I’ve given this “speech” before, but imagine if you were J.D. Salinger. You wrote what you thought was a decent, interesting book, then moved on. But it seems as if EVERY psychopath on Earth has read your book, obsesses over it, and thinks YOU’RE the only person alive who understands him.
Do you BLAME Salinger for becoming a recluse, when every John Hinckley and Mark David Chapman thinks he’s a kindred spirit?
In the same way, just IMAGINE the kind of fan mail Stephen King must get. He’s probably got fans who make Kathy Bates look like Hayley Mills!
Even if he doesn’t hate his fans, he’s GOT to be afraid of some of them.
I used to like The Fiery Furnaces. They have some clever tunes, and didn’t seem to take themselves too seriously.
…then I saw them do a live show. Boy, was I wrong.
I’ve never seen a group of musicians more eager to get the hell off the stage and who had no interest whatsoever in delivering a decent set. Granted, the sound that night was absolute shite (it usually is, when it comes to Lee’s Palace) and their singer had a sore throat, but I’ve seen plenty of performers have to go onstage under the same circumstances who still managed to deliver a fantastic show.
I’m not sure the KLF burned the million quid because they hated their fans. They were simply making an artistic statement- though of what, not even they seem to be sure.
Incidentally, Bill Drummond later admitted that he now regrets having burned the money. Oops!
Yay! Look at the artists! They’re making a statement, man. So, like, let’s listen! :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
Hey, everyone, you know what? I’m an artist too!
I took a shit in a box and if you squint it kinda looks like John Wilkes Booth. Genius!
And because I’m deep and tormented, I’ll be in the corner smoking Indonesian cigarettes and frowning while I read Derrida.
Those fucking poser clowns. Guess what, boys, you can’t “buy deep”.
Fuck this pisses me off.
You know, I don’t think that’s quite it. He seems to have been disturbed by the uber-fans who took Star Wars so seriously – practically making it a way of life.
Rather than despising them, I think he was genuinely worried for them – or at least that’s the impression I got from what he said in interviews.
For those who never really understood Andy Kaufman, I’d recommend this read:
Friend/writer/referee/partner-in-crime Bob Zmuda wrote it and said that really, while the audience thought they were watching Andy, Andy was watching them. It’s like someone setting you up for a joke and you don’t get that you’ve been had…and you walk away pissed.
Interesting, too, that his wrestling of women was really his method of getting laid. While everyone was screaming for his head, he’d be talking to her, saying, “I have got to get to know you!” and often, the women went for it. All the grabbing and intense anger were just foreplay. Half the time Kaufman had a raging boner.
The Jerry Lawler feud—in the tradition of wrestling—all fake.
People kept insisting he was Tony Clifton. Sometimes he was, and sometimes it was Zmuda. Kaufman would be sitting at home watching Tony on TV, laughing his ass off.
If you don’t have time to read the book, watch “Man On The Moon” with Jim Carrey.
The KLF were fucking hilarious: they were a bunch of old punks having a laugh who didn’t take themselves remotely seriously - although The White Room was a fantastic album - their media stunts were partly Situationist, but mostly just old-fashioned taking the piss. On the eve of some British music awards they issued a press release announcing that they were going to chainsaw the legs off a captive elephant in Piccadilly Circus: the tabloids bought the story and went nuts with “Ban This Sick Filth!” headlines; they sat back and had a good laugh at how easy it was to manipulate the kind of publicity money couldn’t buy. On one of their “live” tracks on The White Room they sampled screaming crowd noises from old Doors and U2 albums, and basically dared the bands’ labels to sue them - if they could identify which screaming they’d stolen. Genius.
I remember reading about how Billy Corrigan of Smashing Pumpkins made some kind of comment during a show about how his life’s work was being destroyed by body surfers.
I went to see Fugazi a few years ago, and the lead singer would get disgusted if anybody started moshing. He kept preaching about how violence wasn’t cool. He chewed out a kid who jumped on stage for being violent, then had the security guards throw him out of the venue.
I saw Bob Dylan in Atlanta. It was one of those large competing stage/competing lineup events so I saw a number of acts leading up to his. They were all popular at the time, although I don’t remember any of them now. There was a lot of yakking and crowd-rousing and over-the top introductions for the earlier acts.
In stark contrast, Dylan and band walked quietly out onto a dark stage. No intro. Then the lights came up and they started playing. He didn’t do much extra talking that I recall but he connected. There was nothing sloppy or incomprehensible; those guys were first class musicians and they put on a first-rate show.
I didn’t agree that it was art, thus the scare quotes. But then I don’t believe that Jeff Koons is an artist either, yet many millions are wasted on his works.
