Richey and 'teenage angst'?

[Slideling]

To me he encapsulates digesting of Rock'n'Roll mythology and trying to encapsulate it with one personae, rather than teenage angst. Can someone explain why they would associate him with the latter?

[jack_duckworth]

i think its COR that give him bad press,not his own actions.

same with morrissey,cobain,morrison etc..

richey did highlight his problems to the press in a stroppy,moody kinda way but only because he was telling 100% the truth about how he felt.
some would dismiss that as being self-indulgent,others would rely on his every moan like food to back up their own feelings.
he believed it though.

can you really say that about any other voice in music now?
no-one is really willing to put their neck/sanity on the line for the sake of their band the way he was

[Slideling]

I never actually saw Richey being moody in the media! I do wonder if people get that impression because he had a breakdown somewhere along the way. And I mean, even his cutting, it's a consensus he and the band have been flippant about it in the early days.

I do feel like people try to see him in the light of 'heroes' of today, they look at his overrall set of problems and think 'loooool, emo'.

But if you actually look at the Richey years, the focus wasn't on him like that all the time, the band usually had a bigger message to serve, and he was still the best spokesman about the lyrics.

[Bartek Wyre]

Richey was emo.

[Slideling]

Originally Posted by Bartek Wyre

Richey was emo.

[jack_duckworth]

Originally Posted by Bartek Wyre

Richey was emo.

oh shit..

[Bryter Layter]

Originally Posted by jack_duckworth

i think its COR that give him bad press,not his own actions.

same with morrissey,cobain,morrison etc..

richey did highlight his problems to the press in a stroppy,moody kinda way but only because he was telling 100% the truth about how he felt.
some would dismiss that as being self-indulgent,others would rely on his every moan like food to back up their own feelings.
he believed it though.

can you really say that about any other voice in music now?
no-one is really willing to put their neck/sanity on the line for the sake of their band the way he was

Very, very well said, Jack! Couldn't agree with you more!

[Son of Stopped]

Originally Posted by jack_duckworth

can you really say that about any other voice in music now?
no-one is really willing to put their neck/sanity on the line for the sake of their band the way he was

...because they have a life? Richey didn't seem to, it was the band or nothing.
That can't be good surely?
I'm amazed he "lasted" as long as he did?

[Slideling]

You're not interested in answering the original question?...

[Flint]

It's obviously a matter of taste and I know I'm going be faced with an armada of people quoting me and disagreeing, but whenever Richey turned very introspective during his later days and essentially poured out introspective stuff in first person (Too Cold Here etc), the result is... cringy. Just as Nicky has troubles writing directly about politics without sounding like an overenthusiastic teenage rebel politician, Richey very often stumbled into sounding like the broody kid from the school class who writes "I hate the world and the world hates me" type of wannabe-fancyschmancy poetry into his black notebook back at home whenever he got a bit broody and self-loathing.

I emphasise again, subjective matter.

[srhgrg]

Originally Posted by FlintGF

It's obviously a matter of taste and I know I'm going be faced with an armada of people quoting me and disagreeing, but whenever Richey turned very introspective during his later days and essentially poured out introspective stuff in first person (Too Cold Here etc), the result is... cringy. Just as Nicky has troubles writing directly about politics without sounding like an overenthusiastic teenage rebel politician, Richey very often stumbled into sounding like the broody kid from the school class who writes "I hate the world and the world hates me" type of wannabe-fancyschmancy poetry into his black notebook back at home whenever he got a bit broody and self-loathing.

I emphasise again, subjective matter.

It's not always like that though. Fair enough he had some bad lyrics, but he had some really good ones as well. I think he articulated his angst in a much better way than so many other bands around do.

[Flint]

Originally Posted by srhgrg

It's not always like that though.

Yeah, hence my usage of 'very often' instead of 'always'.

Richey definitely had the skill of delivering very brilliant lines but he also had the skill of delivering very painfully cringy lines.

[Slideling]

I agree about Too Cold Here, but I think it was an atypical Richey song as it was less analytical with references the size of a book, and more, well... personal. But generally I find him very snarky and disguising his emotions with referring to other people/places, even if he is talking about himself.

Richey very often stumbled into sounding like the broody kid from the school class who writes "I hate the world and the world hates me" type of wannabe-fancyschmancy poetry into his black notebook back at home.

I don't really think it'd be subjective if you were giving examples. I mean, I'm genuinely interested in the topic!

[jack_duckworth]

Originally Posted by Richian

But generally I find him very snarky and disguising his emotions with referring to other people/places, even if he is talking about himself.

i agree,there is some truth in that.
im sure we can all see through the 'she'd','he','they' etc in his lyrics and that he buried alot of his emotions in literary quotes,often using someone elses turn of phrase to represent his point of view.

back to the press thang tho,he hardly ever did that when interviewed alone.
if nicky was with him or it was a full band piece i found him a little more cryptic but when on his own he just seemed to gush whatever emotion he was feeling at the time,be that pissed,sombre,antagonistic etc.
very rarely did he clam up or give bad text.

i suppose the point im trying to make is that to me richey (along with cobain) was the perfect ideal at the time when i needed an outlet for feeling a bit teenage and fucked up.
if he felt melodramatic and upset that the traffic lights turned red on him he spoke about how it bothered him.
you could argue that most 20-something idiots in bands bang on about such things but none of them ever backed it up with such humility,intelligence and genuine human feeling as he did.
i needed richey to articulate my 'teenage angst' at a time when i really wasn't mature enough to know what was going on in my head.

looking back,i was very COR and if i could go and slap myself then i would but richey never asked me or anyone to dress like him,get his haircut or anything else,he just said that he wanted to be taken seriously as a lyricist.
regrdless of however much copycat behaviour has occurred amongst fans that he would cringe at,he's at least got his wish of being held up as a highly respected lyricist

[Slideling]

Hmm yeah, I can see your point re:emotions in interviews, he was an animate character. But that's what made me connect with him at all.

And I mean, as opposed to teenage angst he:
* seemed to be fine with accepting authority/ very into studying
* didn't seem to have anger issues with people he knew
* didn't suffer from a broken heart, in fact sometimes seemed to not care about relationships at all. - At least that's what I consider tenage angst to be, maybe it was different for others