Lindsey AUS Article

[Johnny Stew]

Originally posted by CarneVaca
I love the taste of soap in the morning.

Just as long as it's not Lifebuoy!!!

[David]

Originally posted by sodascouts
His exact words were: "God love people like Eminem, who are really doing something great."

I'm no great admirer of Eminem, either. Here's my take on Lindsey's quote, which I remember seeing a few years back: I think Lindsey was citing Eminem as an example of someone in the music industry doing his own thing, speaking with his own voice in his "music," relatively free of the direct influence of record execs -- in other words, not a puppet on the strings of some label boss, manufactured & manipulated like the current teen pop idols whom Lindsey couldn't possibly have much affection for, regardless of what he may think of their actual recordings. Amid the empty, droning machinery of the pop music scene, a ferocious voice like Eminem's just rips through the fold & stirs listeners out of their narcotized state.

To Lindsey, Eminem represented a free voice, an "artist" following his own path, pursuing his own vision (regardless of how demeaning others consider his work, or of whether the stuffed shirts at the label consider him "safe" product). When I put it in these terms, I can easily see the appeal this would have to someone of Lindsey's mindset. The CEO of Eminem's label never called him to say, "Write a tender love song with words that go like such-and-such for your next album"; or, if he did, was undoubtedly brutally ignored.

[wondergirl9847]

In the radio interview Lindsey did on Mix 102.9 here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, the DJ asked him what he was listening to these days and he mentioned the White Stripes, Eminem and Queens of the Stone Age.

[Johnny Stew]

Put in those terms, David, I can definitely respect Lindsey's appreciation for what Eminem is doing.

However, I'll never respect Eminem himself, and certainly not as an "artist"... he's just a hypocritical thug with hate and anger issues.

[dissention]

Yeah, God bless an "artist" who writes about raping your mother (and countless other women) and his degradation of gay people. What a voice!

Sometimes I think these other musicians who say they "admire" or "adore" these other assholes are talking out of their asses.

People get their knicker elastics in a twist over harmless Mapplethorpe exhibits, yet they could give two flying turkeys about Eminem and his hate.

[dissention]

Originally posted by Johnny Stew
However, I'll never respect Eminem himself, and certainly not as an "artist"... he's just a hypocritical thug with hate and anger issues.

Damn skippy.

Pretty good argument for birth control, IMO.

[sodascouts]

Originally posted by Cammie

About the boy-toy comment You all know
Stevie is the older one and manuvered around
using LB as her boy-toy! Calling him... baby and
cutsie terms!!! He cut his curls to look tough and
we feel for him as it is embarrasing being a Pretty
Boy! Stevie went after all the Tough Guys... leaving
Lindsey to pine away!SAD!Go Your Own Way, Baby!

What was this about???? Oh, yes about Femaleness!
Perhaps it's 'Trouble' to have Females in a Band!!!Sky

Hi Sky,

I think you might be mistaken here. Don't you think that's degrading to Lindsey, to imply that even his haircuts are reactions against Stevie? And the locks of Stevie's "replacement man" Don Henley were not so "tough" in this context, were they, seeing as how they looked a heck of a lot like Lindsey's. So basically I find this statement very confusing.

P.S. Lots of people call their man "baby." I don't see many men taking offense. JMHO.

[Les]

Originally posted by David
To Lindsey, Eminem represented a free voice, an "artist" following his own path, pursuing his own vision (regardless of how demeaning others consider his work, or of whether the stuffed shirts at the label consider him "safe" product). When I put it in these terms, I can easily see the appeal this would have to someone of Lindsey's mindset.

That's very much along the lines of how I viewed that comment too. Particularly considering in the next breath, he was describing how difficult he thought it would be for him, with his reputation, to have any presence in the musical landscape as a solo artist in the pop side of the music world with the labels favoring the Britney Spears productions.

