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While seeing if you can ever like the music of a particular artist whose music has not appealed to you to date, do ever find yourself hanging onto the musicianship of a particular band member? Growing up I couldn’t stand Janis Joplin except for the song “Piece of My Heart.” That song, in fact, initially appealed to me only because of the sloppy, fuzztoned lead guitar and the throaty, off-key backing vocals of the dudes in Big Brother and the Holding Company. Over the years, whenever being confronted with the music of Janis Joplin, I’d see out the guitar player(s?) in Big Brother and the Holding Company and see if the sloppy guitar playing and funzztone could get me through the next 3 to 4 minutes of Joplin’s blooz wail. The stuff she did after Big Brother never worked for me because that guitarist, whose name I’ve never bothered to learn until seeing it in this video (James Gurley), wasn’t in the mix.
About 10 years ago I began to come around on Joplin with the help of other aids, which I’ll get into another day this week, if not for the lifeline that guitar player through me I’d have had no shot!
Another example for me is Phil Lesh, whenever I’m revisiting the Grateful Dead, again, a band I no longer hate but still feel the need to thank Lesh for thinking of me with his long, loopy bass runs.
How about you: has a particular musician in a band or backing an artists you did not otherwise like thrown you a lifeline?
Perhaps, as a non-musician, I cannot (or do not) isolate an aspect of a song/group I dislike. For instance, I don’t give a damn who is playing anything with Janis Joplin, she bores me to tears. I just don’t think I can compartmentalize enough to listen to, I don’t know, Toto, and think “Gosh, this blows, but that Jeff Porcaro sure is a fine drummer.”
To be clear, misterioso, I’m not asking for people to point out a “fine drummer” in a band they can’t stand, but a particular musician whose sound keeps your attention while you try, once again, to see if you can’t grasp the entire sound of the band or artist. I think you get it, but I’ll shoot myself if people start listing people like Porcaro, whose chops would not make any Toto song worth listening to a second time.
I’ve always felt that Tower of Power dried up as band many years ago, but their bassist, Rocco Prestia, has managed to keep me tuned in to them. He’s so good and what he plays is almost always interesting no matter what MOR funk setting the tune may be.
TB
I guess the problem with mine is that I like old ToP music. It’s the later stuff that’s saved by Rocco.
TB
I think Flea plays this role for me. I don’t really hate the RHCPs, but I have a hard time getting past the singer’s voice. The instrumental passages can be quite engaging.
Flea’s a good one. I agree that he and his bandmates can cook up a good musical stew for the few measures when Kiedis is not talk-singing.
I can sit through various crappy songs/bands if I know there’s a good guitar player on display. I can put up with “Beat It” thanks to the EVH solo in it, which I think I like. There are a few Zep tunes that I only listen to for the Bonham bits.
Bauhaus. Peter Murphy’s voice and style really irritate me but I love the music. Thank goodness Ash and co. went on to Tones On Tail and Love and Rockets. I’ll listen to Bauhaus, really, really want to enjoy it but just stay tuned to the music.
I think I have to agree with misterioso. I’m not a musician either, and just one guy isn’t going to toss me a strong enough lifeline to get through things. I’d say cases in point would be The Eagles and Led Zeppelin. I love Joe Walsh. I like his solo stuff (most of the time) and I like The James Gang. I hate everything he’s done with The Eagles. People tell me Steely Dan has no soul, and then they put on an Eagles album and I just gotta figure soul is in the ear of the beholder, cuz The Eagles do nothing but suck.
Led Zeppelin has three critically acclaimed musicians, and I should be able to get past Bob Plant’s cat with his balls in a vice vocals, but I can’t. Add songs about gnomes and Viking heaven and I’m not even sure Keith Richards could pull me in enough to not hate every second of it.
I tend to think the only really great musician in The Beatles was Paul McCartney. The other guys range from dull to occasionally imaginative, but their sound never offends me. They all can do what the song requires, and none of them seemed to care if they were the focal point. I’m not a big Beatles fan, but I don’t dislike them, and I like the fact that they all played for the benefit of the song. I suppose The Eagles and Led Zeppelin do too, but they have such strong suck factors that even the best and least selfish playing can’t rescue them from suckdom.
I’m always willing to give Vince Clarke (Depeche Mode/Yazoo/The Assembly/Erasure etc.) a shot in whatever project he’s working on because I’m fascinated by the sounds he produces and the instruments he’s using, even if the resulting music isn’t exactly to my taste. Yazoo was pretty great, however.
I’m honestly surprised that non-musicians are thinking this point of view is not within their grasph – I don’t doubt your sincerity; I’m surprised that I didn’t consider this as a possibility.
To be clear, I’ve never been attracted to the guitar playing of James Gurley because I think he’s a “great” player; in fact, I’m pretty sure he kind of sucks on a technical level (someone like HVB could better assess his skill level). What I’ve always liked about him is his tone and the “humanity” that comes through in his playing. Maybe the fact that I would suffer similarly “human” limitations has kept him dear to my heart, but his playing “spoke” to me long before I could play more than three chords. I was always able to tune into his playing and ignore Joplin’s blooz wailing. Maybe this all points to some kind of hyperfocusing issue that I face.
Hyperfocusing issue, or a defense mechanism? I just don’t feel the whole great musician in a crappy band vibe. I mean, if they’re so great and interesting, what are they doing stuck with a bunch of idiots, and what does that say about their own taste? I’m sure there are plenty of people too good for the bands they are in but at the end of the day, you are what you are, whether that’s bass player for the Dead or Janis Joplin’s guitarist. Music is a team sport and almost impossible to listen to solely for the contribution of one member.
What I’m trying to get at with this lifelines idea, though, is not simply great musicians in crappy bands, in which case I could have listed Skunk Baxter for his work in Steely Dan, but musicians whose playing interests me enough to occasionally make it worth my while to continue checking out a band I initially don’t like. Another example – and another San Francisco hippie band, for that matter – is that Jorma guy from Jefferson Airplane. I still generally can’t stand that band, but whenever they come on I can grasp onto his sound and get through a song. Music is a team sport, but I’m suggesting that a particular musician in a band may make it worth checking out an otherwise bad band, the way the Nationals will sell out their stadium today when that phenom Steven Strasburg makes his debut on the mound. Some kid in the DC area is likely to start following the stinking Nationals a little more closely thanks to this rookie pitcher. Our baseball fan in DC, mockcarr, can probably attest to what I’m saying.
Mod wrote: “…I’m suggesting that a particular musician in a band may make it worth checking out an otherwise bad band…”
I hear you, big guy. I guess what I am suggesting is, “or may not.” Or just that this isn’t the way I hear music.
I do tend to think it is more of a musician thing, if anything.
Mod, what’s funny to me is that I’m with you here, on the concept–I buy it–but I can’t think of any practical examples for me personally that make the case.
I can believe that sentiment, Mod, if I believed there was one prospective baseball fan under 12 ALLOWED to go to this game. Our times do not allow such graciousness or serendipity, unless their Mom or Pop stands on line for the standing room seats, and has written a note to get his kid out of school.
Having said that, feck it, I’m going.
I don’t usually see a player as a way in, although I can appreciate them, as the Flea example demonstrates. I still wouldn’t really consider a RHCP purchase based on that, because it’s not enough for me. I find genre lifelines more likely. For instance, I liked the jangly Game Theory despite my antipathy for their synth sounds, and enjoyed the 60s record collector notions of Yo La Tengo despite Ira’s wanking feedback experiments.