Swine
Not only do I no want to fight...
When we first became known for our music, in 1983-4, I was outspoken, I suppose you might call it that. I wasn’t shy to judge others. Most notably I railed publicly against The Style Council’s Walls Come Tumbling Down. I thought it was a terrible song. I still do. I met Paul Weller in a Polydor stairwell shortly thereafter. “Here, Lloyd! What’s all this about you slagging off my song?”, etc. This meeting, amazingly, ended well. But no thanks to me.
Well, you may have noticed, that many of my posts, here, have been extolling the beauty in works that I admire, even love.
Let me be clear on one point. My aesthetic is still informed, just as much by dislike and and distaste, as it always was. I’ve never enjoyed a band with double bass drums. Pretty sure I never will. I just no longer want to start fights. Not only that, I know with some certainty, that the singer whose work I despise the most, is a wonderful person, with a massive loyal fan base. Who am I to tell them that they are all wrong? I’ll just continue to make music informed by my loves and my prejudices and hope some will find a place for it in their lives.
I’m not exactly ashamed of who I was back then. More, just a little disappointed. But, had I been more open to the idea of our music embracing elements I would personally have been at odds with, had I known that Steely Dan and Black Sabbath actually had some great songs, we could never have been that band that we were. My horizons were were 16mm at best. That was not a bad thing. The Ooh La La lyric does not resonate with me. I absolutely do not wish that I knew then what I know now.
what is your earliest memory of feeling completely besotted by a song? mine is probably "i saw her standing there." when i was five, years after it came out. transfixed. played it over and over. it/the beatles, informed everything that came after and it was hard to work around. still is. fortunately there is an abundance of power pop. i still love walls come tumbling down. don't love ooh la la but man, i adore debris. hny, LC.
I think we all look back on our younger self and recoil at things we said or did.
I used to loathe the Rolling Stones, viewing them as the bad boys juxtaposed with the clean-cut Beatles, but then started watching 'Tour of Duty', with it's theme tune of 'Paint it Black', that gradually turned me on to listen to and appreciate the Stones. Still prefer The Beatles, but do listen to The Stones just as much.