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From: rossen@uiucdcs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Re: Re: Musical Talent, etc.  ("rock" mu - (nf)
Message-ID: <10800045@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 30-Apr-84 17:44:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.10800045
Posted: Mon Apr 30 17:44:00 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 4-May-84 00:35:56 EDT
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Nf-From: uiucdcs!rossen    Apr 30 16:44:00 1984

#R:pyuxn:-60500:uiucdcs:10800045:000:2273
uiucdcs!rossen    Apr 30 16:44:00 1984


So here's another man's opinion -- and pardon the music-critic-style
cliches.
 
I take exception to the addition of Loverboy and Dr. Noah Drake to 
a pot containing the Rolling Stones and Culture Club.  I am in agreement
that the Rolling Stones (at least concerning the music they are putting out
currently) and Culture Club have mainly entertainment value, and I am of
the opinion that it's *okay* to produce just entertainment.  But the
skill that goes into making Stones or Club music (I think) far outstrips
anything we have seen yet from Loverboy or R. Springfield.  The Rolling
Stones, as a group of musicians, includes two extremely accomplished
guitarists who haven't strayed too far from the "R&B roots" that got 
rock and roll on the map in thr first place.  I defy Paul Dean to play
"Going to a Go-Go" like Keith Richards does (i.e. with as much "soul")
or come up with a hook like even the one in "Start Me Up."
 
Culture Club is a different story.  As if such things matter, I always 
thought of them as a "pop" band, not a rock & roll band.  But where R. Stones
have good R&B-style guitar going for them (at least now and then) Culture
Club has at least one, and for a while had two, remarkable voices.  Boy
George's makeup and clothes concern me very little.  But the man has a beautiful
voice.  Smooth as cream.  And when played off against Helen Terry's red-hot
gospel-style wailing, it's at least well-executed and at best inspiring.
C. Club, too, seems to be acutely conscious of the roots of its music in
black music -- in this case old Motown, from which it borrows a lot of its
style.  I won't attempt to draw any hypothesis from this "similarity."
 
If entertainment value is to be judged regarding the four musical entities
Rich mentions, I submit that C. Club and the Stones have been drawing
their listening audience from a wider cross-section of the listening
public than the other two (whose audiences, I gather, seldom extend past
teenagers), and that, when all is said and done, the Club and the Stones
will have held more of the public's attention for a substantially longer
period of time. 

-------
"You can take the boy out of Detroit, but you can't take the Detroit out
of the boy."
Ken in Champaign-Urbana
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