Saturday, May 19




So am I missing something here? Why would a man who likes John Lee Hooker reject Janis because she’s a woman with issues? Perhaps it’s not manly enough to like a woman crooning about depression or being left lonely by her man. Of course, I’m not the one who’s classifying her career into that one line, but apparently, a lot of people do exactly that.
I’ve met so many guys with a brilliant taste in music who just disregard female musicians with this weird bias. And this happens when no one is singing of menstruation, or child birth, or all those boring things men don’t identify with.
But the male artists never had their body of music dissected in such a ridiculous way. So Dylan can sing of disillusion and politics and have the world empathize with him. Maybe it’s the advertising or the hype, but I find it really hard to understand how every bloody person likes him. And Cohen… women like him because they wish the men in their lives thought like him. But Joni Mitchell with her relationship advice could never have this freedom. And nor did Janis, who’s best known by these chuts as a manic depressive woman who shrieked more than she sang. About women stuff.
I swear I have a point. But unfortunately, it’s only abusive right now.

****


I met this auto driver today who gave me economics of owning an auto in Delhi all on paper. Apparently it costs 5 lacs by the time it comes down to them through the red tape. And if they don’t buy one, they have to pay some money as rent everyday. So they earn roughly Rs 150 per day. And that too after haggling with people all day about how much they need to pay. If they follow the meter, then they wouldn’t even earn that. Hmmm.
I can’t believe that I would willingly convince myself as to why buying a bag worth 5 grand makes sense, and still tell this man how 50 bucks from South Ex to Gk is too much to pay. I feel sick. Why do we have such terrible double standards? Guess doesn’t need my bloody money, they have way too much of that anyway. All they do is manufacture clothing in air conditioned sweat shops. And this man has to tolerate people like me weighing the worth of him riding an auto in this ghastly heat for 15 hours a day. It’s just 50 bucks. While I get off to drink rum 5 times that price tag.
This is the real democracy of our country. The fact that he won't hate me for what I represent and still laugh with me. Equality is the most nonsensical idea ever, what matters is how the unequals let the gifted ones be.

32 comments:

whitelight said...

She might have some great songs. But the fact is that she just has not got 'THAT ALBUM'. Pearl is a decent album. But then.....

LostLittleGirl said...

Ya I know.. but I didn't just mean her. ALL of them.

whitelight said...

Why everyone likes Dylan? For people like me, it’s the beauty of hindsight (Try and get hold of some original reviews of Blood on the tracks. That album was panned like anything.). And hype for sure. Also because he IS good.

BTW, a large number of his albums are full of shit too. Stuff like Planet Waves and Self Portrait. And then his 80's albums.

LostLittleGirl said...

But that's what happens when you have such a long career..bound to take out some duds. I love Dylan.. but it's not about that. Some people like him get stuck in caricatures of themselves. So ones who don't like or understand him are just not willing to say it. And people like Joplin and Grace get stuck in that rut too.

Spider42 said...

Personally I enjoy Janis Joplin and Joan Baez and occassionally some Joni Mitchell...
I dunno, now that you mention it, its true.. most of my friends dont have this issue, we enjoy good music - male or female - though we may each have individual choices as to favourites.
But now that i think about it, there are a lot of guys like that.. hmmmm. food for thought...
As far as Dylan is concerned, granted that a fair amount of his stuff isnt really all that great, but the stuff thats good is amazing, lyrically, musically and like Janis, he has THE VOICE!

As far as the rick driver thing goes, well I feel bad for em most of the time... resultantly, unless theyre being dicks about the initial asking price (and it happens more often then you might know, or my luck sucks!) i usually dont haggle much...

Electric Shaman said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Sayak said...

