Hardcore music fans, me included, take insults against their favorite artists personally. To prepare my wife for the recent Elvis Costello show in St. Louis (with Bob Dylan providing a disturbing letdown via garbled mumblings and frog-voiced croaking), I dropped a number of Costello songs on her a few weeks before the show.
I was convinced she’d be overwhelmed and completely dig the music. I was as wrong as a “kiss your sister” contest in Arcadia, Louisiana. Every Elvis may indeed have his army, but she clearly wasn’t one of the soldiers. “If you say these are his best songs,” she said with something I detected as a bit of a mocking sneer, “I can’t imagine what the bad ones sound like. All of these sound like carnival songs.”
I was crushed and insulted. Her dissenting opinion registered like a cruel, hard knee to the crotch. I had deliberately steered her away from the crap of Costello (“She,” “God Give Me Strength,” and anything that featured Costello’s occasional excessive vibrato and sissy wimpyness), in favor of classic Costello (no, that doesn’t include North). How she couldn’t like My Aim Is True, This Year’s Model, Armed Forces, and Get Happy!! was beyond me, and borderline grounds for divorce.
I argued with her and tried to convince her she was missing The Point. But why did I care if she didn’t share my opinion? Although I couldn’t change her mind, it at least made me understand why some people take criticisms of their favorite performers to heart.
Within these HTML-enhanced pages of Blogcritics, I’ve dished out my share of shallow, petty, innocuous, childish, and fairly obvious insults about musicians, particularly those who have been around since the Hawley-Smoot Tariff was enacted.
These shots have generally been along the following lines: 1 – said musician is old; 2 – said musician is really, really old; 3 – said musician is really, really old and resembles a rotting corpse on stage; and 4 – said musician is really, really, really old, resembles a rotting corpse on stage, and is making a king’s ransom via exorbitant ticket prices.
When I started writing this blog, I expected most of the wounded, snotty, or violent email replies to be provided courtesy of the Dylanphiles of the world, who from previous experience tended to be extremely boorish and to interpret any critique of Heir Bobness as a declaration of war. Well, actually, I didn’t expect any replies at all; blogs are a lot like assholes these days. Everyone’s got one. And most of them stink.
To my surprise, most of these comments emailed under cover of night haven’t come from Dylanphiles. Perhaps that’s because the Dylanphiles don’t feel like they owe anyone a rebuttal at this point; they’ve chosen their horse and they’re betting on it until the, er, wheels fall off.
Article comments
1 - Skynyrd'sErie
1. Gimme Back My Bullets is about the music charts. The Bullets referred to are those shown next to a song or album's name being in the top 10.
2. Ronnie Van Zant wrestled with the notion of using the Confederate flag as a back drop because he was afraid some people would misunderstand it's meaning. It was Charlie Daniels that told him it was ok to fly it. Do you think Charlie Daniels is red neck trailer trash who is ignorant and blindly stupid?
3. The Confederate flag Does stand for Southern Pride. It does NOT stand for racial intollerance, just because SOME ignorant people use it for their twisted ideas. Perhaps being a self proffessed Yankee, you have not been properly educated on this matter. I grew up in the North, and had to go South of the Mason Dixon Line to learn the truth. May I suggest you visit Gettysburg where you will learn that The Civil war was not JUST about slavery! Did you know that Abraham Lincoln had MORE slaves than Robert E. Lee!? The sad notion that the Confederate Flag is only flown by prejudiced people is a TOTAL falicy! Yes, there are hate groups that are just as ignorant as you about the meaning of the Confederate flag, who fly it, however they also fly the American flag, and it is usually larger and much more predominate in their meetings than the Confederate flag! Should we stop flying the American flag because the KKK uses it as the backdrop on their stages of hate?
4. Not all Skynyrd fans are red neck trailer trash from the south! Many of us, including my self are YANKEES. Skynyrd has a following from MANY other countries as well! I'm sure your favorite artist Elvis Costello does too, and I'm sure he even has trailer trash fans also!
2 - BabyBlue
You know Eric, when you make a comment like "with Bob Dylan providing a disturbing letdown via garbled mumblings and frog-voiced croaking," it's difficult to take the rest of what you write seriously. It's sort of like saying, you went to see the Bulls play and "there was this guy Michael Jordan who kept running back and forth distracting everyone from the game." If you think Dylan is doing "garbled mumblings" and "frog-voice croaking" have you even heard Modern Times?
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3 - Eric Whelchel
BabyBlue, with all due respect, my comment was about Dylan's live performance, not Modern Times. Just because Dylan puts out a good studio album doesn't mean he's always "on" in concert.
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4 - Ronnie Van Zant
Man, I hate that Baby Blue. Even from my trailer in the sky, I hate that Baby Blue.
5 - V.C. Almond
"The sad notion that the Confederate flag is only flown by prejudiced people is a TOTAL falicy (sp)." Really. I guess that's why you see black people flying the Confederate flag all the time, huh?
6 - Joecephus
As a former recruiter for the New Order Knights of the KKK,(I am now an ordained minister and have given my life completely to Jesus Christ and have turned from my racist ways) we never flew the Confederate Flag! We did, however, fly the American Flag and the Christian Flag.
The Confederate flag was designed by a Jewish man, the red represents the blood the messiah will shed (as Christians we know Jesus is the Messiah and He did shed blood) the center star for the Messiah and the other 12 stars as the 12 tribes or if you want to the 12 disciples.
THE CONFEDERATE FLAG IS NOT RACIST. It is an inanimate object, unable to have feelings of hate. People can be racist and they could use a flag of a butterfly as their emblem. It does not matter, yet "ignorant" people still like to label a flag as racist!
7 - SpiderMatt
At least this critic gets it right. And, he's across the pond in the land where rock (albeit influenced by American blues)was born.
The Brittish rockers have been kicking American rock band ass for 40 years. The only American bands able to match the quality of Brittish music have been The Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd. *Everyone else* has been content just copying the Brits. It took some good ol' Southern boys to create the best truly American rock music we have today.
*I apologize to the great American bands who have been creating highly original compositions. There are too many to name here.
8 - Jim
Eric Dennis, you know NOTHING about Skynyrd, stick with Elvis Costello.
"Rock critics hate rock and rollers but they LOVE Elvis Costello. Why is that? Because critics all LOOK like Elvis Costello"---quote by David Lee Roth
9 - Jim
If Skynyrd are/were so racist then how come Mary Clayton sang background vocals on "Sweet Home Alabama". Guitarist Gary Rossington recently said the band has toned down the condederate flag images during the show and replaced it with the American flag because they are sympathetic to the whole racial sensitivities.
Also, Skynyrd's record company, MCA, suggested the use of the rebel flag and Ronnie Van Zant reluctantly agreed to use it in their shows.