Re: Love-Hounds Digest #9.292

[WretchAwry <vickie@pilot.njin.net>]

I'm cross-posting this to Ecto since the thread continued there too.
(Ectophiles will see a side of me I never show there)

> From: henrik@husc.harvard.edu
> 
> Vickie's diatribe about artists not trashing their own work reminded me
> more than anything else of Annie Wilkes in _Misery_.  

What a stupid comparison. If I remember correctly (I haven't seen the
movie and it's been years since I read the book) Annie didn't want the
author to kill off Misery and create new, unrelated works. She forced
the author to create a new book featuring Misery to please *her*.
                       ^^^

a) I'm more than willing to follow my favorite artists into areas they
want to explore. I may like it, I may not, but I salute change and don't
mindlessly trash it just because it's "different" or not like something
else they've done in the past.

b) I understand (duh, really) that artists, true artists, grow and change
and are very often unhappier with early works than current works. If Kate
thought TKI and Lionheart said it all, she wouldn't have gone on to create
NFE and TD. 

c) Artists criticizing their own work and seeing problems and wishing
they could have done things differently is one thing (I have no problem
with those things) but my main "diatribe" was about The Cocteau Twins, who
mindlessly trash the album _Treasure_ simply because music writers then
used it to label the band as an airy-fairy ethereal band, and because
current music writers always bring it up. These interviews and rants
by the band have little to do with the music on the album, and more
to do with the band's "image." It just seems to me that the band is
turning their wrath in the wrong direction and instead of telling the
interviewers to shove it, prefer to trash the album. Kate has the same
problem with interviewers who would prefer to talk about how WH made
her a dancing sex symbol pre-Raphelite record company daughter witchy
screeching entity, than about her current work. Kate seems to handle
that sort of thing a lot better than CT. She has said that she's tired
of talking about WH, as well she should be. She has said that she's
unhappy that Lionheart was so rushed, which is certainly understandable.   
Still, she's refrained from cutting through both albums with a verbal
machete. So far she's only used a paring knife :-). 

d) Excuse me all to hell for having thoughts, feelings and opinions, but
I still think that if the band *really* thinks that Treasure sucks big
hairy rocks now, then it *must* have sucked big hairy rocks when it was
recorded and released, and it should have been put on the shelf. If they
were contractually obligated to release it when they were unhappy with it,
then I would have seen at least some interviews at the time where they
trashed it as hard as they do now. Funny, but I don't recall reading
anything of the sort. Treasure got me into CT, I bought everything
they'd previously released and I've bought everything they've released
since (first on vinyl, then again on CD) and have read dozens of
articles. I've never gotten the sense that the band was unhappy with
the album at the time they released it. They're not trashing Treasure
because of the music, tied in with their growth as "artistes," they're
trashing their old image. What the hell, they were an airy-fairy
ethereal band then, and they're an airy-fairy ethereal band now, no
matter how much they rail against Treasure or Liz sings in English. I
love their music, I'll always buy anything they release, and Treasure
will always be my favorite album. I won't read any more interviews,
and I'll buy their albums used because I just happen to think they're
being dickheads about the whole thing. Now, is that ok with you larry,
or do you have more input on how I should think or feel, or any more
psycho bitch neurotics you'd like to compare me with?

e) The bottom line is, artists can do anything they damn well please,
on record or in print, and I as a fan have to deal with it in whatever
way I damn well please. 

> Perhaps the only thing more infuriating than Vickie's insistence that 
> artists should not criticize their own work (for fear of hurting fans'
> feelings)

I *infuriated* you? Surely you must have better things to do than read
things I write, read into them things I didn't write, and compare me
to a sadistic, psychotic fictional character. You don't even know me,
you silly thing.

Btw, why am I getting lectured and compared to Annie Wilkes when we're
completely surrounded by people who disagree with what *Kate* is doing
on TRS? Sheesh!

> ...borders on psychosis.

Where'd I leave that axe...?

Vickie (who should know better than to dignify this post with an answer)

"Oh my god it's a jungle in here..." KT