Phoebe Bridgers calls David Crosby a "little bitch" for criticizing her guitar-smashing
Music Features Phoebe Bridgers
It’s Tuesday and we’re still talking about Phoebe Bridgers’ SNL guitar-smashing. But David Crosby is in part to blame for that. The legendary, weed-addled rocker is often asked for his opinion on whatever hot music topic is trending, so someone asked him for his thoughts on the much talked-about performance.
Crosby had one word in response: “Pathetic.”
Bridgers saw his tweet on Monday and responded with her own appropriate zinger:
It should’ve stopped there. After Bridgers went viral last year for saying Eric Clapton made “extremely mediocre music,” it’s fun to see her call out yet another classic rock curmudgeon. But Crosby, who seems to have a lot of time on his hands now, keeps tweeting through it, quote-tweeting a lot of people who disagree with him.
See, his beef with Bridgers isn’t that she destroyed the guitar, it’s that it’s not cool to stage smashing your guitar. Ok, boomer.
Crosby must’ve really been hurt by Bridgers calling him a little bitch because he then had to insult her performance. He also doesn’t get the skeleton costumes. I bet he’s fun on Halloween.
In one of his latest tweets, he said he prefers “people who can actually write songs.” Bridgers just couldn’t resist responding:
Any bets on which white classic rock guy Bridgers is going to take down next?
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285 Comments
That’s so rock n’ roll.
Phoebe writes her own songs…and her lyrics are almost painfully personal at times. What the fuck is Crosby talking about?
wow, what brilliant comebacks by bridgers. altho i guess being dunked on by David Crosby of all people would be frustrating
“altho i guess being dunked on by David Crosby of all people would be frustrating”
Yeah, that brilliant dunking that he did…
Especially when she knows she’ll never, ever touch his musical legacy.She’s Macklemore getting dissed by Andre 3000.
When I saw it the first time, I admit I saw it as a little forced and maybe attention grabby. Then I stopped and realized that it doesn’t matter because if she felt that in the moment, good on her. I don’t understand the amount of press it is getting though but I guess anytime a female anything does something of note there will always be a bunch of idiots trying to call her out.
Clapton is mediocre? He’s a shithead racist, but his music ability isn’t mediocre, that’s why it’s a tragedy. Why would Fleabag say something like that?
Crosby needs to listen to Phoebe Bridger’s “Motion Sickness” and realize that, when it comes to egotistical musicians that have their heads up their own asses, she’ll fucking cut them.
You’re a really stupid person
Stupid, meaningless comment from a stupid meaningless person. I bet you’ll really stick it to me and dismiss this comment. That’ll really show me. God you’re owning me so hard bro.
Imagine having to be David Crosby instead of Stephen Stills, Neil Young, or Graham Nash? Must be the worst to be the worst.
Neil Young was smart to get out when he did
Joni Mitchell liked to compare him to Yosemite Sam!
Because he’s into guns?
I think because she thought he was a ridiculous person and his appearance reminded her of Yosemite Sam
‘Cause he’s the rootin’est, tootin’est, shootin’est varmint in San Francisco?I know CSN & The Byrds were L.A.
If he isn’t, I don’t know who is!
Actually, this inspired me to listen again to If I Could Only Remember My Name; there is a song where he describes CSN&Y, and Rita Coolidge as Old West characters.
Yeah, I was thinking, when I read this, “Bet Joni Mitchell would call him a little bitch too.”I think she also called him a “tailgater” once, meaning he kept trying to attach himself to more talented people’s successes and come along for the ride or even take credit for them.
I am not surprised he’s sucking up every bit of oxygen he can get from this. Always was a thirsty little bitch.
I’m not sure it would be better to be Crosby than Stills but your point stands.
How is he not better than Steven Stills? I mean, Neil Young is Neil Young and Graham Nash was in The Hollies, and if you don’t think that gets him a pass you can go fuck yourself. But Steven Stills? If there wasn’t a character in Scott Pilgrim named after him, I wouldn’t even remember he existed.(That’s not actually true due to the fact that it’s technically illegal to talk about the ‘60s without playing “For What It’s Worth” in the background)
Stephen Stills was absolutely awesome. All of the CSNY were legendary assholes, but also legendarily talented. You should check out Super Session, with Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield, Manassas, and other work.
None of them were as cool as Greg Reeves
People just have some ridiculously strong opinions about this. Phoebe Bridgers’s fans (and they’re quite adoring), at least the most vocal of them, probably think she can do no wrong. I think she’s great, and I didn’t mind the guitar smash, although I thought it was merely amusing, but on-brand.Some people on the other hand seem to think it’s a sign of the decline of our civilization, that she’s the least talented performer they’ve ever seen, that they’ll never listen to/watch her perform ever again. Such is Twitter, but it’s still perplexing this passion about something people saw for eight minutes and happened to dislike.
