Mike Nessing writes:
The Comment That Ended Up As A Post:
Hey Iman, you should really check out Neil’s “Sleeps With Angels” LP, from the ’90’s. very good.
Costello, yeah I can see your angle here, and it is maddening, but consider that body of work that we want him to aspire to to be fairly unattainable. I mean, “Armed Forces” and its brethren is some of the best possible music anyone could make.
It happens to all of them.
I really think it has a lot to do with where they’re at as far as their celebrity. Elvis was at his best when he was on the outside looking in at the biz, writing his music, drinking and popping pills. You can’t say that he hasn’t tried to replicate that sound though, I think “Momofuku” was a true attempt to get back to basics, as it was recorded and mixed very quickly, in less than 2 weeks if i recall. The results are mixed on that one too,(although “Go Away” the last track is worth the price of admission) but I don’t think he has another record like “Trust” inside him anymore, ya know, and I don’t even know if its fair to even expect it
. Those were pretty dark days for the guy apparently, and that’s ironically when you get the best art. One of the funniest and most poignant stories I can remember is the one Dee Snider told about himself sitting by his in ground pool, trying to write the follow up to “We’re Not Gonna Take It”. And he just couldn’t ya know? He could not write from that same place in his life ever again, because those days were over for good.
Iman Lababedi writes:
I did love Young’s 90s output for the most part and thought Angels was a beautiful memento mori for the greatest rock start of the 90s., Kurt Cobain (Patti Smith wrote the superb, her best song since the early 80s “About A Boy” for Cobain as well) .
Cobain quoted Young’s “It is better to fade out because rust never sleeps” in his suicide note and apparently Young had been trying to contact Cobain for several days before Cobain’s death. The result, as I am sure you’d agree, is a heartbreaking testament to letting rust gather and perhaps the perfect riposte to “finite talent”. What are the options? Fade? Rust? Just do the best you can… none of us is growing any younger.