Heartland

DeWinter wrote:Oh dear..
Hussey and Eldritch together composed the best Sisters songs. Hussey writes iffy lyrics, Eldritch has a tin ear for guitars and thinks power chords are a good substitute for a catchy riff (the only decent post-Huss guitar riff I can think of he pinched from Stone Roses).
Eldritch may be smarter, but he's as charismatic as a wooden toilet-seat, Hussey is at least entertaining. Between them, The Sisters and m*****n make one really great band, as is, they make two pub bands I wouldn't pay to see anymore.

Come on now!

Body Electric, Alice, Kiss, Lights, Valentine, Fix, Burn, Temple, Body & Soul, Train, Gift, Floodland, etc hardly fit that description.

Eldritch may be smarter, but he's as charismatic as a wooden toilet-seat... You must be talking about someone else!
Hussey is at least entertaining... yes, all clowns are!

I love dicotomies!

mh wrote:
Body Electric, Alice, Kiss, Lights, Valentine, Fix, Burn, Temple, Body & Soul, Train hardly fit that description.

Did Gary play no part in the writing of these tracks?

moses wrote:

mh wrote:
Body Electric, Alice, Kiss, Lights, Valentine, Fix, Burn, Temple, Body & Soul, Train hardly fit that description.

Did Gary play no part in the writing of these tracks?

Body And Soul was written by Wayne.

800mak wrote:Eldritch may be smarter, but he's as charismatic as a wooden toilet-seat... You must be talking about someone else!
Hussey is at least entertaining... yes, all clowns are!

I love dicotomies!

No, I reckon it's fair. He's undoubtedly intelligent, although far better at identifying a problem than a solution judging by interviews I've read, but his personality comes across as arrogant and unlikable (he might be charming in person for all I know!), and his voice is a monotone Mockney/Northerner hybrid. Onstage he hardly radiates personality, why else do you think he hides behind shades, dry ice and a Lou Reed impersonation?
And you don't need to be a clown to be charismatic, Carl McCoy managed it onstage despite being near reclusive in person. I say that for a good live show you need someone with a dash of flair, and Hussey would counter Eldo's "plank of wood" stage presence.

DeWinter wrote:Eldritch may be smarter, but he's as charismatic as a wooden toilet-seat...

Eh?

No doubt one's enthusiasm for an individual is based upon highly subjective criteria, but Eldritch is the fecking definition of charismatic:

The OED wrote:Compelling attractiveness or charm that can inspire devotion in others.

You may not personally agree...but you're vastly outnumbered, in no small part because intelligence is enormously attractive (to anyone who matters).

DeWinter wrote:...his personality comes across as arrogant and unlikable...

A common assumption, but I've known too many people who came across the same way - and weren't at all.

And also wrote:Onstage he hardly radiates personality, why else do you think he hides behind shades, dry ice and a Lou Reed impersonation?

The reasons for this are well known - if one has bothered to find out, anyway, rather than simply make assumptions. And it isn't due to lack of personality or arrogance.

PipoTheClown wrote:

moses wrote:

mh wrote:
Body Electric, Alice, Kiss, Lights, Valentine, Fix, Burn, Temple, Body & Soul, Train hardly fit that description.

Did Gary play no part in the writing of these tracks?

Body And Soul was written by Wayne.

Not last time I looked it wasn't. "Written/Produced: Andrew Eldritch" right there on the label.

mh wrote:

PipoTheClown wrote:

moses wrote: Did Gary play no part in the writing of these tracks?

Body And Soul was written by Wayne.

Not last time I looked it wasn't. "Written/Produced: Andrew Eldritch" right there on the label.

Aye, FALAA - who's a fan of Side A or B

silentNate wrote:

7anthea7 wrote:(I don't give a deep-fried rat's arsehole about personal vendettas, except insofar as it makes the creation of music rather difficult when all one's energies are being spent on lawsuits and/or public displays of vitriol. Which was rather the case for awhile there...)

You should though- some of the best lyrics have come from such disagreements and I like a bit of venom with my rock music

Ah, I should have been more succinct - obviously I forgot the mayonnaise.

What I meant was I've no interest in taking sides in the ensuing fan brawls - unless it looks as if someone's taking a drudging for no legitimate reason.