It was a perfectly fine performance, but smashing a guitar was trite 40 years ago. And giving the guitar company a heads up beforehand, and having a special fake monitor made to spark and smoke for maximum effect kind of misses the point of “spontaneous act of anarchy.” Still, for ANYONE to have a strong opinion about this is just baffling to me.
Yeah getting upset about something as played out as a guitar smashing is pretty wack, but it’s not nearly as wack as staging a fake guitar smashing with the guitar company’s blessing.
If you think a moody singer staging a stunt on TV was the death of punk rock, you’re gonna be really upset to see what has happened to Gwen Stefani.
Wait… Gwen Stefani was considered punk?!?The fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh???
No Doubt was Ska Punk, yes. Now she hosts singing game shows with her country hubby.
I like to play a mind game called “Imagine what the guy from Sublime would be doing NOW” when I get bored. Gwen makes cameos sometimes. It’s…not good.
It’s all theater, no matter who is doing (or has done) the destroying and with what level of permission/intent. This somehow feels like gatekeeping. She’s not the right “sort.” And when the initial complaint that she’d destroyed something valuable turned out to not be true, then it became that she wasn’t authentic enough in her destruction, proved by her having planned it in advance.On the other thread, someone posted a video (I think maybe in the grays) about Jerry Lee Lewis setting fire to a piano to one-up Chuck Berry. Dude brought lighter fluid and matches with him on stage. That shit was planned (and petty AF).
I mean we can just say it’s because she’s a woman
No one asked you or cares what you think or say
*nods*
The iconic picture of Hendrix lighting up his guitar has the lighter fluid in frame lol.Or noted child porn collector Pete Townshend doing it after every show. Or Garth Brooks smashing two of them nightly.
that’s what i’m tryin to figure out, tho’…why is she not the right sort? too indie? too grammy-nominated?
Too female.
Wait until I tell you about The Who’s entire career.
They are both shitty positions.
You mean like the back of a Volkswagon?
I mean, hell, if you send me free guitars, I’ll smash ‘em. I’ll play ‘em more but if smashing a few is a caveat; I get to keep the ones I like.
Yeah it’s like I don’t even really care all that much by the guitar smashing in general. I’m just alienated by the amount of attention that’s lavished on her. I just really really don’t understand the appeal of her and the fact that music reviewers who supposedly have taste gush about her.
I really do get that complaint, so I agree. I think it would have come off better as performance if she made it even cheesier than just using the sparks. She could have gone bigger, but she nevertheless put on a show that people are talking about. David Crosby probably wouldn’t have been impressed no matter what she did.
Correct. And what kind of weirdo sees the clip and thinks, “I MUST know what David Crosby thinks of this!!!!!”
People who want to stir up exactly this kind of pointless drama on the internet.
I saw Geezer Butler’s take on “WAP” recently. There’s apparently a whole cottage industry of asking dinosaurs their opinion of a world that left them far, far behind.
Based on shite like wap though , joining them would be very tempting..
yeh, the ‘old man yells at cloud,’ rock edition. there’s at least one hot take a week.i’m fine with their opinions; i’m mostly mad that most of these dudes
1) gained fame doin a lot worse in real life
2) made a crapload of money doin it
David Crosby.
“Bigger” would’ve been better. I’d have gone a cronenbergian route, wherein the smashed monitor begins to ooze blood and moan.
Giving a guitar company heads up that you’re going to smash their instrument on live television is the correct thing to do, though. Having a fake monitor set up is smart in that monitors are expensive and the point of the smashing the guitar was all part of the finale of the song, primal and destructive.
Nothing says primal and destructive than politely asking permission to be primal and destructive.
Okay but… Guitar smashing should be primal, destructive, spontaneous and authentic. What we saw on SNL was like the high school talent show’s idea of rocking out.
Nah, guitar smashing, planned or not, is part of a performance. I’m not gonna fault Kevin Barnes or Wayne Coyne that they didn’t spring costumes from the aether, or spontaneously develop staging and blocking for their concerts. What I’m reading is more boomer dad-rockers (and those that wish to ascend to that niche) complaining about something that’s been done before. And proscribing this false “It nEeEdS tO bE sPOnTanEOUs!” to performance while not really understanding that spontaneity is the exception rather than the rule to truly amazing concert events.Then again, like the boomer dad-rocker ascendant you seem to be, I doubt you’ve been to a venue that had domestic beer less than $9 a cup, or were able to chat with the performers after set.
“It was a perfectly fine performance, but smashing a guitar was trite 40 years ago.”
And I bet you’ve whined like a little asshole every single time someone has done it for the past 40 years, right?
