Liquid Friend
Group: Members
Posts: 17
Joined: Dec. 2016 |
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Posted: Dec. 16 2019, 12:46 |
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Preamble: I find myself taking a critical position in a lot of my comments on these forums, so I’m going to apologize in advance – here I go again. Just for the record, I am a lifelong MO fan, and if anybody within earshot criticizes him, I STRIKE!, without mercy; only I get to do that. But I read Changeling in one sitting yesterday, and I HAVE to unburden myself. Here goes.
It wasn’t “a musical autobiography”, so I won’t fault him for not focusing more on the writing and recording of the albums, even though that was what I was hoping for. But just to paint a picture: when he started writing about TB I put on the record, and I was particularly pleased to play side two twice as I was reading about it. That was the last time that particular reading-listening tactic worked though. Most of the time after that I only got half-way through the first track before he moved on to the next album. But fair is fair, he never made any promises to any other effect. Further, I much appreciated his candidness about his father and, of course, his mother. The scene with the two of them sitting at home, getting drunk together was heart-wrenching.
I think it’s fair to say the theme of the book is something like ‘psychological insight/growth’, ‘dealing with your childhood demons’ or something like that. And it’s the apparent lack of insight that riled me up the most when I read the book.
A trifle to begin with. Everyone knows punks hate dinosaurs. In the late 70’s media turned on progressive rock in favour of punk. So far, so good. But here’s Mike’s final analysis: “When these aggressive, spitting, swearing punks came along, I think the ‘powers that be’ [the media] thought they’d found something they could control, some people who would co-operate.” Really? The ‘spitting, swearing punks’ are more likely to co-operate with the media than the progressive rock artists? Granted, for a long time MO didn’t like to do interviews (after Exegesis in ’78 he did though), but that is a cross-eyed, blinded-by-bitterness theory of why punk kicked progressive rock off the charts. My point being that you can love your own work, but you can’t call people idiots for not loving it, not without looking pretty immature. Either take pride in sticking to your guns (which Mike often does), or join the winning team (which Mike does with Platinum and others).
Something more serious now. He is open about his regrets about not being a great father all the time, which is honorable. But he does present himself as someone who has learned about parenting – if only negatively – from his own parents, and from psychoanalysis. Then this:
“One day I sat down and worked out exactly how much it had cost to bring me up – all my education, my food, the first guitar, the Transit van and everything. I think it worked out at about £28,000, so I got £28,000 in cash, and put it in a little briefcase. Then I got it dropped off at my father’s surgery. I think he was quite impressed. I hope my children do the same for me one day!”
WTF? That is the equivalent of saying to your parent “Screw your unconditional love; I put a price on it: here, take it back!” He is not doing it because he is now rich and can spread the wealth; it’s a father-son economy, converted into cash. Honestly, what parent wouldn’t be offended by that? Mike wouldn’t know, because he just ‘dropped it off’, not even delivering it personally, with an explanation. And my God, his children are now expected to pay him back for the expenses they “owe” him? Not cool, Mike. You did NOT understand this whole “come to terms with your parents” concept. First complaining about being paranoid about who are your real friends and who are your paid employees, and then paying off you father. There’s a blind spot.
Then there’s the caning of the lion (now my euphemism for masturbation), mentioned previously in this forum. Yuk.
I posted a previous comment about how he deals with Maggie Reilly, but here I go again, because it has bugged me all day: “One day, I just decided I would book a singer for the next day. Maggie Reilly used to be a girlfriend of a keyboard roadie in my band. I knew she had a good voice, as she had done some backing vocals on some of the tours.” This is MO talking about the birth of his greatest commercial hit “Moonlight Shadow”, on Crises 1983. Now, Maggie Reilly had already put out an album (in Cado Belle 1976, unknown band to me), but it is shameful to introduce her in his autobiography as a ‘girlfriend of a keyboard roadie’. She sang the shit out of QE2 and Five Miles Out previous to Crises, he could not possibly have forgotten that. Remember those albums? She ruled. Now he is reducing her to a low grade groupie that he “discovered”. He goes out of his way to stress how he had to teach her “Moonlight Shadow” “syllable by syllable”. Hm, I’ve seen live shows, and MO the perfectionist makes lots more mistakes than Maggie. Just saying, maybe not work so hard to defame the person who was integral to giving your career a second life.
Sorry, my Liquid Friend is calling, gotto go.
-------------- Watch out for snakes!
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