laws and policies, so this is personal). My point was that responding to inflammatory remarks with equal and opposite inflammation serves nothing and nobody.
I would have walked out of the concert too. And then I would have come home and breathed and thought long and hard about it, and written something probably very similar to what I wrote.
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Permalink Reply by Jeff Gilbert on -
Kim, I agree that we should not respond with hatred and inflammatory remarks. Shocked is clearly fighting some internal demons, and she may well deserve some empathy. But I can't get past the hatred and bigotry. I don't hate her, I just want to ignore her.
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Permalink Reply by Jeffrey M Fields on -
A different opinion is "Led Zeppelin is a good band." What Shocked said is equal parts hate and filth, and she should be vilified for it. If the members of the Westboro Baptist Church put out the best bluegrass album anyone's ever heard, I wouldn't listen to it, and I surely wouldn't buy it. Same thing goes for Bocephus... and I actually LIKE a lot of his music, but through his words and actions, he's lost my ear and my wallet.
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Permalink Reply by Hal Bogerd on -
If I can derail this converation to Shitty Musician, Total Asshole.
Justin Bieber visited Anne Frank's house and wrote this in the guest book:
"Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a belieber."
http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/14/showbiz/bieber-anne-frank/index.html?...
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Permalink Reply by RP N10 on -
A daft teenager perhaps..a total asshole is way too judgmental.
Shitty musician is a pointless comment. He's not a musician, he's an entertainer. And to be honest not, I would say, attempting to entertain the demographic that frequents this corner of the internet.
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Permalink Reply by Hal Bogerd on
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Okay, he's not a musician and total asshole may be too harsh. I'll drop the total.
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Permalink Reply by RP N10 on
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BBC.co.uk/news:
>>However, museum spokeswoman Maatje Mostart defended the young star to the BBC, saying: "He's 19. It's a crazy life he's living, he didn't mean bad… and also it's nice that he made the effort, he didn't have to come."
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Permalink Reply by Hal Bogerd on
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Permalink Reply by Carlos Monsalve on -
Nobody has mentioned Dylan. I love his music and his iconic presence but I wouldn't want to meet him. I think he'd scare the hell out of me. I've read and seen him on video rip people a new one. It seems he can be playful and funny but also mean spirited and caustic
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Permalink Reply by Frank Kocher on -
Point taken, but I wouldn't cross a room to meet Justin Beiber, and if I got to spend an hour with Dylan, I would remember it for years. And he'd probably spend the hour ripping me a new one.
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Permalink Reply by Stina on -
LOL. I agree. I think getting Dylan in a conversation involving music other than his own would result in a long joyful conversation. I don't think he likes to talk about himself too much. He doesn't like labels and being pigeon holed anyways.
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