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Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

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IanB
IanB
6761 posts

Edited Sep 27, 2008, 17:34
Re: Generic Supersessions
Sep 27, 2008, 17:19
keith a wrote:
I'm not suggesting everyone should lie on bed all day, but not everyone is suited to working hard, Ian.

There's lots of hard working musicians out there, and good luck to them, but lets not get work ethics and talent mixed up. It's probably fair to say that Eric Clapton is a harder working musician than Lee Mavers, but I know who I prefer.

I'm not a great musician by any stretch of the imagination (I prefer writing songs to improving my playing), but I do know that you have to want to do it. I went through a spell of about 5 yrs where I barely picked the guitar up. I never thought that this would happen to me, but I really didn't have any interest in playing and on the odd occasion I did pick it up it didn't feel right. I couldn't have faked it. I know that there was a pretty good chance that if I had written anything during that time it would have been pretty shit.

Eventually, it came back and I love playing/writing again. Surely people should work at their own pace and however it suits them?


Of course everyone should work at their own pace but someone who describes themselves as an Artist rather than a musician (of whatever quality) should be making art not tabloid tv shows about spiders or whatever. Their job is to make sense of the world for the rest of us. Otherwise they are merely popular entertainers. Which is what I think Lydon is.

Look at the greats of 20th century culture and look at their productivity. Here's a quick list off the top of my head - Coltrane, Davis, Parker, Ellington, Bacon, Picasso, Welles, Herzog, Wilson, Fuller, Reich, Adams, Richter, McCullin, Dick, Ligetti, Wenders, Godard, Roth, Updike. Massively productive all. Even when personal circumstances make it all but impossible to move forward.

For the greats and the groundbreakers it's a fever. An irrisitable force. A religious calling. Having a work ethic or not is neither here nor there as they are on a plane of involvement in their art that is almost out of their own control.

For everyone else (from the least gifted to the notably above average) it's so much of a level playing field that the hardest working tend get the most out of what is there for taking. That's all. I am not talking about you or I as I doubt either of us would describe ourselves as Artists!
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