LeeMail- 4/21/2000

LEEMail

Rape me. Rape me, my friend.

Face it, kids. Napster is thievery - plain & simple. It's shoplifting, it's robbery, it's wrong. People are going to Napster & downloading the music of artists who need to sell records. It's essentially a way for computer geeks to stay in front of their computers even longer, and not do a little thing called LIFE. The hacking into & disruption of Metallica's official site after the band filed a deserved and much-needed lawsuit against Napster, was the last straw for me. Fuck Napster and all of its little bitches. Those cunts are destroying the now very delicate business of music, or at least what's left of it. They're downloading the music of the little guy who is being overlooked by the record company because the record company is spending all of its money and focusing all of its attention on the new "Britney Spears" record. Why not get mad at the big guy, then? Well, people are PURCHASING the "Britney Spears" record! Which would you promote? And, although Metallica are certainly giants in the industry, they have every right to be as protective of their craft as anyone else. The indie
labels are getting completely hosed by Napster. Users of Napster are simply taking money out of the pocket of the artist - and that artist's pocket is empty and needs that money. "One person doesn't make that much of a difference, Lee." You wanna bet? Selling 1,000 copies of a record is extremely important to small labels. You'd be surprised how many Napster users there are in a sampling of 1,000 (once) serious record buyers. "But Lee, there's too much out there and there's no way I can listen to it all to find out what I like." BULLSHIT! You did it before Napster. Get off your ass and go to a record store - preferably a Mom & Pop, and talk to a clerk. Read a magazine. Take a chance. Put your money where your mouth is. Plus, most Napster users don't just use it as a "listening station". They wear it like the trenchcoat that they use to hide the CDs they stuff in their pockets before leaving the store without paying. "Get off your high horse. Everybody's doing it." There's the rub. Go along with the crowd, you cowards. This isn't a fucking Afterschool Special, it's people's livelihoods. There is not a single benefit for ANY of the artists posted on Napster. Napster only benefits the end-user & itself. Sure people are "discovering" new music and artists are getting "exposure". But it's completely out of those artists' hands, and having their product given away freely negates any benefit it might pose. I guess that's the nature of business, though. Rape the little guy, or at least make sure you're friends with the rapist. But, music fans, during this rebirth of the music industry, shouldn't we put the focus back where it needs to be - on the Artist? If you're currently using Napster, please stop. Thank you.

Favorite Song Of All Time This Week©: "Been Caught Stealing" - Jane's Addiction.

Kiss Me DeadLEE A Year Ago This Week©:

Charles "Buddy" Rogers, 94. Star of first Best Picture Wings & widower of Mary Pickford. April 21.

Al Hirt, 76. "King of the Trumpet". April 27.

I saw The Filth & The Fury this week. For those of you who aren't familiar with the picture, it's a new documentary on the Sex Pistols and was the rage at Sundance this year. For those of you who are familiar with it, get your asses out to see it. Now. My hope is that today's poseur rock stars who think they're revolutionary/counterculture/controversial (like, oh, Fred Durst) will see this film, realize what a sham their lives & career are and kill themselves.

Favorite Album Of All Time This Week©: Peace At Last - The Blue Nile

I saw Cathy Rigby on Family Fued the other day. Good Christ, she's the size of tampon. How'd she get that job? I mean, banging your crotch on a balance beam has its merits, but really...

Happy Birthday To Thee From LEE This Week©:

04/21/47 Iggy Pop

04/22/22 Charles Mingus

04/22/50 Peter Frampton

04/25/18 Ella Fitzgerald

04/25/23 Albert King

04/25/49 Michael Brown (Left Banke)

04/26/38 Duane Eddy

04/27/47 Pete Ham

If you folks don't have the fantastic Left Banke compilation There's Gonna Be A Storm [Mercury], I'd suggest picking it up before they cut it out. 26 tracks - everything they recorded. It's got the hits ("Walk Away Renee" & "Pretty Ballerina") and tracks that put those to shame (which is hard to do). It wisely leaves off "Brother Louie", which was on the original (and out of print) Rhino best of. Yes, that track fits historically (the core of The Left Banke became Stories) but certainly not musically. And, there ain't a damn thing wrong with "Brother Louie", either. Louie oooee oooee oooeye, indeed!

LEE on DVD This Week©: Trainspotting [Alliance Atlantis] Well, it's kinda hard to review this one for you because my copy is a Canadian import with different features than the US release. Still a great, funny & extremely dark comedy about everyone's favorite pastime: heroin addiction. I'd imagine the "film" part is the same as the DVD you can get here, though - except they only drink pints of Molson. And Tommy's not into Iggy Pop, he's into Burton Cummings.