by turbin
Follows on from Prejudice Part 1.
Well the ruse worked for about 5 minutes. Yes maybe I had some people thinking about SAAB, and why not? It could just have easily been the case, as it has been for many.
Recently I have questioned my prejudices much more robustly and taken more time to understand why I might feel a certain way. It also helps me understand where others might be coming from.
Why it wasn’t about SAAB is only because I have purchased two post-2003 SAABs, one a 06 9-3 SportCombi shortly after they came out and later a 08 Combi which we still have and love. As a matter of fact, the other day I was almost home when I saw one at a roundabout and thought, “Wow! That’s a cool looking Combi!” and realised it was Mrs Turbin returning home from work.
SO, it wasn’t SAAB I was writing about. It wasn’t even a brand of car or anything car related except for the setting where I have enjoyed this new product has been exclusively while driving.
It is Queens of The Stone Age aka QOTSAs fourth album “Lullabies to Paralyze”.
Now I’m not about to try to sell that band to anyone or explain the reasons I am so into them at risk of boring you. I do not know anyone, friend, foe or family who likes this band even remotely as much as I do. It’s personal, just like SAAB is for those who love the brand.
What’s important is that after buying their 2002 album which really broke through in 2003, I also saw them live both times they were in Australia. As much as anything I loved what their bass-player and sometime vocalist bought to the band in quirkiness, edginess and the rest. He was booted out after the Australian tour and I, like many, thought that was the end. I, also like many, saw the guitarist and sometime vocalist as the demon that ruined something good and decided that I wasn’t going to buy into what came next.
SO, while I’m a person who had no qualms spending large on a couple of those post 03 SAABs I wasn’t prepared to take a chance on spending $20 on an album or two that I might prove to hate or possibly, just possibly, even really love.
Recently while on a Swadesque journey through the albums of Led Zeppelin, I went to buy the next installment, “Houses of the Holy”. It wasn’t at the shop so I finally thought, “Why not take that chance?”, and finally bought the next 2005 QOTSA album, almost 10 years after release. To be honest it wasn’t completely spur of the moment as I had worked my way backwards through the QOTSA catalogue and came to realise that the “demon”, Josh Homme, was actually the founder of the band and had everything to do with their sound as much as his sometime partner in crime, Dave Grohl, is core to Foo Fighters and their sound.
Guess what? I came to love it really quick. Any album that has Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top guesting on a track supplying “guitar lead, vocals” where Jack Black is also credited with “marching” might just have something going for it.
I then got thinking why I let prejudice get in the road all these years. I also came to see there was this strange-but-true parallel with SAAB and thus we get to this point.
My question then is:
Have you, readers of Swadeology, ever come to a point where you’ve finally given up judging something and thought “What was I thinking to have not done this before? I’ve been missing out!”??