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I thought the days of guitar smashing were over but I was watching a local band this past weekend and was checking out the Ibanez 335 copy the guitar player had.
At the end of the set to my horror he took it by the neck and smashed it onto the ground breaking the neck off! :confused:
I stood there in disbelief with my head shaking and then I looked over to another audience member who gave me a nod and was thinking the same thing.
Have I just become a square or is this still a cool thing to do?
I couldn't smash the biggest POS guitar in the world. I just couldn't do it.
All guitar smashers shall one day stand before the Great Luthier and be forced to answer their sins. May they all be sentenced to winning bids of Chinese fakes on Ebay for the rest of their natural life with no possible chance of resale.
:laughing: Amen!Quote:
Originally Posted by Mesotech
funny!:DQuote:
Originally Posted by Mesotech
and, fwiw, i agree w/ telecrass ("i just can't do it")
...and get the fuck off my lawn!
I think maybe they were trying to gets people's attention.
Looks like it worked.
There's nothing wrong with smashing guitars or any other props. People want to see a show.
FWIW, I've never smashed one (yet). I like cheap guitars too.
Forgive me Father for I have sinned...I smashed a 60's SG in my first band at a show at the county fair. I've been living with that regret for 20 years now!
Smashing guitars is as stupid as US "punks" in the year 2006 wearing a Union Jack on their backs. And for the same reason, too.
My son has the worst chinese clone I've ever seen. Just a total piece of junk. I cringe just looking it it.
I can't even smash THAT!
Amen to that brother, but the cool thing about all of that is one day when they are older they will come across a picture with them wearing all that poser crap and smashing guitars and think 'Oh My Lord..did I used to do that ?'Quote:
Originally Posted by Gravity Jim
Kind of like me when I tripped across an old photo of me playing in the 80's when spandex was cool....:wah:
I thought I had successfully blocked that out of my mind for good...
I stopped watching Rockstar Supernova (yes, I watch it because I like the house band) when one of the poser singers chucked a Les Paul. It's hard to smash/ruin a LP but still...:SaiyanSmi
I'm kind of ambivalent.
When Townsend did it, there seemed to be some honest pent up frenzy involved. Plus he was probably all hopped-up on pills.
With this Ibanez guy, maybe it's just a byproduct of the ready supply of useable, inexpensive MIC guitars.
"Great guitar for the money..."
"Great bang for buck..."
"For this price, I can get one in every color..."
I'm kind of offended that the whole deal with some of these instruments are taken for granted. Someone probably sweated badly to put the thing together.
If you're not smashing something that really matters to you, it's an empty gesture.
It's an imitation of a metaphor for a ritual sacrifice.
You're basically faking it.
crazy fingers, I hear ya..... I have one of those mouse pads from Digidesign with a lift-up plastic cover that you can put a photo under. On mine is a 5x7" print of my band "Pandora" playing at Snider High School in 1972.
I am wearing platform shoes, brushed corduroy bell-bottoms, a belt 3 inches wide, a crazy patterned polyester shirt ("made from imported Italian polyester") and Prince Valiant's haircut. My Les Paul (with mini-hums) and Ampeg VT-22 assure you that while I may look pretty frou-frou, I came to rock your face off.
But I look boring next to my keyboard player's (I kid you not) skin-tight glitter Spandex pullover. I'm not making this up, I'm looking at it right now. I see it every day. It serves as a good reminder not to take myself too seriously.
Still, those clothes weren't as idiotic as smashing up a guitar in an attempt to look A) cool B) shocking C) just so damn mad about everything.
It doesn't look like any of those things anymore. It looks like The Class Play.
Yep. When Pete smashed 'em it was a symbol of the times, and the ritual smashing of the status quo.Quote:
Originally Posted by NeoFauve
Now it's more like, well, I don't have anything better to do, and this Chinese guitar was really cheap...
It's sort of like "RAGE! The cologne for disaffected youth!"
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gravity Jim
Do you have a scanner? :D
If you're gonna smash something for theatrics, smash a HDdx!:headbange
LOL! Wiseguy.Quote:
Originally Posted by Guitar_Mc
Yes, I do. But it's ALL the way upstairs in Lisa's office.... :D
How about a picture phone?Quote:
Originally Posted by Gravity Jim
C'mon.:D
Actually, maybe I like your description better.
What my mind's eye is showing is shocking enough.:wah:
people light off fireworks that cost more than that...
