Bob Lefsetz: Quote of the Day
p2pnet view P2P | Music:- From “The Lefsetz Letter“, the blogsite of Bob Lefsetz…
“The thing I hate the most about advertising is that it attracts all the bright, creative and ambitious young people, leaving us mainly with the slow and self-obsessed to become our artists. Modern art is a disaster area. Never in the field of human history has so much been used by so many to say so little.” – Banksy (via Eric Smith)
“Cuts like a knife, as Bryan Adams would say…
Truth resonates. And this does. Especially about artists.
In New York City there’s a culture of critics who make artists so anxious they slow down and try to execute according to the critics’ desires. That’s one of the reasons I left. No one cares about what you do in L.A., they’re too into their own trip and shopping for more impressive wheels.
As for criticism in popular music, it died when Jon Landau left the field to manage Bruce Springsteen, critics are meaningless in music.
And have just about become so in movies.
So what we’ve got now is musicians and filmmakers telling us how great they are, even though they’re positively mediocre.
People take too long to write songs and make records. They’d be better off stopping what they’re doing and writing and recording another. Some of the best songs of all time were written almost instantly and recorded in one take. That’s what inspiration will do for you.
Don’t polish the turd, squeeze out some more excrement until you get to the gold.
Not that we want to see all the excrement, but we do want to see the gold.
Look at it this way, if you panned for gold by looking in one pan for hours, what are the odds you’d get rich? You’ve got to dig down deep in the river once again.
Turns out there’s a plethora of Banksy quotes. You can read them here.
The movie hype meant almost nothing to me. Made me aware, but did not make me want to go. I hate when people sell me things. What I want sells itself. What I want I hear about from trusted sources with no financial involvement. After reading this quote sent to me by a reader, I’m intrigued, I’m gonna track that documentary down.
Advertising has deadlines. It’s got to go, just like the show (that’s a reference to SNL, which I wrote about last week, did you read it?) By not thinking their work is so important, advertising agencies are able to deliver greatness…some of the time.
That’s reality. No one bats a thousand.
And as for how much time it took Steely Dan to make those classic albums, there’s an exception to every rule.“
(Reposted by permission of Bob Lefsetz)
Archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
(Thanks Bob!)
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan
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May 1st, 2011 at 9:05 pm
“Modern art is a disaster area. ” That was the 20th century.
The 21st is going to be a new big-bang just like the 19th century thanks to Internet.
“The thing I hate the most about advertising is that it attracts all the bright, creative and ambitious young people, leaving us mainly with the slow and self-obsessed to become our artists.”
Well I am sorry but most commercials by the “bright, creative and ambitious young people” are really, really, really stupid and boring. Very few are funny. None of them are beautiful and qualify as art.
What make art suck during the 20 century was the invasion of the corporatists who totally obfuscate the great artists with marketing BS crappy shit they could control. With internet this situation is no more since corporations no longer control exposure and distribution: Boom!
May 1st, 2011 at 9:23 pm
“Some of the best songs of all time were written almost instantly and recorded in one take. That’s what inspiration will do for you.”
Ya right! Best song for making money quickly yes but otherwise they suck big time. Do he really thing that Beethoven wrote any of it’s symphony instantly?
If you want a modern version of this of current music within range of Beethoven listen to the music of Adagio (Composer: Stephane Forte.) This group blow everything 20th century you thing was great out of the water! Inspiration is essential of course but without hard work too you get crap. That’ all you get! Adagio set the tone for the music of the 21st century. Try their album “Underworld” for example. I never though that you can do this with an electric guitar! This is more than just talent. This is Genius!
As a classical listener I miss the work on tonality, impossible I thing with this type of instruments. But the music is there! No doubt!
May 2nd, 2011 at 7:26 pm
@RW Above:
You’re not 100% correct. Some of the most amazing pieces of music were written on a whim, the magic came to the person. They may have spent countless hours polishing it up, and for some they didn’t need to polish it at all. Case and Point: Cliffs of Dover. Eric Johnson wrote that in like an hour, but he spent 6+ years tweaking it until he was happy enough to release it on a record (Ah Via Musicom in 1990). Another point, Ted Nugent usually kept his first takes as he just nailed it, from his own words, and those versions were exactly what people loved from Ted, the raw, unpolished power that came through, loaded with art and talent.
