Boombats wrote:There's a line at the beginning of Paris Is Burning, something about having two strikes for being a black man, and being a queen is the third strike.

...I think that if the human tendency for infighting were surmounted, that they could be an army against oppression.

H-GM wrote:I am a bad gay and has never seen this documentary. I wonder what the first two strikes could be?

Charlie D wrote:So, wait up, wait up a minute, hold on, now, fellas. You gotta tell me: Can I or can I not listen to the Bad Brains, anymore?

sparky wrote:

sphincter wrote:I just don't think I'm God like you hippies.

Sphincter, you spend a large proportion of your time here insulting most of us on the board and making it clear that you consider most of us hippies, hipsters, holier-than-thou snobs, or whatever weird sub-group you feel like assigning to us.

If we are fueling this complex of yours, then why do you visit? I'm sure that there is a leafy corner of the internet more suited to your temperament. Most of us seem to get on fine. Your insistence on being a dick is grating.

sphincter wrote:Jesus, lighten up!

Fucking emo.

Rick Reuben wrote:

NerblyBear wrote:Name me a great artist or writer or musician who was also a bad or stupid person.

You're right on, as usual.

Elvis Presley: fancied underage girls, made pornos of himself with young girls, used lots of drugs ( maybe that doesn't make him bad but it does make him stupid ).

Frank Sinatra: beat up women, drugs, did favors for Mafia.

James Brown: beat up women, used lots of drugs.

Miles Davis: racist. drugs.

I'll stop there, but it would be easy to continue.

I listen to all the music above, and what I know about those artists doesn't interfere with my listening.

I like some Reggae. Burning Spear, early Wailers, lots of dub. I don't know or care much about their views on homosexuality. The dance hall reggae mentioned by BClark, I don't care about them as people and I don't like their music.

What I know about HR has made no difference to my enjoyment of Bad Brains.

I don't need to make musical artists my 'imaginary friends' to enjoy their music. What I mean by that is that I'm not going to hold the people who created a vinyl record on my shelf to the same standards as I would hold a real world friend. I'm not going to thought police my entire music collection. Seems to be a waste of my time. I'm not going to change the artists' minds by boycotting them. BUT, If an artist associates himself with a message of hate that he sends out through his work, then that's different- if the artist is using the music as a vehicle for prejudice, then I will dump the artist from my collection. But if it's a case of 'music=good' and 'person=bad' and the two are kept separate, then I generally won't.

I didn't read Boombats' post above because I was occupied writing mine, but he made my exact point better than me:

boombats wrote:Oh and guess what...famous musicians are not your friends, they are random strangers that make music. Being a fan of the tunes does not require subscription to their cult of personality.