holy fuck this thread just gets funnier. zomg billy joel?! rob thomas?
rivers cuomo? have you even listened to weezer post-pinkerton?!

well forget about reed/wilson in this cause, again, like i said i was talking about what came AFTER dylan.

re: gnfnraxl
uh.. In Utero is their best album.

this page has really brought the lulz. i can't stop smiling.
in a way i do feel sorry for some of you. you're missing out on so much. but at the same, youse are so funny it makes up for it. brilliant.

lol! i'll get on last weeks ep tonight if that's the case!

i love PJ, but they're different to what Nirvana were about or coming from.

they are the last great American rock band & one of the greatest bands ever.

but Kurt & Nirvana belong to a different class. they belong in the Anthology of American Folk Music. PJ were 'just' a rock band. Kurt was more than that narrow definition. he was a writer & a spirit tuned into something deeper, something shared w/the bluesmen & whatever went before them he belongs in that lineage. his songs are of that style & quality.

it seems to me he's underrated on here. people don't grasp just how special he was.

i actually think if he hadn't fucked off, he'd have continued to create greatness. his potential was unlimited. he was a fucking waster tho.

i'm not denying there has been rampant commercialization of his image since his death.
but that doesn't diminish his life's work. which is as valuable & comparable to any of the great american artists, in any field, from the 20th century.

er... ok. i can't see that myself, tho i do love Machine Gun. & If 6 was 9 to a lesser extent.
i'm really not dissing on Jimi. i just find it hard to classify him as a songwriter per se, given that he elevated everything else. it's like his talents in other areas overshadow his songwriting.
but no, you're right he is obv one of the greatest ever.
but to go back to my original point - he was a contemporary of dylan rather than coming after him, which is what i was saying in relation to kurt. there's plenty of great american songwriters around the time of dylan - reed, wilson, mayfield, jimi. arthur lee! my point was what came after & bar townes & maybe prine & a few others like Prince, Kurt is the greatest. & he was tapped into that spiritual trip, whether he was conscious of it or not, of writing some of the great [folk] songs of his or any era.

from the moment i heard Jimmy the Exploder i fell in love w/JWIII's lyrics. over the first three albums he had this sorta homespun playfulness but mixed w/resentment & bitterness but delivered w/simple aplomb (the big 3 killed my baby - about detroits motor industry, or wasting my time which somehow recalls the stones' off the hook & i suppose a thousand other songs about the telephone but it's a simple lyric infused w/this self-righteous angst like a dying man's last stand, "waiting on a honest word forever").

& i mean he really perfected that sorta persona on De Stijl & WBC especially before slightly moving onto bigger bolder things on Elephant. DS/WBC are just perfect, the tracklists are a litany of perfectly formed songs and super sweet stories. it's just soaked in blues mythology but transformed by his great sense of humour. so many countless great lyrics: Little Room, Same Boy, Hotel Yorba, Finding it harder to be a Gentleman, You're Pretty Good Looking (For a Girl)! the guy was just relentless entertaining while disguising slightly his true mean intentions.
Elephant has a good few of those to, but he is definitely leaving that 'style' behind him w/that record.

the playfulness kinda went out of it after Elephant for long periods. there were a few tunes that harked back to the early (better) days but by & large he had 'matured' or had been overwhelmed by his fury & sorrow. & i mean he still conjured great songs but the mood was definitely different. & i don't think GBMS or IT were as consistent or as lovable as the records that preceded it.
it was on these latter two that, more than ever the quality of the songs about Meg stood out, for me at least - i'm talking about White Moon specifically, & even it harked back to one of his early greatest Meg-inspired works, "Truth Doesn't Make a Noise".

& i'm getting to my point now.
i think a lot was made of this being a 'divorce record' & in a sense it very much is. BUT i think my favourite moments from this album are about the divorce from Meg i.e. this time the split of The White Stripes. i genuinely think she is & always will be his greatest muse. in the songs about her he's able to conjure all his tricks, his fun & his fury, into real treasures. & i think that's the case w/Eponymous Poor Boy. it has definitely stayed w/me more than anything else from this album. for me it captures a lot of what i've always loved about his music & his songs. it's like he's great fun, but he's p pissed off & upset at the same time!

so yea... umm... i really like JW!

oh & i nvr posted re: those pics. maybe i was just jealous! wish he'd bring that shit over here. that does look awesome & are great pics. that truck is cracker.