So it really varies. The ideas come quickly or take forever. John Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls says for him he gets a tiny little seed and he has to work it over and over, until it becomes a flower. What he doesn’t say is that he’s usually working on several seeds/seedlings/flowers at the same time to prevent growing a seed-turd into a flower-turd.
And finally, opinions are highly subjective in music. What one band does for you may not work for me, and vice versa. So who cares what some critic says, unless you’re a sheep and only likes what the masses like which is what they are told to like (aka Nickelback)!
Cheers!
May 3rd, 2011 at 10:42 am
” unless you’re a sheep and only likes what the masses like which is what they are told to like (aka Nickelback) ”
I like Nickelback, and i’m not 12, or a sheep.
I also like
PF
System of a Down
The Carpenters
Van Halen ( Dave, all the way )
Boston
Madonna
Etc….
I like a LOT of different stuff, from when there used to actually be a lot of different stuff. Like you said, opinions are highly subjective
and not everyone that likes something you think sucks is a sheep.
May 3rd, 2011 at 12:27 pm
@Dredd
You missed the first part “So who cares what some critic says, unless you’re a sheep and only likes what the masses like which is what they are told to like (aka Nickelback)!”
Context is everything and what I was saying is: some people only like what the masses like and that’s based on what the critics say is good. There are many people who only consider what the critics say and those people I call sheep. I gave an example of Nickelback because so many like them and of those that do, there are many that like them simply because they are popular and not because of their music.
I have many different likes and dislikes and some are confused “How can you like bandX but not bandY, they are the same genre?” But that’s easy, for me BandX is good and I don’t like how BandY does it. I like all types of music, but not all artists. I like Astrud Gilberto but not Jon Gilberto’s daughter’s cover of Astrud’s songs (written by Jon sung by Astrud). I like Nickelback’s cover of Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting, but I don’t like anything else by Nickelback (too much sustain on the guitars and I am not into what they sing about). Yet I like almost everything from Matthew Good and the Goo Goo Dolls (despite feeling a bit like the Goo’s sold out when Name became a hit). And my likes change over time. I never cared much for Sinatra until I gave him a chance. But I’ve given Metallica many chances and I don’t like most of what they do, except for a few songs, but I really appreciate their talent and how tight they are.
So again, I was targeting people who like what the masses like because a) critics tell them to or b) they simply follow what the others do.
May 3rd, 2011 at 2:50 pm
” Context is everything and what I was saying is: some people only like what the masses like and that’s based on what the critics say is good. ”
I get it, no worries .. it works both ways too.
I remember college days in chicago at a party of other musicians. Some snoot was grilling me about the ‘Talking Heads’. Only one song was really big at the time ‘Letting the Days Go by’ I think it was. I liked it, gave the album a listen .. found the rest to be more than a bit ummm .. horrid. I told the snoot that I only liked a couple of tunes and his response was .. ‘So, you just like what’s popular’ , nose high in the air. I told him ‘Maybe it’s popular because it’s the only good thing on the album’. I’m not very fun at parties
there are many kinds of ‘sheep’ and THAT guy was just a different type.
May 6th, 2011 at 9:08 pm
“Modern art is a disaster area. ” That was the 20th century.
The 21st is going to be a new big-bang just like the 19th century thanks to Internet.
“The thing I hate the most about advertising is that it attracts all the bright, creative and ambitious young people, leaving us mainly with the slow and self-obsessed to become our artists.”
Well I am sorry but most commercials by the “bright, creative and ambitious young people” are really, really, really stupid and boring. Very few are funny. None of them are beautiful and qualify as art.
What make art suck during the 20 century was the invasion of the corporatists who totally obfuscate the great artists with marketing BS crappy shit they could control. With internet this situation is no more since corporations no longer control exposure and distribution: Boom!
http://www.bestmishu.com