Jon quotes me here (and is kind of enough not to point out that I tangled
up that last sentence and said the opposite of what I meant):
> > > I think your comparative points are
> > instructive, but of limited utility, when we're trying to gauge to what
> > extent rock influences have eroded or heightened the quality of country
> > music. It depends on the influence. Quality is subjective, but to deny the
> > lack of differences in quality is lunacy.
>
Then he addresses that statement with this:
> I'm sorry, but I just can't buy the
unqualified line you're selling here. There are passionate arguments here
all the time about the relative merits
> of one rock group or another that I couldn't care less about, and if I
> couldn't care less about their relative merits on their own terms, why would
> I care about their relative merits as influences on country music? Between
> you and me, I never liked a lot of
But isn't the history of country music more or less the history of its
influences? And that being the case, doesn't that make the influences,
and genres within the influences, very valid -- even crucial -- factors in
assessing the music? It seems as if you're throwing all rock music into
the same bag. And rock is a lot more diverse than country.
Jon says he didn't like a lot of "that Outlaw stuff
much anyhow - a song
> here, a song there, sure, but I never found it nearly as exciting or
> interesting as some other, less rock-influenced (at least to my ear) stuff
> that was coming out at the same time; the only Waylon Jennings album I ever
> bought until that Essential comp came out was the cassette version of Waylon
> Live, and that's because I really liked "Rainy Day Woman." So an argument
> that hinges on the superiority of the Outlaw kind of rock-influenced music
> over Twain's kind just doesn't go very far with me. As far as I'm
> concerned, the differences in quality (or, better, enjoyment) have to do
> with the less obviously rock-influenced aspects of their music.
>
I agree with regard to Waylon. I liked that tune, and Ralph Mooney's
memorable steel solo, better than anything else Waylon did. I was bored by
a lot of the pacing and oomph, pha, pha, type bass stuff, and was always
wishing he'd do more material along the lines of Rainy Day Woman. But
there was a lot of Outlaw and Austin stuff at that period with great merit,
including Waylon, Willie, Doug Sahm, Kris K., Asleep at the Wheel, Rusty
Weir, Alvin Crow and the Pleasant Valley Boys, etc. Now that I think of
it, the stuff from that time that I enjoyed the most, however, was the
material that borrowed heavily from the country side. Well, maybe I should
be making this argument, using punk country as my example of good rock
influences.... I'll let my tag-team partners take over for that. -- Terry
Smith
