General Music Chat

I had a conversation with a kid I know, he's 18.
He used to be a student at a place I taught.

Evidently he's impressionable, more than I knew.

He asked me a question sort of like "if you knew that by getting into hard drugs, you would write something that would be your end all and make you famous and rich etc."

I just looked at him like he kicked my teeth down my throat and told him calmly, "Nooooo, dimwit, I wouldn't".

I started in on him, "first, even if that were true, it all comes with a price...just look at some older musicians that are famous. I think you can see how "BURNT" they are. (not burned, "burned" assumes some kind of fire)

He looked at me with a confused look.

I said, "Ozzy" >? and shrugged. I mean I like the man and he is a musician of note and has had a great career, but he's "toasty" as they come.

I said, "Do you think I am of this nature"?

He said "no". I asked him again.

I asked him if he thought I could write music if I was indeed "going this route".

He calmly told me that he thought that the last tune was due to the fact "I was trying something new".
OMG..I snarfed coffee all over the rug and coughed like I had been hit in the gut.

When I caught my breath, I lectured his ass for nearly an hour.
I threatened him. I warned him. I showed him video of what it looks like.
I told him what he could expect from this process. I told him that it was completely false and the only thing it would do is wreck his life in a very through way.

I let him know, unequivocally, that to do that was not the way to get the job done right, regardless of what you are playing, from acid rock to punk music and all in the middle.

He looked a little intimidated at the conclusion and I felt obligated to state that if I ever found out he was "experimenting", I would have to refrain from speaking to him as I didn't appreciate the fact he thought as he did.

I reiterated that it takes an awful lot of raw mental acumen to write good music, even with a partner. When you do hard drugs, you destroy a lot of what makes you who you are. If anything, it reduces the ability to think clearly and produce anything viable that anyone would ever want.

Clearly and slowly, I let him know that anything worthwhile I ever wrote was not under the influence of anything but pure excitement at the prospect of doing something worthwhile.

It simply is not your best effort otherwise.

If you write something well under the influence of whatever, you will invariably will do 100% better straight and well rested.

I told him that it hurt my feelings for him to think I cheated and took the easy road on the last tune.

One may like whatever style of cool sounding psychotropic effects, music etc, but that's all it is. Otherwise you'll be like Syd Barrett, playing 2 notes that span the entire show. Even worse, you might have to watch from the outside as what's left of your crew become famous and do interviews and albums about they "wish you were here".

Write your damn music but don't be stupid and careless with yourself.
Use your biggest muscle in your body, as a musician it should be your brain.

IF YOU ACT STUPID, YOU MAY JUST GET CALLED ON IT.

Good for you Scott.

I recently pulled up to a guy with Che Guerrera etchings and stickers on his car.

I knocked on his window and asked him if he knew that his revered revolutionary was nothing more than a murderer that killed woman an children in the name of his own selfish "cause".

He drove away pretty fast. That was funny.

Good for you standing up, Good for you Scott.

I say bullsh#t Mr. Scott, ignore the facts,
drugs of all sorts have been around since
the beginning of time. Syd had a mental
problem and drugs probably actually prolonged
his life, and helped with the quality of his
life.

Drugs have always been involved with music,
using drugs and abusing drugs are two different
things. Did you bother to tell the boy all the good
things drugs have done? Or are you only talking
about the drugs you think are wrong.

Behold the power of legal drugs, as the medical
community doses are whole society. Most will pay
the doctor for this prescribed dependance.

To say drugs have no influence on music, is not a
very well thought out position. You emulate and love
the music of the 60s and 70s, at the time many of
these were considered part of the "drug culture".
Yet put down drugs with out specifying what drugs
you're talking about. I bet today Mr Scott you use
some drug(s), is running a drug? cause I get high
on running. I'm tired of hearing these 1 sided, one
answer only disscussion on drugs. It's clear to me you
don't know what your talking about.

Make a list of the dead musicians cut down in their prime.
They were fools.
Join them if you like. I shall not.
Had my stint with acid & pot.
Cocaine thought it had me but I kicked it's ass!
Hashish brown nor blond could take me out nor could the black tar opium.

Now ... on a day off with little or no responsibility would I sit on my porch with my feet propped up on my dog and smoke a joint ?

Yes, if it were legal

But I'd also know that my body would be paying the price for my indulgence.

Get high on life is cliched as hell.

But it's the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me GOD.

I refuse to be responsible for the downfall of anyone, now or ever.

