Steven Van Zandt tells it like it is;
“I want to spend just a minute on a topic that never ever gets discussed in the music business — the music,” the Bruce Springsteen guitarist and “Sopranos” star said in a speech to the SXSW music and arts festival in March. “The reason nobody wants to talk about it is because it mostly sucks!
“Who are we kidding here?” he said. “Nobody’s buying records? Because they suck!”
He called the speech “A Crisis of Craft,” and implored listeners to get back to rock ‘n’ roll’s roots. Learn how to play cover songs, he said. Get people to dance. Harness your working-class energy. Take pride in craft.
What you trying to do Steve? Put Nickelback out of business!
It’s been two months since that speech, and Van Zandt is still passionate about the subject.
“[Rock ‘n’ roll] is a craft that has to be learned,” he tells CNN. “There are things you learn by listening to great records, copying heroes.” He believes that he said some things that people were thinking, but haven’t said out loud.
You mean, before you can start a band you have to learn how to play your instruments? Somebody better tell that to 75% of the bands in Sux Falls.