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My dear aficionados, 'fan' derives from 'fanatic'.

I understand the zealousness of the converted, how one is driven to bring others around, how sublime the joy in the newfound ideal, the sense of injustice at certain belief not universally held.  Let me tell you, fresh converts, be your interests religious, cultural, or otherwise, you will come to regret it if everyone joins your cause.  The more served, the less specialized the cuisine.  And if market-share becomes the goal, anything may be sacrificed to it.

I warn also of overexposure, burnout, and the disenchantment of those whose passion derives from the very newness of a thing.

Thus do I remind myself with every discovery I make (as, for recent example, the music of Phil Ochs).

Comments

  1. Anonymous3/31/2012 8:27 PM

    Ya lo se

    Sounds kind of folksy

    I get burn out with a lot of things. I listened to the same 4 Led Zeppelin songs for like 5 hours a couple weeks ago.

    It's cool how if you listen to the same song library over and over again the order of the songs becomes engrained in your head, and when one ends your brain is already playing the opening notes of the next, and if it doesn't play you feel lacking

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous3/31/2012 10:45 PM

    Ok so I've listened to it several more times, and I like how it's both melancholy and relaxing...for awhile I thought he was saying that the players "drop their pants"..this might be a good sing along song

    ReplyDelete
  3. Perlous Langour4/01/2012 9:41 AM

    It sounds folksy because Phil Ochs, who was friends with Bob Dylan early on, started out as a 'topical songwriter' in the tradition of Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie.

    I'm pretty sure he does say, "they drop their pants". This was the '60s, after all.

    You are right about aural expectations. I used to have two copies of the Beatles' 'I'm Only Sleeping' on record. One of them, the album that I tended to listen to more often, had a skip which caused 'lift my head' to skip three times at 'y head', and then continue on. It got to the point where I didn't even like the proper version. This was maybe 16 years ago, but it still plays with the skip in my mind.

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