Intelligent Musicians

[phildwyer]

"wrote his own autobiography"?

Hate to break it to you, but most celebs use ghost-writers.

 

[akirajoel]

Your chances of making good music are pretty slim then...

What does that mean?

 

[rednblack]

"wrote his own autobiography"?

actually not wrong grammer nowadays, did geri write her own autobiography?

 

[belboid]

Steve Albini seems to be razor sharp and a very good writer as well.

what's he written?

apart from the obvious.

 

[DaveCinzano]

did geri write her own autobiography?

geri's written an autobiography?

 

[changingman]

I heard it was palm reading?

Brian May always struck me as a bit of a palm merchant.. arf

 

[belboid]

actually not wrong grammer nowadays, did geri write her own autobiography?

geri's written an autobiography!!

is butchers in it?

sidles off quitely - cursing brizzle!

 

[DaveCinzano]

louise wener? a smartarse in control of her faculties

 

[DaveCinzano]

geri's written an autobiography!!

is butchers in it?

yeah, and it wasn't flattering so he's working on his own, provisionally entitled 'there's two ironsides to every story'

 

[butchersapron]

Hate to break it to you, but most celebs use ghost-writers.

We're not on about celebs really though are we? Most of these people are below the radar and well capable of writing their own autb.

 

[butchersapron]

What does that mean?

Well, the limited number of musicians who are 'clever' suggers that you'll be prancing around your bedsit a while longer...

 

[BadlyDrawnGirl]

Napalm Death were always supposed to be brainy chaps. Not that this comes across in Stuart Maconie's account in 'Cider With Roadies', mind.

 

[butchersapron]

what's he written?

apart from the obvious.

He wrote a great guide to thr record indusrty and why you should never sign with a major (not in some moral sense but a practical sense) - some very funny tour diaries as well.

 

[phildwyer]

We're not on about celebs really though are we? Most of these people are below the radar and well capable of writing their own autb.

I'm not so sure--Lydon's is ghost-written, for instance.

 

[rednblack]

lauren laverne of course very clever, and funny!

 

[DaveCinzano]

lauren laverne of course very clever, and funny!

and she's on my list - all approved and everything

 

[butchersapron]

lauren laverne of course very clever, and funny!

She was only a musicains for the 20 secs it took her to get noticed in london though...i like her though.

 

[rednblack]

She was only a musicains for the 20 secs it took her to get noticed in london though...i like her though.

fit as well

 

[BadlyDrawnGirl]

lauren laverne of course very clever, and funny!

I thought Marie Du Santiago was brainier.

 

[akirajoel]

Well, the limited number of musicians who are 'clever' suggers that you'll be prancing around your bedsit a while longer...

I don't think I'd ever go so far to call myself 'clever.'

And its not a bedsit. It's a flat.




(Actually - its a house.)

 

[rednblack]

I thought Marie Du Santiago was brainier.

yeah maybe, wonder what she's doing now anyway?

 

[butchersapron]

I don't think I'd ever go so far to call myself 'clever.'

Something we can finally agree on then

 

[Idris2002]

Some of those jazz blokes who were quoting the situs and various anarchists - though i've always suspected that might have been for show...

There was one Jazzer - Mingus it might have been I think - who had a whole argument about why 'Jazz' was a demeaning label that should be replaced with something like 'Black Art Music'.

It's quite possible they started out striking poses - but that could easily have turned into a genuine thing.

 

[Idris2002]

Reading a few books and going to a university does not make you 'intelligent.'

100% correct. Go to the head of the class.

 

[BadlyDrawnGirl]

I know this thread is about musicians' intellect aside from the music, but what of musicians who posess a great talent and perception within the boundaries of their music but who come across as rather inarticulate or even knuckleheaded in real life...Phil Spector maybe? Or Michael Jackson? Could they be attributed 'intelligence' (whatever that means, which I'm not sure now) on the strength of what they bring to their music...?

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

Greg Graffin from Bad Religion is an academic, in evolutionary biology I think.

 

[poet]

You want to look at bebop pioneers for really intelligent musicians, particularly Mingus and Coltrane - phenomenally sharp blokes, intelligent in that effortless coffee shop intellectual kind of way. The whole scene in the glory days was buzzing with people who were in the right time and place to be the first generation of black americans to have opportunities to flourish as intellectuals and serious artists.

 

[neilh]

just saw this thread and was just gonna say mingus - his book's a good read and he seemed like not just intellegent but a strong mind, determined to do things.
coltrane too.
i think for some of musicians, imo, if they've read a few books, or especiaslly if they're good at dropping names in interviews or writing unsubtle literary references in songs, then folk jump over themselves to go on about how intelligent they are.

obviously it's hard to judge, as the only way to really know is if they've done stuff art/science/literary wise.

from a classic kind of "brainy" definition, the guy out iron butterfly, i think, who died under mysterious circumstances, was meant to be a genius physics/maths guy( some folk say he was killed for what he had discovered and that, though how true this is dunno)

imo anyway, folk who seem to me to have intelligence (or have had it and lost it:

mingus, coltrane, bowie, sun ra, the elevators, the velvets, MF doom

 

[WasGeri]

Kate Bush.

Can't believe she wrote The Kick Inside when she was only 16 or 17.

 

[bristol_citizen]

David Byrne?