The sad thing for me is that this is all true. I just wish his performance didn't put my teeth on edge so badly. The guy is clearly a genius - just one I can't stand listening to. Oh well, my loss.
I've gone from being a kid who laughed at seeing his performances on televised events in the 80s because he seemed so ridiculous, to a teen who had most of his records but ignored them because I thought they were tremendously boring, to not understanding why more artists can't just be as good as him, and just accepting how he leaves nearly all of them in the dust.
And the key really is that voice. The lyrics matter tremendously, but without coming out of that mouth, and the phrasing he chooses, and that aggressive timbre of his voice that places humor or anger or pathos or indifference in all of these unexpected pockets, they wouldn't come to life like they do.
I'm sure others get much of what he offers from other artists, but for me he scratches all the itches. His work has made me understand what it means to be an artist, how to circumvent the limits of language, the importance of tradition as well as subverting that tradition, has deepened my idea of what is funny and what is sad, and made clear the importance of pushing through whatever chorus of boos greet how you conduct your life. He makes me understand other people, myself, all of the cultures he has written of and yet, for all of his constant clarity in talking is this world, has himself remained a complete mystery.
Full package.
Still happy that Sabotage won though. I struggled putting that in second place to anything
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