I was thinking about this because I was listening in the radio in the car and a Stevie Ray Vaughn song was on.
I listened for a few seconds and then turned it off.
Why?
Because I never really liked his sound that much. Too brittle for me. And I still don't. It fatigues me, honestly.
Now SRV is acknowledged as one of the very best and greatest of all time. A virtuoso. But by and large it is lost on me. Go figure.
Ditto Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin. Not my sound.
Steve Vai, Satriani, the shredders. Eddie Van Halen, Aerosmith, Rush. Tremendous musicians and technical players. None of that stuff ever worked on me.
Other people love them and I appreciate that. Music has to touch me emotionally in some way for it to work.
Neal Peart may have been the greatest of all time but I never once heard a Rush song I liked. Couldn't get past Lee's voice.
Two bands that I did like were the Beatles and the Band. And I can't think of a single solo in their whole lexicon. Because they were about music as opposed to virtuosity. I get made fun of for some of the music I like. Karen Carpenter, Tom Paxton, Dave van Ronk. Not most people's cup of tea.
I used to listen to a lot of Jerry Garcia. One day a passenger in my car begged me to turn it off, he thought it sounded like drilling by a bad dentist with no anesthesia. I cut him some slack.
Art and music is very personal. I know a guy who played with all the blues greats, GP. Played in top blues bands all over the world. Didn't like Bloomfield's sound, a guy I adored. His ears, his right. He liked Buddy Guy, a guy I never cared for. Give me Otis Rush or Albert Collins. Hollywood Fats or Cornell Dupree.
We all like what we like.
2 comments:
One night my friends and I went to the Ash Grove in West Hollywood...almost empty save for the enlightened among us...on the bill a forgettable ensemble called the Blues Rockets...but the headliner was none other than Johnny Shines, the immortal one. He played one set after the Rockets, then together...he tolerated them. When he was on stage alone he was brilliant.
After his set, and I think it's been 50 years now, the three of us were the only ones who walked up and shook his hand, thanking him. Now I think you can Google Image Johnny and he will be standing next to another great, Robert Johnson, only the 2nd
known photo of Johnson known to exist.
And we shook his hand.
Did you get your musical taste from me? I feel pretty much exactly the same way about those musicians. I have always had lots of tracks but I don’t think any of theirs. Weird- how alike we are in so many ways without seeing each other in at least 20 years
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