...meaning there is no longer a contemporary major-label band I give a **** about. I'm trying to decide if that's a good or bad thing.
hey. . . if I'd married kate hudson, I'd be breaking up my band within the year, too. talk about twice as hard. . .
I suppose the only silver lining is that supposedly, Chris Robinson has been/is working on a side project with Marc Ford, who played guitar on the two best Crowes albums (The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion and Amorica). I'd buy that record, if it ever came out.
I probably shouldn't care as much as I do. When I look back at their last three albums (all of which I love), I have to admit each has meant less to me than their first three albums. Part of that is the sad fact of getting old. I was 16, 18, and 20 when the first three albums came out, respectively. At those ages, I think you're a lot more likely to treat an album as a seminal event. I thought of those albums as... well, as being goddamned important to who I was and how I felt. I was young and impressionable and desperately romantic, and there were songs on Amorica and Southern Harmony that said everything I wanted to say. I loved it. To the people in my life that were treating me a way I didn't want to be treated-- here's a couple dozen songs that tell you why you're wrong. I never would have picked up a guitar or written a lyric if it wasn't for Amorica, and I probably wouldn't have lived to be 21 if it wasn't for Southern Harmony. There are very few things as emotionally powerful as a band with real integrity providing the soundtrack to your life. I didn't grow up linking the ****ing Spice Girls or Bush or the week's Billboard Top 10 with my life, and I was for some reason fiercely proud of it. Still, you get a little older, you start being more concerned with bills and professional development and those patches of grey hair... maybe a rock and roll record just can't mean as much to you any more. Or maybe the Black Crowes just stopped making music that had that same desperate appeal-- I've heard a great number of their unreleased songs that spoke of deep passion and unrelenting, unapologetic feeling. I loved their last three albums, but I can't say any of them affected me as profoundly as Amorica and Southern Harmony. The fact that they still recorded powerful music but didn't put it on an album is something of an indictment of their integrity-- either they lost their taste in what was meaningful, or they were intentionally trying to make commercially viable records at the expense of the songs. Either way, it hasn't mattered to me as much the last few years. All the same, there probably won't ever be music as personally evocative as the songs on their second and third albums, anytime in my life. I doubt emotion will ever rule my life as firmly as it did when I was 20. But even if it managed to, I doubt a band could ever produce music more perfectly suited to my life than the Black Crowes did.
I hate it when people quote whole posts, but man, that was so good it had to be posted twice. That's why I personally play music, write music, live music. It means so much to me, and the thought that something I do might convey 1/10 the emotion that I feel to someone else is definately something that keeps you going.
BK, have you ever heard Drivin -n- Cryin? Another good little Southern Rock band from Atlanta that's all about the music.
damn, Kagy. I had no idea you had it in you. you put so well into words that gnawing, little ennui that I've felt about the bands I've loved again and again for so long. well said. for me, it was Living Colour, and it's ironic because they've just reunited after being separated for 7 years. even though I'm happy about them reuniting, I have an awkward feeling about it, too, because I know that I'm not 17 anymore. they're the band that impacted me in that way you're describing, or at least they were the first. since then, it's been paul simon and simon & garfunkel, ben harper and radiohead. and every time I fall so madly in love, I grow older, and it's not quite as relevant as it was. they spring up, they take hold, and sadly, they eventually stop being quite so relevant. but, like you said, there were times when they were so relevant as to be literally life-saving. man, you're just so right. I will never again be as passionate and emotional as those days when I would just let "Cult of Personality" bleed all over me from the car stereo. that's both a good thing and a bad thing. anyway, I'm sorry the Black Crowes have broken up. I hope my first post didn't come across as too flippant. the bright stars flame out. but I'm glad you wrote what you did. I truly appreciate it, and I guess all I can say is that I don't think any of us will ever grow so old that music will not still be able to affect us. the affection will be different, but I think it's still available. I still find it in my own ways. like you, I would never have written any of my own music were it not for the way that the music of Living Colour and others had spoken to me at the unique age. I'll leave you with a lyric from the songwriter who's affected me the most, and perhaps it will be in some way helpful with your current, past and future musical plights: time it was and what a time it was it was a time of innocence a time of confidences long ago, it must be I have a photograph preserve your memories they're all that's left you --paul simon, "old friends/bookends" pour a little wine on the concrete for the bands that kept us together before they broke up. . .
Nuggets4, chievous minniefield-- thanks for the kind words. Really glad you guys appreciated that... it's not easy to put that sort of thing into words. Music means something. It's important. It affects people. I think the Black Crowes get (got) that, to a greater degree than pop artists tend to. And I'll appreciate that whether they make another album or not. T Freak-- oh yes, I know Drivin' and Cryin'. Smoke is a great album, and I liked Fly Me Courageous and Mystery Road a lot too. Of course, that question would be like asking me if I like the Comets, right after the Rockets move to Louisville. Chris said it best: Don't you pity me Misplace my union Don't you disrespect me This is no illusion This is an exit -- "Exit", the Black Crowes
What's wrong with Bush? For whatever reason, Sixteen Stone got me through the summer of 1995 when I was in Chicago with no friends and, for the most part, no family. While that album may not measure up in the long run, for me, it was a defining one in my life, just like The Black Crowes were to you.
LIVING COLOUR RULES!!! Oh man, Will Calhoun is a GOD!!! They really made a comeback? I missed that. Damn.
Music can matter to anyone of any age, at any time, whether it be old or new. Everyone sees something different in the songs they hear, and each person can relate in a different way. I liked some Black Crowes....and I liked the first Bush album as well. Sometimes I really like to knock the music I don't like...but many times I try and sit back and remember that almost every song can mean something to someone. Just because I don't relate to it or grew up with it doesn't always mean it is without merit. In any case, it always sucks to see a favorite go. Sorry you lost one of yours, BK.
