LOL.
I saw that news story a few weeks ago.
It turns out
that component is so small, you'd have to drink a gallon or two of red wine everyday to see any benefit.
Of course, there are other implications to drinking a gallon of red wine everyday.
the gallon-of-wine thing was with respect to weight loss. one portion of the study focused on overfeeding the mice and giving them this drug; those that got it either lost weight or just didn't gain. I could dig that. supposedly, the doc who ran the study is popping resveratrol like it's going out of fashion. 'course, he didn't say if he's living longer or not.
drumwild, you make a good point about the audience. probably because they latch onto certain musical moments that parallel certain lifetime memories, they are less open to seeing the artist evolve. it's hard to say, though, coz I think so long as the artist is recognizable in some manner, they'll stay hooked. I certainly like to see some of my favorite artists taking a chance, so long as the outcome is good. not that I'm a huge fan of hers, but I respect madonna for this (evolving and working to stay relevant). [even though I got annoyed when she started playing guitar during her shows. puh-leeze.
]
I hesitated to say this, but I also think a lot of this boils down to talent/knowledge. if you only have a limited palette available to you, you can only do so much [although admittedly, there's a lot of cool stuff you can do musically, even with constraints...steve gadd surely feels this way]. sometimes it seems artists blow their wad in a moment of inspiration on that first or breakthrough album, be it due to hunger or a true moment of musical fire, then they're incapable of reproducing that with later works. michael jackson was one of the few people that could showcase a sustained musical inspiration...and I think half the reason is coz he's friggin' weird. he lives in his own world and music is his sustenance. I wonder if after people get rich and famous, they really live for the music in that same way. I would imagine it's hard to do that, once you've got diversions like jet planes and jacuzzis.
lastly, I gotta believe a great producer makes a difference, too. I was watching that metallica documentary a few nights ago and their producer [forget his name...a famous one] was talking about how he tried to bring out stuff in the band, because he thought they were lacking in a lot of areas. one big thing he did was fight for a slowed-down tempo in I think it was 'sad but true.' they played a rough cut of how it originally sounded, and it was really cheesy. the laid-back groove made a huge difference in the tune and gave it an edge. he also really jacked-up the overall sound of the band. made them heavier and more bombastic.
anyhow -- I'm gonna go see chick corea tonight [the leprechaun band] and I'm thinking he'll still be delivering the goods, so perhaps it'll throw a wrench into this argument.
[not that we're
arguing, mind you!]