I love Joni Mitchell. I love Joan Baez. However, Janis Joplin makes me want to shove my hand down my throat, retch my heart out and throw it at the nearest vulture. Janis had the most spectacularly brilliant voice, but that, to me, was it. She just didn't have the same songwriting talent as Joni. Or for that matter Dylan or Cohen (not that Cohen was a phenomenal SONGwriter, he was a lyricist of godlike abilities). And where Joan and Joni could weave words into mellifluous, instantly-likeable tunes, Janis simply could NOT. She sang her heart out... literally, but from a purely aesthetic point of view, her songs aren't classifiable as DIVINE. Where Dylan could touch the masses, start a movement, a revolution, Janis could not, her songs were just too personal perhaps. Where Cohen could make a song appeal to both the common man and the littérateur, Janis could not write lyrics of the same calibre. Janis could bring the heart bleed and the eyes moisten by her soul-stirring voice, but as far as I can see, her voice was all she had... and that appeals to me only when I'm in a Bobby McGee sort of mood.

SwB said...

I agree with Sayak 100%. Cheers mate!

...And from where did John Lee come into the picture? :)All he did was sing the blues!

Anonymous said...

what bull. enough with the communism. gap deserves all the money they have. and if the autowallas' life is really so terrible, why are there thousands of applications for autos pending with the govt. and why do most of the assholes seem content with wandering around the city by themselves, plainly refusing to go anywhere you ask them to.
ive also met drivers who were perfectly happy with voluntarily turning on the meter and told me all this hulla was only because of the politics in the unions. they didnt even want a rise in the fares.
the regulated fares are there for a reason, not everyone traveling in them has extra 50 bucks to throw around. and going by that logic, you might as well hand the 50s out to the beggars you see at every crossing. its just 50 bucks. and they clearly need it more than you do.

as for the other thing, maybe i should move over to my own blog. i dont think it'll fit here. and im tired of being called sexist anyway :|

Prerona said...

but can it be generalised like that? do most people really not like janis? or do most people really like dylan? i dont! and anyway, does it matter? tonnes of people like madonna ...

i doubt that women really want their guys to think like cohen - i'd rather mine think like a banker - i'll do the dark thoughts and poetry for both of us and we'll live happily ever after ... lol ... just kidding.

whenever i think of her i think of chelsea hotel. someone had told me it had been written for her.

but generally speaking, when you say all of them ... i think there are relatively a lot fewer giant women musicians compared to male giants no? and the reasons might be circumstancial?

i think a factor is also that very few guys identify with or "buy" dark thoughts from women. whereas both guys and girls do the same for men. and again coming back to quantitative aspects - more guys than girls are serious music listeners.

ofcourse evolutionary psychology has its own sweet just-so-story to explain why this would be so ...

:)

ps - nice blog. pardon my spelling :D

whitelight said...

Joplin, Mitchell, Baez. People, there also exists a woman called Polly Jean Harvey. Who makes music as good as these ladies if not better.

Sayak said...

Completely agree with whitelight. PJ Harvey is brilliant! If we're talking about contemporary artistes then I shall also declare my undying devotion towards Tori Amos and Bjork. And I also love Sia Furler (sang Destiny with Zero 7).

LostLittleGirl said...

Hahaha..ok, at first read, it seems like a deluge of hate mail! I'm going to post more of this vague stuff...everyone takes it in a million different ways. BUT..many people thought that I was restricting myself to songwriters ..my bad, because I primarily spoke of Cohen & Dylan, but I meant anyone as an artist,although I was concentrating on a gender specific prism...

Duuude: Well, I always preferred singing from likes of Dylan,Cohen because they are not great singers really. They are poets who got famous enough to sing their stuff too. Janis is just a singer though, a brilliant one at that.I'm glad you see my point :) Ya well, they usually ask for too much, but it's just dumb how we don't cut corners anywhere else ...

Shamik: You retard!!! What's the big idea of posting my surname in here? My whole anonymous thing is becoming a farce..thanks to friends like you!

