What are some examples of good or even great bands whose members are not great musicians. Social Distortion? Cocteau Twins?
But cdogg. You often denigrate or praise a band's work on the basis of their musical abilities. So within the sphere of rock music, you must consider some as better than others. From among the ones you don't consider in the top, are there any you would nontheless consider good bands? Did I ask which bands are not as good as Mozart but still good? No. I think you both know wtf I'm asking.
Calm down, lady I could play rings around Keith Richards but if you told me he was playing a guitar 10 miles from me, I'd walk the whole way to hear him because I love the sounds he makes, he wrote "Tumbling Dice" for fuck's sake... I wouldn't cross the street to hear Steve Vai Technical facility isn't the be all end all in pop music ... sometimes pop music includes great technical facility (Steely Dan, for example) and it is certainly useful but it's more about feel and basic skill sets combined with creativity ... it's why "kid with broken hand" Jimmy Page was often a thrilling musician (he might crash into a wall or fly high) and Mustard's lover Richie Blackmore was a tedious, boring show off The groups I rip for their horrible playing are groups that are laughably awful technically (U2, for example... 13 year olds with a years experience and a copy of Chuck Berry's greatest hits could play "Johnny B. Goode" better than U2 can do it with 40 years of playing and the wealth to spend more time doing it than a person who has to work to eat and pay bills) or they are groups whose sole claim to fame is imagined true technical proficiency (see Blackmore whose "classical" skills were laughable by actual classical standards) ... Styx, for example are hideous on several fronts... they ensconced themselves in a genre (prog rock) that demands technical know how but they had the chops of a typical boogie bar band, which left them pathetically limited on their "extended" excursions (see the pathetic synth interlude on the abominable "Come Sail Away") ... they wrote irritating, stupid songs with paint-by-numbers melodies and sang them with the gusto of the cheesiest Broadway ham ... their attempts at pop singles (excruciatingly cloying dreck like "Babe", for example) were like Made in Taiwan cheap plastic knockoffs of more accomplished pap... like if a cheaply made alternative to the Little River Band were for sale at your local gas station (and played by musicians not as talented) ... that's why Styx is trash, because they represent artistic, aesthetic and technical inferiority produced to appeal to the complacent, the lazy, the non-discerning and the ignorant. They're not trash because dumb cunts who don't know shit from shinola about anything like them... even dumb cunts like The Beatles and so do I
Ok. So Keith Richards? Don't want to interrupt the argument you're having with yourself. But any others?
The Fall. 'Well....Ive had accomplished musicians in the band I guess, classically trained lads, jazz lads but I made them unlearn everything.'
