I was not going to get involved in this discussion but having read all the accolades I felt I had to put my worthless 2 cents in.

I must agree with all the comments talking of his brilliance as a songwriter. But, even brilliant songwriters sometimes write something that might not be considered as such.

Mr. Brodsky, to preface this, graciously appeared at a benefit one of the hosts at WFDU and I put together a number of years back---we have a great picture with a great caption of that memorable event.

Now to the point.   Great artists--be they Mr. Brodsky or Leonard Bernstein have to be able to take a criticism of their work. OK--I don't know about "Lenny" (though I suspect it was part of the territory for him). Chuck Brodsky wrote one piece (it is the last one on this 2 CD set) that I found not clever but,rather, offensive, a few years back. When he found out my opinion of the piece---through an intermediary--he wrote me the most scathing e mail; it basically, questions how I ---who knows nothing of songwriting (his comment parapahrased)--could critique a creative person such as him. My take on that is if you have to defend yourself to a valid criticism in an insulting manner you are concerned about your own validity.

I end by saying that I admire his songwriting skills and find his "musical pictures" well painted---for the most part.

It has to be said that I have had many artists as guests on WFDU on various programs and any critique was always graciously accepted and commented upon. Well, save one---and that was not even a critique.


Bill Hahn