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mtutiger

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RE: Tom Petty

I'm old so I've known of him since forever, but I never appreciated what he gave us until after he died. Shame on me. Someone mentioned the song Great Wide Open. I never heard that until after he died - hooked the first time.

But I wonder... What is the message in that song. Rebel without a clue. The kids name was Eddie Rebel I think.

Don't be stupid, or just a name?

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I didn't realize he wrote so many good songs. Not only his, but for others too. He did one for Stevie Nicks who I had a crush on. Also part of the Traveling Wilburys. I can't remember the name, but I watched a music documentary and he was on there. What a hoot. Seemed like a happy guy, or toasted.

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On 12/21/2022 at 1:08 PM, Biff Mayhem said:

I agree with all of the above with the exception of her singing. I think she possesses a wonderful voice. Marketing or not, all the things she does to obtain success require a great deal of work and dedication. She didn't obtain her fame from laziness and that is for sure.

I think her voice is good enough, but I'm not blown away by it. I also refuse to believe the stories from her and her marketing team that she was too weird and eccentric to fit in high school and that she was always a social outcast. I think that was a construct to try and market her as eccentric later in life. Just as I don't believe she likes dressing in dresses made of eggs over easy and hatching or wearing one made out of chuck roast and ny strip steak.

She's just trying to be a more eccentric version of Madonna because her and her marketing team thinks that's what will sell records. She's probably wearing sketchers and dockers while laughing at all the "Little Monsters" who thinks she's this weird idol.

Edited by Mr.TaterSalad
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11 minutes ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

She's just trying to be a more eccentric version of Madonna

LGs problem, if you want to call it that, is that she is not 'pretty' in any classic way, and as a female performer that puts her at such a disadvantage that all that 'other stuff' is an outgrowth of the fact, much like it was for Madonna. If you're cute as a button Linda Ronstadt or knock down gorgeous Beyonce then you don't need any of that to get the industry to pay attention to you long enough to actually hear your talent.. Just the way it is. 

Edited by gehringer_2
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2 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

LGs problem, if you want to call it that, is that she is not 'pretty' in any classic way, and as a female performer that puts her at such a disadvantage that all that 'other stuff' is an outgrowth of the fact, much like it was for Madonna. If you're cute as a button Linda Ronstadt or knock down gorgeous Beyonce then you don't need any of that to get the industry to pay attention to you long enough to actually hear your talent.. Just the way it is. 

Janis Joplin and Amy Winehouse are two artists whose music I love. Many people love them on their voices alone. They sold many millions records and made lots of money on their incredible voices. While both Amy and Janis were weird and eccentric in their own ways and tried at different points in their career to push the envelope and be a bit provocative, I don't know that eithers career was built around the idea that the more pretend provocative they were, the more money they would make. I could be wrong about that, but it felt like their careers and success were more centered around the music they sang and less about some persona they had carefully developed, in concert with a record label and professional brand and marketing team.

Lady Gaga is different because she wants her fans, or Little Monsters as created by her marketing team, to believe that she really is so eccentric and different than you and I are. That she likes wearing dresses made of meat and hatching out of egg shells. She also wants you to believe that she's Woodie Guthrie, and a huge advocate for change for the LGBTQ community and other causes. If LGTBQ individuals feels she is and want to look upon her as such an icon, then that is their right to do so and I hope they find happiness and peace in doing so.

In my view though, she has developed a wrestling-like gimmick, no different than Stone Cold Steve Austin, Hulk Hogan, or the Undertaker. Sure, there may be parts of that gimmick that are who she really is, but I doubt that most of her life is actually like the gimmick on stage that she and her marketing team have carefully crafted. With a gimmick or character crafted by a marketing team, it her career becomes less about just being a good pop singer, out to produce quality music and sell records and more about getting you to tune in or buy records because she might do something even more strange and eccentric next time you see her.

I like a band previously mentioned here, and that is KISS. I enjoy the music and stage presence of KISS. Sure, there was a period of time where KISS wouldn't appear in public without makeup on to keep up the gimmick. But even then, did most fans in the KISS Army actually think Gene Simmons or Paul Stanley went around spitting blood and fire all the time? Gaga and her marketing crew want you to think she really does like being and acting that way, that she was born this way. When by all accounts, the lady behind the gimmick was a reasonably normal person growing up who created a character, unauthentic to who she really is, and then made millions of dollars off of it.

