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by jason brann » February 25th, 2011, 11:30 pm
no, obviously most music isn't written in the limo on the way to a burial, and obviously there has been a whole lot of dreck written about bad times. i'm also not suggesting you submit yourself to tragedy to draw inspiration. that's just masochism. but again, people don't suddenly forget how to write or play just because something tragic is occurring in their lives.
i forgot to list bach's partita in d, completed less than a year after his wife's death, and considered by many to be his greatest work, and possibly the greatest all of in classical music, and mozart's requiem, written on his own death bed.
while my guitar gently weeps was released in 1968. layla was released in 1970. that gives eric a year and a half window in which to fall in love with patti while sleeping with her sister, write all the lyrics, and record an epic, all while doped to the gills.
blood on the tracks, which you did not refute, was recorded in sept of 68 about dylan's marriage breaking up, which he claimed started happening in april of that year. live 1966 was recorded at the end of a tour in which dylan battled furiously against crowds dismayed to see him go electric, and again, a masterpiece.
pet sounds was written after brian wilson had to stop touring after a nervous breakdown, as was most of smile. he continued to write until his coke habit made him useless.
robert johnson hit the road after his first wife and kid died and second wife was dying.
in utero was written less than a year before cobain or whoever blew his brains out
add elliott smith to the list.
willie johnson went blind as a child after his stepmom threw lye in his eyes, and died due to exposure after his house burned down and he had no where to sleep but in the burnt out skeleton of it. most of the stuff in the middle wasn't great, either, spent playing for handouts on streetcorners.
i didn't list every blues player ever, just those two specifically, for those reasons. don't call it cartoonish or cute, it makes you look like an idiot.
i'd also like to point out that van gogh spent most of his life broke and insane, drawing starry night while in an asylum. and that i didn't list a lot of great music written while in the midst of addictions of one form or another.
i know there's a lot of edits.
Last edited by jason brann on February 26th, 2011, 12:06 am, edited 6 times in total.