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Posted: 09-08-2013 04:46 Post subject: Genius in your lifetime

I put up, for my first three, artists ~ Syd Barrett, Stanley Kubrick and Ayrton Senna.

Syd, because he turned his music inside out, and we're still trying to figure out how he did it.
Stanley, because he's recognised by his peers as the best film-maker of all time, and film-making wasn't even what he was best at.
Ayrton, because he also has even the most savvy engineers debating how he was so damn good at his work and inspires passion in so many people as a result. I never saw him race, but I heard him from 12 km away every year for 10 years, so I count myself an aural witness.

Three inspiritors who I shared the surface of the earth with for a while.

Who do you rate and why?

Posted: 09-08-2013 05:18 Post subject:

Bob Dylan for me. Yes - I know, the voice...but - he had the guts to sing himself when everyone told him to just write songs for others.

He had the guts the plug an electric guitar and got called "Judas" for doing so - and he vastly improved rock music by doing so. He taught John Lennon how to write meaningful lyrics and gave them their first joint - thereby creating the psychedelic music scene. Without Bob Dylan, there would have been no Sgt Pepper.

Then he had the guts to turn to Evangelical Christianity when it was still deeply unfashionable - and while that was not a message I ever could go along with, the music was still great.

And then he went on to the "Never Ending Tour" - which is still going - and he's still doing well over 100 concerts on two or three continents per year at the age of 72.

Yup - the voice is shot to hell - but the music isn't.

And then the lyrics - a lot of it unsurpassed in my opinion - no one's ever written better rock music lyrics.

John Lennon wrote "Norwegian Wood" kind of as an attempt to write a Dylan song after meeting him. Dylan came back with with a reply - it is called "4th Time Around". Check out the lyrics - it was a bit of a song writers contest - musically the songs are rather similar.

http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/fourth-time-around

And my tag line, yes, that's from a Dylan song.

PS: I rate Ayrton Senna too - I love F1.

Posted: 09-08-2013 05:32 Post subject:

Good choice. A true originator. I've never been a Dylan fan directly, but his influence on those I adore is so widespread his impact can't be overestimated.

All Along The Watchtower

Can we put Hendrix forward too? You bet!
All Along The Watchtower

Posted: 09-08-2013 19:54 Post subject:

Yes to Hendrix.

Also, David Byrne. Simply the most consistently clever man in the rock biz. Ever.

Also, Isaac Asimov. A true visionary and great teacher.

Posted: 09-08-2013 21:43 Post subject:

i ll third hendrix and raise you a turing, also lynch

Posted: 09-08-2013 23:38 Post subject:

One of my personal inspirations is Dennis Potter. An exquisite wordsmith with real talent, passion, conviction and above all integrity. He brought something to television which was interesting, unusual and made you think and he absolutely refused to see it as a dumbed-down medium. He not only made incredible drama, but was also thoughtful, angry and articulate about where the country was heading back in the 80s and 90s - and he turned out to be absolutely vindicated in his warnings. Also, far from being the "Dirty Den" of tabloid fame, he was actually an incredibly gentle and generous man, plagued as he was throughout his life by his own childhood demons and debilitating illness.

Posted: 10-08-2013 07:10 Post subject:

I was a fan of Dr Richard Doll, the epidemiologist who first established the link between smoking and lung cancer.

He was such an interesting character. As I recall, his father wanted him to read mathematics at Trinity College in Cambridge, so he went off to take an exam there. He was staying overnight with friends, who took him for a night out at the pub attached to Trinity's own brewery. He woke up with such a bad hangover that he failed the exam and decided to take medicine instead. He went on to research the causes of various forms of cancer and other diseases and proved that smoking was a leading cause of lung cancer.

Growing up in the 60s, when nearly everyone smoked, I somehow got the message and decided against it. Thank you, Dr Doll. Cool

Posted: 12-08-2013 16:18 Post subject:

Me. If I am going to lick someone's arse, it's going to be my own. To put it a little more politiely, you worship these idols, Bob Dylan, Kubrick and the rest at great cost to yourself. You should have more self-respect and pride. These people are/were out for what they could get and what they get from you is worship and your money. You don't win in this world, don't get to the top, without being a bastard. You get there by trampling other people under foot and by selling your soul. The likes of Dylan played his audience for mugs: he knew the right buttons to press, knew the right things to say, know how to play people's emotions and that's how he made his name and fortune and name and fortune is all he cared about. If he really believed in half of what he sang about, he could not have fought and kicked and bitten his way to the top.

I once herad a radio phone in with Brian May (Queen) as guest. An "ordinary" person phoned in and thanked May for his music, talking as if May was generously gifting his creativity to the world. may accepted this compliment with insincere modesty. What an idiot that caller was! May charges for his music, makes people pay for his music. May is laughing all the way to the bank on what he charges for his music. And what's more, he can now sit back and wallow in the adoration of the mugs who made him rich and who now worship him as a god.

You lot really need to show a little more backbone. You need to stop letting these people pull your strings, stop being puppets of the rich and powerful, who do nothing but use and abuse you, and start taking some pride in yourselves and in your own creativity and accomplishments.

I had a friend who worshipped a tv celebrity. One day the bubble burst. My friend came down to earth with a gigantic bump when she realised "Oh my god, that man's just a person like me!" These people you worship are NO BETTER than any of you, if anything, they are worse. So get real.

Posted: 12-08-2013 17:13 Post subject:

I'm all for self belief but I feel your post, pantodragon, was raher vitriolic seeing as the post before it was about a Dr who did much in the study of cancer!

Posted: 12-08-2013 17:54 Post subject:

I know I'm a genius and but I can still appreciate others who are also blessed with the geniosity.

Seriously, I am a genius. You should check out my mixin' http://www.mixcloud.com/carlschalck/

I'm only messing about - although I still think you can appreciate other people's music, books, films or whatever even if they did make cash off 'em.

Motivation is irrelevant.

Posted: 12-08-2013 23:36 Post subject:

one of these kids is doing his own thing ...