# Most delusional thing artists say about their work **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 15, 2008, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-delusional-thing-artists-say-about-their-work/477210 "2008-12-15T05:57:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2008, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-delusional-thing-artists-say-about-their-work/477210/21 "2008-12-16T01:44:26Z")
> [@Freejooky](#): > > Michael Stipe, talking to Pitchfork about the new REM album earlier this year: > > Pitchfork: I wanted to ask about “Sing for the Submarine”, especially > what sound like some references to some older songs. It sounds almost > like you’re addressing a past self, or trying to explain yourself. > > MS: I can tell you. It’s really simple. That song presents my dream > world, which is way different from my waking world. It’s set in the > future and it’s post-apocalyptic. Everything is falling apart and it’s > all put together again, propped up with 2x4s and held together with > Scotch tape and superglue. The artwork for the record is kind of an > homage to that. It’s a collage, which rhymes with homage, I just > realized. It’s an homage to this kind of almost like a teenager’s idea > of what the future might look like, if he were using a Xerox machine > and cut-and-pasting it together. Which is exactly what we did to come > up with the artwork. > > So the song “Sing for the Submarine” is just taken from… I actually > made it up. It’s not from my dreams, but it’s placed in that dream > world. The older R.E.M. songs in there-- it’s like a legend on a map > to all the other songs in our catalog or some of the other songs in > our catalog that also come from my dream world. And although they’re > not autobiographical-- because I don’t write like that-- for me it’s a > pretty familiar place. By writing a song and referencing these other, > older songs I’m creating for anyone who cares a legend to where the > inspiration for these lyrics and these ideas came from, and also > admitting, or kind of outing myself, in terms of that part of my > consciousness that comes from my dreams, which is set in the future. > It’s a post-apocalyptic future, but it’s not frightening. It’s not > scary. I think a lot of people probably inhabit that same universe. I > look at other writers or filmmakers particularly-- a handful of > photographers, but a lot of filmmakers who do science fiction work or > what have you-- seem to inhabit that same dream world, so I don’t feel > that alone. I’ve talked to a few people in my life who’ve said they’ve > had similar experiences. It’s going back to when I was a child that > all my dreams are set in this destroyed future, but I’m fortunate that > it’s not a frightening place or a scary place. It just is what it is. > Does that make sense? > > Pitchfork: Perfect. > > MS: That’s where “Feeling Gravity’s Pull” came from. That’s where > “Electron Blue” came from-- electron blue being a drug that’s made out > of light. “Sing for the Submarine” is about a guy who in fact has gone > so deep into this almost neurotic state that he’s imagined a way to > escape from the city with his loved one in the event of some > cataclysmic…event. And that escape route is by way of a submarine > that is fueled by melody. And that creates the template for the song. > > I’ve read a million Stipe interviews and have never heard him mention anything like this. I am now imitating the RCA dog .BRRRRRRrrrrrraaah? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2008, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-delusional-thing-artists-say-about-their-work/477210/22 "2008-12-16T02:06:27Z")
In Heinlein’s _Starship Troopers_, when the main protagonist signs up for the service (necessary, in that world, to gain the vote), he puts down a long list of preferences, ending with “infantry”. He doesn’t bother to put anything on the list after that, since below infantry, there’s nothing left but things like field-testing spacesuits on Venus, or similar forms of creative suicide. Years later, Heinlein tried to claim that the service options weren’t limited to the military; that one could become a full citizen by serving as a mailman or the like. I’m sure Johnny Rico would have appreciated knowing that… It sounds like a lot more fun than suit-testing. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2008, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-delusional-thing-artists-say-about-their-work/477210/23 "2008-12-16T02:34:24Z")
The classic is the aging rocker(s), decades past their prime, who get back together to release an so-so album, then inevitably claim its “its our/my best work since X”. Where X was their genre-defining album released at their creative peak. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2008, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-delusional-thing-artists-say-about-their-work/477210/24 "2008-12-16T02:46:17Z")
> [@The New and Improved Superman](#): > > As for new contributions, let me just add pretty much everything & anything uttered by the members of Pink Floyd about their own work. I’ve never heard any of them ever say anything about their music that wasn’t gushingly reverent. And often delivered in the most sneering, condescending tone of voice. I agree – Roger has always been a bit of a windbag. The others only sounded pretentious because they were stoned. Dave, Rick, and especially Nick have always seemed to be pretty down-to-earth guys. ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2008, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-delusional-thing-artists-say-about-their-work/477210/25 "2008-12-16T02:51:14Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > Well, R Kelly _made_ **Trapped in the Closet** , which in itself is kind of a delusional statement, but, not content with that, he also evidently regards it as a work of genius. Here’s a nice [essay](http://www.alternatetakes.co.uk/?2006,5,75) on Mr Kelly’s _magnum opus_, and if you haven’t seen it yet, here are the [first five parts on YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCXlCkY4Y5g). I like much of R. Kelly’s music but the fact that he glossed himself the ‘Pied Piper’ then went on to be charged statutory rape made me quirk an eyebrow. I guess it’s possible he only knew about the pipes and the rats. Terry Goodkind, of The Sword of Truth series, thinks the he’s a talented writer. ---