(I can't bring myself to smash then either)
(in my PC lawyer voice)I think that it is essential this photograph be viewed by the requesting parties...Quote:
Originally Posted by Gravity Jim
Careful, pc might ban you if you capitalize his name. Remember, he is one of them. :wah:Quote:
Originally Posted by photoweborama
However, I think the right to see this photo is clearly defined in the "Freedom of (too much) Information ACT".:D
When Pete smashed his guitars, half the time, he'd be up late that night with glue and a soldering iron putting it back together for the next show.
Kurt Cobain did the same thing, and he'd go to pawn shops in all the cities looking for the cheapest thing he could find to smash.
I have one tattooed on my forehead.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gravity Jim
You got a problem with that? :laughing:
Yeah I don't get the smashing thing either, however try to think of it this way...
Every guitar smashed means the prices of the others of the same make/model just went up at least by a few cents, especially if they are out of production.
I wonder how many cheap Teisco guitars that were smashed to make mine cost me $200. http://www.lespaulforum.com/forum/im...cratchchin.gif
Oh and I happen to own an Ibanez AS73, why would one want to smash it? It's a lovely guitar.
I burned and smashed a Epi Les Paul Special (that I got for $65 or so)at a show in Birmingham, AL back in 2001...
But there was some meaning behind it.
We were playing a show with my recent ex's band that night, and she had just very recently smashed my heart in itty-bitty pieces. We had a very angry song that I had written about another crappy ex, and that night it was sort of dedicated to her since she was in the crowd. At the end I hit an E, laid it down on the ground, as it started feeding back, I doused it with lighter fluid and placed my Zippo upon the surface. I let it burn for a moment, then picked it up and proceded to beat it to death on the stage. The neck broke and the body had several nice scars.
The crowd loved it.
However, I did the same thing at an Atlanta show a couple of weeks later (with a Lotus Les Paul copy), and it just wasn't the same. The feeling wasn't there like it was at the B'ham show.
Plus...the damn thing refused to break. In fact...I put a hole in the stage during the process of trying to beat the shit out of it.
Some kid wanted it after the show, but I wanted to rip out the Gibson humbucker I had thrown in there. After I did that, the kid was gone.
So...I gave it to the club, and they placed it in GraceVault...which is a Elvis Shrine in a bank vault (the club used to be a bank). It's leaning up against the gold toilet at the back of the shrine.
You can see the neck and headstock in the 360 degree view of GraceVault here: http://www.starbar.net/gallery.html#
Pete Townshend?
You mean someone did it *before* Curt Cobain?!?
:-D
Maybe it was "cool" at one time. I can't see myself doing that. Never have done it, and I don't even have the slightest inclination to do so.
I can't believe it's still being done -- even to a beater. Even The Move and The Who declared 35 years ago that they wouldn't do it again.
Who cares? It's my guitar. I payed for it, and if I want to smash it that's my business. If somebody wants to smash a guitar as part of their show I'm all for it. It's what we call artistic expression. As fellow musicians, we should support the rights of other players to do what they want. It might not be my cup of tea but just because I wouldn't do it personally doesn't mean it's wrong or immoral. I live in America and we treasure, above all else, our personal freedoms. In fact, I think it would be extremely cool to smash one onto a picture of the face of a few politicians lately. Saying that it's uncool to smash them and trying to get players to stop doing it is nothing less than censorship.
Smashing guitars onstage is Rock and Roll. When the instrument becomes more precious than the music or the performance, it's time to move on.
BTW, I understand my views on this subject might not be mainstream with some of my friends here, and I can understand their disdain for the subject matter. But I don't agree. It's harmless. I worry more about guys hitting their wives than their guitars. I think I'm finally getting to be old enough to see the big picture.
I was just suprised to see it was still being done and it made me cringe when I saw it being done in front of me. I was only asking here to see if I was being a fuddy duddy or if this was still looked on as being cool.Quote:
Originally Posted by Offshore Angler
When I was younger and saw the Who and Hendrix I thought it was really cool and I still understand the heat of the moment and genuine passion but in this case it was a pale imitation lacking any real rage and seemed pointless.
Time has changed me I guess and I was only making an observation years down the road.
I didn't chastise the guy for doing it but rather thought it was a foolish move that didn't impress anyone. Sure I support anyones right to smash their guitars and burn their books. Rock on...
Gtrplr, I totally understand. It's purely a function of geezerdom. We've seen it all before so we don't get impressed, but if you were 21 and just getting into going out and seeing live music it would be all new. "Dude! That guy just totally smashed his guitar! That was so random!!!!"
The local classic rock radio station here held a contest for people to send in videos of themselves smashing a guitar. They post the videos on their website and people vote on it. The winner gets tickets to the Who concert in october (yeah, the Who. All two of them.... whatever, I got tickets. Ha!)
