Re: Least Favorite Joe Songs?
Interested to read your comments about SILT, Jim - I bought it a few months back while trying to catch up with Joe's back catalogue and hated it! Thought it just sounded like any ten-a-penny fairly nothingy rock band. I've tried since then to get into it, as I know it is a favourite of a lot of people on here, but still no success. It really has pretty much been relegated to being the "drinks coaster". But now I don't feel so bad about the fact that I can't get on with it 
jackfossett wrote:I'm sure no one meant any malice - but I think the "I'd want to know the good with the bad" is a somewhat romanticized idea. We like to think we'd all be totally objective and that its all valuable knowledge... but in reality, its tearing down artwork because it doesn't suit your taste.
It would be one thing to say "this mix could have been better" or "I thought this song didn't fit with the other songs on the album" - but to just say "I don't like this, I skip it" doesn't accomplish anything. When She Dances is a good example - actually one of my favorites. Very different than alot of his other stuff, which I'm sure Joe knows and therefore expected there would be a mixed reaction. But should he never record a song like that again because some of his fans just want heavier stuff? What about the fans that do like it? Forget the fans - what about what it means to him? Its his artwork.
I say this coming from a songwriter perspective. I know as a songwriter some people will like it, some people wont, there's nothing you can do about that. Recently I had one of my songs reviewed - 23 people wrote glowing praise. 2 people tore it down. Guess which words resonate more with me? Yet I'm not going to rewrite it or change what I'm doing because of those two. Served no purpose except to reaffirm that oh yeah - some people just don't like it. Oh well.
Its one thing to say "I'm open to criticism" - its another to pour your heart and soul into a song and then have people reject it. Like I said, if you don't have something nice to say...
My $.02 (clearly thats more than $.02 worth, but I haven't factored inflation).
I discovered Joe after his first solo album was out for about a year. The second time I saw him he played a couple from his yet to be released record SILT. I still wanted to see the ANDY set list but no big deal he did a couple from the new album. It was released later that year and I'm not sure if you know the album but it was a major reinventing of Joe's sound and image.
I hated it. I was pretty vocal on his old forum as were others. Before I knew him well enough to say it to his face. Turns out he hated it too. It was an attempt to go more mainstream rock. I think the feedback helped him decide he had taken a wrong turn although in his heart he knew. He even today refers to that record as the drink coaster. Now I later grew to love that album and it is one of my favorites it was just such a drastic change of direction for me to follow at that time along with many others who liked him just the way he was as a Blues Rocker. He released Blues Deluxe soon after and it was like So It's Like That Was over. Still there were three songs that stay with him today from it. Pain and Sorrow with an entire appreciation thread devoted to it. Mountain Time with his epic live version and the acoustic rendition that is similar to the album version and the title song that is one of his best original blues songs.
One of the good things he says about being so prolific as a recording artist if you put one out that some fans may not like you get another chance with them next year. He did that with me again with Black Rock which followed TBOJH which was a tough record to follow. There are some great songs on Black Rock and I love them performed live just didn't much care for the studio versions. That doesn't mean I'm not a super fan it just means I give my honest opinion. He likes honest opinions as long as they aren't personal and he values it more from someone or somebody he respects their opinion of. If this was a hateful thread I would be the first to nix it. He however can separate the wheat from the shaft, here he knows most of the players pretty well.
