Talent Betrayed

Rod Stewart not the place to start DISPROVING this — what is it? — cliché? Cuz if Atlantic Crossing was "ahead of its time", I don't specially want to be around when that time arrives.

I've always thought this was a really interesting idea: the unspoken contract we (sorry, who's "we"?), I mean, artists sign with readers/fans/the world/their souls... Much as anything I think the talent/ soul contract is abt, how will [x] feel, as life grows dim: did s/he get done what s/he thought s/he wd get done? Is it is it wicked? Or is it is it just lame and forgettable. Rod venerated certain peeple when he was a nipper: aimed to BE them himself. Then fame and wealth and gurlz beckoned, and he said Fuck veneration. Well, as you get older, the things you wanted when young come back to nag. Maybe. Sometimes.

Note (re: Guston): his Nixon/Kissinger sketches/cartoons have just been collected and published. I won't reveal by whom, or you'll note that I'm only shilling for my employer.

Answer to question: Sure, although this accusation is usually misused to mean "This person could be doing something that appeals to me, and instead is doing something that appeals to others." The majority of people in the world would probably argue that Rod Stewart did just fine, as evidenced by record sales.

But there are those artists who just sort of stop "trying," or at any rate drop their grander ambitions in favor of just enjoying themselves in other ways -- I suppose the most common route would be to go off and form some second-rate joke-rock or jam-band outfit and wank around aimlessly. Or those who do nothing: need I mention Kevin Shields? As much as his lack of output gets mythologized into some sort of perfectionism, I frequently get the feeling he's just not trying that hard.

> Who's to say that an alleged career misstep isn't actually a moment of inspiration/genius that's simply ahead of its time? (I'm thinking here of someone like the American painter Phillip Guston).

Well, the problem with that is that you won't know if he was ahead of his time till sometime in the future, no?

As for Kevin Shields, maybe he really doesn't have anything to say any more. And to keep quiet under such circumstances is, I think, pretty courageous, as opposed to just becoming another uninspired hack churning out product.

Also people can worry that they're GOING to be betrayed by their talent: ie that it will not take them as high as their ideals wd demand. Ralph Ellison after the Invisible Man; never able to deliver his SECOND novel. A kind of stage fright.

I have been shocked by the downsliding of Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Barndo. From an epitome of rawness and sexuality to bloated and boring tabloid stories. At least Marlon is still acting and by the Score looks like he has something to give. I watched Those Old Broads and it was just cheap on every level.

courtney fucking love

Talent cannot be betrayed. Talent is a process and has no feelings, how can you betray it? Whatever individual with talent does is the only thing they could've done at the time (more importantly, the ONLY THING they DID do), pointless to speculate about 'better' uses to which talent could've been applied to. Someday 'Blondes Have More Fun' will be 'vindicated' by someone. If 'Atlantic Crossing' is that irritating, form a band and call it the Black Crowes and plot the alternate Stewart trajectory!

We hate 'artistic deterioration' because the sad fact is that most pop avenues are blind alleys and we hate being endlessly reminded of that. Sure, 'Celebrity Skin' and 'Atlantic Crossing' were bad (and the former especially is a big stinking coiled bloody stool of an epitaph for a career that was such untreated sewage that I can no longer listen to their PREVIOUS albums), but what were the alternatives for them, become L7 in Love's case or Status Quo in Rod's?

Talent is a muscle. Talent betrayed is a muscle that is entropied. If you fail to work with your talent. Keep working with banality then you have betrayed it.

Antony, I think you have mistaken your talent for your dick. A dick not used is certainly one betrayed.

(Note to self - must post to "Is ILE getting ruder")

Cyril Connolly

Orson Welles

Johnny Marr

Naturally I agree about Marr, which is why - hey! - I mentioned him on the ILM Wasted Talent way back when.

Lloyd Cole's inability to release a record between 1995 and 2000 was a waste.

I ought to remember to mention the Sundays, but in a way that does not slight what they achieved.

Oh go on, slight what they have achieved. Surprise us all.

I can't believe no one has mentioned Q-Tip yet. His new record is apprently "jazz-rock". Oof.

Tricky - Blowback

The Johnny Marr comment reminds me: another prime route here is the "great guitar player in classic band" --> "Sure, why wouldn't I want to noodle on your record?"

Don't even get me started on the Sundays. I mean, have you heard that last record? If so, congratulations on not having chewed your own ears off during the process.

Why, of *course* I've heard it.