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Musicians and Alcoholism
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Subject: Musicians and Alcoholism From: Little Neophyte Date: 22 Apr 00 - 02:42 PM I would like to see this thread continue. I have found it very informative and helpful. I haven't much to contribute on this topic except to say that those who have posted their personal experiences on the Alcoholism thread I find your courage to deal with the issue admirable. This is a very challenging subject for many. Little Neo |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: JenEllen Date: 22 Apr 00 - 03:04 PM Would it be fair to say that alcoholism drove me to music? I moved in with my father when I was 8yrs old. He was already showing serious signs of alcoholism. There were fights, blackouts, missing days, and then the music teacher at our school sent word 'round that she thought I should join the school orchestra. Ms Jane Eades, wherever you are, I love you woman. My first fiddle was 'Betsy'. We holed up in the bedroom together, well out of the way of the storms in the rest of the house, and we played. I'm sure it sounded like someone skinning cats in the basement, but to me it was always magic. Then my ear developed enough that I was able to trace music from what I heard, I borrowed the bluegrass and classical albums from the library and learned even more. I have been terrified of alcohol my entire adult life. I still have trouble with it to this very day. I went to a wine tasting with some friends a week ago, and nearly asked for tea! My father is still in the midst of alcoholic denial. "Oh Jen, I don't drink...whiskey anymore." "I only drink wine now, no just a bottle or two a night, that's all." And I am still using music to protect my soul. Peace and love and best of wished to others who are fighting this battle as well. ~JenEllen |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: Amergin Date: 22 Apr 00 - 04:00 PM Do you think there might be some pyschological relation between creativity and self-destructiveness? |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 22 Apr 00 - 04:14 PM "I would like to see this thread continue."
Now that is the most original opening remark in a thread I have come across! I must have missed the earlier thread, so I'd be interested in a link to it. This is a subject of interest to me... |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: Áine Date: 22 Apr 00 - 04:20 PM Click here for the original thread. |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: GUEST,Frank Hamilton Date: 22 Apr 00 - 07:23 PM Alcoholism is an addiction. Unfortunately, there are those musicians who equate their music with it. This explains the bar scene and the tradition of jazz that has gone with it. This tradition needs to be broken. I don't believe that creativity has anything to do with self-destructiveness. This is a myth that has been perpetuated with the nineteenth century romantic view as the artist suffering for art's sake. There are too many wonderfully creative people who are not addicted. There is another misconception that drugs and/or alcohol make a musician play better. This is simply untrue. If anything, it impairs the creativity the musician might have had more of without the stimulus. A lot of people think that they play better on drugs because their perceptions are blunted. Alcohol immpairs an individual's ability to hear well as well as think, see or walk. I believe that alcohol is a substance that is worthy of inspiring fear. I disagree with the doctors that advocate a glass of red wine to purify the blood or prevent a heart attack. Their view is simply shrouded in their own habits. The medical evidence for this is flimsy. I'm sorry to sound so adamant about this, but this is a very important topic because I've found over the years that not being able to work in bars or clubs and having to deny my hearing great jazz played in those places has been a hindrance at the least and a prison at the most. This music could just as well have been played in a healthy environment. Healthy doesn't sell booze and make lots of money. What's the priority here? Health or the profit of the booze industry? Frank |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: GUEST,flattop Date: 22 Apr 00 - 08:08 PM Studies in recent years have come up with hopeful news on addictions. One study found that, although a large number of workers in the London financial districts tried addictive drugs like crack, only a small number became addictive. A CBC radio program said that addicts who don't die from their addictions tend to grow out of them as they get older. They also said that, although tobacco is one of the most difficult addictions to break, thousands of folks kick the habit, many without any assistance. So, congratulations if you have kicked a bad habit or if you are about to kick one. |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: The Shambles Date: 22 Apr 00 - 09:28 PM I always think that it is sad, insensitive and a little dangerous when you see and hear musicians who have just one joke, during their act.
It is to talk about and glorify drink and it's effects. Saying things like how much they have had. How much they had list night and not being able to remember and all sorts of variations on the one 'childish' theme.
The surprising thing is that these very same people then go on to sing caring and insightful songs.
