Neil Young, like all deserving of the title aging iconic rocker, has turned into a bit of kook. Not that there’s anything wrong with this. He’s performed with everybody, including the fabulously understated Telecaster player Steve Cropper who died this week at 84. Cropper knew a few things about what to leave out, a trick that Young had mastered but has apparently forgotten. It helped that Cropper was more a ‘background’ guy than Neil and didn’t call a lot of attention to himself. But take his guitar out of any track he worked on and watch the whole thing fall apart. Or just listen to him on ‘Green Onions’ with Booker T. & the M.G.s. That’ll do it too.
George Harrison, another guitar hero, was famously known as The Quiet One. Some who knew him said it was a misnomer but it did fit his public image. It’s a good route for any talented musician. Let your instrument and lyrics do the talking and refrain from political pontification. Think Steve Cropper; not Steve Earle. Or anybody other than Bruce Springsteen, really. If Frank Zappa’s ghost could return to gently remind Springsteen to “shut up ‘n play yer guitar” it would be doing the world a large service. Or perhaps just a review of his own lyrics might suffice for The Boss:
a sad and funny ending
to find yourself pretending
a rich man in a poor man’s shirt
How could anybody be so self aware yet unable to help himself? It’s something that comes with age, this idea that you have thoughts that need to be heard. I suffer from it myself, of course, thus this vain exercise typing into the abyss. I’ve also been known to leave the occasional WhatsApp monologue or phone recording. More often than not it’s just an internal monologue reserved for the inside of my own sizable head. But the occasional opinion does escape and it’s rare that I don’t regret it. “Better left unsaid” is one of those valuable aphorisms that applies to just about everything save “I love you” and “did you check the stove?”
Speaking of sizable heads and things better left unsaid, Quentin Tarantino had himself quite a week referencing the actor Paul Dano. He called Dano the “weakest actor in SAG” and “the limpest dick in the world.” I’m not sure if either of these remarks constitute libel but I’m fairly certain the second one requires a lot of not easily attained empirical evidence. Also, the image of Quentin Tarantino and dicks of any turgidity is off-putting. Several actors, including Alec Baldwin and Ben Stiller, came to Dano’s defense. I suppose it’s nice to be stuck up for but why does it always have to be guys like Baldwin and Stiller doing the sticking? If George Harrison were still around, that would be the kind of guy you’d want sticking up for you. If Dano’s smart he’ll play it like Steve Cropper. Say nothing and just hit the necessary notes. So simple yet so hard to execute.
Post a Comment