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3 hours ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

Janis Joplin and

sure if your talent is unique enough it doesn't matter. No one ever sounded like Joplin, you can say the same about Aretha. But Winehouse comes close to the opposite case - she was almost as well known for her problems as her talent. The other way around it is to be your own songwriter - if you compose that is a whole different world compared to  "just a singer" . If you have a look and write a little (or at least get credit for it), then the limit is more like...... Taylor Swift.

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15 hours ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

I think her voice is good enough, but I'm not blown away by it. I also refuse to believe the stories from her and her marketing team that she was too weird and eccentric to fit in high school and that she was always a social outcast. I think that was a construct to try and market her as eccentric later in life. Just as I don't believe she likes dressing in dresses made of eggs over easy and hatching or wearing one made out of chuck roast and ny strip steak.

She's just trying to be a more eccentric version of Madonna because her and her marketing team thinks that's what will sell records. She's probably wearing sketchers and dockers while laughing at all the "Little Monsters" who thinks she's this weird idol.

I don't disagree with any of this. I will say it's a standard in the music industry. Would Alice Cooper, Kiss, Marilyn Manson, Motley Crue, Wasp etc etc be as famous as they became without their schtick? I'm not saying it's right nor am I arguing against your opinion, it just is what it is.

 

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15 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

LGs problem, if you want to call it that, is that she is not 'pretty' in any classic way, and as a female performer that puts her at such a disadvantage that all that 'other stuff' is an outgrowth of the fact, much like it was for Madonna. If you're cute as a button Linda Ronstadt or knock down gorgeous Beyonce then you don't need any of that to get the industry to pay attention to you long enough to actually hear your talent.. Just the way it is. 

Video killed the radio star! 

As an aside, I was listening to Ronstadt the other day and reminisced on just how drop dead gorgeous she was back in the day. She had the benefit of extreme talent and magazine-cover-good-looks.

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3 hours ago, Biff Mayhem said:

Video killed the radio star! 

As an aside, I was listening to Ronstadt the other day and reminisced on just how drop dead gorgeous she was back in the day. She had the benefit of extreme talent and magazine-cover-good-looks.

Yes, to all of that. (My brother had a major crush on her for a long time.  … and I believe the reason he married his first wife was primarily because she looked like her. Unfortunately, she was not his soul mate.. and… she was kinda nuts. 😳)


Super incredible, powerful voice.  I envied those pipes. lol.  I could never duplicate her sound. 

Her harmonies with EmmyLou Harris & Dolly Parton will forever be my favorites. 

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On 12/29/2022 at 7:19 AM, Biff Mayhem said:

I don't disagree with any of this. I will say it's a standard in the music industry. Would Alice Cooper, Kiss, Marilyn Manson, Motley Crue, Wasp etc etc be as famous as they became without their schtick? I'm not saying it's right nor am I arguing against your opinion, it just is what it is.

 

Speaking only for myself, I became a big fan of Alice Cooper in seventh grade, based only on hearing the songs on the radio. TV almost never played any hard rock back then, so there was no way I would have seen the schtick. I probably saw a couple of pictures in Creem or Circus, but I’ve always hated scary movies, so that wouldn’t have attracted me anyway.

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27 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Speaking only for myself, I became a big fan of Alice Cooper in seventh grade, based only on hearing the songs on the radio. TV almost never played any hard rock back then, so there was no way I would have seen the schtick. I probably saw a couple of pictures in Creem or Circus, but I’ve always hated scary movies, so that wouldn’t have attracted me anyway.

+1

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7 hours ago, chasfh said:

Speaking only for myself, I became a big fan of Alice Cooper in seventh grade, based only on hearing the songs on the radio. TV almost never played any hard rock back then, so there was no way I would have seen the schtick. I probably saw a couple of pictures in Creem or Circus, but I’ve always hated scary movies, so that wouldn’t have attracted me anyway.

I always liked the music but was hooked once I saw his live show. It’s phenomenal. 

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10 hours ago, Biff Mayhem said:

I always liked the music but was hooked once I saw his live show. It’s phenomenal. 

I saw Alice at Joe Louis in the late 1980s. I don’t know what I expected, but I was surprised by how energetic they were. I remember their guitarist looked like Rambo, long hair and headband and muscles and everything. I also remember watching two girls who had been a few rows ahead of us approach the mixing board after the show and chat up the sound guy for a minute, the guy pointed them toward the stage, they walked over where they were helped up by a roadie, they all disappeared backstage, and then I left. Rock and roll, man.

Edited by chasfh
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