Fuck Art... Let's Rock

Having a couple of pints with my pal Veronica Moser the other day and the following came up:

Upon listening to the bar playing the Lou Reed album Transformer, I commented with regard to what a truly pussy, weak-ass non rock album it is. Although it was heavily influenced by David Bowie, Reed should not have been pandering to the Brechtian school of non- r n r (what was the harbinger of his Berlin period). I also commented that I would prefer they had put on Metal Machine Music- which at least was obnoxiously punk. Mr. Moser commented that I hate art and that it was all about The Ramones as far as I was concerned.
Well... d-uh!

As we were in this downtown en why cee tavern, we started chatting with a gal who with-in 15 minutes name dropped that she personally knew every bo-ho/hipster influence of the last 40 years (the most reverent Saints Thompson, Ginsberg, Ramone, et al; along with such lesser lights as Patti Smith). Which was all well and good, until she related a story of attending a performance of David Byrne. She apparently had to leave the show early, and the next time she ran into Mr. Talking Head, he asked why she bailed.
I suggested that if it was me, I would have politely explained to Mr. Byrne that it was my belief that he had done everything in his power to kill rock n roll with his assorted forays into what I would consider unlistenable crap (everything past Fear Of Music)and that if I hadn't left I would have been compelled to decapitate him.

This did not go over so well.

I've been listening to John Cale as of late. His Sabotage/Live lp (recorded at CBGB's in 1979) proved that the elder race of man could still rip the shit out of the music. And more than 20 years later, he was still shredding with the Circus Live collection.

Yeah, I know- he's "artsy". And into classical music. And the avant garde.
Fuck it.



Here's the Sabotage/Live LP... see for yerself

Toonage:

John Cale - "Sabotage/Live"