OK, is this the worst piece of music writing ever?

Ya my point, for the people-who-read-too-fast, is that Bowie as a pop star rendered traditional notions of "musical talent" unnecessary and antiquated, and even a liability. He would've agreed. He said in his Proust Questionnaire from 1998: "Q: What do you deplore most in others? A: Talent." When he met Nina Simone, Nina said "He looked just like Charlie Chaplin, a clown suit, a big black hat,” said Simone. “He told me that he was not a gifted singer and he knew it. He said, ‘What’s wrong with you is you were gifted—you have to play. Your genius overshadows the money, and you don’t know what to do to get your money, whereas I wasn’t a genius, but I planned, I wanted to be a rock-and-roll singer and I just got the right formula.’” I wrote that Facebook post after years of him being my favourite musician, and being asked "how does he influence your music?" so many times, and having to basically bullshit for years until eventually I had to say, "not at all". He influenced Madonna, Kanye, any musician whose creative method is ecumenical rather than ascetic. The rest of us just have our scales and technical manuals.

Facebook post was public, thank you for discussing here etc. etc.

"he's not a creator he's a destroyer" might sound like it is deep, but does it mean anything? he destroyed his collaborators? what does that mean? "his ego destroyed them"? huh? last i checked Brian Eno was still around and his contributions to the Berlin albums are well respected. nobody looks at them like "Bowie claimed all the credit for himself, too bad Eno's influence was buried under Bowie's massive ego".

I meant "destroyer" in the more philosophical sense, as in one who brings transition, creates transgressive work, upsets the establishment, ch-changes, and so on

Thanks for clarifying. Think it's still a dick move to have posted it here but not actionable.

xxp

oh is that by you? sorry for going off then.

i had a bad experience with some Bowie trolls earlier today.

also once it ends up in this thread i feel its fair game. my bad there.

no harm no foul, shit-stain is my middle name

ehhhhhh... i'm sorry. i can be a jerk.

Good harmonica on "A New Career in a New Town"

Always wished Bowie was a technically skilled musician but sensed he wasn't, like that funny sketch with Eno creating Warszaw and Bowing adding scary cave gibberish vocals... but then again, intuition maybe matters more.

Can never figure out if Dylan is a good guitar player either

He's more technically skilled than Eno ffs.

so I gather now, but that's not how the funny cartoon made it out

Always so funny when the person you're shit-talking actually pops up.

Under The Pressure (Vocal only)

obits are hard to write and easy to screw up tonally depending on the audience, and except for that amazing linkedin post, i don't think any of the other examples really belong on this thread at all.

like the ceremony of the occasion calls on you to sort of swing a bit big, and that's the case even for good pieces. also the personal feelings of readers are stronger than usual, (as AB apparently can testify) and so everything that doesn't feel exactly right can seem like some sort of insult, when if those opinions were out in any other context, it would just be "a reasonable, if slightly off take".

sorry posted that link wrongly - not trying to say everyone is under THE pressure to try and come up with good Bowie hot takes.

that "chief disruption officer" thing was on another level

Jamie Good - Digital Fluency Coach

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"oh shit, now that my weirdly in-depth excoriation of another human is to their face rather than behind their back I think I should apologize"

lol

lmao

i thought this thread was about bashing music writing, and that was offered up, and yes i am super charged about Bowie right now. embarassingly, i also thought it was from the comedian Patton Oswalt, who I confused with Owen Pallet. so i read it as if it was a snarky comedian making fun of my dear departed hero. i am very sorry.

anyways, is this the first time an author has been in this thread while a piece of his was posted? it's not nearly as bad as the time i asked for torrent in the 33 1/3 thread while some authors were about...

mistaking owen for patton oswalt is the most jerkish thing in the thread tbh

(jk)

If you mistook owen for patton oswalt why did you call him "OP"

original patton

bc he was po'd

is patton oswalt a known fan of john cage?

brutal thread

this got weird

Prob shouldn't/don't need to chime in but literally zero hurt feelings in either being reposted here or being called names.

ok patton

I had no idea mike patton posted here

linkedin dude on bowie reminded me of coming across this, maybe the thing that links all of owen's favourite musicians is their profound influence on the corporate world

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xaf1/v/t1.0-9/11760271_10205373688556395_8692794944301279535_n.jpg?oh=af4121d3528d85b80c9fd43b860247bf&oe=5749E3D8

I meant "destroyer" in the more philosophical sense, as in one who brings transition, creates transgressive work, upsets the establishment, ch-changes, and so on

― got a long list of ilxors (fgti),

Not about Bowie though, although it is fashion-related.

not sure if putting tumblr posts on here is 'the done thing' but this is remarkably bad: http://powerevolution.tumblr.com/post/133543612986/why-are-so-many-millennials-so-uncool

ok I can't put myself thru all that but a thousand times lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vWHNwmzf1o

To be fair, millennials aren't cool. If they exist. I've never met one.

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/167291/WAYS-TO-BE-COOL.jpg

"Nirvana rehearsed ten hours a day before recording 'Nevermind' because their house was so freezing they tried to stay away from it as much as possible."

Literally cool. Not enough modern artists are freezing.

they have those smart thermostats now

if only... if only Kurt could make smart DECISIONS...

brb, gonna write something for Medium

Confusing Owen Pallett with Patton Oswalt is the new best thing in this thread.

tbf humans have a natural tendency to see pattons that aren't there

wouldn't you like to be a patton too

Why Pattons?

http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view1/1435294/patton-slap-o.gif

Not really music writing, but this Bowie tribute deserves to be here …

http://blogs.news.com.au/images/uploads/timaru_thumb.png