Mephistopheles

<3

one of my favorite albums.

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An angel's face is tricky to wear constantly.

Moon Pix

I love the Velvet Underground. I think the fact that they didnt sell many records vindicated a lot of people because if were in a band yourself and didnt sell many records you could always just say "well neither did the Velvets" and whos going to disagree with you? It opened the dorr for all those punk bands to make records that didnt sell but still feel good about themselves. If Nick Drake had heard them he might not have started doubting his abilities near the end of his life and he might still be alive. I can't think of another band who has inspired so much quality music from other people. Just about everybody (except for Bowie of couse) who's claimed the Velvets as an influence went on to make great records, wether it was the Talking Heads or the Jesus & Mary Chain or whoever.

As a fan one of the things thats always interested me about the Velvets is the multifaceted nature of their work. They covered a lot of ground with just a small catalogue of songs and it seems that everybody perceives the Velvets in a different light. Some people see the folk band of the third album, others see them as being the originators of noise rock with White Light/White Heat. Personally when I think of the Velvet Underground, the first thing that comes to mind is dark, gothic psychedelia of "Venus In Furs." Its my favourite song of theirs and its probably impossible to cover because the whole sound of it is that one note viola drone and Maureen's stripped to the bone drumming.

Separate note - Shouldnt this thread be in the Indie section?

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There’s a dream that I see, I pray it can be
Look 'cross the land, shake this land - "Maybe Not", C. Marshall

Strummer521

What do you have against Bowie? and also: are you male or female?

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Moon Pix

Male.

I just don't like his stuff. Every now and again I hear the odd thing I like ("Young Americans", "Ziggy Stardust") but to me theres a definite lack ogf cohesiveness to his music. Its like he was constantly looking for a new bandwagon to jump on rather than pursueing some artistic vision. The Velvets changed with every album but to my mind theres an artistic vision that runs through all of their albums and holds it all together.

Plus, existentialist ideas aside, I don't think he's as good a songwriter as he's made out to be. In any case whats to say is all him? Id like to know how much of i was Rono or Eno or any of his other collaborators. Its the same with the Fall, Mark gets all the credit but he can't play an instrument so he can't possibly have done it all by himself. Same with Bowie. Rono came up with that "Ziggy Stardust" riff and thats the reason I like the song but its seems to me that in the public imagination hes David Bowie and he did it all by himself.

I know that all the records credit the right people though so its probably wrong of me to bash him for it.

__________________
There’s a dream that I see, I pray it can be
Look 'cross the land, shake this land - "Maybe Not", C. Marshall

Sparky

check out the track "im afraid of americans" by him. Its some of his latter stuff, you might be able to get into more. Im not a big fan of his more dance-oriented stuff, or his ziggy stardust persona. But station to station was a great song.

And if you don't like his music, you should at least appreciate him for his influence on shaping up iggy to be a slightly more interesting musician.

Strummer521

What I find most fascinating about Bowie is his transformation from a shy unassuming near-folkie to a Theatrical faux-alien that belted out lyrics about how "well hung" he was in front of thousands of people. And I'm impressed by the fact that he managed to be wildy theatrical while maintaining so much of a pop sensibility. And while he was one Cheetah that changed his spots often in a way that seems almost arbitrary, Dylan was the same way. And I don't think an artist should be faulted for exploring the possibilities of his talents (I consider it almost a duty in some cases). Besides, even if he wasn't the total mastermind behind the music, he was a larger than life persona with a flair for extremes of emotion. I think few things are more rock & roll than a great persona. I mean...we don't love the Ramones because we think they were geniuses right?

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Moon Pix

Im not really saying that, all Im saying is that he seemed to be a jack of all trades and a master of none. He seems to have been acting all the time. Wheres the real Bowie? Is it the Bowie you hear in the Berlin trilogy? Is it the Bowie you hear on Diamond Dogs or Scary Monsters? Either way I don't really care because Im not a fan of his songwriting. I can intellectualise it all I want and go into exisentialist concepts but it basically comes down to the fact that I don't really like too many of his songs.

__________________
There’s a dream that I see, I pray it can be
Look 'cross the land, shake this land - "Maybe Not", C. Marshall

Sparky

man i wish i was that articulate. I dont have any of those words in my vocabulary. Damn public schools...

Moon Pix

I only went to a run of the mill comprehensive state school myself. They told me that I had a really high reading age though. The woodwork teacher told me when was 11 that he had it down on paper in black and white that I had a reading age of 16 and he couldnt understand how because he thought I was stupid.

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There’s a dream that I see, I pray it can be
Look 'cross the land, shake this land - "Maybe Not", C. Marshall

Sparky

I can read at a good level. But if it doesn't have a lot of pictures it starts boring the crap out of me...