A response to a Lefsetz Letter
RE: “This is our country” – http://www.lefsetz.com and the replies to your earlier posts regarding the AZ law.
I don’t see much of the music “lefties” in my day to day as a working L.A. musician.
The idea of a majority of artist-types being lefty or liberal is WAAAYYYY off, in my experience many of those replies reflect what I see these days, this weird kinda libertarianism that’s rooted in the most strict Rand-ian principles from like 7th grade.
Nuance, humanity, understanding and empathy take a far back seat to rigid adherence to ideals that are not only impossible to actually implement in the real world, but would only work in fiction, which is where they were popularized.
Here’s the thing, although while I was touring my records I would often get angry, (sometimes extremely and close to violent) responses to my political views, the rabid frothing right-wing anger I currently see from my fellow musicians is what I find the most disturbing. And I feel like it reflects the same shift in the music being produced…in other words, the type of thinking that gives you 60’s era CSN, Dylan, Mitchell, Baez etc al, does NOT jibe with the current working music landscape, but rather the kind of lockjaw-ed, pissed off, rigid, corporate minded, and “I’ll get mine and FUCK you” kind of thinking that I now see so much of amongst working musicians works pretty well in the current music environment.
I think that’s not surprising, and I think they both shape and strengthen each other.
It’s never been that kind of mind that was a creative force. That kind of mind has always been behind the scenes, predictable, a follower, a sideman, a seller, a middleman. The creative mind tends to be an outsider, open, fluid, interested, humane and unpredictable.
Of course those are HUGE generalizations and many exceptions can be found, but it reflects what I see around me.
You can use my name, if they know me they already know what I think.