**Author:** ![Soapbox\_Monkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Soapbox\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soapbox_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2008, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-delusional-thing-artists-say-about-their-work/477210/26 "2008-12-16T03:33:24Z")
Maybe if Chris Martin had the songwriting talents to backup his claims it would be excusable, but no, I’m sorry Chris, you are the most pompous douche in music today: > **[Coldplaying is temporarily unavailable](https://maintenance.coldplaying.com/)** > > Coldplaying is offline. [QUOTE=Chris Martin] Since Saddam Hussein has fallen from power we’re the next big target. [/QUOTE] Before X&Y came out he claimed the band would be “reinventing the wheel”. [QUOTE=Chris Martin] I think next time we’ll be everyone’s band. Our next album is going to be the greatest piece of music ever made. It is going to be really good. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2008, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-delusional-thing-artists-say-about-their-work/477210/27 "2008-12-16T04:00:29Z")
> [@The New and Improved Superman](#): > > [Here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xvy6vFbslg&feature=related) is a good example of Roger Water’s narcisisstic attitude, actually yelling at the audience for _cheering_ too loudly, making it hard for him to hear his own voice! Mostly he was yelling at them for setting off fireworks and random screaming. If I was at the concert, I would have been very grateful for him to have done so, too. He rightly points out that the people were being disruptive to the point of making it impossible to hear the music. I’ve been at concerts like that and I feel like I’ve wasted my money. I say bravo to him for saying what he said. I hate people who just randomly scream at the top of their lungs and make as much noise as possible at concerts. Some of us go to hear the music. (This isn’t to say that Roger Waters can’t be or hasn’t been a narcissistic ass at times, just that in this particular case I happen to agree with him.) ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2008, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-delusional-thing-artists-say-about-their-work/477210/28 "2008-12-16T04:09:00Z")
Most delusional thing an artist can say about their work #1: They rioted at Stravinski’s Right of Spring too. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2008, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-delusional-thing-artists-say-about-their-work/477210/29 "2008-12-16T04:11:11Z")
> [@](#): > > In Heinlein’s Starship Troopers, when the main protagonist signs up for the service (necessary, in that world, to gain the vote), he puts down a long list of preferences, ending with “infantry”. He doesn’t bother to put anything on the list after that, since below infantry, there’s nothing left but things like field-testing spacesuits on Venus, or similar forms of creative suicide. > > Years later, Heinlein tried to claim that the service options weren’t limited to the military; that one could become a full citizen by serving as a mailman or the like. I’m sure Johnny Rico would have appreciated knowing that… It sounds like a lot more fun than suit-testing. I’m pretty sure that Heinlein mentioned that non-military forms of service existed in the book. Jobs like mailman were presumedly the type of thing Johnny put on his preference list ahead of infantry. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2008, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-delusional-thing-artists-say-about-their-work/477210/30 "2008-12-16T04:13:59Z")
Back when _Baywatch_ was on the air, David Hasselhoff said that the reason the show was so popular was because viewers like seeing a show about a family (Hasselhoff’s character had a son). Hasselhoff said that the audience would like the show even more if there was more time devoted to his character’s family life and less spent on the beach scenes. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2008, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-delusional-thing-artists-say-about-their-work/477210/31 "2008-12-16T04:45:36Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > Not to hijack, but don’t these two songs [1](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xx53c_6h-W4) and [2](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYuS7_paGbU&feature=channel) rock? No, sweetie. [This song](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erJc4dzZ3IA) rocks. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2008, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-delusional-thing-artists-say-about-their-work/477210/32 "2008-12-16T04:49:26Z")
