a blogpost about creative endeavour (being a musician) and how to think about it when it is over

 'he hasn’t created a character just to sell records, he has created his own world for the sake of enjoying making it come to life.' 

- devandra banhart on michael hurley.

a blogpost about creative endeavour (being a musician) and how to think about it when it is over

andy edward's political views horsemouth thinks are nonsense but he's very good on why people make music (or so horsemouth thinks). 

andy has seen the top of the rock industry (he spent four years playing with robert plant) and having been chewed by it he was spat out and had to make his own recovery. 

horsemouth enjoyed his time making music and was sad when it was over. frankly he much prefers the hobbyist way he goes about it now.  he gets all the pleasures of musical creation without the nagging need to 'make it'. and be successful. just writing, playing and recording is already a success. 

and this is where andy is right. to 'make it' is a dead end, because the fall starts from there, but 'making it' - doing something more or doing something better each time - that's the fun bit. 

horsemouth should really get back up on the horse. he is, however, feeling a little uninspired of late. 

howard's new stuff is good. horsemouth will give it a punt when it comes out. 

‘squeezing out sparks transcends the medium. I don't think there's anything as good as that by anybody anywhere. and I don't even take credit for it. I don't know what happened. I blacked out.'

– graham parker

like a lot of singers at that time  parker took the bob dylan playbook (be mean, be sneering ‘how does it feel?’) and kept pushing. think elvis costello - that was the comparison a lot of people made at the time, but costello was ultimately the better lyricist and songwriter (or maybe he just got the breaks).

compare accidents will happen and you can't be too strong.

ultimately there wasn’t room for both of them.

it came out in 1979 horsemouth probably got it then (certainly before august 1980).

horsemouth probably wouldn’t go with passion is no ordinary word’ as the track.

protection is probably the vital track,

‘so all of you be damned (we can’t have heaven crammed)…’

it’s an album that is all rage and disgust and contempt. (probably perfect for the teenage horsemouth).

and it is probably his best album (though not his best song - that’s probably hey lord (don’t ask me questions). up escalator the album after it is good too. stick to me (the one before) is good also.

but it's probably his best. so where do you go from there?