Fine, you’re right (I thought I had an “almost” in front of “entirely”).
Which still doesn’t mean some things are just better. It might mean you prefer some things, but that doesn’t make those things better, objectively speaking.
An example of liking what I like, without knowing why I like it and having no desire to learn more is Cream (Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker).
The first time I heard their first album (Fresh Cream), was because my brother owned. And I hated it! Then suddenly in my late teens, I listened to it and fell in love it! I then spent decades learning about and listening to everything Clapton ever did, even digging into the blues and jazz since they influenced how he played. Finally, after listening to virtually everything that I could find from Cream, including bootlegs, I came to the realization that it was the chemistry between the three members that led Clapton to play the way he did and that it had never been before or since been replicated.
There are experts that talk about each members techniques and why they meshed, played and sonically challenged each other so well on stage, but that doesn’t matter to me. I just know that I like the music they made.
I share your love of Cream, but do you not love how he played on the John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers album?
You might not want to watch Beware of Mr. Baker. Fascinating, but we get to see the animosity within Cream, which was kind of depressing to me.
I used to think Clapton with Bluesbreakers was the epitome of his playing, which actually was what lead me blues players like Elmore James and Robert Johnson. However, I’ve come realize that the blues/jazz of Cream is what I really love and Clapton will never play that way again because no one can replace Jack and Ginger. As Clapton said in a Rolling Stone interview:
"Is the puzzle ever complete?
It’s never complete. But I remember one night in Philadelphia with Cream. It was near the end of our touring together [in 1968]. We knew it was over. We were just having a good time playing. And I remember thinking “This is as great as it will ever be.” Have I ever been satisfied? Definitely for one night, yeah."
I’ll probably never know what night the Clapton the expert is referring to, much less know what he found so great about it. But it’s nice to know that at some little level we share something.
I’ve seen Beware of Ginger Baker and found it fascinating. I met him once '80’s (still have his autograph) and asked “When will Cream get get back together.” (of course having been asked that thousand of times before and he just laughed. I’ve also watched every documentary on Cream I could find and have come to accept that Ginger is till bitter about Cream breaking up, Jack had moved on and Eric views it a a stepping stone to the blues he always wanted to play.
Many years ago a friend came over and introduced my wife and I to her new boyfriend. He was very much into magic, and was a true one-trick-pony (excuse the pun).
Everything was about magic. Every time I tried to strike up casual conversation he would divert it to magic “that reminds me…have you ever wondered why cards look the way they do? Let me show you something…”
He was very good at table magic, but it was tedious and boring. Perhaps it is not bad to refrain from becoming a true expert in something like that unless one truly knows how best to wield the talent.
Whenever my kids said that I would reply with “I have an answer…let’s see if they match!”
They would ask their question, and I would always reply with "Wow! My answer was ‘squid ink’; I guess they didn’t match.
It got to the point that as soon as I said “I have an answer…” they would reply “we know…‘squid ink’”
Great, I’ll give your method a try ;).
Yeah but these guys were grabbing the hammer by the head.