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Underground > Radio & Music >

Ryan Adams: now it pays to piss him off.

17:24 / 04.11.02

Apparently, this is from Greil Marcus's Salon column. A friend emailed it to me.

"Piss off Ryan Adams, win a prize!" (Oct. 17)
The tale of Ryan Adams' response to a fan who
shouted out for Bryan Adams'
"Summer of '69" -- Adams screaming, demanding the
house lights be turned on,
identifying the offender, paying him $30 as a
refund for his ticket and
refusing to play until the guy left the hall --
even made it into Time. But
not the response of songwriter Robbie Fulks, on
his Web site:
http://www.robbiefulks.com "Any reader on this
site who attends a Ryan
Adams show and disrupts the show with a Bryan
Adams song request will
receive in return merchandise" -- T-shirts and
autographed CDs -- "of his or
her choice equal to the cost of the ticket, from
my online store ... please
provide the date and location of the show, what
you yelled, and what Ryan's
reaction was."

18:44 / 04.11.02

It's spawning!!

You probablly all already knew that. I just thought I'd mention it. Because HMV are telling me he's following on form the rock traditions laid down by the Velvet Underground.

Fuck off! Everyone! Everywhere! Ever! I hate everything! Ick ick ick WWWAAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!! Kill the fucker!!

(The new GY!BE album has hit an "angry" bit. Please forgive.)

10:45 / 05.11.02

Ryan Adams .. "following the tradition of the Velvet Underground".

Yah, riiiight.. presumably that would be the fine tradition laid down by 'Lonesome Cowboy Bill'?

(how'd you get the Godspeed.. record already? I been told it's not out yet..)

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:18 / 05.12.02

Ryan Adams calls Jack White a "little girl" and a "ponce".

Isn't it great to have your suspicions about someone confirmed? Now I have an even more legitimate reason to hate Adams...

17:52 / 05.12.02

What, the fact that he sucks horribly wasn't enough?

ONLY NICE THINGS

18:11 / 05.12.02

My God - he talks just like Harry Redknapp. That's *surreal*...

08:37 / 06.12.02

He has such a punchable face...

13:43 / 06.12.02

What a wally.

12:53 / 12.03.05

But let's face it, Jack White does sing a bit like a girl, doesn't he ?

Brigade du jour

21:07 / 12.03.05

Looks like one, too. Androgynous pop stars, eh? There's a thing.

Brigade du jour

21:09 / 12.03.05

As for Ryan Adams, he should just shut up or change his name. Really, what did he expect?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

23:15 / 12.03.05

Shutting up would definitely be the better option. For all concerned.

02:16 / 14.03.05

He should just shut up or change his name

That's a bit harsh though, surely ? Adams is, what, Twenty Eight, Twenty Nine so ( trying to do the 'math' here, ) he must have had to listen to Bryan-related gags pretty much every single day since he was about Seven. So that's twenty odd years, and it must have been even worse once he told his friends he was going to be a musician - I don't know if it's fair to blame him for being a bit sensitive on the subject, especially in the face of some sort of corruscating wit who was presumably sitting there, pissed, repeatedly and loudly asking for 'Summer Of '69,' or some such. Bearing in mind that there's probably 'always one,' or at least the possibility anyway, it must get, y'know, a touch wearing. And he did give the guy his money back...

Granted, Adams was a bit over-hyped a couple of years ago, but it doesn't seem to have translated into major sales so far, so he's in the unfortunate position of not, I'm guessing, living in a mansion in the Hollywood hills just yet, but on the other hand, being a perceived easy target for everyone who shops in Rough Trade, or the US equivalent, possibly more frequently than is possibly really all that good for their general sanity.

And let's face it, and without wishing to be aversive here, why the f should Adams change his name ? I have an even sillier name, IRL, but you're sort of stuck with it. To pretend otherwise is, if you're even remotely famous ( I'm, er, 'working' on that - it may take some time, ) to invite some yellow yard-dog journo to 'lift the lid' at some point in the future, and who needs that ?

