You are, of course, entitled to your opinion. :-)


best regards,
mike

Of course... we have our own punk rock over here:

The Cleverlys

 You tell him if he get's to Tallahassee to email me.. and we'll show up and load the gear in.

 And even pay for our own beer.


best,
mike

What is that supposed to mean?

This is the only interweb I engage in and in the real world I live a life of an anonymous gear hauling and gear operating meat puppet. So what if I get paid for it.

Good for you Mr. nice guy.

You seem perturbed that I feel at liberty to point out that anyone that suggests that a bunch of other people, who don't think like he/you does, are "brainwashed and battered" is being patently disrespectful of other peoples' rights to their opinion. That's pretty simple.

I'd be happy to carry the guy's gear in to a show.

I happen to actually like the guy and his music.



regards,
mike




edit spelling

I read it all. It was good. However, after reading the thread, I feel like I should be finding something to argue about... perhaps I am insufficiently inadequate.

J

Steve I don't have a lot of concern about the current state of the music industry
and certainly not concerned with what others may think of it because they haven't
lived in my world nor I in theirs.

That sounds like a bad attitude but let me explain my view.

I'm an old guy that was born about the same time that electric guitars where.
So after enough years for me to start learning there was a brand new world of
music due simply because of electric guitars and bass.

Those instruments were the seeds planted for innovators. One must realize that the
music world was completely different before electric instruments.
With their creation became an oppertunity for a brand new music world.

What a time to live through. Not only was there a whole new world for music it was
being supported by the masses. It was fueled by people not only enjoying the "new"
sounds and beats but partying their ass off too.

We rode that trail until it was full grown and starting to die due to many reasons.
"Life" , technological changes, time...

Now that I'm 57 and lived through and played through it's birth and some of it's dying
years- I don't have a problem with the current state of music.
Things change and most everything that I enjoyed about music changed. It's a whole
new game and I'm very content to sit in the stands watching it do so and even enjoying
a little bit of it on my PC.

I can easily imagine that in the near future there will be kids looking back and probably
have a great time seeing how it all went done and maybe even want to try and recreate it
and wish they could have lived through those years when a four piece band could change the world.

Jonbouy

I do not think you ask these questions to foster greater understanding but rather to find a fresh place to wedge your next argument.

For anyone that still doesn't get irony, McQ making the above statement is the best definition evah!
 
<Facepalm>

Although I'd prefer a strong pint with the chap...

Myself, I'd pretty much think that no matter the format the music comes in it still will live ever on..regardless of what some may think....if it is in your heart it is there...

I could not give a toss about Simon Cowell, TV talent shows or the mindless repetition of corporate music. You cannot force your idea of art on the mindless masses who watch and listen to this crap. None of them have a gun to their heads - they could all switch off their TV sets and seek out quality stuff. But they don't. So who cares? It's not the responsibility of me, the government, corporations or anyone else to improve the cultural outlook of these people. Once you start getting into that area, it just opens up a whole new can of worms and begs the questions "what is art" and "why is art A of higher intellectual value than art B."

All you can do is your best to influence those around you on a personal level. But there will always be a huge number of people who have absolutely no appreciation for the finer things in life and who will just lap up whatever banal crap that's put in front of them. I learned to stop worrying about such people a long time ago. As for American Idol and all of that ballyhoo, well I don't have a TV and have no intention of getting one and so I'm pretty much blind to it. However I do enjoy watching the bad auditions on YouTube, that's an entertainment in itself. 

Great minds must think alike Steve, I've just been catching up on a lot of the Stranglers blog, that very part included.

I'm wondering what Hugh Cornwell has against East Anglia as well. His tours very rarely come anywhere near us here. Perhaps it's the two heads we all have.

I could not give a toss about Simon Cowell, TV talent shows or the mindless repetition of corporate music. You cannot force your idea of art on the mindless masses who watch and listen to this crap. None of them have a gun to their heads - they could all switch off their TV sets and seek out quality stuff. But they don't. So who cares? It's not the responsibility of me, the government, corporations or anyone else to improve the cultural outlook of these people. Once you start getting into that area, it just opens up a whole new can of worms and begs the questions "what is art" and "why is art A of higher intellectual value than art B." All you can do is your best to influence those around you on a personal level. But there will always be a huge number of people who have absolutely no appreciation for the finer things in life and who will just lap up whatever banal crap that's put in front of them. I learned to stop worrying about such people a long time ago. As for American Idol and all of that ballyhoo, well I don't have a TV and have no intention of getting one and so I'm pretty much blind to it. However I do enjoy watching the bad auditions on YouTube, that's an entertainment in itself.

 
Of course you have a point but if talented, professional artists cannot get people to open their wallets (an assuming some middle man isn't getting all the dough) then none of it matters. I recently read, it may have been here, that the average professional musician makes $32,000.00 a year. If they have a family, or if they don't... they are going to have to have a second job to have any sort of decent lifestyle... but considering the rigors of life involved with being a working musician, they don't have the time or energy for anything else.
Someone somewhere has to figure out a way to stop people from stealing the fruit of their labor. I don't know the answer but I do know if it is not profitable, people are not going to keep at it, least not the way people have traditionally done. They can't afford to. They lose and we lose.

Listening now




to cleanse my palette:


Some how, it still feels like it has an exciting vibe even after all these years.

:-)

Karl, have you seen the BBC Choice documentary on them?

I don't have Sky so I've never watched it before - I found it on YouTube when I was noseying round the blogs and related sites yesterday.

Well, that is just Rotten Mike!

 
Hey, hey, my, my...

jbow

I'm not sure TBH Steve - as a Stanglerholic I tend to watch everything and anything Stranglers related that I can so I may already have seen it. I'll have a look. I'll watch it again even if I have anyway, how sad's that?

 
Maybe there will be a Stranglers vinyl collection out next year... maybe?

I've already got my vinyl collection Julien - all originals and all
 
I'll wager Karl has them too