But in fairness, how many of the songs in the DT (and those in popular music and jazz), are in fact in praise of this and other substances? More I suspect that those that are highlighting their dangers? Why is this? |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: The Shambles Date: 22 Apr 00 - 09:34 PM Sorry that should have been 'last' not list. I just had a thought (a rare event). How many groups names glorfy the subject? I can think of two local 'pub' bands that do. Brahms and List and Booze And Blues. Without thinking too hard. |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: Rick Fielding Date: 22 Apr 00 - 09:57 PM I'm going to try and say this in as oblique a way as I can, but it's obviously a subject I care a lot about. A few years ago I took some friends to see a musician who had been a great influence on me. He was appearing here for only one night and there were about 100 folks jammed into a very small club. His reputation as a charming raconteur-singer-picker, was matched by the "mystique" of his being a life-long drunk and self-destructive eccentric. I sat (with the rest) and watched him perch unsteadily at the bar for almost an hour and a half after his supposed starting time, chatting with "cronies" who I'm sure he'd never met before in his life. Keep in mind that the guys at the bar (on the far side of the room) were there strictly to drink. They hadn't payed the 15 buck cover charge, and wouldn't have known the famous folkie had he not obviously preferred their company to that of his "fans" waiting far too patiently in the other room. It occurred to me that many in the "concert room" would have killed to spend 2 minutes with him. Perhaps to thank him for the albums, ask him about influencing big stars...talk guitars, you know, the things we like to ask the veterans. I was getting angry at the wait, and if I'd had more nerve, I've have said to my friends, "let's get outta here", but I didn't...for a reason I'm not proud of.. I sort of knew him from a few past festivals, and thought he might say "Hi, Rick", when he got on stage. Pure out and out vanity, I know, and I'm sorry. He eventually played an extremely poor set, with lots of convoluted stories that went no where, horrendous pitch, no attempt to be in tune, and continued to call for drinks from the bar. When it was over, he could barely stand.....and received a HUGE ovation from the crowd. I think some folk fans must feel that sheer survival warrants a standing ovation. Me, I was (obviously from this) devistated. Not a happy evening. I often wondered what would have happened if a couple of club audiences just got up and asked for their money back, instead of watching someone disintegrate in front of them. It might make a few performers (who need those audiences to live) wise up and moderate a bit. Sorry 'bout the rant, but that's what this thread is about. Rick |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: DADGBE Date: 23 Apr 00 - 12:04 AM You're right, Rick. Booze doesn't help produce the music one little bit. Any one in the audience with a drunken performer on stage knows it too. But there seems to be a link between art and drug usage which may come from the need we all have to communicate with each other. When I was touring as an accompanist in 1970 I saw many musicians who lived in an alcoholic (or other drug) induced stupor. Life on the road which made solitary confinement seem gregarious by contrast, took its toll. Since almost no body treated touring musicians like regular folks, the job was often taken by people who didn't know how to deal with other folks one-on-one. The recording industry offered these poor, lonely people potential stardom in which folks would flock to them so they wouldn't ever have to work to make real human contact. Needless to say, it didn't work. It was a bargain made in hell. But all of us musicians have a streak of isolation in us. Why else would we spend all those hours alone trying to learn our instruments? It's a strange dichotomy. Music lets us express emotion that we couldn't say out loud in our native tongues. But we learn this emotional language alone for the most part. Better stop rambling now. I don't think I know what I meant. Best regards, Ray |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: Kelida Date: 23 Apr 00 - 01:23 AM Drugs and alcohol are almost always portrayed enticingly, especially some drugs that are supposed to enhance the creative process. I hang out with an artsy crowd, and more than a few of them do drugs and drink and who knows what else. I know a lot of artists who create beautiful things while on psychadelic drugs and musicians who write wonderful songs while drunk, and some of them claim that drugs and alcohol are what give them their ideas. Personally though, as someone who has never done anything worse than smoke marijuana ONCE and smoke a lot of cigarettes, I think that people use this as a crutch and an excuse to keep doing drugs. If someone is creative while under the influence, they are creative while not on the influence. Maybe they aren't creative in the same way, but what they create is just as wonderful. On the otherhand, though, I can't imagine the world without the writings of Edgar Allen Poe or Ernest Hemingway or Lewis Carrol or Jim Morrison. However, I do wonder what some of these great artists could have done without the influence of drugs and/or alcohol. . . Peace--Keli |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: GUEST,Frank Hamilton Date: 23 Apr 00 - 11:52 AM Rick, I think I know the performer you have mentioned. I will not divulge his name. Anyway, there are others like him. Co-dependency is often generated by audiences who use the performer as some sort of shaman to do the "bad" things they wouldn't normally do. "Bad" behavior gets good press. Tom Cruise's videos, the Clinton Cigar, Sinatra's fisticuffs, Bird's "habit", ...the list goes on. There is the notion that a healthy, well-adjusted life is somehow bland and uncolorful. Who promotes this idea? How about those businesses that stand to profit from this view? The cig and booze industry? The drug cartel? The politicians who are paid off in cash and product? Has anyone noticed any connection between the addict and the disregard for the natural environment? One of the appeals of folk music for me was that it was an expression that emphasized continuity in a cultural tradition that was family oriented. The subject matter was often unpleasant but in no case were any of the songs of violence, rage, drunkeness particularly glorified. Drunkeness was ridiculed in songs like "Our Goodman" and "We Hunted and We Hallowed" or even lampooned in the music hall with ditties like "Finnegan's Wake" which paints the Irish as drunken louts. The goriest of the Scottish Ballads in America are meant as moral messages to avoid the life of crime. Even the cowboy outlaw ballads such as Jesse James suggest that there is a pathetic quality to these anti-heroes. Folk song is reportage often for instructional purposes in a cultural context. Even Pretty Boy Floyd has Woody warning against someone who will "rob you with a six gun as well as a fountain pen". In contrast, there are a lot of bar-room ditties that glorify strong drink as humorous. I believe these to be a marginal part of the folk tradition as they are definitely representative of some of the "folk". But the enduring songs are more thoughtful, less prurient and circumspect about a life of wantonness. Frank
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: Rick Fielding Date: 23 Apr 00 - 12:11 PM On the other hand.....Went to see Albert Collins at the Brunswick here, and after working his ass off for the rather thin Tuesday night crowd, he went around to EVERY table. He stopped, said "thanks for coming in", chatted and left openings for questions etc. He'd been playing for 30 years (most of the time in dumps, before he became a mega-star) and STILL felt he owed his audience the BEST. I was dumbfounded that this man could still CARE so much. Man, that's a positive image that sticks in my mind when I feel a bit "lazy" Damn it, I wish that "cool, aloof, and stoned" hadn't been seen as virtues as much as they were. Just got a few more "Rainbow Quest" shows from the library. Pete, Hedy West, Paul Cadwell, and Mississippi John pickin and singin' up a storm. Now THAT was satisfying! Rick |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: Duffy Keith Date: 23 Apr 00 - 12:14 PM Creativity and Alcohol....Creative people in general i think have a hightened sensitivity to life, and higher sensitivity means higher pain to everything...add this to the fact that creativity "bares it's soul" to the audience....not knowing how the material will be received, an extreme amount of insecurity can arrise from this situation....So, the combination of higher sensitivity, and extreme insecurity can lead to alcohol, which certainly takes the edge off, temporarily...It seems that many of the greatest creative minds, especially in the Arts, have had drinking problems, but this does not necessarily hurt the works, per se, but has more to do with the crative person's ability to deal with his or her world...Beethoven was a drinker, look what he produced....Andrew Wyeth is not a drinker, and look what he produces...it is a funny world...DK |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: Mbo Date: 24 Apr 00 - 10:42 AM You know that song by Adam & The Ants? "Goody good, goody good, goody goody two shoes, you don't drink, you don't smoke, what do you do?" Thats me alright! No smoking, no drinking, no drugs for me...and look what boring music I write! **BG** No really...sometimes I wonder what all the most messed-up musical performers & writers could have created if they were left to their original, un-chemically altered minds. Would Stairway to Heaven be as beautiful? Probably. Would it have made a little more sense? Probably! Sometimes I wonder if all those musicians had stayed clean, what would our music world be like today? The same? Different? Radically different. It's kinda weird to think about... --Mbo (who gets high on iced tea, Coke (THE SODA!) and cookies) |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: GUEST,Frank Hamilton Date: 24 Apr 00 - 11:16 AM Duffy, You bring up an interesting point. In many ways the artist in society is viewed as more susceptible because the notion of his suffering for his art. Whether artists as a rule are more sensitive is a question that's up for grabs. Some artists have shown themselves to be cruel and insensitive just like "others". The point you make is that this is more of a personality factor than a criteria for evaluating the art of the individual has some merit in my view. Some of the musicians whose work I admire have acted reprehensibly. So if the art is not contaminated by decent behavior, why not encourage