Re: (TV) richard comments-on-new-television-song

[Rex Broome <rexbroome@gmail.com>]

On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 7:28 AM, Emilie <emilie.t.hsu@gmail.com> wrote:

> Well, Richard has very peculiar ideas (sometimes mystical; actually,
> maybe all the times, mystical) about modes and scales, etc.
> Sometimes, I think about the things he taught me, and it makes sense
> emotionally - not that it is very easy to explain.


Well, you can't "technically explain" someone into thinking a song is bad
with that kind of "evidence".  You know, Neil Young only uses a couple of
scales in his playing, but really, I'm a musician myself.... so can anyone
sell me on the idea that the scale he uses on "Cortez the Killer" is "bad"
and that it's therefore an inferior song to "Bite the Bullet" which uses one
of the "good" ones?  Other things come into play when evaluating a tune.
 Lyrics, to cite just one example about which Richard can't be accused of
overly focusing on, to judge by his own efforts.

Writing about music is famously like dancing about architecture.  Trying to
argue someone into a different opinion or emotional reaction to an
individual song using "facts" is worse... it's like unloading both barrels
of a shotgun into a cloud and waiting for it bleed to death.

I simply hate it that any new shred of Television material now comes
packaged with the same Bazooka Joe comic strip of a screed from Richard
rehashing the same tired, irrelevant revisionist history and personal
attacks.  For one thing it makes it hard to "hear" the new songs to begin
with.  For another thing it makes me fear that if Television IV ever comes
to be, more will be written in the press about this pointless feud than the
new music, and that'll always remain all anyone talks about with regards to
what ought to be a milestone record, good or bad.

Calling Richard's behavior unprofessional is an insult to the memory of the
relatively even-keel Sid Vicious.  Characterizing him as bitter is like
implying that Norma Desmond had a smidge of difficulty adjusting to the
talkies.  Saying he's being a historical revisionist is like calling George
Lucas a guy who maybe once thought about reworking a scene or two in one of
his films.  Calling him unstable... well, you get the idea.

Tom is probably amused.  Billy and Fred have probably gotten to the point of
just rolling their eyes.  But I'll be honest, if I was Jimmy Rip, who's put
in years of duty with Tom and put more effort into blending his playing with
Tom's than Richard has since the '70s and is finally getting a chance to
show his stuff in what must be a well-deserved dream gig only to see the
prospect being eclipsed at every turn by the internet bitchery of a guy who
left the band of his own volition... I think I'd feel fairly justified in
driving over to Richard's house and premeditatedly punching his untreated
bipolar lights out.
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