How Do I Let Myself Get Dragged Into Stupid "Discussions?"


I managed to get into an arguement today with someone over guitar players... I fucking hate that! The worst part is that it was with someone that not only doesn't play a guitar, but they are basically one of those "groupie-types" that are everywhere that think they know all there is to know about basically shitty bands.

I do not like Joe Satriani. I liked his first two albums back in, like, '87, but everything since then has been shit to the point where I won't listen to anything of his that comes out (so maybe he's put out something great recently - it doesn't matter, I'm not going to listen to it because he sucked for so long...). There's nothing that anyone on this earth could say that would get me to change my mind about the fact that I don't like him. I explain this to people, but it doesn't seem to stop them from trying. They sit there and try to explain to me that I am "wrong" for thinking he's boring and soulless... Yeah... I'm wrong... I'm wrong about a lot of stuff, but not about how I feel about music, and especially not how I feel about guitar players... I loved having to sit there and hear someone tell me that I was "wrong" about how I personally felt... good stuff...

What bugged me the worst about it was how I said "I don't wanna argue about stupid shit," and all they wanted to do from that point on was argue about stupid shit... argh... to the point that when I brought up someone I liked, they would only say bad things about them... at that point, I figured it was time to end the discussion.

I am one of the more "de-evolved" players I know... and I mean that I sat around for years and years trying to see how many notes I could cram into a "solo." One day, I got tired of all the Paul Gilbert and Steve Vai wannabes out there and I disconnected my effects processors, took my whammy bar off my guitar, quit writing guitar solos into songs, and plugged my guitar straight into my amp and started playing chords, again... :) I couldn't have made a better move, ever in my long playing career. It gave me a whole new perspective into playing - yet it wasn't that "new" - it was going back to things I enjoyed when I first started playing guitar when I was eleven... When I want to, I can still burn... I just don't want to that much, anymore. But having to sit there and listen to someone that doesn't even play try to tell me about guitar players was just not worth it... it gave me gas.

Listening to: Black Crowes - "Three Snakes and One Charm" (1996)