Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site pyuxd.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!pyuxww!pyuxd!rlr From: rlr@pyuxd.UUCP (Rich Rosen) Newsgroups: net.music Subject: Re: The Wall Message-ID: <1985@pyuxd.UUCP> Date: Tue, 29-Oct-85 23:23:44 EST Article-I.D.: pyuxd.1985 Posted: Tue Oct 29 23:23:44 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 1-Nov-85 23:58:48 EST References: <1143@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP> <5602@fortune.UUCP> Organization: Whatever we're calling ourselves this week Lines: 49 Keywords: self-indulgent whining, divorce >>Not to flame you, Paul (I agree with your rebuttal to Palena wholeheartedly), >>but although I've liked some of the music from "The Wall", I can't help but >>think that as a whole it is a ridiculously self-indulgent egotistical >>whining exercise on the part of Roger Waters. [ROSEN] > I agree that "The Wall" reflects at times the self-indulgent and egotistical > tendencies of the writer. However, that's not enough for it to be called > "ridiculous". In fact, I think many artists (assuming Roger Waters is an > artist) share these same qualities and tendencies. Eccentricities and > obseessions often are characteristics of exceptional artists. For example, > John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Picasso, Beethoven, Dostoyevsky, Milton, ... > I think to single Roger Waters out by calling "The Wall" "ridiculous" is > unfair. [LIPINSKI] The difference is that the others had something worth saying about their experiences, and didn't succumb to melodramatic whining (even Lennon's first solo album, a real catharsis, has more real power than self-pity). > He was clearly obsessed with (the seeming futility of) his life, > his mistakes, and his relationships. I really think it is an exceptional > thematic work. He as a person may not be appreciable but "The Wall" as an > expression of his feelings is. I disagree, but that's what makes horse races. His message wasn't effective to me, nothing of substance other than the whining came across. Though there IS some great music on the album. >>I recall reading his >>insistence at the time of the recording of "The Wall" that HE *was* Pink >>Floyd, that the band was his ideas, his vision, his music. The whole theme >>and content seemed symptomatic of the whiny "singer-songwriter" motif wherein >>the singer talks about his incredible problems in life and blames them >>all on the other people around him (often MOTOS's). [ROSEN] > Again, you may be confusing the image of the person seen through his art > with the art itself. Surely, there is an inseparable relation between > the person and the work but the likable or admirable qualities of one aren't > necessarily present in the other. But that's the content and message that this "art" transmitted to me. A vacuous one without substance. That particular "message" seems to permeate a lot of rock (especially metal) music. The "I am the center of the universe and if you don't adhere to my wishes then you're a slime fouling up my life" attitude. -- "to be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best night and day to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle any human being can fight and never stop fighting." - e. e. cummings Rich Rosen ihnp4!pyuxd!rlr