You misspelled “sucks”… (sorry, that song was the default if nobody put money in the jukebox at a Pizza Hut I worked at ages ago. If nobody put in money for like 10 minutes, it would play that song automatically. Oh man how I hate that song. Never liked it much to begin with, but ever since that I hate it with the firey passion of a million suns.) ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2008, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-delusional-thing-artists-say-about-their-work/477210/33 "2008-12-16T05:14:27Z")
Okay, sorry you don’t like that choice. Perhaps [something that is more along the lines](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRjlZ8x2uQM)of what Billy Joel was trying to achieve with those two above-linked songs. 30 years earlier, and a hell of a lot better. Look, I like Billy Joel. I’m from Long Island. I can’t help it. But the man does not rock hard. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2008, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-delusional-thing-artists-say-about-their-work/477210/34 "2008-12-16T07:18:50Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > Okay, sorry you don’t like that choice. > > Perhaps [something that is more along the lines](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRjlZ8x2uQM)of what Billy Joel was trying to achieve with those two above-linked songs. 30 years earlier, and a hell of a lot better. :dubious: Yeah, those songs are so similar. Well, anyway, I think those two songs rock. And so I’m not just hijacking a thread, I’ll nominate Oasis when they thought that they’d be the next Beatles. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2008, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-delusional-thing-artists-say-about-their-work/477210/35 "2008-12-16T07:48:26Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > Okay, sorry you don’t like that choice. > > Perhaps [something that is more along the lines](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRjlZ8x2uQM)of what Billy Joel was trying to achieve with those two above-linked songs. 30 years earlier, and a hell of a lot better. > > Look, I like Billy Joel. I’m from Long Island. I can’t help it. But the man does not rock hard. Sorry. Good call on Cochran. Billy Joel rocks hard in comparison to the Olsen twins. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2008, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-delusional-thing-artists-say-about-their-work/477210/36 "2008-12-16T09:18:30Z")
The first record by Héroes del Silencio was an enormous hit in Spain. A unique sound, interesting lyrics, tunes you could sing along. The second record dove into the Mariannas trench and came out the other side. It sold a lot on the first day… and then stopped, once people heard it and went “uh? are these the same guys?” I saw an interview with their singer where he claimed that “well, all those people who claim they don’t like this record because they don’t understand the lyrics are just dumb; I write for intelligent people, not for the dregs.” Dude, “the dregs” made you rich and several years’ worth of polls among Mensa members indicate that the officially-intelligent do not understand that second record either… ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2008, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-delusional-thing-artists-say-about-their-work/477210/37 "2008-12-16T11:23:47Z")
"Why do they cover Paul’s songs but never mine? " - Yoko Ono ---
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2008, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-delusional-thing-artists-say-about-their-work/477210/38 "2008-12-16T11:31:17Z")
> [@WarmNPrickly](#): > > Most delusional thing an artist can say about their work #1: > > They rioted at Stravinski’s Right of Spring too. Nitpick: It’s “ **Rite** of Spring”, or, Le Sacre Du Printemps, if you REALLY want to be picky. ---
**Author:** ![ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ryan)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2008, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-delusional-thing-artists-say-about-their-work/477210/39 "2008-12-16T11:40:00Z")
Not to hijack, but I’m pretty sure that in Heinlein’s _Starship Troopers_ jobs such as police officer and mail man were only available to citizens, ie: they required a prior period of military service. It’s been years since I’ve last read it, but isn’t there a bar fight or similar altercation and Johnny mentions something about reading the responding officers ribbon bar? Later he or one of his squad mates imagines getting “one of those reserved jobs, like policeman”? ---
**Author:** ![Carson\_O\_Genic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cdc98d/32.png) [@Carson\_O\_Genic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carson_O_Genic)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2008, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-delusional-thing-artists-say-about-their-work/477210/40 "2008-12-16T12:58:19Z")
> [@installLSC](#): > > I’ve also read a couple of books about Miles Davis. Davis often claimed his '70s fusion work was an attempt to attract the audience of Sly Stone and James Brown. If you’ve ever heard albums like “Bitches Brew” and “On the Corner”, it’s safe to say music like that wasn’t ever getting on Soul Train. ``` Taken in the context of his musical direction, I don't think it was a delusional attempt to reach a young audience. Going from heir to bebop protege to father of cool to inventor of fusion funk indicates someone with a keen eye to setting of trends. "Soul Train" notwithstanding I'd say he succeeded in attracting that audience though it cost him some of the traditional purist base. ``` [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-delusional-thing-artists-say-about-their-work/477210.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-delusional-thing-artists-say-about-their-work/477210.md?page=3)