Like what you like, just realize that drugs do not fuel my music.

My excitement from making something superior in my own vein of music gives me anything and everything I need.

No one needs to destroy themselves to make something unique and wonderful. It's not part of the real process, at least not for me.

Yeah my music might be suggestive, but it's not what some are thinking it is.
Else I'd be mumbling, shaking and having a hard time putting my brains in "drive" and randomly yelling, "Sharon".

It can be a tricky tightrope to walk. If the 60's and 70's have taught us one thing it's most abusers and many users won't make it out alive. The few that have are old and a mess. Being a father of 4 I appreciate anyone telling young people it's not necessary or the way to go.

A good many of the old jazz greats smoked reefer. Some have said it inspired them to get into their music. I can relate to that somewhat. On the other hand, hard drugs are killer for most. I wonder how many of the great classical composers actually dabbled at one time or another.

I think that booze is as bad or possibly worse than pot. I don't advocate drugs. Especially prescription drugs. Those will kill you. Take something for your heart, it will destroy your liver. Take something for depression, it will have pages of side effects listed. The worst are anti depression drugs that may make you commit suicide. When I read the side effects listed on the label of any prescription drug, I would rather deal with the problem without them. Ever listen to the warnings given at hyper speed when they try to sell you a drug on TV? Just the side effects alone are worse than what you are suffering in a lot of cases.

Everyone accepts that simply because they are "legal" only because of lobbying by the pharmaceutical industry. You don't think pot would be legalized with a lobby like that behind it? Then it would be OK?

My Dr wanted me to take speed for my ADHD, (ADHD is only a catch word that doctors made up because they didn't want us to hear them refer to us as scatterbrained.) And they also wanted me to take Welbutrin (SP) which is essentially a synthetic barbiturate, according to my doctor. Pot won't cure depression, but you might not care if it does or not.

My father had a sure fire cure for ADHD back in the 60's.

It was almost as thick as wide made of leather and he kept it around his waist in his belt loops until it was time to apply it to my butt.

My parents used to keep a 2x4 behind the toilet.

They never hit us with it, but they used to shake it like they would and we'd all cry in terror. Well, until the day we stole it and threw it in the river.

After that, no one ever knew what happened to it. LOL
(problem solved)

My father had a sure fire cure for ADHD back in the 60's.

It was almost as thick as wide made of leather and he kept it around his waist in his belt loops until it was time to apply it to my butt.

Ha ha! That's Right Sans... Same thing happened with me... I was terrified into reforming LOL!

My dad used be a little bit off, from vietnam.

One day my older brother, just into his early teens, got into a big fight with my mom and called her a bitch, and he may have slapped her (that part is foggy).
He came after him.
My brother ran into the bathroom and locked the door to hide - dad kicked the door in, and then kicked my brother in the side, knocking him into the batthtub. Cracked his ribs.

Was it wrong of him to do that? Yes.
Have any of us kids ever disrespected our mother since then? Helllll noooo.

And there was never another episode like that again over anything - because we knew better.

My dad used be a little bit off, from vietnam.

One day my older brother, just into his early teens, got into a big fight with my mom and called her a bitch, and he may have slapped her (that part is foggy).
He came after him.
My brother ran into the bathroom and locked the door to hide - dad kicked the door in, and then kicked my brother in the side, knocking him into the batthtub. Cracked his ribs.

Was it wrong of him to do that? Yes.
Have any of us kids ever disrespected our mother since then? Helllll noooo.

And there was never another episode like that again over anything - because we knew better.

Some kids have to learn how to show respect the hard way...

When My son was 17 , he made an incredibly disparaging and disrespectful comment to his grandmother. I leaped from the other side of the desk, to where he was standing...and after I un-gently dropped his ass to the floor , I commenced to back-hand him as though he belonged to a pimp.

Now, I didn't break his ribs, but He was so shook up, that he contemplated calling the police... I told him to go ahead and do that... and maybe if we were lucky, we could share the same cell.... He changed his mind... I then reminded him of the huge apology he owed his grandmother....
He did...and he has never talked that way to his grandmother again.

Other kids...They get it and never have to be reminded...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl1ujzRidmU&noredirect=1

Just in case you didn't see that one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl1ujzRidmU&noredirect=1

Just in case you didn't see that one.

Yep that was funny as hell man! I actually dont like the idea of using a gun to get any points across (to a child anyway) but man...It was wayyyy f**k funny