Moshkiae
Hi,
SteveStrummerUK Hang on a minute, when did this suddenly become about my playing abilities?
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I don't look at my "craft" as just "fun". I look at my writing as my life, and getting better on it is important to me!
Pedro, I'm sorry, it may be your inability to express yourself accurately in English, but I have no idea how this reply relates to the passage you quoted 
If you're trying to suggest that my "craft" is playing the guitar, then you're very much mistaken. I thoroughly enjoy playing both the guitar and bass, I love writing music, and listening to music gives me a great deal of pleasure. But it's a hobby, not a "craft", whatever you meant by that.
If I wanted to improve my playing, I'd take lessons, read books on technique and practice. No amount of my listening to
Yes or
Osric Tentacles etc is going to make me a better guitarist. It might conceivably
inspire me to want to play better, but that's all. I'd rather just sit and listen to something I enjoy listening to instead of trying to analyse it and pick it apart bar by bar - I do that when I'm learning a song to cover, and it's not much fun, or very productive (in as much as it's much, much easier to learn a song if you've got the music/TAB/chord sheet to work from).
Similarly, if I want to improve my songwriting, listening to classical music isn't going to teach me jack sh1t about music theory. Again, lessons or a text book would be far more productive.
Same with recording. If I could be arsed to re-read my Bob Katz or Roey Izhaki books, I'm sure my skills would improve much more than if I listened to a few prog rock albums.
The simplicity or not of any piece of music is irrelevant to whether it’s enjoyable to listen to or not.
So history of music is just about "enjoyment", and the rest is crap?
Pedro, this is pathetic and idiotic non-sequitur. Where on earth did I mention the "history" of music in my comment?
Sounds like a 20th century fan-rock comment!
And again with the poorly disguised insult. You're categorising me on absolutely fu ck all evidence whatsoever. You don't know me. You don't know what I listen to. You're just a sad little man, an ignorant twat who is trying to disguise his pretentious backhanded comments as superior knowledge. Get over your obnoxious self.
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Who says “the Clash's work does not stand up very well against a lot of writers, painters, musicians and other artists out there”?
You?
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I DO.
And I like comparing all the arts, since all the "artists" are in the same pot, so to speak.
As much as I want to add all the folks here, I can't ... because many of them are thinking with their egos, not their work! You can not stand out in the crowd doing the same thing as anyone else, or someone else's work!
But you're not hearing me talk about the individuality needed to get there ... the "you" that I talk about all the time! Instead you turn this discussion into some stupid point about me not liking the Clash or caring about Black Sabbath ... well I do have Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and Sabotage, their only two albums I enjoy!
Your arguments are inconsistent and circular.
In other words - "Pedro likes 'good' music", ergo "The music Pedro listens to is good music".
If, as you seem to be constantly intimating, a band's appeal is just down to their technical expertise, then what the hell are you doing listening to Black Sabbath? Iommi is a pretty good guitarist, but technically he's very much fourth division. There are guys over in the Songs forum that can smoke Iommi around the fretboard.
And as you're obviously not going to back up your opinions of The Clash with anything resembling a fact, let me ask you again, how many of their albums have you listened to, and how often?
And another thing, what about the lyrical content of a song? Doesn't that matter to you?
I'd wager that Stravinsky could never write a
Career Opportunities, or Beethoven a
City Of The Dead, or Mozart a
White Riot.
Of course not.
Because it's apples and oranges, as well you know. Although this fact doesn't seem to be having any influence whatsoever on the flawed logic you keep trotting out.