Re: Ouch! Pete's tour diary! Why should WE care?

[Alan McKendree <amck@thenetdr.com>]

>Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2000 09:33:26 -0400 (EDT)
>From: Jeff House <jjthandmeh@juno.com>
>
>OK Jester, I'll take a shot at this.

I'll take another.

>We should care because he is sharing his raw, unmassaged-into-"art" thoughts
>with us.

Exactly.  And THAT should matter because Pete's just like the rest of 
us in all his human dimensions...not some machine who exists to 
dispense mind-blowing rock songs when we swipe our credit cards.  Not 
every emotion he has is designed to reassure us about what super 
people we the fans are.  Those who care about Pete as a person care 
to know what he's thinking.  Those who care about Pete only as an 
entertainment commodity will leave as soon as he makes them 
uncomfortable.

Fans did something he thought was out of line and not only did he 
care enough ABOUT his fans to let us know his thoughts on the matter 
but turned it into quite a deep meditation on the relationships 
between art, an artist, and his audience, and much more assuming you 
read the whole thing.  Relatively new fans might get pissed and lash 
out or even leave over something like this (which isn't THAT big a 
deal, anyway).  More experienced fans will consider what Pete's said, 
learn and take from it what we can, and move on.  Pete can be caustic 
but from what I've seen since he's matured he's rarely if ever so 
without reason, and as we've seen it's frequently followed by an 
apology or softener.

>Maybe these diary entries can serve as a notepad for some future
>lyrics.  I see some great themes for new songs that could speak to me:

Maybe so, but I don't see that an honest outburst needs to be 
converted into product to be justified.  Why not just accept it, with 
love, for what it is?

Cheers,
-- 
Alan
"That's unbelievable, if that's true."
    --Howard Stern, 5/25/00