Originally Posted by kiki chunt

Not exactly what I was saying, but yes, now that you mention it - when an unoriginal act recieves too much publicity maybe it does have some connection - for me at least. And Axl being a twat is admittedly incidental. But it didn't help any either. Being an objectionable a**hole doesn't have anything to do with being over valued for your talent, otherwise I'd have to have included Van Morrison, Roger Waters and Bob Dylan too - to name but a few: being loathsome as people has not prevented them from fairly being recognised for their genius in music.



Well pardon me for being a naive noob, and somehow offending you.
But please, don't let me get in the way of your self mutilation, if that's what your frustrations demand.
Definitions? Do elaborate, I might have missed something (?)
Maybe I'd post more often and be less of a noob after eight months if I hadn't come across so much pointless pedantry around the place.



Any reason I should be expected to apply more 'germane logic' here to G&R than any other artist I mentioned? None of my other suggestions were delivered with much more or less reasoning than the one you took exception to, so I figure it's just that it being about G&R is all that's got your knickers in a twist. Is it not enough that I JUST DON'T THINK THEY WERE THAT GOOD? Why not?

As for being germane, the question being asked in this post was: "What do you think are the most overrated bands ever? Hold nothing back!" To which I think my reply was perfectly pertinent and fitting.

Or was it just because you think I 'held back' that you took such immediate offence?
OK - here's a more thorough examination of my personal feelings about the band: I believe that G&R were a triumph of cynical marketing over artistic substance. They were complete media whores, milking every bit of bad-boy hype for exposure, and they got to the top it without being all that great a rock band - IMO. They were just the last great roar from that school of rawk, which had been stagnating for some time, and pretty much crawling up it it's own spandex clad butt, all permed hair, posturing and masturbatory about it's own guitar solo note-counting cleverness. To give them they're due, they ended that period in an appropriate and spectacular fashion.
Over-rated? Yes, when I found myself surrounded in the late eighties by a sea of weekend headbangers in cheap bandanas, painted leather jackets and (gods save us) tattoos, all dedicated to an accomplished hype re-hash of rock already heard, I did tend to think they were a little more popular than they had any right to be. Grunge was so refreshing when it first arrived . . .
Slash is undeniably a brilliant guitarist, but Axl is just such a total embarressment - doesn't even cut it as one of the great rock/drugs/booze survivors - and there are many of those who I'm prepared to forgive any amount of excessive and unpleasant behaviour on account of their talent and wit.

Axl meets Eddie Van Halen in a bar - must be a joke in there somewhere . . .

"Germane logic" indeed! Now I'm justifying myself to what, vulcan pedagogues?