“I Liked The Early Stuff”: Why Every Blogger Thinks They Used To Write Better Than They Do Today

… And Why They Need To Think That

or: “ILTES”: WEBTTTDT …AWTNTTT

Which is better, and artist’s earlier work or their later stuff?

On the one hand, in most cases, when a musician is starting out, they are going for glory, pouring everything into it and hoping people like it.

After a few years of success, they have the time and money to do what they want. Sting goes off and records an album of forgotten English folk tunes. Eric Clapton revisits the blues that inspired him. Stevie Wonder, um…

So I’d have to say that artists are better when they are starting out.

Picture the scene

Giverny, 1917

Monet: Hey Pierre. Come on through, I’m in the garden.

Pierre (Monet’s agent): So, what are you working on?

Monet: Oh, you know, outdoor things. Heavy brush strokes, interpretations in vivid colours, contrasts, textures. Same old.

Pierre: You know… That Westminster painting you did killed in London. The English are starting to get this stuff.

Monet: Yeah, but I’ve got time now. I want to work on what I want to do. I want to express myself. I want to explore the boundaries of painting. I want to explore those.

Pierre: Ponds.

Monet: Lillies, Pierre. Lillies.

Pierre: Claude, baby. Landscapes. There’s a foreign market. No one lives on lilies, man. Not even the English.

Monet: My work with lillies has not yet finished.

Pierre: Look, I didn’t say anything with the first 150 paintings, but you need to branch out.

Monet: Why must I? I do not need to work.

Pierre: But you represent a movement. You are an impressionist. Maybe the greatest ever.

Monet: Perhaps it is as you say.

Pierre: No one could touch your Jimmy Cagney.

Monet: I’m just doing my thing, OK. You come in here with your big city ideas and your suits and speak of market forces. It’s about soul, Pierre and yet you’re all “Show me the Monet!!!” Now I know how Vincent felt.

Pierre (quietly): Never sold one pain-

Monet: Never sold a painting, I know, but that’s not the point! He had his sunflowers, I have my lilies.

As a sweeping generalisation, I’d have to go with the earlier stuff most of the time. Ah, I hear you say, what of The Beatles, Steven Spielberg, Sebastiao Salgado, Paul Klee, George Carlin and Elvis Costello.

For every example of late bloomers who turned into mighty oaks (stay with me), I’ll show you two Serge Gainsbourgs, Pearl Jams, Stings, JD Salingers, Woody Allens and Robin Williamses. Or a Paul MacCartney. As an aside, do you have any idea how unbelievably shit John Lennon would be if he were still alive? Macca’s trangressions I can accept, but the sins of a 90’s walrus would have been unforgivable.

Artists need conviction because conviction is soul and soul is self expression and self expression for the enjoyment of others is art.

It’s also why every blogger thinks they aren’t as good as they used to be. Because the thing that got us started is very different from the motivation we need to keep going. And because very few of us can lay claim to being Elvis Costello, we’ll always think not only that we’ve already had our shot, but that we blew it.

Which is why we’ll carry on.

Which is why we’ll get better.