Anyways, the winner also gets a new guitar, but, since I know you're wondering, it's nothing nice. I think it was courtesy of London Drugs or something. Anyways, I wasn't too impressed when they announced this contest, but I went and looked at the videos and yes, as I expected, they all look like losers.
It's fun to see Pete do it in the old days, though, when it was still kinda unique. But yeah, people can do what they want with their instruments. I'm not against the breakage of instruments. Still doesn't mean that I think anyone who does it looks cool.
You should post a link to the radiostation's smash page.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Nazz Are Blue
So, if I come to your next show, will you smash your Esquire?Quote:
Originally Posted by Offshore Angler
Offshore-A:
No one is saying that an anti-guitar smashing law should be passed or that artistic expression should be restricted in anyway. I think most of us are saying that this particular form of artistic expression is A) stupid B) played C) irrelevant.
I don't think that anyone here is talking about the deep semiotics of rock and roll, but if we were, I suspect that most would reject the idea that "smashing guitars IS rock and roll."
An argument like "this is hardly important when you think about guys hitting their wives" is a red herring. Yes, we all agree that domestic violence is bad, but what does that have to do with this discussion? Nothing. Claiming that this red herring comes from some kind of big-picture overview you possess that the rest of us don't is a shade distasteful.
Finally, the idea that Kids Today have no idea that anyone ever smashed a guitar in the 60's and would be shock-'n'-awed by the sight is absurd. Contemporary hipsters have done nothing but study and mine the past 3 decades for sources of new fashion.
I support the rights of everyone to express themselves. I also support my right to say it makes you look like a caricature of a iconic figure that doesn't exist anymore. To restate: I don't think smashing your guitar onstage is bad, evil or preventable. I just think it makes you look like an jackass.
Nah, it's exactly that simulated randomness that makes it so un-rock&roll.Quote:
Originally Posted by Offshore Angler
Kind of like tattoos.
You just go out and buy the canned bad-boy schtick anywhere now.
From the Hard Rock Cafe Corporate page:
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (May 11, 2004) - Throngs of excited patrons rushed into the new Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, today, following grand opening ceremonies that included the traditional smashing of an acoustic guitar, Hard Rock-style, and a painting-to-music performance by high-energy artist Michael Israel.:speechles
New York, NY, August 11, 2005 - Traditionally, Hard Rock executives smash a guitar or two at the opening of a cafe. However, Hard Rock has decided to make its grand entrance by smashing 100 guitars, creating the World's Largest Guitar Smash on the world's greatest stage Times Square.
Who knows? Based on their frame of reference, recalling a family vacation, maybe some kids would .think it's random for a guy in a rock band to emulate middle and upper management christening a theme restaurant.:laughing:
I'd like to see the guy that dots the "i" in Ohio, smash his sousaphone just once...How rock and roll would that be?Quote:
Originally Posted by Guitar_Mc
Garrison Keillor wrote a thing I can't remember the title of, a short story about a small town garage band that rises to fame because one night, in a fight of rock and roll ecstasy, the lead singer bites the head off a chicken. Soon, whether or not they will do the chicken bit becomes more important than anything else about the band, and it eventually becomes a piece of staged rebellion that the band doesn't even want to do anymore.
Anybody else know this story? Is it in "Happy To Be Here?"
:headbange :headbange :headbange :headbangeQuote:
Originally Posted by flintpunk
Then burn a couch!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jim, I love ya brother, but thanks for making my point completely. Who the f&*k are we to judge?Quote:
Originally Posted by Gravity Jim
Pete Townsend is the father of guitar smashing. The originator, so thats cool right?
Later, when Jimi lit his guitar on fire and smashed equipment did that make him a jerk? ( In fact, Townsend was incensed that Jimi was stealing his act!)
Many years later, SRV started mistreating his guitar by dragging it around by the cord and picking up by the wang bar and dropping it. Is that stupid?
When Ted Nugent shot a flaming arrow into a guitar was that uncool?
Calling people who do it names is worse than the act to me. When you break a guitar an inanimate object with little or no intrinsic value gets broken. When you call people names for doing it, you attack a human being. Which, I ask you, is worse?
And although I may disagree with you, I respect your right to your own opinion, and value your right to it as highly as mine to my own.
As far as the red herring comment. I again think your logic is specious and perhaps even contaminated. My comment was clearly conveyed to show that, in my opinion, this isn't an issue worth getting upset about.
I think guitar smashing at the end of a bitchin' show is cool. I don't do it because I can't afford to! But if I could, I would.