John Mayer's not the only person in America amazed by the firestorm of controversy ignited by his comments in a recent Playboy interview.
I am, too. Because people keep forgetting an important thing about the cutie pie who wrote "Daughters" and "Your Body is a Wonderland."
He's a musician. A brilliant musician.
And it has always been my experience -- after more than 30 years as a player -- that the more brilliant a musician is, the nuttier they are. Almost without exception.
Mayer's biggest problem is that he is born of a generation which feels the need to plaster their innermost thoughts all over MySpace and Facebook and Twiiter, providing an easily searchable database of every stupid thing you've ever said or done.
One of the things Mayer reveals in the interview -- which also proved that all the dark thoughts we guys have had about Jessica Simpson were true! -- is that the thirtysomething performer clashed with fortysomething girlfriend Jennifer Aniston because of the way he'd jacked into social media outlets like Twitter. She saw it as a dangerous distraction; he saw it as a natural part of his life.
Imagine what sort of things we might have learned about musical genius freakizoids like Prince, Michael Jackson or Little Richard if they had been inclined to expose themselves on something like Twitter or Facebook. Or if they had been dumb enough to ramble their every impulsive thought to a journalist for a national magazine.
I recall this story I heard about Prince -- when I asked his bandmates Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman about it, they had never heard the story, so I'm assuming it's not true. But I want it to be, so I'm repeating it, anyway.
Prince supposedly fired a housekeeper because, when he was writing songs, the rhythm of her footsteps around his house didn't match the grooves he was hearing in his head. Imagine seeing the world so differently that an action like that makes sense, even for a moment.
Welcome to the world of most genius musicians.
I've been a fan of Mayer's for a long time -- I have most of his records and have watched the concert videos. And I don't think he's actually racist -- even though his way of saying he's not sexually attracted to most black women is to say his penis is a white supremacist.
I think he's a nutty musician from a confessional generation who is learning the hard way that quips which might make your bandmates laugh after a gig don't necessarily play well when featured in a magazine article or Web site.
Now I'm not saying that every crazy thing a great musician does should be excused, especially if it hurts another person. And crazy musicians are notorious for hurting those closest to them, so I can't imagine how Aniston or Simpson feel, seeing their private business splashed all over the world like this.
But I don't even think Mayer is egotistical or necessarily a bad person.
He is, however, a genius guitar geek who is still getting used to having the world at his feet after living most of his life holed up in a practice room with his axe.
Talk about learning things the hard way.
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I was a big fan of John Mayer's until I read that interview but I can't in good conscience continue to support him or his music in any way. Because the truth is he was being honest and he said exactly what he meant to say.
I think he feels really bad about not having been successful at staying in a relationship - especially with Aniston (everybody's darling) and so he worries there something lacking in his character. So - the interview turned into kind of a confession. I do not think he's a racist - just the opposite. It makes me crazy how just the mention of the subject of RACE makes everybody so nervous, like just pointing out that elephant in the room means you're a racist. Clearly, at some time in his past he'd felt genuinely honored at having been embraced by black musicians as 'one of them' musically and so he felt he could be himself, genuinely feeling no animosity toward anyone racially.
I can't imagine anyone who feels lonelier right now than JM.... except maybe Tiger Woods.
John, save something for
This is not about the difficulties of genius. First, JM is not a genius. Two, this is about a foul-mouthed and self-absorbed man-child, with a nasty proclivity for saying extremely hateful things in an effort to be provocative. What a bore and a boor.
Mayer himself has described it as an unsuccessful attempt to be clever, and then stupidly "doubling down" to regain his cleverness. I actually know a guy just like this. Loud, non-stop attempts at cleverness which usually hit the mark and occasionally go over the top. When he does extend too far, he tries to cover by showing it is not an accident by getting even more controversial. Including the whole, "I'm so post-racial, I'm free recklessly to riff on racial topics." The guy I know isn't the least bit artistic. He is, however, terribly insecure and just wants desperately to be "liked". Too bad, too, because the man would do anything for anybody. I suspect Mayer falls into that category -- careless diarrhea of the mouth because, in his head, silence is unbearable.
And if the writer of this article thinks that the only women that this guy insulted in his asinine mumblings are Jennifer Aniston and Jessica Simpson, then my brown eyes see him clearly as well.
Who did not like Charlie Parker? You can identify someone of significance and did it matter anyway?. He was not involved in a popularity contest. He was a jazz musician who flourished in the late forties.
Certainly the significance of that is not lost on you. Ralph Ellison wrote poignantly about how "Negroes never heard of him", in reference to Charlie Parker.
You admire Charlie Parker because the company he stands shoulder to shoulder with is a small company. Will young musicians speak of Mayer with the reverence reserved for Bird? Birds contemporaries had to wait to see what he would do next.
You imagine Mayer a blues player? I'm going to assume you have heard "Parker's Mood". If not, have a listen.
They are used up forms.
While there are still very good players in all these forms, they are not visionaries. John Mayer's a good little guitarist. I've seen a couple hundred just like him over the years.
The Charlie Parkers and Miles Davis's and Jimi Hendrix's and Eric Clapton's and John Lennon's and Pete Townshend's wrung everything out of their respective forms.
Just as Van Gough and Cezanne, et al wrung everything out of Impressionism.
Artist must find new forms to be visionary in and express their genius.
How many people know that there is a radio program, 5 days a week @8:30 in the morning on WKCR FM/NY or WKCR.org called "Bird Flight" where one can hear Bird every morning.
It is programmed chronologically, and has been broadcast for years. It is done by the indomitable Phil Schaap.
Bird is one of those unique American geniuses and I just could not let a comparison with the subject of this blog in the first place go without clarification.
I never tire of Pres, Bird Lady Day and Trane.
And when you get down to it, all he said was that his sexual preference was for white women and that, intellectually, he didn't know why. I've met so many gay men that have sexual racial preferences, not to mention body type preferences It's fairly standard in the gay community, and I can't really speak to the straight community on this, but they like only white men or they like only black men or latino men or whatever. It's not about racism, it's usually about what's familiar or just how a person is wired sexually. He was trying to be funny. Why should he be so politically correct about it? He's a singer, a popstar. It's not that serious.
No, Jimi Hendrix, Danny Gatton, Eric Johnson, Steve Vai, Uli Roth and Shawn Lane were/are genius guitar geeks. Mayer is a pretty good guitar player, but his songs are lightweight drivel.