Pro Fuck Ups

[chefcraig]

What I don't get is these guys that are still pretty shit after being a professional musician(or drummer) for 30 years which is kind of what I was trying to make this thread about rather than drifting into a rant about Metallica.

One possibility is drugs. I mean, did you ever notice that over their entire career, the Grateful Dead never quite managed to get any better?

[Nitro Express]

Well...they launched with those 1st three albums because of the awesome catchy riffs. Written by Dave Mustaine. You can hear those old songs & just tell what is a Mustaine penned riff.

Also, James is extremely likable. Cool voice, has the right look & attitude, and writes some decent shit with very very very cool lyrics. Maybe some of the best lyrics for metal ever.

But they are a much greater band than the sum of all their parts.

I still fucking hate Lars more than anything. I didn't care for Newsted either. That said, I totally dig Trujillo 110%. Love that guy. Kirk is hard to hate. He is like your little brother that tries really hard & is too nice for you to tell him to go fuck himself.

What made Metallica was their anti LA glam rock rebellion. That LA scene had become a bad parody of Van Halen and when something gets overdone and boring, people drift to something else. Metallica was really the first grunge band and in the early days, they had the "FUCK YOU!" attitude in droves. It was real and people can smell real rebellion and love it. You really don't need to be the best musicians in the world if you have the attitude and you can be great musicians with no attitude and your art will suck because of it.

[Nitro Express]

Once your life gets better and you are no longer pissed at the world, then you are going to lose what made your band work in the first place. What killed Metallica is they are lousy actors. Life got better for them and they brought it into the public eye. They made a huge mistake taping themselves and showing us what they really have become. As far as Lars goes, he's lazy. He ran off to play with the Teletubbies in the green grass and flowers and never touched the drums.

[ThrillsNSpills]

One possibility is drugs. I mean, did you ever notice that over their entire career, the Grateful Dead never quite managed to get any better?

another possibility is different motives. While we're wanting to assume these guys are in it for passion of the music as the first motivation, some are content to coast or phone it in or possibly just doing it for the fame.
They don't get the rush or satisfaction of improving, so it's not their focus.

[Nitro Express]

One possibility is drugs. I mean, did you ever notice that over their entire career, the Grateful Dead never quite managed to get any better?

LOL! The Grateful Dead was an acid soaked jazz band. There were no goals other than enjoying the journey to who knows where. They actually got worse as time went on but nobody seemed to care.

[ThrillsNSpills]

Like many of you I had absolutely no use for Metallica but they did a great job on the Freddie Mercury tribute.

I haven't heard enough of it to judge although their early bass player Cliff definately had talent.

[Nitro Express]

You can tell if your band is good by looking at the audience. When you start to see the smiles and people start to dance, bingo! you have them. If they just sit there, you are sucking and if they get angry, you are really sucking.

I think bands start to suck when they become studio rats. The musicians who get it, always play as much as they can in front of a live audience. You need that feedback and the audience is part of the art project.

[sadaist]

I can understand and forgive people not being that great at their instruments when they get signed, songs are the main thing and image is obviously really important.

What I don't get is these guys that are still pretty shit after being a professional musician(or drummer) for 30 years which is kind of what I was trying to make this thread about rather than drifting into a rant about Metallica.

I read an interview once where Hank Marvin said he didn't improve his guitar playing between about 1964 and 1989. I salute his honesty but WTF?

I got ya. Well what about Scott Ian from Anthrax? I swear that the Anthrax songs are so easy to play for any beginning guitarist. Just a few very simple bar chords. What I liked is that it was easy to get my fingers in the right spot and I didn't have to fumblefuck around the guitar neck looking for the correct frets. It was just a few easy chords.

But Scott Ian said it isn't about being musically correct. 4-2-4 or something. He said if a sound seems cool he will do it and repeat it over as many times as seems to be the coolest in the song. There are songs where the chord goes CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH 7 times, 11 times, etc. He didn't ever stick to the "It has to be played 2 times, then a change-up to 4 times, then back to 2".

95% of the fans don't care how complex or technically correct the music is. If it sounds cool & you can bang your head or tap your foot to it = album sale.


And once you get the band popular, what is the motivation to practice & improve your skill? No way dude. In fact you probably do that less since now you have money & lifestyle to sit back & enjoy. I'll practice my playing on the 60 dates we are playing live this year. Why attempt to get better if your current level of skill is selling a million albums?

[Nitro Express]

I was in a bass class taught by Jack Casady and he told us you can't excel in music without doing it with others and playing in front of people. He said you can practice all you want alone in a room but you will never master music doing that.

[jhale667]

I can understand and forgive people not being that great at their instruments when they get signed, songs are the main thing and image is obviously really important.

What I don't get is these guys that are still pretty shit after being a professional musician(or drummer) for 30 years which is kind of what I was trying to make this thread about rather than drifting into a rant about Metallica.

I read an interview once where Hank Marvin said he didn't improve his guitar playing between about 1964 and 1989. I salute his honesty but WTF?

I totally get what you're saying... if the old adage about "1 live gig equals 1 month's worth of rehearsal" is true, some of these guys - who should by now be beyond masters of their craft AND instruments 30 years later - aren't.

[Nitro Express]

You can keep the fire or you can morph into the Spinal Tap Jazz Odyssey self wankery stage. Metallica should call themselves Spinal Tap now because the do have a black album.

[sadaist]

another possibility is different motives. While we're wanting to assume these guys are in it for passion of the music as the first motivation, some are content to coast or phone it in or possibly just doing it for the fame.
They don't get the rush or satisfaction of improving, so it's not their focus.

I picked up the guitar with dreams of being a rock star (EVH in particular). My dreams were of being on stage, being rich, famous, admired, and bagging any pussy I wanted. I love music and guitar specifically. But I wouldn't say I have a deep love for the actual instrument and what it can attain. When I think of those types I come up with Satriani, Johnson, Vai, McAlpine, Lukather, etc. There are only a handful of those guys that if they walked into a room that had a naked super model and a new guitar in it, their eyes would go straight to the guitar & not even notice the naked woman.

I didn't want to be a wizard on the guitar. Just play well enough to make it sound pretty cool & get pussy.

[jhale667]

I didn't want to be a wizard on the guitar. Just play well enough to make it sound pretty cool & get pussy.

Conversely, I wanted to be a guitar wizard that got pussy...

[Nitro Express]

Conversely, I wanted to be a guitar wizard that got pussy...

I still think the lead singers get more pussy but then you can be the lead singing guitar wizard. Not only did Hendrix get laid a lot, they honored his cock by making a plaster cast replica of it.

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Some Kind of Monster is really what turned me off for both James and Lars....

Talk about a pair of absolutely spoiled, sellout assholes.... It's like they completely forgot where they came from....

On top of that, listen to any Metallica boot, and listen to how basically condescending James talks to the crowd.... It's like he talks down to the crowd....

On the contrary, I've always thought Kirk and Jason (and now Robert I would say) would be really cool guys to just sit down and have a beer with... Just like in VH I think MA would be that way....

Just my .02....