Fresh off an Onion AV Club review of his solo album-a soundtrack to the documentary The Heart Is A Drum Machine-Flaming Lips’ multi-instrumentalist Steven Drozd found himself personally addressing some nasty comments from readers. Evidently, a few of the posters felt that Drozd’s contributions were the reason that the band moved from their acid freakout days into a more subdued psychedelic directions that often blossomed into progressive territories. He also was sagged with introducing the electronica elements into the band’s heady mix, a real point of contention from old school fans. A few posters even suggested that Drozd had a hand in Ronald Jones’ departure.
That’s when Drozd logged in to the site and offered a two sentence long reply, which is more than he really needed to do. Any real Lips aficionado would have done their homework and discovered that The Flaming Lips has an Alpha Male by the name of Wayne Coyne.
In other words, if anyone has the authority to choose who stays and who goes in the Flaming Lips, it would be Wayne. It’s his band, and it’s been that way since his older brother left.
If Wayne was forced to make a choice between Drozd and Jones, then I’d say he made the right one. As talented as Ronald Jones is, Steven Drozd is on another level. And if Jones’ main defense was the “But I’m not on heroin” card, then he clearly didn’t understand that Wayne’s in the business of making music, not managing someone else’s lifestyle.
And at the time, not even the possibility of Drozd’s addition could erase the fact that he was still able to make some pretty amazing music.
The reality is that we might not even be talking about the Flaming Lips in a present tense if the choice had gone to Ronald Jones. The creative leaps the band took with Drozd are even more impressive when you consider the short amount of time it took. There is good growth for the band during the first half of the 90’s, but when you gauge the growth the band experienced during the last half of the decade-the period after Jones’ departure-the Flaming Lips went from making mind-bending originals into genre bending masterpieces.
I’m the type of fan that I have been pining for the band to return to their guitar freakout days for quite some time, so I understand how some fans have grown tired of the concert spectacle and grandeur arrangements of their work from The Soft Bulletin on.
But there’s little that anyone can say to dissuade me in believing that The Soft Bulletin is indeed a masterpiece. Embryonic isn’t that far behind either. And both have Drozd’s mitts all over them.
Blame him for a departure that reeks a bit of jealousy too. Could it be that Jones himself knew that even at lowest, Drozd could create something greater in scope than he ever could sober and focused, his motivation clearly defined? We can only look for Ronald’s body of work after his departure-and it’s just not there.
Barely a word has been heard from him since he left, and it’s becoming apparent that his complete removal from music is fueling the curiosity surrounding him, adding to a myth that isn’t really that mysterious.
Meanwhile, Drozd has been seen on all of those aforementioned landmark albums. Even the records that are in-between creative peaks show Steven in a role of vital muse instead of a divisive element.
You can see the documentary of The Heart Is A Drum Machine here, but earlier testimonies are suggesting that-aside from Drozd’s musical contributions-it’s a boring and jumbled mess.
3 comments:
Have you read DeRo's book on the Lips? If so, is it good? I gave our review copy to somebody to someobody who failed to review it.
Yeah. Flipped through it a bit just trying to see what the take was on Ronald's leaving. DeRo didn't get an interview from Jones. He also didn't get much on why original drummer Richard English split.
Let me just state that I personally consider Steven Drozd a talented musician whose influence on latter day Lips music is not only undeniable but got me interested in the band. However, I also believe in life--and in music--there are right and wrong choices regardless of how they eventually pan out, hindsight being 20/20 and all that. In other words, I think Wayne Coyne made the wrong decision but as fate it would have it, things worked out for the band.
Maybe, as you state, Coyne felt Drozd "was still able to make some pretty amazing music" and gambled on his addiction not derailing the band. As someone who has been in bands with people with addiction problems, I can tell you it's not a gamble anyone wants to take. And the scores of bands we know and love who have made the opposite decision as Coyne--and had subsequent success--is proof that the junkie will be dropped when the shit hits the fan, whenever the band feels that time has come to them.
Coyne and the Lips lucked out. Good for them.
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