June 2006 - the Taylor / Gray Charles Interview

[AgingHippie]

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 26th, 2006 at 10:20 am

Finito

In conclusion . . .

Wow! This has taken a lot out of me and I’m a bit drained. This switch from being a creative writer with “Pop Culture Tourettes ™” to “journalist” has not been easy. I tried to do right by Taylor and be as fair and professional as possible. Perhaps someone with more experience would have played it another way - I wouldn’t know, I never consulted anyone about it.

The picture of Taylor that emerged for me was certainly different than the one I started with - how could it not be? Mostly I got a picture of a person who really wanted the music to be the “bottom line”. I’ve read comments elsewhere that from time to time Taylor came off as arrogant . I firmly believe that this is a misread of what Taylor said and where he’s come from. He’s been a working musician for almost 15 years. Now that he has a chance to create and to perform music on the world stage do you really think he should roll over and play dead? Should he humbly subvert himself to the production team and say - do what you want with me? If Clive and other members of the production team are going to force compromises on Taylor isn’t the optimal outcome for him obtained by starting from the strongest possible position?

I believe Taylor is making his stand here and saying – I’m going to do this thing the way I want to do it. I’ve worked at this my whole life and now that I have the chance I’m going to use everything at my disposal to make it happen the way I want it to happen. You may read that as arrogant; I call it proud.

Perhaps regular readers have detected a note of cynicism in my words and my persona over the last few months (What? No? Say it isn’t so). Cynicism about “The Machine” that is American Idol. Cynicism over the manipulation of contestants and performances and anything else necessary to hook and entertain us. I can say without reservation that any residual cynicism about AI that fell onto Taylor has now been lifted. Here’s a guy who has worked all his life to obtain something and now, perhaps, it’s within his reach. Great art is not achieved by being kind and pleasant to everyone around you. Does Taylor have a prickly side? Yes, I think so; I wouldn’t trust anyone who didn’t and I don’t fault him for it.

So I say to Taylor and to all of you, “You Are The Boogie” so “Keep Making It Do What It Do” and finally, I’ll leave you once again with the Dave Eggers quote that has been my own guiding light throughout this great journey.

What matters is not the perception, nor the fashion, not who’s up and who’s down, but what someone has done and if they meant it. What matters is that you want to see and make and do, on as grand a scale as you want, regardless of what the tiny voices of tiny people say. Do not be critics, you people, I beg you. I was a critic and I wish I could take it all back because it came from a smelly and ignorant place in me, and spoke with a voice that was all rage and envy. Do not dismiss a book until you have written one, and do not dismiss a movie until you have made one, and do not dismiss a person until you have met them. It is a fuckload of work to be open-minded and generous and understanding and forgiving and accepting, but Christ, that is what matters. What matters is saying yes.

Say yes,

Gray

Author: Gray Charles Posted in Analysis | 702 Comments »


702

Gray Charles Says:
June 27th, 2006 at 10:45 pm

Yes


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( AH note . . I'm not 100% certain after three years but think the Dave Eggers embedded link is to the same source that Gray used then. The color transferred with the paste to MSWord so know it was a link . . but unfortunately I didn't capture the original hyperlink. )

[AgingHippie]

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Hope you enjoyed your read . . .

Reading through the interview was sort of a "refresher course" for me . . a reminder of why I started this " Mr. Hicks' Wild Ride " in the first place.
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ETA: . . the thread is open for comments again.

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[Linda T]

Thanks for reposting this --- it was fun to revisit. It all seems like it happened about 4 million years ago, though.