Big Generator
Senior Member
Has anyone else been irritated over the years by the reverential attitude of critics to certain inauthentic and untalented artists? There seems to be a pantheon of artists most people feel obliged to like...artists who got lucky...or have been wily manipulators of the media....or have completely unfounded 'credibility'. In sort, artists who are phoney. Like these guys...
1) Van Morrison
The miserable boozehound releases a Christian record with Cliff Richard...career-death for anyone else...but Van gets away with it. No accusations of cheesiness or sell-out here. Why? It must be that the mythical status of "Astral Weeks" still protects Morrison after all these years....which must rank this album as the biggest con-job of all time because anyone with ears can tell it's a wailing and mumbling dud of a record.
2) David Byrne
He wears silly suits...can barely sing...and writes the odd catchy pop song...but the critical consensus? This is "art".
3) Tom Waits
Could any voice be more affected than this one? Well, maybe there is one...
4)...Nick Cave
I should have put this guy at Number One.
5) Mick Jagger
The businessman from London...who sings like he grew up in a shack in Alabama. Let it go, grandad.
6) Leonard Cohen
The poet and deep thinker...big with stoned 17 year olds in Toronto.
7) Lou Reed
"Look at me...I take hard drugs...I live on the mean streets of New York..I write poetry...I paint...I'm so experimental I even recorded a double-album of white noise...etc...etc."
8) Robert Fripp
It's like listening to Derek Smalls play Jazz Odyssey at the Puppet show.
9) Johnny Marr
In the UK, he is now being hailed as a Guitar Great...I hope this madness hasn't crossed the Atlantic yet.
10) Roger Waters
Another frustrated writer....whose heavy-handed, lugubrious lyrics and "concepts" nearly ruined Pink Floyd. Luckily, the genius of Gilmour shone through the phoniness.
Have I forgotten anyone?
1) Van Morrison
The miserable boozehound releases a Christian record with Cliff Richard...career-death for anyone else...but Van gets away with it. No accusations of cheesiness or sell-out here. Why? It must be that the mythical status of "Astral Weeks" still protects Morrison after all these years....which must rank this album as the biggest con-job of all time because anyone with ears can tell it's a wailing and mumbling dud of a record.
2) David Byrne
He wears silly suits...can barely sing...and writes the odd catchy pop song...but the critical consensus? This is "art".
3) Tom Waits
Could any voice be more affected than this one? Well, maybe there is one...
4)...Nick Cave
I should have put this guy at Number One.
5) Mick Jagger
The businessman from London...who sings like he grew up in a shack in Alabama. Let it go, grandad.
6) Leonard Cohen
The poet and deep thinker...big with stoned 17 year olds in Toronto.
7) Lou Reed
"Look at me...I take hard drugs...I live on the mean streets of New York..I write poetry...I paint...I'm so experimental I even recorded a double-album of white noise...etc...etc."
8) Robert Fripp
It's like listening to Derek Smalls play Jazz Odyssey at the Puppet show.
9) Johnny Marr
In the UK, he is now being hailed as a Guitar Great...I hope this madness hasn't crossed the Atlantic yet.
10) Roger Waters
Another frustrated writer....whose heavy-handed, lugubrious lyrics and "concepts" nearly ruined Pink Floyd. Luckily, the genius of Gilmour shone through the phoniness.
Have I forgotten anyone?