I'm sort of inviting all kinds of opprobium to rain down on head by saying this, but I still think 'Love Is Hell ( Pts 1 & 2 )' is excellent.

05:10 / 14.03.05

Since he probably was mocked since childhood, changing his name would have been the reasonable thing to do. And of course he would not have to actually change his real name, just get a stage-name. Prince, Cher, Madonna do not perform with their real names. Many musicians and actors have stage-names.

There is an example for somebody getting a stage name, because of the similarities of his name and somebody else´s:

James Stewart (*1913) changed his name to Stewart Granger, because there already was an actor James Stewart (*1908). So he changed his name and had a carreer. RA could have done the same and would not have to act like an idiot because of his name now.

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

08:46 / 14.03.05

Prince, Cher, Madonna do not perform with their real names.

Tchyea, right. Pffft. I suppose Santa Claus is a put up job as well, right? Why are you so cynical?

Jack The Bodiless

11:28 / 14.03.05

Adams appears to be a bit of a prick in interviews. Mind you, I'm fairly sure that everyone on this board would appear to be a prick a fair few times if they were interviewed about their lives/artistic pursuits a hundred or so times a year in several different media and at the interviewer's convenience, not their own, with no control over the actual outcome. Let's face it, most of us can barely let ten posts on Barbelith go by without saying something dumb/objectionable because we're tired/grumpy/old/drunk...

And about the name - I think it's wholly unreasonable to expect someone to change their name just because of a stupid joke that, like the man said, he's probably had to put up with for twenty years. Equally, it's wholly unreasonable to expect him to rise above every example of said name-related humour. You wouldn't. Why should he?

15:22 / 14.03.05

You think I´m cynical. Why? I don´t mean to sound cynical, it´s probably the internet again, which leads to misunderstanding.

Brigade du jour

15:38 / 14.03.05

Prince, Cher, Madonna do not perform with their real names

Pedantic Prince preferrer pops above the parapet - 'Prince' is actually Prince's christian name. Same with Madonna, actually. Um, and Cher, which is short for Cherilyn.

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

16:00 / 14.03.05

Yeah, so Ryan Adams should record as Ryan.

or Ry.

Jack The Bodiless

20:57 / 14.03.05

Or BA Baracus.

I think everyone should record under the name BA Baracus. It's what ODB would have wanted.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

06:13 / 15.03.05

I think it's wholly unreasonable to expect someone to change their name just because of a stupid joke that, like the man said, he's probably had to put up with for twenty years.

Oh, totally. But if you're trying to establish yourself as a brand, which, unfortunately, is what musicians- or at least, their record companies etc- have to do, then purely from a marketing standpoint it'd make sense.

I'm not familiar with the guy's music, but if I was, I'd be a little dubious about telling people "I really love Ryan Adams" in, say, a crowded pub, cos I'd be left open to all sorts of unfortunate misinterpretation.

Personally, I wish James Garner had never changed his given name- James Bumgarner sounds SO much better...

lonely as a cloud...

09:19 / 15.03.05

In fairness, I think Ryan's been at it for long enough now to expect people *not* to turn up at his gigs just to make a lame joke. His first foray into music with with a band called Whiskeytown, who were critically praised but who lacked the support of their label (because of corporate mergers and such). So he went solo - and at that point, because people knew Ryan Adams from Whiskeytown, changing his stage name would have been a bad move.
I dunno what he's like as a person (the only interview I ever read with him revolved mainly around him having terrible teeth due to too much speed), but I enjoy his music. And I don't like Bryan Adams. So there. Nya.

Jack The Bodiless

11:18 / 15.03.05

Ah, bollocks. I heard 'Cuts Like A Knife' again the other night, and it rocks.

16:00 / 22.03.05

Like Michael Bolton from Office Space. I like some of his songs. Ryan Adams. Not Michael Bolton. That's not a knock on Michael Bolton. I'm not familiar with his work, but I thought he did covers mostly. Goodnight.