Quote:
Originally Posted by ProggyMan
How is sentimentality a negative trait? Tacky:
1. not tasteful or fashionable; dowdy.
2. shabby in appearance; shoddy: a tacky, jerry-built housing development.
3. crass; cheaply vulgar; tasteless; crude.
4. gaudy; flashy; showy.
I think S&G is plenty tasteful, with beautiful melodies and great lyrics. There's great craftmanship, certainly not shabby. Crass?  Showy? Songs like The Boxer, The Only Boy Living In New York certainly aren't.
Every act has influenced bad music, from The Beatles to MBV. This isn't about their music.
One line from their second single? Sorry, not going to cut it. Most of their lyrics are very down to earth and oftentimes humorous. Wanna be poet?
. |
To me, sentimentality is, with very rare exceptions, a killer for songs. I can't stand the cheese in Paul Simon songs. I would definitely say that The Boxer is showy, with all of the novelty instruments and techniques (particularly the elevator-shaft drum echo). Compare the BOTW version to Dylan's version; ok, so the "duet" might suck, but the arrangement is less melodramatic, less flashy. I don't find Simon's melodies particularly beautiful or his lyrics particularly moving or well constructed, but to each his own.
Yes, every act has influenced bad music (a fact I admitted), but I think that when a group's influence has such a wide-ranging negative effect, it can be considered a "crime against music". (You're taking this far too seriously, I imagine. If someone said that the Sex Pistols committed a crime against music by making tunelessness a virtue, I'd laugh it off and figure that it's only their opinion).
I happen to think that The Dangling Conversation is one of the absolute worst lyrics ever written. Their other songs aren't far behind (and I only cited one line because it was the one that first came to mind; I could post every lyric Simon's written if you like). Again, it's a value judgment. To some people, Jim Morrison is a brilliant poet. To others, he's a hack. Neither position is right or wrong.