7anthea7 wrote:
Eh?

No doubt one's enthusiasm for an individual is based upon highly subjective criteria, but Eldritch is the fecking definition of charismatic:

The OED wrote:Compelling attractiveness or charm that can inspire devotion in others.

You may not personally agree...but you're vastly outnumbered, in no small part because intelligence is enormously attractive (to anyone who matters).

Meeow!!
Like to think I'm a clever bunny, can't say it's made me more attractive though. I find wearing skin-tight clothing and being easy works better.
Think you might be confusing a great liking for the bands music with ONE of the band members. Eldritch's big mistake was assuming he could carry a band with session musicians with no input, as his career has shown. My opinion of Andy E isn't original or just mine alone among Sisters fans. I love FALAA and most of Floodland, and can trade anally retentive anecdotes about the band with the best of them. Fan of the band, not Andrew Eldritch. He'd hate the comparison, but him and the Nephilim's McCoy and Axl Rose are exactly alike in the same delusion. All three ditched people they thought dispensable and found out otherwise but refuse to admit it!

Saying all that though, I have no idea why people continually turn up to see him, bitch and complain about the lack of new stuff, the old stuff he doesn't play, and yet turn up again and again! Either he does possess some appeal I don't see, or people just go to the concerts to see other Sisters fans/re-live glory days of youth!

7anthea7 wrote: DeWinter wrote:
...his personality comes across as arrogant and unlikable...


A common assumption, but I've known too many people who came across the same way - and weren't at all.

I do sometimes wonder how I come across here, actually! Probably an extremely negative ultra-Tory..please don't enlighten me!

DeWinter wrote:or people just go to the concerts to see other Sisters fans/re-live glory days of youth!

...You really think we're all turning up en masse at Leeds to see the Sisters?

true to say that even if it weren't for the no standing tickets farrago in london, i'd still be heading to leeds over the capital for the heartland effect.

7anthea7 wrote:intelligence is enormously attractive

Not always. Just think of the stereotype of intelligent nerd. Not many people find that attractive. Intelligence on its own isn't attractive without other personality traits. And in the end, it's all in the eye of the beholder. For many people, intelligence with arrogance (real or perceived) is deeply unattractive.

mh wrote:

PipoTheClown wrote:

moses wrote: Did Gary play no part in the writing of these tracks?

Body And Soul was written by Wayne.

Not last time I looked it wasn't. "Written/Produced: Andrew Eldritch" right there on the label.

Nope: Clicky

DeWinter wrote:

800mak wrote:Eldritch may be smarter, but he's as charismatic as a wooden toilet-seat... You must be talking about someone else!
Hussey is at least entertaining... yes, all clowns are!

I love dicotomies!

No, I reckon it's fair. He's undoubtedly intelligent, although far better at identifying a problem than a solution judging by interviews I've read, but his personality comes across as arrogant and unlikable (he might be charming in person for all I know!), and his voice is a monotone Mockney/Northerner hybrid.

What I read in the interviews makes me think that Andrew plays a Doctor Jeckil&Mr. Hide thing in public. Like that he can live a life despite everybody having seen pictures of him and missunderstood interpretations of what he said, which might invite people an intellectual Love God wouldn't necessarily like to shake hands with him, hug him and tell him how great they find that he brings on paganism and vampirism so bravely.

DeWinter wrote: Onstage he hardly radiates personality, why else do you think he hides behind shades, dry ice and a Lou Reed impersonation?

*In a Jerry Clarkson voice:*
Some say he's The Stig's evil twin, some say he was Agent Smith's teenage role model: He's Andrew Eldritch!
*/Clarkson*
See above.

DeWinter wrote:And you don't need to be a clown to be charismatic, Carl McCoy managed it onstage despite being near reclusive in person. I say that for a good live show you need someone with a dash of flair, and Hussey would counter Eldo's "plank of wood" stage presence.

A matter of point of view for sure, which flavours of charisma one likes or resonates with. So far I never saw The Fields on stage (if money allows that may change this summer at the Amphi in Cologne) But very surely I find that this aura of unapproachable coolness is quite nice for a stage personality.
Whereas the aura I sense with Wayne is that of the hippie school psychologist. Yes, he's a very good guitarist with good skills at songwriting. The second best ever to play in The Sisters of Mercy, probably.
He wouldn't fit into today's shows anymore.

