Re: Those Red, Red Shoes!

[jdrukman%dlsun87@us.oracle.com (Jon Drukman)]

Vickie Mapes freaks out (regarding Cocteau Twins):

>I'm mad at them and refuse to pay full price for this album. I'll wait
>until I see it used. I made the mistake of reading a recent article and
>they (Liz especially) wasted time and print space talking trash about
>the album _Treasure_. Why do artists do that?

why shouldn't they?  and it's nothing new for the Cocteaus anyway...
first ever interview i read with them (circa blue bell knoll release
time) had them calling 'treasure' an "abortion."

>It's more than the fact that Treasure is what got me into CT, it's
>still my favorite album and I love it dearly. It has to do with
>artists being mature enough to accept what they've done in the past
>(they liked it enough to release it at the time. If it's such a "bad"
>album now, it must have been "bad" then and they shouldn't have
>released it if they weren't pleased with it) and not letting critics
>and interviewers shape their thoughts about it.

what do you care what they think?  does the music work for you?  then
who cares what the circumstances regarding its creation are?  they may
be peripherally interesting, but if the music moves you, then it's a
good album.  that's all there is.

>Most of all, trashing an album that is loved by many
>people is parallel to trashing the fans who love that album.

ah, here's your complaint.  all i can say is, if you take it that
personally, then don't read any interviews, because you're bound to be
disappointed or offended at some point.  i hope this attitude is
limited only to you, personally.  you are nothing, you are owed
*nothing* from your favorite artist.  remember that.

>Maybe it is frustrating to keep hearing people bring up the "old
>stuff" but when he called it all crap, it was a direct slap in the
>face to me personally.

that's a pretty selfish outlook.  how would YOU feel if you just spent
a year making a record and all people want to ask you about is your
big hit from 10 years ago, perhaps a song you never even thought was
that great?

personal anecdote: my group put out a record with two tracks - one we
spent AGES slaving over and one that was a quick hack job.  guess
which one became the big hit?  that's right, the quickie.  it was a
quite slap in the face to have our beloved creation called "a dated,
rigid, euro-plodder" (mixmag update).  but the point is, the other
track moved more people, so it was the hit.  i'm over it now.

>People still listen to Bach, right? It's "old stuff" too.

this is a completely irrelevant example, vickie.  bach isn't around to
be interviewed.  and if he were, he'd probably be pissed at everyone
getting all bent out of shape over the tocatta and fugue in d minor.
he'd say, "why don't y'all just get OVER that damn track already?  i
fucking hate it and anyone who takes crap like that seriously needs
major brain surgery!"

>I just think that artists should think about who they're affecting
>when they start trashing their "old stuff" because they're mostly
>affecting fans who supported them during the time they released the
>album they're trashing, and fans who discover the album(s) years
>later and get into the music.

i hope that this attitude is limited only to people like yourself.  i
know that it doesn't apply to me.

>Kate came way too close to trashing her early albums in a recent 
>interview and it made me very uncomfortable. She doesn't have to,

but if she wants to, who are we to stop her?  it's her right!  her
music, her right.

>intelligent people understand that those albums were recorded a
>*long* time ago and that each album added to the growth process.

doesn't make them good.  (i think they're good, but that doesn't mean
that watching the growth process in action is necessarily beneficial.)

>She couldn't have made TRS in 1978. She made TKI. It's there,
>forever, and many people loved it then and many people love it
>now. As far as _Lionheart_ goes, *I* love it, and I don't really
>care that it was rushed and pushed. If she could have had more time,
>she probably would have done some things differently. She didn't, and
>couldn't, and Lionheart is what it is, as is. There *are* people who
>love it, or much of it, and there's no need for her to go back and
>trash it.

i agree with you, but if she wants to trash it, she should go ahead
and do so and fans be damned.  we don't have any right to demand any
different behavior from her.  we don't have any right to demand
ANYTHING from her, in fact.  i *wish* she'd abandon this silly
commercial track she seems to be on, but my opinion doesn't count for
shit, and that's fine.  if she were interested in what the fans think,
she'd buy a computer and log into gaffa and change her music to make
me and |>oug happy.  but she doesn't, and that's fine.  if i don't
like her new stuff, i won't buy it.

welcome to the free market vickie.

--
Jon Drukman                                         jdrukman%dlsun87@oracle.com
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This calls for a very special blend of psychology and extreme violence.