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Great put-downs of musical 'giants' (1 Viewer)

andrew markworthy

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A quotation from Roger Ebert's review of 'Masked and Anonymous':

Perhaps Dylan's genius is to take simple ideas and make them impenetrable. Since he cannot really sing, there is the assumption that he cannot be performing to entertain us, and that therefore there must be a deeper purpose.
Anyone got a similarly good put-down of other revered musical acts?

[Please don't make this a 'we love/hate Dylan' thread.]
 

MarkHastings

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Whenever people talk about Bruce Sprinstein - they say "He's a good song writer" and never mention his voice. :D
 

Daniel J.S.

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I think Springsteen is a fantastic rock singer. He always sounds emotionally involved in the song, he's usually on key (as a musician, I'd know if he was slipping badly out of tune) and he's demonstrated decent range. You don't need a beautiful voice to be a great rock singer.
 

Henry Gale

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andrew,

I want to play, I just don't think I get it. Is Ebert's comment, "[Dylan] cannot really sing..." the "good put-down?"

Some of my favorite artists cannot "really sing." Neil Young, Joe Cocker (O.K. he's sucked for 30 years now, but I used to love him)..Tom Waits, Randy Newman, John Prine.

Jim

I'm not trying to destroy the spirit of your thread....right now I'm trying to think of something witheringly funny about Natalie Merchant. :D
 

John Watson

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I have never read what the Beatles may have said or thought about Elvis after they met him.

My guess is that they were discreet, and didn't utter their thoughts, but I've always been curious.

And maybe John Lennon's speech about the Beatles being more popular than Jesus made them cautious. (If that was before their meeting with Elvis?)
 

MarkHastings

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Beatles being more popular than Jesus
LOL - that reminds me of a joke:

A man dies and goes to heaven, while he is there he wants to see all the dead singers. First he meets Jimmy Hendrix, then he meets Frank Sinatra, then he sees Elvis ... finally he looks over and see Bono (U2) - Confused, he asks St. Peter, what is Bono doing here? I didn't think he was dead.

St. Peter says "Oh no! That's not Bono, that's God...he just Thinks he's Bono"


:D
 

Jack Briggs

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In the Anthology, Paul makes clear that he and John considered Elvis's Sun Records tenure to be his "great period."

The band met the rocker-turned-crooner-and-terrible-"actor" in the summer of 1965 in the "king's" digs just north of Sunset Boulevard. According to Paul, the "king" was a tad sullen and there were a number of awkward silences (it is well known now that the "king" did not like The Beatles and was jealous of their much-deserved and extraordinary success; remember, during the "king's" infamous meeting with Richard Nixon, he mentioned The Beatles as a terrible influence on our nation's youth and moral fiber for encouraging the use of drugs [presumably this did not include prescription drugs]).

I am not a fan of the "king."
 

Chu Gai

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I don't know if this qualifies as a put down, but years ago, I saw Janis Joplin perform at Hampton Beach (or somewhere in that area) in NH. She was quite drunk, had a bottle of Southern Comfort, didn't remember the words, and was booed off.
 

John Watson

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Jack, that's kinda my recollection of the incident, the Beatles held their tongues after tho. Classy!

A great putdown - someone said to Mozart I think, - good music, but too many notes :D
 

Daniel J.S.

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^^^That was in the movie "Amadeus" where Emperor Joseph tells Mozart that his opera "The Abduction from the Seraglio" has too many notes. Much of the movie is complete fantasy (especially the plot with Salieri), but the Emperor apparently really said things like that to Mozart. He once said that "Don Giovanni" was too beautiful for the Vienna crowd to digest. Mozart responded with "give them some time to chew on it."
 

John Watson

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Thanks Daniel, if not exactly true, its very funny.

A real putdown was Lynyrd Skynyrd's jibe at whiney Neil Young.

More fun was Chuck Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven"

:)
 

Dennis Nicholls

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Then there's Carly Simon's hit "You're So Vain", which according to some theories is a slam on either James Taylor, Mick Jagger, Warren Beatty, Kris Kristofferson or Cat Stevens. Some guy paid about $50K to find out the secret a few weeks ago.

He once said that "Don Giovanni" was too beautiful for the Vienna crowd to digest.
Maybe that's why the premier performance was given in Prague.....
 

ChrisCosmo

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In an interview once, Maynard James Keenan was being talked to by the interviewer about Fred Durst's adoration for the band. The interviewer said something to the extent of "Let's discuss Fred Durst" to which he replied something to the effect of "Why would we want to do that?"
 

Daniel J.S.

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It's probably also why it was only performed five times in Vienna (and I knew it was originally commissioned for Prague).
 

Mike Broadman

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I once saw an interview with Joey Ramone that explained that he and his bandmates made the music they did because they were being fed "crap like Kansas."
 

TommyT

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I've always felt the same way about Neil Diamond. How a guy with such syrupy lyrics & the [rant]WORST[/rant] voice in pop music history got so popular & still sells out every venue he performs in has been the greatest mystery! Same goes for Blood Sweat & Tears!

Then again, we live in a culture that emulates, deifies & slathers the term diva on talentless acts like your Aguileras, Spears, Careys, Twains, Timberlakes, etc. A true 'diva' should be defined as a singer with the power to sing opera, not some MTV/VH1 in-yer-face icon that records a musical style that will make 'em more money.
 

Kevin Farley

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I've always wondered what the Beatles thought of Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath. Did they like them? Hate them? Does anyone know if they ever talked about them?
 

Ricardo C

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Legend goes that when Freddie Mercury first met Sid Vicious, he called him "that Simon Ferocious guy" :D

Phil Collins, when an interviewer hinted at the fact that his music appealed to the lowest common denominator: "...I've been taken less seriously because I've been more popular - I'm cast aside as some sort of Barry Manilow. I find it frustrating."
 

Jack Briggs

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Kevin, there's nothing on the record about any of the four Beatles ever offering comments about those two '70s-era acts. But I sure remember the drubbing Led Zep took from the critics (because I agreed with so much of it).
 

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