[lbo-talk] Black music makes history

[Dennis Perrin]

> > And why would Sir Duke & The Chairman be
> > antithetical to, say, Kurt Cobain & Biggie?
>
> I don't know.  The White Stripes did a superb cover of Son House's Death
> Letter.  But it seems like you have to wade through the muck for
> musicians like them.  Maybe it's always been this way and the passage of
> time acts as a sieve.  But sometimes I feel the tug of the same
> "primitive reaction" Justin notes above, despite the fact that there are
> volumes of fresh new greats of which I'm oblivious.  I guess we recall
> mainly the best from the past and can't help but see the majority of crap
> in the present.
>
> -- Shane

I hear what you're saying, but I instinctively reject rating music or films
or any creative effort on "generational" grounds. Every era has tons of
crap. When Mencken reviewed books, he read just about everything that
crossed his desk. He conceded that much of it was shit, but he reviewed it
anyway because he felt that each book was one person's effort to express him
or herself, and thus should be respected, even if it was third-rate. And
every once in a while, he'd discover a writer of some talent.

As for the Stripes, I think Jack White is working in Cobain territory, and
Cobain himself was the best rock composer since Pete Townshend, known for
his on-stage destruction of guitars and amps, which he did, as he once said,
to cover the fact that early on he couldn't play the blues licks he desired
to play. So he thrashed about, spectacle-style. An affront to Serious Music
Lovers back then, I'm sure.

DP