Sayak: I second you on everything you said. Joni Mitchell is surely a superior artist because she could do so much more than just sing. But sometimes,just singing is enough. That's when I'm in a Janis mood. And that's when Dylan's revolution and Grace Slick's wider repertoire of talent doesn't matter,for times when someone's talking personal.
The Bobby mcGee mood:)

Swb:Again!:)John Lee wrote a lot as well, but he's more of a singer. Like Janis. But I was just putting good music together...not necessarily blues or rock..This post is about a conversation. And we spoke about a lot of music.

Big eyed fish: Do you know what Communism means? Empathizing with anyone below the poverty line is not classified into a box of Leftist ideology as a rule. The applications are pending with the Govt because an unemployed man in a city like Delhi doesn't think of higher economics like the rest of us. The debt ratio of owning that machine doesn't matter to them, if nothing else works, then this is it.
Maybe we've met different people,and so we see different realities.
And yeah, I give 50 bucks and more to beggars and anyone else. I'm at a different place, but not far enough to negate the existence of adversity just because unions don't figure in my life.

ricercar: Hehehe. You're right, somehow men are more successful. I could come up with a lot of psychobabble that results in this but I'll spare us all:)
I wasn't trying to generalize..just noticing some broad strokes in people..Though I would rather my man thinks like Cohen, I can do practical banker thinking for 3 men put together!
Thanks a ton:)

Whitelight & Syak: Thank YOU! There's so much more.. I dunno why I didn't include the electronica women,especially when most of trip hop has such a barrage of female artists. Beth Gibbons, Bjork, PJ Harvey..Skye Edwards is not too bad as well.

whitelight said...

Gibbons. The coolest chick around.

Prerona said...

you are welcome! :)

you must do more of these posts, yes!
maybe explore the issues in more detail!

lucky you with your banker-ing! :D

LostLittleGirl said...

Yes I know! Leaving strings untied on this one led to a bit of confusion..but it's still fun! Actually, lucky you with your poetry..

White: :)

woenvu said...

more women: Cat Power, Mirah, Fiest.

oh, and Gibbons is definitely one of the coolest around, but given competition by one Alison Goldfrapp.

LostLittleGirl said...

Oh yes yes.. Goldfrapp is such a brilliant dancer too. Hehehe..that always the bar for me.

LostLittleGirl said...

Raises the bar I mean...sheeesh..the errors!

InExile said...

jesus christ...... !!!!

InExile said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
LostLittleGirl said...

exile: Er...what?

InExile said...

post hidden to avoid the prying eyes of the evil and the bastrardly ! blog comments too public for my taste !!

Spider42 said...

true, true... we can be stupidly selfish and oblivious at the strangest times...

moonstruck maniac said...

I like Joan Baez. Grace Slick, Janis, even K D Lang and not because of the usual reason.
patti, and well a lot more. i really wish I cud articulate right now.

moonstruck maniac said...

about the auto guys post; we all are humans, selfish, ignorant and self obsessed pricks

Prerona said...

yup - i actually came back to mention goldfrapp :D

LostLittleGirl said...

Moonstruck: You don't need to :)..is that why you've completely disappeared?
Regarding the selfish part, at least some of us are aware of the hypocrisy within..
Ricercar: 2 people beat you to it!Lol..

Prometheus_Unbound said...

U know u got a point there. Somehow none of the guys that I know really dig, Janis. Once someone even commented she was at max a moll to Dylan and Jim. 'A Band-Aid who aspired to reach the heights of the Gods'.

Honestly, first time I heard her, I hated her music. But over time she's eclipsed anything. Would have listened to her more often- only that it scares me too much. Feel like tossing up this job and heading out. Maybe you will enjoy this link.
http://ithacaunfound.blogspot.com/2006/12/one-for-diva.html

Prometheus_Unbound said...

I meant:
http://ithacaunfound.blogspot.com/2006/12/one-for-diva.html

moonstruck maniac said...

I haven't disappeared. I have been toying with the idea of shutting down my blog. But then... something stops me and I don'. So there.

sol said...

Talking about female greats from the times past (and not so past), how is it that no one mentioned Patti Smith? (Not even whitelight??) While I've heard only Horses, I can listen to one album over and over again.