Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Dublin and Chinese Democracy

I was in Dublin yesterday meeting with Tourism Ireland. It was a beautiful crisp, cold, autumn afternoon. Had the camera in my pocket and took a few pics of the Daniel O'Connell monument on O'Connell Street. It has a very impressive Red Hand of Ulster, which I'll add to this project I'm building up.

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En route to the meeting, I went into HMV and bought a copy of the new Guns n Roses cd "Chinese Democracy". I listened to it last night on the drive home It is rubbish, as numerous online reviews will confirm.

It just goes to show that - even after 17 years of work, $13m dollars, every gadget and instrument you can think of, expert production in the best recording studios on the planet, guest appearances by some of the world's best musicians (who were later dropped from the final mixes) - no amount of time, money or gadgets will automatically produce great music. "Chinese Democracy" is one to be avoided for sure.

This, on the other hand, IS great music. Two voices, two acoustic instruments. You can't get better than this - Gillian Welch and David Rawlings live in London back in 2006. (their first CD was called "Revival"):

2 comments:

CG said...

We will never forsake the blue skies of ... hang on, isn't that Dublin??

Mark Thompson said...

Yes it is Dublin - but I brought the blue sky with me from Ulster!