Interview: Guitar Army Author John Sinclair (Part One) - Page 3

I don't know. That would be for them to say. I did my bit. I didn't put the book out to influence people today.

Well, no. You put it out 35 years ago.

Back then I was trying to take over the world. Now, I'm just trying to get my words in print, because I am a writer.

Do you still look at your poetry and writing as a way to express political and social unrest?

I express whatever I think or feel at the moment. That's what I like about writing. You can say whatever you want; and I do. If you read something I wrote it's pretty much what I wanted to say.

You only write about what you care about?

I really do. That's why I don't make a very good living as a journalist (laughs). I only write about music I like. I only write about books I like, anything like that. It has to give me satisfaction because they aren't paying me enough, so you have to have your fun.

You say you only write about music you like. You went from being a rock 'n' roller to a blues and jazz guy.

Well I started in the blues then moved to rock, and now I've come back.

So you've come full-circle?

Yes, thank-you.

Do you think the decline in the music industry has anything to do with the content?

That's part of it, I'm sure. But it's also caught on what we were talking about before and the change of media. They'll figure out a way to control the digital domain. But they're mostly… To me 95% of the best records that have been turned out since they switched to digital media are the reissues, reissues of the old LPs with the outtakes. Like Chess records, when you look at the discography of Muddy Waters -- great records -- but they only put out half of them, or maybe less, on singles. That was all the market would bear. You could put out three Muddy Water singles a year, but you couldn't put out four. So those other sides went without being issued and now they are putting them out with these reissues.

But as far as the new stuff, it's hard for me to find a record I like.

They're saying now, with iTunes and the like, artists are thinking more in terms of the single and not the album, so-to-speak.

It's gone back to what it was like when I was growing up. Songs came out as singles and it was very exciting. At first, the singles would come out -- the 45s -- and then an album would come out and it would be a collection of singles. It was like that until the '60s when bands started conceptualizing the album.

Article Author: Connie Phillips

Wife, mother, aspiring novelist, and music editor at BC Magazine, Connie Phillips spends most of her time in a fantasy land of her own creating. In reality, she writes about music, television, and the process of writing, when she's not cheering on her kids at equestrian events. …

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