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Your heroes, are they PAST IT?

Started by The Mollusk, May 11, 2021, 10:47:32 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

PeterCornelius

Paul McCartney His voice has been utterly shot for years. This is what happens when you insist on doing Beatles songs in the same key that you did them in when you were 25. Smoking weed at Olympic level doesn't help. But Macca is a man in denial and he'll go on until he carks it.


DrGreggles

His voice is still OK on record, but he's struggled live for a while now.

Been having a look at Roy Wood's wikipedia page. Now there is a man who probably knows what it's like to sit in your pants watching TV day after day, 40 years of doing what amounts to almost fuck all. He's a member of Brexit Party (or whatever they're called now) which is nice.

non capisco

Quote from: Nice Relaxing Poo on May 14, 2021, 12:25:31 PM
Been having a look at Roy Wood's wikipedia page. Now there is a man who probably knows what it's like to sit in your pants watching TV day after day, 40 years of doing what amounts to almost fuck all. He's a member of Brexit Party (or whatever they're called now) which is nice.

I just looked up what Jonah Lewie makes per year for 'Stop the Cavalry', 120 grand still. A decent income without the need to do a further day's work ever again for going "dubba dubba dum dum" and mentioning Christmas once 40 odd years ago. Hasn't released a note of new music since 1983. What a lucky bastard.

Brundle-Fly

Not to cast aspersions on you, non capisco, but I do sometimes wonder about these 'Noddy Holder gets a sack of Fabergé eggs left on his doorstep every time 'Merry Christmas Everybody' gets played in Tesco' type of claims. I bet Jonah Lewie would argue he gets nowhere near that figure.

Famous Mortimer

Quote from: Nice Relaxing Poo on May 14, 2021, 12:25:31 PM
Been having a look at Roy Wood's wikipedia page. Now there is a man who probably knows what it's like to sit in your pants watching TV day after day, 40 years of doing what amounts to almost fuck all. He's a member of Brexit Party (or whatever they're called now) which is nice.
Wasn't he the cunt who went on Never Mind The Buzzcocks and told a story of how he bought the pub in his village and shut it down because he didn't like the noise they were making? And expected people to think it was a charming story and not an awful prick with too much money and too little empathy?


TheMonk

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on May 14, 2021, 09:29:58 AM
I remember two girls at my college once got chatting with Paul Young in a pub in Earl's Court in '86. He wanted to play them the new stuff he'd been working on and asked if they'd like to join him for a spin in his open-top sportscar. They agreed and spent the afternoon cruising around West London listening to demos on his car stereo. They even went into the West End to pick out some shirts for him because his wife wasn't in the country, later he bought them lunch. Not once did he make a pass or made them feel uncomfortable but after that, they never saw him again. I always thought that was quite cool. 'Nice chap', as The Science Eel said.
You'd think they'd have been proud of giving Paul Young a handjob in a sportscar.

Kankurette

Quote from: Famous Mortimer on May 14, 2021, 01:52:54 PM
Wasn't he the cunt who went on Never Mind The Buzzcocks and told a story of how he bought the pub in his village and shut it down because he didn't like the noise they were making? And expected people to think it was a charming story and not an awful prick with too much money and too little empathy?
What a charmer. BXP are Reform UK now btw, one of their policies is 'lockdown bad'.

pupshaw

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on May 14, 2021, 01:03:21 PM
Not to cast aspersions on you, non capisco, but I do sometimes wonder about these 'Noddy Holder gets a sack of Fabergé eggs left on his doorstep every time 'Merry Christmas Everybody' gets played in Tesco' type of claims. I bet Jonah Lewie would argue he gets nowhere near that figure.

Greg Lake actually wrote to a newspaper to comment about the plot of some film or TV show where some character had a Christmas hit and never had to work again.
he said that was more than a slight exaggeration.

pupshaw

Quote from: Famous Mortimer on May 14, 2021, 01:52:54 PM
Wasn't he the cunt who went on Never Mind The Buzzcocks and told a story of how he bought the pub in his village and shut it down because he didn't like the noise they were making? And expected people to think it was a charming story and not an awful prick with too much money and too little empathy?

My heart sunk when I read that Wikipedia entry. But he's a musician, not a philosopher, and there's nothing that will ever spoil the music for me.
Also, Chinatown, Tonight, and California Man. Pretty much the best contractual obligation material ever written.

The Culture Bunker

Quote from: pupshaw on May 14, 2021, 04:51:29 PM
Greg Lake actually wrote to a newspaper to comment about the plot of some film or TV show where some character had a Christmas hit and never had to work again.
he said that was more than a slight exaggeration.
Nick Hornby's 'About a Boy' has a main character able to live of life of workless ease on the back of his old man writing a Christmas hit decades prior.