this as a measure of good work with the idea that a better person will make an enduring role model for others without compromising the art? This, in lieu of representing the artist as a neurotic, anti-social being who should be forgiven for transressions? In short, who would you like your children to emulate? Frank |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: Duffy Keith Date: 24 Apr 00 - 01:01 PM Hi Frank, I enjoyed your input...I was raised in an alcoholic family, but as a kid always chose pretty decent role models, not perfect people, but stable, creative types, which was a way of dealing with the storms at home...Now, at 53, i drink a little bit, but do not have a problem with it and can take it or leave it...as to who would i want my kids to emeulate...? I would hope that they would be attracted to people with great ideas despite their flaws, and be able to make take the good and separate it from the bad....I don't really have a final answer to this question...thanks...DK |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: Whistle Stop Date: 24 Apr 00 - 01:06 PM On the other hand... I don't want to be seen as advocating alcohol or drug use/abuse, but there is a germ of truth in the myth that alcohol and other drugs enhance creativity. I'm no expert in psychology or pharmacology, and I only know what little I do know about drugs and creativity from personal experience (the less said about that, the better). But I do think that creativity can benefit from lowered inhibitions, because your less likely to censor your creative impulses. And drugs and alcohol are fairly well established as substances that can lower one's inhibitions; in fact, that's one of the main attractions. The problem is, the effect doesn't last. You may start out being thrilled with your newly-lowered inhibitions, and surprised at what you're able to create once the barriers are removed. So you go for it again, and get the same results, but just a little less dramatic. And the next time, you get even less from the experience, even though you tried to compensate by ingesting more of whatever substance you're using. Before you know it, you're dependent on your substance of choice, even though it no longer produces the same effect, and in fact may be creating a whole new set of barriers to creativity. And if you go far enough down that road, the initial positive result is replaced with a whole lot of negatives -- impaired function (musical and otherwise), embarrassing behavior, depression, etc. That's one reason these things can be so sinister for the creative person; they really do give you some of what you're looking for, but only at first. Again, I hope this wont be misunderstood as advocating alcohol or drug abuse as a way to enhance creativity. But this myth wouldn't be so persistent if there wasn't something to it, and I figure we can deal with the question better if we face up to that uncomfortable fact. |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: Duffy Keith Date: 24 Apr 00 - 02:29 PM Hi Whistle Stop, Well Written and good ideas...I agree with you...DK |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: Jim the Bart Date: 24 Apr 00 - 02:57 PM A thought from way off in another direction. . . I played country music for about 10 years. I saw the insides of a lot of honky tonks and met a lot of bad drunks, many of them talented musicians. One guy that I played with, a pedal steel guitarist, was absolutely brilliant in the first set and deteriorated rapidly as the night burned down. Over time I realized that it he drank consistently from the moment he woke up until it was time to pass out. This wasn't that unusual in a scene where you did six sets of dance music, often leaving for home at four or five in the A.M. We did it because it paid well and we were paying our dues; this was how you learned not only how to play the music, but what the music was all about. A bargain made in hell? You betcha! We felt it was the price of admission. We knew Hank done it that way. . . Anyway. I wanted to play my own songs and I enlisted my friend the Fish (everyone knew him as Catfish) to put together a "serious" group. Only one condition - he had to sober up, at least during the gigs. I recruited some great players on guitar, bass and drums and we started rehearsing. It was tough. But we worked on the music and it seemed that my assumption about Fish was true - he was bored in the bars, he needed a challenge and some support and he would break through. I wish I had taped every rehearsal. It was when we started gigging that I realized that I had mis-read the situation with my friend. He was paralyzed in front of an audience. One of the best, funniest, cleverest natural performers I had worked with (when he was only half in the bag), he couldn't face an audience sober. I had thought I was so damn smart. I assumed that his reasons for drinking excessively were the same as my reasons for imbibing on occasion - boredom, the desire to race close to the edge to see how far you can go and still reel yourself in. . .I really thought I could harness his talent - I fancied I could save him!! People are just too complex. A person's reasons for doing what they do are often too dark for those of us basking in the bright lights to see. That's why I don't condemn anyone for their excesses. Everyone makes his own deals to get through this life - some with God, some with their Mom and