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Post by Kapitan on Aug 15, 2022 13:32:22 GMT
Yes, it was interesting along those lines. He certainly touched on those things (without being too direct: after all, this was 1968, and the band wasn't finished yet), noting that on one hand he could "cry all the way to the bank," but saying others in the group were more or less fine with it at that point, while he wasn't.
But it was even interesting hearing him talk about pop/commercial music in general, and about critical acclaim. Because he was very direct in saying that a) he didn't want to pander to what was considered pop; but b) he wanted his music to be popular; and c) he wanted critics to appreciate it, too. I mean, talk about wanting to have your cake and eat it, too! But at least he was being honest, instead of the old lines like "I don't care if nobody buys my albums," and "I don't care what the critics think." I'm sure most musicians want to have platinum albums that critics love!
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Post by lonelysummer on Aug 16, 2022 2:34:36 GMT
Yes, it was interesting along those lines. He certainly touched on those things (without being too direct: after all, this was 1968, and the band wasn't finished yet), noting that on one hand he could "cry all the way to the bank," but saying others in the group were more or less fine with it at that point, while he wasn't.
But it was even interesting hearing him talk about pop/commercial music in general, and about critical acclaim. Because he was very direct in saying that a) he didn't want to pander to what was considered pop; but b) he wanted his music to be popular; and c) he wanted critics to appreciate it, too. I mean, talk about wanting to have your cake and eat it, too! But at least he was being honest, instead of the old lines like "I don't care if nobody buys my albums," and "I don't care what the critics think." I'm sure most musicians want to have platinum albums that critics love!
And it's interesting that, for all the talk about how uncommercial Nesmith's songs were, he had by far the most commercial success outside the group. While Davy and Micky could barely get into the bottom of the Hot 100 in 1970 with "Oh My My", Nez and the First National Band had a top 40 hit with their second single that summer, "Joanne". "Silver Moon" peaked at #40-something that winter. "Nevada Figher" topped out in the 70's. The biggest record Davy had as a solo was "Rainy Jane" in the summer of 71 - no, it wasn't his Brady Bunch song - "Rainy Jane", peaked at #50-something. Micky and Peter couldn't even get a record into the bottom of the Hot 100. At the end of the decade, Michael's "Rio" did well in various countries, thanks in part to the video made for the song.
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Post by Kapitan on Sept 4, 2022 14:31:16 GMT
An interesting one I stumbled across, a long (1+ hour) interview from June 1982 with Harry Nilsson. He's drunk, and drinking, through the interview (to which he wore a bathrobe and baseball cap), but charming and interesting on a variety of subjects.
Surprising to me, he was only 52 when he died, which would put him at around 40 when this interview happened. He seems in some ways to be much older than that.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Oct 23, 2022 4:10:04 GMT
Lou Reed's last interview:
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 23, 2022 20:01:16 GMT
Lou Reed's last interview: Very few musicians frustrate me as much as does (did) Reed. He was brilliant. He really was. But he was also very often an insufferable prick, especially to journalists. And I understand, rock "journalists" can be terrible. But he still went above and beyond, as far as I'm concerned. One moment, he could be insightful and sensitive as he discussed the great Delmore Schwartz, or Nelson Algren, or the songwriter Doc Pomus. The next, he could be smugly proud as he cut down some working journalist for having the gall to ask a question about something he didn't want to talk about, be it the VU or some album not on his mind.
Some similarly prickly personalities--Frank Zappa, for example--come across for me as much better interviewees because despite the pretentiousness, Zappa would still go ahead and talk. Reed often would not.
(It's an interesting dichotomy, too, because Reed and Zappa were in some odd way related. One east coat, one west. Both loved doo-wop and R&B. Both publicly disavowed a lot of the popular late 60s music including Beatlemania. Both had intellectual leanings. Reed actually had some quote about Zappa along the lines of "he thinks he's the only guy who can read music.")
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