Talent vs. Genius

In the world of music there are many ways to critique the sounds you hear; whether it is by the strength of the hook, groove or lyrics or the complexity and sheer technical perfection of the playing and lyrics. Now in a perfect world you could have both in your music but that is seldom the case. If you want to feed your heart you listen to Janis Joplin not ELP and if you want to feed your brain you reverse it. This distinction is why I tend to think of how skilled a band is by their genius versus the amount to talent they have.

Just to give you an idea of the distinction
some bands/artists I consider to have very little genius but tons of talent include:
ELP
Iron Maiden
Aretha Franklin
Van Halen
Eagles

Some bands/artist I consider to have a lot of genius but very little in the way of talent:
Leonard Cohen
Janis Joplin
Lou Reed
Klaus Schulze
Daniel Johnston
The Birthday Party

Now I want to be clear that I like all of those listed above. The only difference is how I enjoy the music. The first list is full of people who have very few songs in their entire catalog that are bad. But there is also a lack of truly outstanding tracks to keep me enthralled (not to say they don’t have any Hotel California, RESPECT, and Run to the Hills are all stand outs). This makes listening to them in depth hard and usually leads to the songs melding together.

The second list on the other hand is full of people who have some truly great songs that should never be missed; however there is also a lot of misses and just plain bad music in their repertoire. In exchange though they offer something else such as meaningful lyrics or heart felt honesty. Leonard Cohen is responsible for some of the ugliest pieces of music but the fact that he is always lyrically interesting saves even his most atrocious works. On the other side Janis Joplin manages to give 120% of herself into each and every song she sung making even the most lame and pedestrian lyrics seem like a spiritual call.

Now most people/bands don’t lie on either extreme and rely on their pool of both talent and genius to pull them through. There is only one band that managed to, for a short time, reach the peak of technical perfection with their talent and emotional perfection with their genius. And no, it is not the Beatles who lose a little (but not a lot) on the talent side do to some real weak numbers on their early albums and Revolution 9. I am talking about The Who. From 1967-1973 they came out with 5 completely timeless albums that are packed with impeccable playing, clever ideas, unmistakable hooks, and all the heart that they could muster. This is a topic I could ramble on for hours but this initial post seems to have hit all the basic points.