Dad, some with one of the many devils that are easily found anywhere these days. When I see a friend in need I will try to point out some alternatives, but I have quit pretending to know any answers. Life humbles all of us eventually. Oh yeah - I heard from a mutual friend last year that he heard from a guy at the waterbed store where Fish had worked that he had died. He didn't know the cause. Fish had been diagnosed as diabetic and he had to quit drinking. And after he had quit the band (a mutually conceded necessity) we had gradually drifted out of touch. It happens when someone quits and you're on the road. . . Sorry, I didn't mean to get serious on y'all. It's much too nice a day to stay in this mood. I'm gonna go outside for a while and soak up some sun. |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: Rick Fielding Date: 24 Apr 00 - 03:02 PM Great post Bartholomew, and very true. Rick |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: Whistle Stop Date: 24 Apr 00 - 03:10 PM Thanks, Duffy; I wasn't sure if this line of thinking would be endorsed by anyone. To return the compliment, I agree with you about what kinds of people I want my (three) kids to emulate; I want them to be thinking people who don't jump to simple conclusions, know enough to question bumper-sticker slogans, and can recognize that we are all a mix of positive attributes and human failings. Bartholemew, your recognition of the complexity of individual circumstances/motivations, and the limits of our abilities to apply our solutions to other people, is well taken. It's tough to be in the situation you describe, but I think you should give yourself credit for trying, rather than beat yourself up for your inability to come up with a perfect solution. We try to help one another, but each person ultimately travels his or her own road. |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: Peter T. Date: 24 Apr 00 - 04:53 PM I agree with Whistle Stop, Duffy Keith, etc. too. I have spent a long time around actors, and the best are people who are very sensitive and vulnerable, and yet have to be prepared to be rejected 95% of the time, and be accepted for the wrong reasons, and so on. I do not know why they go through this hell (Noel Coward's famous song "Why Must the Show Go On" notwithstanding), but they do. Some of them have to drink or do some kind of mild drugs just to desensitise themselves a little before they can work properly. I have seen this happen a hundred times. (Thankfully, that was not a problem of mine). I have seen some of them need more and more as time goes by, but also some who just have the same amount, year in year out. And of course there are some who are just whirlpools of horror. The tragedy is that what works well for some of them, works badly for others. I think that it is too Puritanical to condemn many of them: some ways of doing art are just dangerous and outside the rules. But I don't think people here are condemning them: it is just the pity of seeing all that talent wasted, all those fine people going under. But so often the balance between being able to do something and being howled down by your demons is so fragile. And so I think there is something in the fascination with watching people struggle with their habit onstage, the license to be a shambles. It is not by any means all that art is about: but there is something powerful about it. It is probably due to the realization that the person and his or her demons are equally matched, and fighting over inches of contested terrain. I don't see this as Romanticism; it is just the way things are. I remember seeing one of Tim Hardin's last concerts: it was a mess, but he was heroic in this bizarre way -- even though he had done it to himself. Who can watch "Some Like It Hot" without seeing how completely vulnerable Marilyn Monroe was, you are just scared watching her (it is not funny at all), or the later films and music of Judy Garland? Is it ghoulish parasitizing on other people's misery? -- sure some of it maybe, but maybe there is more to it than that, too. yours, Peter T. |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: Jeri Date: 24 Apr 00 - 07:39 PM About a year and a half ago, I watched what I think was a turning point in someone's life. He got up on stage at a local coffehouse and performed a very shakey first song, then stopped and spoke to the audience. He said he'd been a successful professional rock musician and had played for huge audiences, but hadn't played for over 20 years. He said he was so nervous, no, scared to death, because it was the first time he'd ever performed sober. In fact, he said he didn't remember much of his previous performances. After the huge round of applause that followed, he went on to play a couple more songs - still nervous, but a lot more confident. One comment...I think it's very hard for drinkers who aren't addicted to alcohol imagine how people who are got that way. The opposite is also true - it's hard for people who are addicted to look at those who drink occasionally, and imagine that they aren't, or won't become addicted. It's far too simple to say things like "He/she must be very weak-willed to have become an alcoholic," or "no one should ever drink because all drink will lead to addiction." People just react differently to alcohol. |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: Caitrin Date: 24 Apr 00 - 08:46 PM I've seen too many people throw