Lungpuddle

Quote from: pupshaw on May 14, 2021, 04:56:16 PM
My heart sunk when I read that Wikipedia entry. But he's a musician, not a philosopher, and there's nothing that will ever spoil the music for me.
Also, Chinatown, Tonight, and California Man. Pretty much the best contractual obligation material ever written.

First concert I went to was Roy Wood in Croydon, and I absolutely loved it. It's upsetting that he's a brexiteer who shuts down local pubs, but at the same time I love a lot of Wizzard and other assorted stuff he's done. I also thought John Sessions was the best thing in Rob Grant's (and Andrew Marshall's) Quanderhorn and he was a big Farage supporter. At least it's possible to enjoy their stuff, unlike other people mentioned here where they make their politics and their post-Smiths career impossible to separate.

the science eel

Quote from: Bently Sheds on May 14, 2021, 09:23:47 AM
Roy Wood wrote Brontosaurus, Bev Bevan wrote Turkish Tram Conductor Blues and Jeff Lynne wrote Do Ya (which he subsequently re-recorded for a post-Wood ELO album). Wood should get a medal for Curly, Omnibus and Fire Brigade at least.

He should get his own ISLAND for this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPSZJ3xH5sA

Brundle-Fly

Roy Wood always gave fabulous interviews though. A real raconteur!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSpD595QipY

mobias

Quote from: An tSaoi on May 13, 2021, 10:13:54 AM
Jean-Michel Jarre. He'll toss off an album and call it Oygene 4 or Equinoxe Reloaded or whatever, even if it doesn't sound anything like the originals. Piggybacking on his own coat tails.

And he openly seems to admit he got the idea off Mike Oldfield doing endless cash ins with Tubular Bells sequels. I was a big Mike Oldfield fan but he's been past it, to varying degrees anyway, since the late 70's.

Goldentony

im disappointed in the Roy Revelations as much as anyone but i'll be dipped in dogshit if i'm not listening to Brontosaurus again, Cheap Trick don't sing it long enough during California Man so I can't stick with that

Tbf my Dad is a Brexiteer like many boomers and I don't hate him so I can't really hold it against Roy too much. Also, from what I can tell, he bought the pub to live in and it had been abandoned by Marston's for a number of years.

This interview was reasonably enlightening, unless Roy is lying that is:

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/wizzard-and-move-pop-legend-roy-239409


As a cross-over from the cunts in music thread, uber cunt Don Arden seems to loom large in his career fortunes.

pupshaw

Quote from: Nice Relaxing Poo on May 14, 2021, 06:19:29 PM
Tbf my Dad is a Brexiteer like many boomers and I don't hate him so I can't really hold it against Roy too much. Also, from what I can tell, he bought the pub to live in and it had been abandoned by Marston's for a number of years.
Agreed, it's not like he's become active in right-wing politics or made any racist public comments, although I'm not sure I want to look too hard.

In that TOTP clip he's 26, and had been having hits since 1967.

purlieu

Quote from: mobias on May 14, 2021, 06:07:28 PM
And he openly seems to admit he got the idea off Mike Oldfield doing endless cash ins with Tubular Bells sequels. I was a big Mike Oldfield fan but he's been past it, to varying degrees anyway, since the late 70's.
Oldfield's problem is he's always been very good at doing longform instrumental stuff, but has either been pressured into trying out new styles, or given them a go purely out creative curiosity. And he's failed every single time. Albums that vary his style slightly (the low-stakes Platinum and QE2; 1994's Hergest-Ridge-as-made-by-Enigma The Songs of Distant Earth) tend to produce some really good ideas, but his only truly great albums since 1978 have been the two times he's intentionally gone back to his roots, Amarok and Return to Ommadawn. It would have been career suicide at the time, but if he'd just stuck to longform instrumental stuff he would probably have a genuinely enviable back catalogue and a barrel load of critical acclaim.

Roy Wood is a difficult one, some of his social media stuff was genuinely unpleasant reading. Supporting Brexit and being a full-on outspoken campaigner are different things, and it's definitely tarnished my view of him a little. From a musical perspective, he's probably got a much tighter catalogue than his old pal Jeff Lynne, who's not written a genuinely worthwhile batch of songs since 1981.

As for Weezer, they seem to have fully adopted their 'meme band' status, which is really quite pathetic. The '80s covers album felt like they were trying to join in on a joke that was about them, and it seems to be a wider scale problem over the past few years. Yeah, the White Album was a few steps above the other recent albums, but most of them are really cringe-worthy. The outfits on the Red Album's cover were a warning sign, then literally everything about Raditude, Hurley with that fucking cover image, Everything Will Be Alright in the End using an image from a widely shared web story from about ten years prior, an '80s covers album, a straight-up pop album (Black), a poor attempt at chamber pop (OK Human), "hey fans like our brief silly guitar solo live, let's do a hair metal album and call it Van Weezer"... just about every step seems to find them trying one gimmick after another to stay in the spotlight. Rivers has basically turned into Alan Partridge.

