Re: Serious vs. Serious

[ircam!kato@uunet.UU.NET (John Kitamura)]

>Really-From: berns@lti.com (Brian Berns x26)
In article <8905112358.AA00582@lti.com> you write:
>
>Phil Collins sucks ...
This is not a nice thing to say. The drumming on "Get Em Out By Friday"
from the "Genesis Live" album is enough to ensure him a place as an artist
an innovator in rock and roll history. You can't ignore the huge amount
of unforgettable matierial he has worked on in the past two decades, such as
with Genesis, Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, Brand X, etc., any one of which would
be an impressive effort for a single person. Have you listened to his drumming
on _Exposure_ recently? There are not many who could put in effortless fills
over a 15/8 rifflike he does there. And all of his work from this period
seemed to deliberately steer away from any hint of commercial appeal.
	If he has decided now to pursue a more lucrative and less innovative
path, we should not admonish him for his career desicions. Perhaps as he
gets older he values the money a bit more than the music. Perhaps the public
doesn't want to see a chubby bald guy play rock and roll, but doesn't mind
a chubby bald guy singing a ballad. Perhaps Phil realizes this and sees that
a fickle public wont help him pay his retirement bills no matter how
"progressive" he remains. Perhaps he's just tired of it all.
	The original argument was the contrariness of artistic integrity and
commerciality. There are many so-called artists who from the start of
their carrers appear to make a calulated attack on the record buying public
with very little artistic integrity. At least Phil Collins has given some
twenty years of his life to stretch back the constricting margin surrounding 
popular music and investigate the wilderness in the fringes of avant-garde.
In my opinion he has certainly paid his dues to the "Lovers of Non-Commercial
Music" league.

kato