away their talent, even in my comparatively short life. A former close friend of mine, a very promising actor and guitarist, is currently lord only knows where, doing cocaine and ecstasy. My stepgrandfather killed himself with alcohol, and my grandfather killed himself because of it. Some people seem to be able to handle alcohol and drugs without addiction or too many adverse effects. Unfortunately, far too many people can't. |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: MAG (inactive) Date: 25 Apr 00 - 12:41 PM Remember Richard Pryor: "Use this s*** for a week, and you a junkie." |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: GUEST,Frank Hamilton Date: 25 Apr 00 - 03:22 PM Condemning alcoholics doesn't solve the problem. Condemning alcohol might be a start particularly if abused. As to alcohol lowering inhibitions, this might be true but as to creating quality in art, the jury is out. Another uncomfortable fact might be that the "juice" might lower the standards as well as the inhibitions. Inhibitions can be dealt with other than with the use of alcohol. Dependency is harder. The biggest weapon in the defense of the alcoholic is the "excuse". Many audiences invariably buy into it. Frank |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: Rick Fielding Date: 25 Apr 00 - 11:07 PM Frank said " Many audiences invariably buy into it." Oh ain't that the truth! Rick
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: MAG (inactive) Date: 26 Apr 00 - 09:44 PM The only way alcohol can be said to help one's art is if one is so hooked, one needs to fend off withdrawal to function. Alcohol kills. Eventually one needs so much alcohol to fend off withdrawal, a toxic level of tolerance is reached. Then the cyclical dryouts. Don't get me started. |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: Frankham Date: 26 Apr 00 - 10:45 PM Hi Everyone, Thanks for this thread. It's very interesting and important. Also, I finally made it through and I'm no longer a "guest". Great to be a part of the Mudcat family. Frank Hamilton |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: Jon Freeman Date: 26 Apr 00 - 11:28 PM Yep MAG - you got it, you end up needing alcohol to function and to fend off alcohol and it is a hard battle to win even though you know the other side is certain death. It has nothing to do with how you behave after a few drinks... Jon |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: Rick Fielding Date: 26 Apr 00 - 11:31 PM Welcome Frank. Ya wanna go over to the "diminished thread" and help us out? Rick |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: Grab Date: 27 Apr 00 - 09:17 AM It's a question of degree, surely, and of how much coordination you need. Jim Morrison could get away with singing blind drunk, simply cos singing doesn't need much coordination. But the thought of trying to play a pedal steel after a couple of beers is scarey, cos you need so much more coordination. I make sure that if I'm going to play I'll never have more than 2 or 3 beers, and after 2 I'm no longer as good with my fingers. After that, I'll give up and just join in the choruses. Anyone else with me on this kind of theory? After all, sometimes you feel like playing all night, and sometimes you just want to sit in the corner, mellow out and listen. Grab. |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: Wolfgang Date: 27 Apr 00 - 10:36 AM related thread: Drugs and creativity. Wolfgang |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: sophocleese Date: 27 Apr 00 - 10:56 AM Well actually Jim Morrison could get away with singing blind drunk because his STYLE of singing didn't demand any skill whatsoever, but in general if you want to sing well, alcohol is not helpful. Some people use it to counteract fears of public failure, but it misleads into giving a comfortable feeling about performance when you're actually singing worse than if you didn't drink. I know I go sharp and generally have a harder time staying in key. If I want to respect myself in the morning after singing I'll stay away from the drink. |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: GUEST,Steve Latimer Date: 27 Apr 00 - 12:00 PM My mother used to work with a woman who was a recovering alcoholic. This woman some how found out that my sister was a musician and invited her out to a club in Toronto that was set up for recovering alcoholics (which my sister is not). What a great place it was, a small restaurant on the Danforth in Toronto's Greektown. It was a coffee house in the truest sense, coffee, tea, snacks and an open stage where I heard many very good performers, many of whom opened by saying something along the line of "I'm pretty nervous, this is the first time I've done this sober" From what I understand it's no longer there, what a shame, it was a great place for musicians and fans of music to go and pariticipate in music without the lure of alcohol. |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: wysiwyg Date: 29 Apr 00 - 03:16 PM For one approach to recovery, Click to See This. See me for details. ~Susan~ |
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Subject: RE: Musicians and Alcoholism From: GUEST, Threadie Date: 29 Apr 00 - 09:32 PM You're well on your way to receiving 'Most Prolific Poster Of The Aeon' award, Suzi baby. You must spend hours researching those little gems for us.
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