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The Raspberries Overrated?


jnedley

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Talk about self indulgent whining! Boy, theres an author I want to avoid like so many others out there in American literature these days whining about their problems and bad experiences to make a buck and a name for themselves. They do a diservice to all the good people out there that struggle with tough times with dignity and equanimity. But he left out the bit about having to walk to and fro to The Scene each day in the deep Cleveland snow while barefoot!! No wonder publishers arent responding, youd probably have to take a load of Prozac while reading his material.

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raspberrywine said:

Talk about self indulgent whining! Boy, theres an author I want to avoid like so many others out there in American literature these days whining about their problems and bad experiences to make a buck and a name for themselves. They do a diservice to all the good people out there that struggle with tough times with dignity and equanimity. youd probably have to take a load of Prozac while reading his material.

That's why SO MANY of today's songs just piss me off to NO end. That's what THEY'RE all about. Damn Alanis Morissette. It's all her fault. Her and that JAGGED little pill.

Copycatism is for losers...so ALL those who followed her...in music and now in writing...are wastes of time...aka LOSERS.

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I wouldn't attack the kid's writing style-every good writer makes typos, and many have less-than-premium grammar skills. Fitzgerald supposedly had terrible punctuation problems. I don't think that Ferrar is an untalented writer.

Ferrar's transgression is in the writing of an article expressly designed to injure a local band simply for the sake of injuring them. His tactic was to do so by popping their proverbial "balloon," because they are finally getting a small amount of their "due," via the reunion, VH1 exposure, and "LOSS."

This means beating them over the head with that band from Memphis (of which I bet the Raspberries are quite tired by now); this means not weighing the Raspberries' virtues and vices within the context of the article; and this means lambasting the 'berries without carefully listening to their music.

The article reads like he just looked at the album covers, evoked the conventional carping criticism typically directed at "All By Myself (which, guess what?, isn't even a Raspberries song [and which is a great song])," and gave the band the shortest of shrifts.

. . . and, here I'll join in the consensus, to misdirect some personal hostilities at an undeserving target.

That's not poor writing; it is poor judgment.

Anyway, we're all taking the bait. Look at who posted this thread. It was certainly posted with the intention of provoking the faithful. That cat joined the forum just to post this thread-that's how well he thinks of us.

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Seattle Steve said:

Irregardless of personal opinion, I found the article inarticulate and uniformered and designed to raise an inconsequential hype over a middle school book report review.

What fascinates me is that jnedley, who started this thread, is Editorial Administrator Jason Nedley of Cleveland Scene. He has hung his paper's Music Editor Justin F. Farrar, who wrote the article, out to dry here.

Nedley has not defended Farrar and has made no further posts here. Farrar, after writing the article, has not responded to the 30 comments (so far) posted with his article at Cleveland Scene (all negative, except for Vanky Panky). It seems they know how to attack, but can't defend their positions.

The biggest revenge for Raspberries is that since the Cleveland Scene article appeared Best Buy has decided to stock the album in all its stores and the album's sales at online retailers have grown (based on sales rankings at Amazon.Com and CDUniverse.Com).

Meanwhile, Cleveland Scene is "like an old newspaper, blowin' down some windy street"...

Don Krider :)

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VankyPanky was one of the weirdos who was causing trouble with hostile and disturbing remarks awhile back at Raspberries.net.

Because of his essential rediculousness and negativity, he will most likely be the main character in a forthcoming Farrar novel, "Big Times in a Cleveland Crack House." I see the posting by Nedley as a sort of; " Here's what we "experts" think of your Raspberries!" Well, here's what we think of poor journalism, irrelevant newspapers, self absorbed writers, negativity for negativity sake.............

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Not only has this Cleveland Scene article become the "most commented" on (31 comments so far) among all their articles and their "most viewed" article in music, according to own their statistics on the Cleveland Scene website, but it has moved up to #2 among the "most viewed" of all their articles online (news, music, environment, politics, etc.).

Yup, not much interest in our Raspberries "Live On Sunset Strip" album (but apparently the editorial staff at Cleveland Scene doesn't know how to correct that album title error in their online article; usually, that's a simple thing to do)...

Don Krider :)

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Here's a tip for Mr. Farrar: Get someone to proofread and edit your work before you submit it. There's no sin in not being an expert speller, but I really hope you don't send your writing out to editors with things "diamond in the ruff," "play the cards I was delt," "win, loose or draw," "tommorow," "peices," "under parr," etc. Nor do professional writers commit the grammatical mistakes you do.

Editors looking to "discover" writing talent in general are not looking for "diamonds in the rough" that they have to spend lots of time nurturing, nursing and cleaning up after. They're looking for someone who already has the goods. If you want a mentor, seek a mentor. If you want to get published by someone besides Scene, get your professional act together.

Oh, and they really don't care how tough your life has been, either. My life hasn't been peaches and cream but I never got a job out of it.

Your courage in sending any of your work out at all, and your tenaciousness in doing so, is to be commended. But now maybe it's time to pay more attention to the polish, and not just the volume, of the material you send out to the world for consideration. Otherwise, if you keep doing what you have always done, you will get what you have always gotten.

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