Change of subject - I have a hard time seeing a strong argument to be made that Lindsey has a "problem" being in a band with women, or that he's always been dying to be in an all-male band. For the length of his entire career, he's never been in a band without women, which is, I dare say, rare for a man of his generation and his genre of music. That covers Fritz before Stevie, Fritz with Stevie, Buckingham Nicks, Fleetwood Mac, and his own Cradle band, for which he specifically recruited two women. These women weren't there "just" as backup singers either; they were front line players. (The Cholos were all-male, but I don't really count them because that was Mick's thing and it was not a unit Lindsey really spent substantial time working with.)

[CarneVaca]

Originally posted by Les
I have a hard time seeing a strong argument to be made that Lindsey has a "problem" being in a band with women, or that he's always been dying to be in an all-male band. For the length of his entire career, he's never been in a band without women, which is, I dare say, rare for a man of his generation and his genre of music. [/B]

Good point, Les. When Lindsey says he would have liked to have been in the Clash, he's talking about attitude and creativity.

[face of glass]

I ain’t going to ruminate on most of this because Les made several clear, good points. But there’s always something else to add.

I don’t think it was all that necessary for Lindsey to be strongly masculine in his solo work. I believe he has a very powerful masculine side but he obviously didn’t want it to dominate his work.

With Law And Order, Go Insane and Out Of The Cradle he didn’t have the ladies of the FM to rely on. They couldn’t offer him the “lighter” balance. So he offered it himself. I can’t imagine OOTC without “Soul Drifter”, “You Do Or You Don’t”, “Say We’ll Meet Again” etc. And neither can I imagine L&O without “Trouble”, or Go Insane without “D.W. Suite”. It’s all a reflection of himself. He has never wanted to be a musical purist like a lot of metal or hardcore punk musicians; it isn’t all about male aggression and boasting.

When punk rock and new wave came about, the hippie dichotomy of feminine vs. masculine, of acoustic vs. electric was abandoned by many. Lindsey’s pre-Tusk work followed that dichotomy too; even “Go Your Own Way”, his supposed angry classic, has an acoustic guitar as its foundation. But the change came and Lindsey obviously felt his work up to that point was inadequate in expressing everything he wanted to say. So he started to offer this important male-balance to the ladies but he never followed that rule without an exception.

I think a lot of Tusk tracks, “Book Of Love” (which has an angry delivery and a very non-standard production for such a ‘50s style song), “Eyes Of The World”, “Empire State”, “Tango In The Night” and “Caroline” offer this balance. You could never state that this band was just another adult-rock mafia if you listened to these and others.

Also, I believe he expressed himself very obviously in the ladies' songs too. They showed us other sides of him. If he wanted to keep that careful balance in his solo work then it was only natural that he expressed those sides there too.

[CarneVaca]

Gaius, I agree with most everything you said. But I am going to nitpick on something: The foundation of Go Your Own Way is that crazy beat and the power chords underneath the acoustic. The acoustic is icing, or to stay with the metaphor, the siding.

[shackin'up]

Originally posted by CarneVaca
Gaius, I agree with most everything you said. But I am going to nitpick on something: The foundation of Go Your Own Way is that crazy beat and the power chords underneath the acoustic. The acoustic is icing, or to stay with the metaphor, the siding.

agreed with the fin, too. But on the foundation I agree with carne, even LB himself called it the "counterpart" or "counterpoint". well, that doesn't sound like foundation to me. But on the otherhand, a counterpoint sounds more essential then icing or siding. And in this case: in the song it has an essential role. It makes the song a classic. because of that 'disturbing, softly unballancing' acoustic ( hey that sounds feminine! ) it's a song that you can hear over and over and over and over and over and over again............

sorry for nitpicking on nitpicking


gerald

[CarneVaca]

Originally posted by shackin'up
. because of that 'disturbing, softly unballancing' acoustic ( hey that sounds feminine! )

Oooh, dude, now you've done it! You'd better hide for a while.

[CarneVaca]

Originally posted by trackaghost
but his use of the word (and is it a word?) "femaleness" does indeed sound condescending.

Hey, the feminist in me cringed too. But I'm willing to give the guy a little slack because I don't think he meant it as a slight to women.

[Cammie]

Amen!!!! So Be IT!!!!Sky