Thursday, September 1, 2011

Musical Mayhem

I came across an online article entitled The 30 Harshest Musician-on-Musician Insults in History. It is definitely worth reading for anyone who considers himself a historian of rock music, or in general a music snob, like me. I note that most of the insults involve alternative rockers; classic rock stars, particularly the British ones, generally seem to be friends with each other.


The article contains a lot of NSFW language of the kind that rock stars would use to insult one another. It also contains the names of various alleged, presumably English, rock stars such as "Richey Edwards" and "Alan McGee" whom I've never heard of and who didn't seem worth taking the time to research.


In the article's funniest quote, David Lee Roth said of Elvis Costello: “Music journalists like Elvis Costello because music journalists look like Elvis Costello.”


And Elvis Costello said of Morrissey: “Morrissey writes wonderful song titles, but sadly he often forgets to write the song.”


And Morrissey said of Bob Geldof: “Bob Geldof is a nauseating character. Band Aid was the most self-righteous platform ever in the history of popular music.”


That's a complex chain of hate.


Despite the adage that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, I doubt that these quotes can be construed to mean that David Lee Roth and Morrissey are in any way allies.


Also of note, Robert Smith said of Morrissey: “If Morrissey says not to eat meat, then I’ll eat meat — that’s how much I hate Morrissey.”


So perhaps Elvis Costello and Robert Smith are allies, if nothing else allies in the fight against Morrissey.


Ironically, though, despite the hostility, both Robert Smith and Morrissey have trilobites named after them.