Thurston Moore Making the Music Scene

I read Thurston Moore’s memoir “Sonic Life.” I noticed one thing about books from artists is that the writers focus on their early years in detail. Moby’s “Porcelain”, spent time on living in Manhattan when he was young meeting other artists. Springsteen wrote about the artists he met in Asbury Park. Thurston Moore spends the first 200 pages detailing shows he saw. He hung around other artists while he found his voice. He doesn’t get a record deal till midway in the book.

I wrote about the Million Dollar Quartet in prior blogs. The Quartet was Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley before they became superstars. The gathering captures my imagination because they were still young artists hanging out. What songs did they like? Who did they like to hear?

It seems the best times for an artist are those beginning years when everyone hung out trying to find their place and they thought of themselves as “the scene.” The record deals and families are big and those friends slip away. Those nights experimenting with sounds are over. Later Thurston Moore only writes with the band. No more sitting with friends in a loft. Moby meets with business people more than young artists.

Young artists don’t want to hang with the older musicians or they only sit in awe.

The musicians started careers imitating the scene they came from. When the record label comes, the artists change and are no longer representative of the scene.