ain't no use to sit and wonder why baby

so i finally got around to watching I'm Not There, the wonderfully trippy biography of Bob Dylan. Six different actors each portraying a different dylan myth, none telling the true story, and none following any obvious chronology. Didn't always understand what was going on, but still a much more interesting film than Walk The Line, Ray, La Bamba or any other biopic that ties up a musician's life into one key theme and story. Lives just don't go like that. Besides Robert Zimmerman may have been a small town boy who moved to New York hoping to be Woodie Guthrie, but that doesn't mean that Bob Dylan was. Dylan is a fictional character by Zimmerman who can have any life story that Zimmerman sees fit.

Sometimes knowing too much truth about a musician is a hinderance. Right now i'm reading The Dirt - the Motley Crue story, where all four band members plus all sorts of hanger-ons dscribe their sordid experiences or rock, rape, drugs, stupidity, satanism, more rape, lots more drugs, and occasionally more rock and roll. As a young one i did like a few crue songs and its been interesting to have some perspective on what was going on (and down their throats) as they recorded each album. As a young music fan, i believed that if you liked a band then you should listen to all their albums and i kind of almost imagined that they were all made by the same band always trying to make the best possible album, but as this book illustrates really well, is that it was a different four blokes who made each cd, even if they always inhabited the same four bodies. they were in different places, taking different drugs (or none at all for their most boring records), and trying not to kill each other in different ways. Plus each album had a different producer with his own vision, different record company guy with his own agenda, and different wives with their own issues. I guess albums are like photos that you can't throw away, so you're stuck wearing that shirt and having that haircut forever.

These days i no longer assume that just because i like one album by a band that means i'll like everything they make. can't think of any band that has consistently made great albums. and making a bad disc doesn't take anything away from their earlier great ones. i'd love to hear anyone name a band that has made only good albums.

Shana Tova everyone