PipoTheClown wrote:

mh wrote:

PipoTheClown wrote: Body And Soul was written by Wayne.

Not last time I looked it wasn't. "Written/Produced: Andrew Eldritch" right there on the label.

Nope: Clicky

Nope:

stufarq wrote:

7anthea7 wrote:intelligence is enormously attractive

Not always. Just think of the stereotype of intelligent nerd. Not many people find that attractive. Intelligence on its own isn't attractive without other personality traits.

Oh, I quite agree - it's never intelligence alone. If I hadn't already known that, spending the last three years of my life immured with 50 software developers would have shown me the error of my ways.

And also wrote: And in the end, it's all in the eye of the beholder. For many people, intelligence with arrogance (real or perceived) is deeply unattractive.

Which is why I qualified it as 'anyone who matters'.
Anyone who finds intelligence to be unattractive by definition...certainly isn't worth my time.

Addendum: What many perceive as arrogance, others see as self-confidence and/or scathing wit (the latter of which I also happen to find irresistible ). Others recognise it as massive overcompensation... (Oops - did I say that? )

PipoTheClown wrote:Nope: Clicky

All together now, children: 'Wikipedia is not a reliable or accurate primary source for anything.'

DeWinter wrote: Hussey and Eldritch together composed the best Sisters songs.

i doubt they co-wrote any of the songs they share credit for together. through demos we know that most of FALAA was musically complete before the lyrics were added. a nit-pick i know, but it does make the difference between eldritch/hussey and, say, lennon/mccartney.

DeWinter wrote: Think you might be confusing a great liking for the bands music with ONE of the band members. Eldritch's big mistake was assuming he could carry a band with session musicians with no input, as his career has shown.... I love most of Floodland

surely you contradict yourself here as floodland was written -musically and lyrically- entirely by one man.

Pipo, the link you posted lists Body And Soul written by Eldritch.... which it was.

Anyway, purely subjective...

* Marian is the only Hussey composition which makes it into my top-Sisters-song list.
* FALAA: side B, of course.
* Of course Eldritch has charisma, don't be silly.
* Hussey was the best guitarist the Sisters ever had.... even if he didn't write the songs, he sure as hell could play them.
* I have NO interest in a reunion, because Hussey can still play guitar, but Eldritch's voice is waaaayyyy past its best. I'd rather go to a Hussey-solo concert, and enjoy the Sisters bootlegs I have.

nodubmanshouts wrote:Pipo, the link you posted lists Body And Soul written by Eldritch.... which it was.

I fixed it.

DeWinter wrote:Meeow!!

yerself!

And wrote:Like to think I'm a clever bunny, can't say it's made me more attractive though. I find wearing skin-tight clothing and being easy works better.

Depends on who you're trying to attract, now dunnit?

To quote one of my favourite geeks:

Ernie Cline wrote:In my kind of porno movies the girls wouldn't even have to get naked. They'd just take the guys down to the rec room and beat them repeatedly at chess and then talk to them for hours about Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle or the underlying social metaphors in the Aliens movies...

Now there's a guy whose criteria make me happy. (Although I'm not saying she shouldn't also be a total stunner, you understand...)

Seriously though (oh sure), although I my aesthetic sensibilities are exquisite, if there's nothing between the ears...there's just no point.

Back to DeWinter, who wrote:Think you might be confusing a great liking for the bands music with ONE of the band members.

Not at all, not at all...what I'm probably talking about is differing chromosome patterns.

And then he wrote:Either he does possess some appeal I don't see...

Yup. But assuming you're heterosexual, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

And lastly he wrote:I do sometimes wonder how I come across here, actually! Probably an extremely negative ultra-Tory..please don't enlighten me!

Oh, if you insist...

eastmidswhizzkid wrote:floodland was written -musically and lyrically- entirely by one man.

No Jim Steinman or Larry Alexander? Show me the label!


That's like saying U2 can write a decent album without Brian Eno & Daniel Lanois or Steve Lillywhite

You are confusing production and engineering with writing.