Voto:
@pretazzo:>>>>>1) The VU (like the Stooges) were ahead of their time for the simple reason that in the 60s the music generally played was very different from that of the VU (and the Stooges); starting from the late 70s (with punk, new wave, hc, no-wave, noise, indie etc...) a myriad of rock bands began systematically to sound like the VU (and the Stooges); 2) even offensive the reviewer?? I really don’t think so, come on... I notice a bit of sensitivity in your reaction; 3) the disvalues would be drugs, orgies, sadomasochism, a vagabond life, degradation, in short, all those things that the VU (and the Stooges) highlighted with their music, in a raw and straightforward manner, without mystifications, idealizations, or various hypocrisies.<<<<<<---1) Just because a music is new doesn’t mean it’s ahead of its time, and anyway I repeat, I see a lot of some Californian bands in the V.U., especially the 13th Floor; the music of V.U. and Stooges, like that of Fugs, Deviants, MC5, and many other less-known bands, was in my opinion nice music, but not ahead of its time. The influences of the V.U. in the subsequent decade transmitted only their worst side, namely social deviation, estrangement from the world, ghettoization, and so on. From a strictly musical point of view, the work of the V.U. was imitated in subsequent bands only in the less technical aspect of the music, and that doesn’t seem to me to be a good thing. I repeat, let’s praise the V.U. for the nice music they made, and let’s not give them credits that in the end would turn out to be demerits. 2) Yes, the reviewer was gratuitously offensive in 3 points: "ridiculous necklaces", "stop with those slogans, you know they will never happen", "the audience, slowed down by various derivatives of cannabis, didn’t understand". And then please explain to me why Jim Morrison's albums were fucking great, and what is meant by "portrayed like Christ on the cross", and what sense does it make to compare them with Jefferson Airplane. 3) Are these the disvalues that unite hippies and punks? First of all, there’s drugs and drugs; orgies and free sex are two totally different things, "sadomasochism" is not something I’m aware of, a vagabond life is certainly not a disvalue (on the contrary), "degradation" is too generic. In my opinion, those hippie values are not disvalues, but contested values by people who, like the reviewer, do not agree with them. Instead, as you say, should V.U. and Stooges be appreciated for having highlighted these things? I disagree; they will be appreciated by me only, I repeat, for the nice music they made.
