How Ryan Adams Hurted My Feelings

[Oil Can Boyd]

REM did this for years

I remember an interview with REM, probably in the Green era, where Peter Buck said that they could have kept cranking out albums that sounded like Reckoning over and over but they wanted to move on. Being a huge fan of Reckoning, I was really disappointed to hear that.

[nodep5]

which brings me to my larger point. Why do I keep reading interviews and articles on musicians. I swear I rarely come away feeling goog about the musician. It is either wow they are a raging ego maniac, or they are a drug addict or they hate themselves. OR and this is the worst for me (I'm talking to you BONO) they want to tell me how freaking smart they are. I know I know this makes them just like all of us, but for me it is a mind blower. I listen to Neil Young for example and musically he speaks to me and it helps me in different situations and times throughout my life, so I guess I place meaning on the person and the music because it has brought so much positive to me. And then I read an article and I think how did this person create something that is meaningful to me, because they sound like a complete asshole.

[quarter23cd]

Look at it this way. From a listener's perspective, a body of recorded work always remains somewhat current--whatever you feel like listening to at any given point, you can queue up the songs and listen to them in the present tense. But to the person that created those things, the songs are very much tied to the time and place in which they first came into being. Even if you enjoy still playing the old ones all the time, they are still parts of an increasingly-distant past.

 

Asking Ryan questions about Whiskeytown now is probably equivalent to somebody coming up to me and congratulating me on the great job I did upgrading all those computers to Windows 95 during a summer internship or raving about that really great short story I wrote in college. Praise is good, but those things aren't very relevant to me now.

[Lammycat]

I think it's quite normal to dismiss/criticize earlier work, whether you're a writer/poet, artist, whatever. People who don't get paid for their artistic talents do it (at least, speaking for myself) all the time. Sometimes, with the passage of time, something you created earlier in your life no longer holds the same relevance and/or just doesn't aesthetically appeal to you any more. I've taken pictures down off my wall (not my art work, but still) because I get sick of seeing them after a while and want a change....

 

I guess I'm not sure why it makes some people sad/angry when an artist dismisses earlier work. If it's still enjoyable to you....

[quarter23cd]

I guess I'm not sure why it makes some people sad/angry when an artist dismisses earlier work. If it's still enjoyable to you....

In the case of a performing artist, I guess I can understand fans wishing a performer would play more stuff from a certain era or whatever. I complain about that shit all the time.

[Lammycat]

In the case of a performing artist, I guess I can understand fans wishing a performer would play more stuff from a certain era or whatever. I complain about that shit all the time.

Doesn't RA sometimes still play earlier stuff, though?

[nodep5]

I think I've finally solved my problem. I think I'm doing some caretaking here (in all seriousness, not that he is listening or anything). I've probably read to many posts on Ryan's blog, but I think it is obvious that he is riddled with self doubt and I just want him to have a moment where he looks at his body of work and says "that is impressive" and leave it at that. I recently ready an article (i know here I go again with reading articles/it may have been the same Relix article) where he talks about how his songs didn't reflect his addiction issues and that he thought he actually wrote a lot of hopeful songs that helped people out. I would disagree and say you actually did write a number of dark songs, but you are right you did right some hopeful stuff and it does help people. Ok I'm done trying to make him feel better.

[Guest Jules]

merry christmas