It is probably an age thing when I query the claims of Kanye West to be “the greatest living rockstar on the planet”. Having viewed his leaden set at Glastonbury, I would say there are a good few dead rock stars who could put on a better show and play some better tunes. And the fact that West feels the need to tell us just how great he is suggests to me that he probably isn’t.
I appreciate that ‘rap’ music is not recorded with people like me in mind, although there have been some excellent rap tunes I have enjoyed over the years, not least Gary Byrd’s excellent “The Crown” from…er…1983. In fact, I like more recent rap music too, like Skee Lo’s “I Wish”. Well, 1995 is far more recent than 1983, isn’t it? The genre is for younger folk, those like my children who probably despair at my criticism rather like I despaired at my grandfather’s condemnation of the Beatles for their long hair. (“They look like girls. Get a haircut”.)
I would not describe Kanye West as a “rockstar” either because, whatever rap is, it ain’t rock and roll and there was nothing about his turgid top of the bill slot at Glasto, as the kids call it, that felt like anything from Chuck Berry to the Rolling Stones and a million points in between. So far as I could tell, there were no musicians present, I count West in that number, and it was hard to distinguish one song from another, something you could at least compare to someone from the rock business, Bob Dylan, who has the capacity to do the same thing on a bad night, and occasionally on a good one too. West danced around the stage, beneath what appeared to be a low ceiling amid pointlessly flashing lights. There was little in the way of banter with the crowd – yet more Dylan influence there, then – and all the songs seemed to end abruptly, as in the middle of nowhere.
Mt biggest issue was the use of auto tune. Not discreet auto tune that you were not really meant to notice, but the fully blown, absolutely blatant use of it. It was part of the act. He might as well as gone the whole way and simply mimed, like Britney Spears If this is cutting edge music, then I am a banana.
The legendary rocker David Crosby called it just right when he said that West “Can’t write ,sing or play at all. He is an egomaniac, he is dumb as a post, helps no one”. Really, Croz should have got off the fence, but somehow I have to agree with him.
And as for comparisons with Bob Dylan – well, he wrote Like A Rolling Stone among others and there any comparison with Kanye West ends. It’s all about opinions, I know, but West is crap. You all know that really, don’t you?
