Does a musicians personal stuff affect you?

Finnforest wrote: Young denies the Reagan-love thing in his new book....it sprung from an interview where some hipper than thou reporters were jazzed about getting some great anti-Reagan quotes from Neil, and they started to lead him.  Being used to such childish bullsh*t he smelled what they were up to and got angrier as the interview proceeded.  So, being Neil,  instead he took the high road and mentioned some of the good qualities he saw in Reagan. Didn't agree with lots of his policies, but admired some of his personal traits.  Scandalous!  And from that point the story grew its own legs.  That's how he explains the whole Reagan thing, check out his new book, it's wonderful.

Edited by jude111 - May 17 2013 at 20:50

jude111 wrote: Finnforest wrote: Young denies the Reagan-love thing in his new book....it sprung from an interview where some hipper than thou reporters were jazzed about getting some great anti-Reagan quotes from Neil, and they started to lead him.  Being used to such childish bullsh*t he smelled what they were up to and got angrier as the interview proceeded.  So, being Neil,  instead he took the high road and mentioned some of the good qualities he saw in Reagan. Didn't agree with lots of his policies, but admired some of his personal traits.  Scandalous!  And from that point the story grew its own legs.  That's how he explains the whole Reagan thing, check out his new book, it's wonderful.  I know that's what he says now. But I remember some interviews at the time. He was going on about the Soviet Union, that the US had to build up its offensive capabilities, build more nukes; he was going on about having to defend the US from communists just itching to destroy it. He went on and on about how he wants to defend his family and would shoot anyone who came into his house. It was all really right-wing stuff. No one was putting words in his mouth. Too bad those old interviews from the 80s aren't online. Now he can make the claim that his words were twisted, and unless one has the original hard copies, most are none the wiser.

Doesn't sound too bad.  A lot of people felt that way about the Soviets during the cold war, and a lot of people would defend their children in a home invasion.  I don't think that's "really right wing" stuff.  Maybe to you it is.  Fair enough. 


Edited by Finnforest - May 17 2013 at 21:00

Sound good Jude.

Did you ever hear if Clapton has renounced those words?  I can only assume so as his career was huge in the 80s.  I think in the mid 70s the guy was pretty messed up....I'm assuming he walked back those words since? 




Edited by Finnforest - May 17 2013 at 21:10

Now you've got me curious....

OK, did a bunch of reading on the Clapton thing, here's a bit that seems a consensus of much of it. 

Enoch Powell had been a member of Edward Heath's Shadow Cabinet in 1968 when he made his doom-laden speech about immigration, foretelling a loss of British national identity. It outraged the political establishment and Heath sacked him immediately from his position as Shadow Defence Secretary. Powell stood by his speech until his death in 1998, always claiming he was not a racist ­ or a "racialist" as he liked to put it ­ but concerned the country could not cope with high levels of immigration.
 
Like Enoch Powell, Clapton has never taken back his comments or compromised his position. As recently as December 2007 he appeared on the South Bank Show and told Melvyn Bragg that he wasn't a racist but still believed Powell's comments were relevant. Unlike Powell, however, Eric Clapton's career has enjoyed a resurgence - he was given a CBE in 2004, reunited with Cream in 2005 and will be headlining this year's Hard Rock Calling in Hyde Park. Like David Bowie, who once told an interviewer that Britain would benefit from a Fascist dictator, "Slowhand" Clapton has managed to emerge from the allegations of racism seemingly unharmed. ·

-theweek.co.uk

Their personal stuff....?

dr wu23 wrote:  I don't pay attention to personal bios of most of the musicians I listen to.

Finnforest wrote: jude111 wrote: Finnforest wrote: Oh, regarding the part about Bowie, he has apologized for his crazy behaviour which he also blamed on being high and enjoying being outrageous.    Elvis Costello has apologized for some nasty comments.  So how about Keith Moon's nazi fetish?  Harmless fun from the loon?  Or unforgivable?  I didn't know that about Keith Moon. How about Rush's Neil Peart's interest in Ayn Rand? I wasn't so happy when I found that out well over a decade a go...  No problem with it.  I think an interest in Rand is completely different than some of the other outrageous external behaviours discussed.  He was exploring different worldviews/writings and is certainly not a fierce proponent of her harder core views.  As with Neil Young/Ronnie, Neil P would probably say that he agrees with some things she wrote but disagrees with quite a lot as well.  I think that's gist of what I've heard him say in some recent interviews.

He was definitely more into her philosophy in his younger days (Anthem is a particularly blatant example) but just based upon his lyrics, he seems to have departed quite a bit from those views.  He's definitely no objectivist, and I'm not even sure he's a libertarian anymore (he described himself as a "bleeding heart libertarian" in an interview and said that he recognized libertarianism as an "ideal," didn't go into any detail on whether he thought it practical or not).

In any case, his views have matured a lot (though I wish he was still a staunch libertarian, though ) and I far prefer listening to his lyrics about interpersonal relationships to his lyrics about how selfishness is a good thing.  Wish he'd stop his stupid anti-religion songs though.


Edited by Ambient Hurricanes - May 18 2013 at 17:31

Not a musician but Roman Polanski's actions make it harder for me to enjoy his movies. He is definitely a talented filmmaker, I think "The Pianist" is one of the best movies I've seen, but it's hard for me to forget what Polanski did. 

King Only wrote: Not a musician but Roman Polanski's actions make it harder for me to enjoy his movies. He is definitely a talented filmmaker, I think "The Pianist" is one of the best movies I've seen, but it's hard for me to forget what Polanski did.

So there's actually evidence against him?