OFF: The Weller/Kilmister controversy

[Cyberkrel]

You like The Police and Talking Heads and you've never heard The Jam? Wow!
Musically - in a nutshell, a watered down Who!
Andy G.
----- Original Message -----
From: Keith Henderson <khenders64 at YAHOO.COM>
To: <BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET>
Sent: Friday, December 01, 2006 12:39 AM
Subject: Re: OFF: The Weller/Kilmister controversy


> Chris (and others essentially) wrote...
>
>     >Whatever Paul Wellers faults, dismissing his work out of hand is just
crass.
>
>   I'm not sure I was the one who was supposedly "dismissing" Weller like
so, but I should note that I don't believe I can really "dismiss" somebody
who I know absolutely nothing about.  I was being serious...I have *never*
heard of Paul Weller before.  (Paul Westerberg, sure, but not this guy.)
Apparently, he's about as famous in the US as cricket commentator (and
Turkish historian) E.W. Swanton.  If what I've read in Wikipedia is
accurate.
>
>   His other band, The Style Council, is a vaguely familiar name, but I'm
certain I've never heard any of their music either.  The Jam is 100% obscure
to me.  Most semi-popular bands I have at least come to recognize by name
simply by spending half my life in record/CD stores over the years.  (That
will change in 5 years, when such stores cease to exist...but for now...)
>
>   But anyway, from his look alone in the photo accompanying the article,
it appeared to me he was some sort of new-waver guy.  The Jam, though, seems
to have started out in 1977 or thereabouts, which means that he predates New
Wave by a few years, so I can't guess exactly what they sounded like.  "Mod
revivalist" or whatever they're called doesn't mean much to me, because I
didn't even know there was any revival of "mod" culture, which itself was
pretty much a British thing to start with.  (I remember watching
Quadrophenia in college and thinking this is all made up...there were never
actual subcultures like this, were there?)  Anyway, I get the impression
even that Jam stuff might be fairly awful, if it were a throwback to
early/mid 60s.  Music starts to get interesting for me about 1967, *not*
1966 (OK, Tomorrow Never Knows, *maybe*), but *certainly* not 1965.  There's
a very sharp line, maybe June 21, 1967 or something. Until Pink Floyd, or
Procol Harum's 1st, or Days of
>  Future Passed,  I'm simply not interested when it comes to popular forms
of music.  Period.
>
>   > Who the f*ck is Paul Weller? Never heard of him...or this band "the
Jam."
>
>   So, again, who the f*ck is he?  Really?!  :)
>
>   I mean, nobody has really talked substantively about his music, either
with these two old bands or solo work.  I hate to clutter up the list with
such terrible off-topic nonsense, but I'm really quite amazed that somebody
so (apparently) famous and "influential" could still be a complete unknown
to me.  I have, after all, spent quite a lot of time in England myself over
the past five years.  And I know who E.W. Swanton was.  :)
>
>   Grakkl
>
>   P.S.  Just so it's clear, "80s new wave rubbish" is unnecessarily
redundant, as there is no other kind of new wave.  Somebody mentioned Joy
Division as a point of reference for this discussion...about five years ago
(?), I actually bought a compilation CD of this band (cheapie used,
thankfully), based on some recommendations I had seen someplace (not here, I
don't think...but who knows?).  Anyway, I found it to be appallingly awful
miserable dreck.  The only worse ("rock") bands I have ever heard than Joy
Division are Duran Duran and this German band from the same era called
"Spliff," oddly enough.  A compilation "Spliff" CD is, almost certainly, the
very worst "rock" album I own on CD...  well, FM's "Tonight" might also come
close, although I might have lost that one (hopefully) somewhere along the
line.  I don't think I've ever managed to listen to any of these all the way
through.  God, 80s music was awful, wasn't it?  I mean, the percussion sound
of 80s engineering
>  alone was bad enough to ruin one's day (even infiltrating the halls of
one Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, Wales, much to the chagrin of this HW
fan), let alone all the nasty keyboards and sappy vocals.  Ugh.  I'm not a
Nirvana fan by any stretch of the imagination, but Thank God for Kurt
Cobain!!  Post-1989, we've never heard that sort of awful production ever
again.  For that alone, he's a saint.
>
>   P.P.S.  So, is The Jam/Paul Weller "80s" dreck, or not?  1977 is not the
worst year to have been "born"...so it could go either way.  I'm a fan of
the Police and Talking Heads, after all.
>
>   P.P.P.S.  Sunn O))) is realllly bad, too.  Why does anybody like this
nonsense?  When are they going to stop tuning their guitars, warming up
their amplifiers, and play some actual f*cking music?
>
>
> ---------------------------------
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