Artist's Lack of Fashion Sense Interfering with the Music

[JSngry]

  On 8/3/2018 at 5:48 PM, joshuakennedy said:

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Well, yeah, ok, but Cole's actual playing has been my first stumbling block on the path toward appreciating the music...  

[Teasing the Korean]

Thanks all for the replies.

So it seems that there are two, um, threads involving this phenomenon.

The first is when the artist does the best they can under the circumstances.  So, if it is the 1970s and you want to look good, but your cotton clothes have worn out, you were pretty much forced to buy petroleum-based clothing in hideous colors.

The other thread involves the artist simply not giving a damn and showing up to the gig or photo shoot wearing worn jeans and a wife-beater.  

Edited August 11, 2018 by Teasing the Korean

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

  On 8/11/2018 at 2:22 PM, Teasing the Korean said:

Thanks all for the replies.

So it seems that there are two, um, threads involving this phenomenon.

The first is when the artist does the best they can under the circumstances.  So, if it is the 1970s and you want to look good, but your cotton clothes have worn out, you were pretty much forced to by petroleum-based clothing in hideous colors.

The other thread involves the artist simply not giving a damn and showing up to the gig or photo shoot wearing worn jeans and a wife-beater.  

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I think that's right. And I can't say I like the not giving a damn approach to an audience.

Of course, the other option - appropriate at the time for black musicians - was

MG

[Big Beat Steve]

  On 8/11/2018 at 2:22 PM, Teasing the Korean said:

Thanks all for the replies.

So it seems that there are two, um, threads involving this phenomenon.

The first is when the artist does the best they can under the circumstances.  So, if it is the 1970s and you want to look good, but your cotton clothes have worn out, you were pretty much forced to by petroleum-based clothing in hideous colors.

The other thread involves the artist simply not giving a damn and showing up to the gig or photo shoot wearing worn jeans and a wife-beater.  

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There is a THIRD one IMO.

Stupid selection of the photographs on the cover or back cover that are totally out of sync with the musical contents, and even more so, are horrendous to watch - such as a LOT of garish 70s garb. I can understand that the Route 66 label may have been at a loss of finding decent, usable early 50s photographs of their featured artists when they did their early post-war R&B reissues (witness the awful Billy Wright or Goree Carter LP fort covers) but other such as the above Harptones LP were just the slapdash thrown-together "work" of couldn't-care-less cover "artwork" people. In cases like this it's not just that you wonder if the music played by people willingly dressing in such sartorial horrors can be any good but you have to look and search hard to find out if the music matches the suits(both of which you'd abhor) or if it really is just a mismatch. So dissuasive covers like this in fact do the sales of the record a disservice. 
As for not giving a damn about how one looks, no doubt these were signs of the times too, but I find this less intruding than the above mismatch. And, for example, I have yet to see any Big Town Playboys record from the 90s where the guitarist is shown wearing only socks (to his already sloppy outfit) and no shoes as he had a habit of doing at gigs.

@MG:

If you want music from that period and in that musical style - fine. Looking at musicians dressing in the more cliché-laden way of what may have been considered hip at THAT time is part of the mix. But like I said, if the cover leads THAT far away from the contents of the record then you get to wondering ....

Edited August 11, 2018 by Big Beat Steve

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Well, I reckon even the cliche-ridden, or the merely untidy, don't give  damn look, are STILL better than these photos of jazz giants.

They're from GQ.

Actually, I think Pharoah Sanders looks great, and Max DOES look like he's enjoying himself. But bloomin' 'eck, Tucker, those clothes!!!

MG

[JSngry]

If you can believe it, you can wear it and it works.

I totally believe that Herbie is believing what he's wearing. Herbie is one of those guys who seems like he can believe anything as long as it doesn't hurt him, and he also seems to be the type of guy who will not let anything hurt him for too terribly long. He looks great to me in that picture, and I assume that once he comes inside he'll adjust accordingly.

That last one is Roy Haynes? Nothing there I would or COULD wear, but them shoes is 1000% badass, for sure.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

  On 8/11/2018 at 4:21 PM, JSngry said:

If you can believe it, you can wear it and it works.

I totally believe that Herbie is believing what he's wearing. Herbie is one of those guys who seems like he can believe anything as long as it doesn't hurt him, and he also seems to be the type of guy who will not let anything hurt him for too terribly long. He looks great to me in that picture, and I assume that once he comes inside he'll adjust accordingly.

That last one is Roy Haynes? Nothing there I would or COULD wear, but them shoes is 1000% badass, for sure.

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Yes, not Max but Roy. Mistook.

MG

 

Oh yeah, I just looked again at the GQ page - there's no price mentioned against the shoes, so they're probably his own!

It sez -

"Blazer $2,150 Caruso, turtleneck $375 Boglioli, sunglasses Krewe, pants and ring vintage"

No mention of the shoes as being vintage.

MG

[clifford_thornton]

Cecil looks great in that spread.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

The question that occurred to me was, how much were those guys (Wayne shorter was another) PAID for the clothes modelling gig?

MG

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

I can't believe how many layers of clothes most musicans wear on stage.  They must be so hot. 

[T.D.]

  On 8/12/2018 at 7:21 AM, The Magnificent Goldberg said:

The question that occurred to me was, how much were those guys (Wayne shorter was another) PAID for the clothes modelling gig?

MG

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Might not have gotten paid much (being featured was likely good publicity), but I'm sure they received the clothing gratis.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

  On 8/14/2018 at 5:51 AM, T.D. said:

Might not have gotten paid much (being featured was likely good publicity), but I'm sure they received the clothing gratis.

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Who the fuck would have wanted most of that stuff?

MG

[JSngry]

  On 8/14/2018 at 9:13 AM, The Magnificent Goldberg said:

Who the fuck would have wanted most of that stuff?

MG

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Depending on where you’re going, plenty of people.