Famous Mortimer

Quote from: Nice Relaxing Poo on May 14, 2021, 06:19:29 PM
Tbf my Dad is a Brexiteer like many boomers and I don't hate him so I can't really hold it against Roy too much. Also, from what I can tell, he bought the pub to live in and it had been abandoned by Marston's for a number of years.

This interview was reasonably enlightening, unless Roy is lying that is:

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/wizzard-and-move-pop-legend-roy-239409
There's a bit about celebs buying pubs in this 1999 episode of "Never Mind The Buzzcocks" that he's in - https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7k0f4i - at around 7:30, but I can't be bothered to watch the entire episode to find out if he also relates his own tale. It's possible I'm entirely misremembering, but I have a fairly strong memory of hearing him do the anecdote then do like a thumbs up or a triumphant grin at the end of the story.

the science eel


mobias

Quote from: purlieu on May 14, 2021, 09:06:08 PM
It would have been career suicide at the time, but if he'd just stuck to longform instrumental stuff he would probably have a genuinely enviable back catalogue and a barrel load of critical acclaim.



Yeah the sad fact that Amarok, possibly his best album, totally sank without trace and sold only a handful of copies only proved to him and his bank manager that long form complex instrumental albums isn't commercially viable. He himself thinks its best album and it does have a bit of a cult following now though.

I often wonder what the trajectory of his career would have been if he hadn't done that quasi new age rebirthing thing at the end of the 70's. His fourth album Incantations gives you a glimpse of a direction on music that sadly was never to be. Then again it all happened when punk came along the commerciality of the early 80's was on the horizon. Maybe he would have always embraced shorter commercially viable music regardless.

purlieu

I think I've read an interview in which he said he would probably have done that regardless, but even then I can still imagine it would have been more 'Woodhenge' and less 'Shadow on the Wall'. His rebirthing thing is a point of contention where fan selfishness can come into play. It's clear that as a result his creativity definitely went down the pan in an "ok yeah let's do some singles and go on tour and try to be commercial, sounds like a laugh" sort of way, but at the same time it cured him of his debilitating anxiety and shyness and he seems like a much happier person because of it.
Mind you he's also a brexiteer, despite having lived away from the UK for decades and having spent most of the '80s living in Europe to avoid paying tax, so maybe if he'd stayed a vulnerable, shy bloke he might have ended up less of a cunt. Who knows.

PaulTMA

#174
 .

timebug

Agree about McCartney, he should have knocked it on the head years back.Undoubtedly a talented WRITER of catchy toons, his voice has been pants for donkeys. Roy Wood is a weird one; I met him many centuries ago,when he was in The Move and he was a decent little chap, or seemed to be at the time.Then I read all the stuff he has come out with and wonder what/where it went pear-shaped for him?



mobias

Quote from: purlieu on May 15, 2021, 12:20:36 AM

Mind you he's also a brexiteer, despite having lived away from the UK for decades and having spent most of the '80s living in Europe to avoid paying tax, so maybe if he'd stayed a vulnerable, shy bloke he might have ended up less of a cunt. Who knows.

That was from a Daily Mail interview in which he very quickly took to his Facebook group after it was published to deny saying 'most' of the things in the interview, including one presumes saying he supported Donald Trump. He has said fairly consistently in interviews that he doesn't regard himself as a politically aware person and doesn't support any political party. All that being said we all know of course that certain ex hippie now rich rock stars of a certain vintage to tend to be at least small c conservative. His kids are certainly fairly actively left wing as far as I can see and he apparently passionately despises Eric Clapton. So there's that at least.


shagatha crustie

Quote from: timebug on May 15, 2021, 09:12:05 AM
Agree about McCartney, he should have knocked it on the head years back.Undoubtedly a talented WRITER of catchy toons, his voice has been pants for donkeys.

By my measure it was still in great nick up to 2007-8 ('House of Wax'!!!), but since then the waveriness has become more difficult to get past. He used to be able to elevate weaker material by conveying it with those wonderful pipes, can't rely on that anymore.

Dusty Substance


Giorgio Moroder recently turned 81. He's been releasing new music, collaborating and doing DJ sets over the last few years. Wouldn't say he's past it but his best days are long behind him.

Video Game Fan 2000

#179
Given up the ghost on Pere Ubu. The last truly great song they did was "414 Seconds" about eight years ago and DT's "ironic" nativism/misogyny is waaaaaay past the point of being too intolerable to let me care about endless 'remixes' of recent boogie rock records.

All I can say is I'm glad he looks happy and like his health is under control these days, since he's been through the wringer.  Kind of like the embers of Fall where you got to hand it to the guy commiting to exhausting work through illnesses that would knock the shit out of anyone, but the music isn't exactly making me bop around the kitchen.