Eat shit, loser.
so your saying it was a lip synced guitar smash?
Eh, it’s always been a pyrotechnic effect. She’s just pulling back the curtain. I’ve never liked the idea that spending thousands of dollars on replacement guitars is anything besides aggressive capitalist excess.
Exactly so. If this was a bunch of old, outdated artists rejecting the new and avant garde direction, it would be one thing. But this was just trite, lukewarm poseurism at its worst. When Bridgers does something interesting, let alone revolutionary, call me. Until then, her pop music doesn’t count for much.
“No, we won’t be calling you.” – everyone
Who gives a fuck if it was staged or not? Performers do stunts on SNL all the time.
On the flip side you have Morgan Wallen and Ariel Pink selling more records than ever thanks to being white male pieces of shit.
Bret Michaels is sitting by the phone.
I honestly envy anyone who has so little going on that they have the emotional room to stay mad at somebody smashing a guitar on SNL days later.
I had the opposite reaction and thought I’d hate to be that kind of person, but then I realized how passionately and irrationally I hate James Corden and Jimmy Fallon, then “Man In The Mirror” might as well have started playing.
I hate those two as well, but due to consistent awfulness rather than a single act. Fallon in particular earned my ire by being equally excited about literally everything he sees, creating the sort of obvious insincerity that can only come with time rather than a one-off event. Also they both are robbing valuable time from the Roots and Reggie Watts.Which isn’t to say we aren’t all capable of irrational bouts of hatred (or hypocrisy) but I do think this case is different.
I’ll keep at it, I guess!
Fallon’s ok , but seriously, who the fuck keeps employing talentless, annoying, hamster cheeks Corden.
To be fair, she’s extraordinarily mediocre pop music, just like nearly all musical acts on SNL these days, and David Crosby is an all-time great.This is like Jim Bruer having a disagreement with Dave Chappelle. It doesn’t matter who wins the argument, one of them is a legend and the other will be forgotten shortly.
I like most Americans don’t watch SNL so never saw the performance. What I’ve heard from Phoebe Bridgers was fine and she was right to call David Crosby a bitch because he is a grumpy old boomer bitch that most people only know as that guy that was on The Simpsons that one time.
You mean George Harrison?
You think “most people” only know David Crosby from the Simpsons? Lol no. That’s absurdly wrong
You’re right! He’s probably just a reference they don’t get so he’s no one to most people. At the time I had to have my mom explain to me that he was in an old rock band and was infamous for allegedly using his fame and Phil Collins money to get to the top of the organ donor list for a new liver despite being a notorious alcoholic and hardcore drug user.
I don’t think that’s correct. Just because you’re not aware of someone doesn’t mean everyone else also is.
I think you’re vastly overestimating the popularity of David Crosby with non boomers. I used to get him confused with Gallagher easy mistake since they look similar enough and are both hateful pieces of shit.
That’s where I know him from!
This. Aside from Simpsons, if the band didn’t have his name in the title, I’d never know who he is.
He was also a Roseanne guest star.
I’m just kind of alienated by her. I mean I don’t want to care about her and just go on with the rest of my life but the amount people gush about her makes me be like… “Her?”Is there something I’m missing? Like I fucking love Aimee Mann but this just one blonde white girl being sad that’s too far for me.
Did you just describe Aimee Mann as ‘a blonde white girl being sad’ cos if you did you and me are gonna have words..
I mean… yes but like I still love Aimee Mann. Lost in Space is my Jam but it’s not exactly chipper.
i might be showing my age, but case/lang/viers > boygenius.i dig ‘em both, tho.
I think she’s…fine but her fans rival Taylor Swift’s when it comes to staking out online spaces and arguing with anyone who doesn’t think she’s a pure WRITER. I think Phoebe’s melodies are underdeveloped and i hate when a melodic moment is undone by a dumb lyric. Now watch the teenagers accuse me of having a vendetta against her.
Yeah we’re just now criticizing the criticism of the actual event.
Wow. I didn’t know it was possible to hate absolutely everyone involved in all sides of something this much. He sounds dumb, her responses are lame, and the other tweets highlighted are moronic too.
Yeah, David Crosby is a legend, a gifted artist whose work from 40 years ago sounds 1000 times more vital and energized than anything this lady will ever do.
Yeah it’s gotten to the point where we’re now criticizing the criticism of the criticism of what actually happened.
It’s like they’re doing a Monty Python sketch.“You suck.”No, you suck.”
No they aren’t!
“I’m sorry, but this is Abuse.”
I think the biggest problem we face as a culture today is people feeling like they have to have opinions about things that are stupid and beneath comment.Okay, that was hyperbole. But still. My thoughts every time I see stuff like this are, “1. Why did he comment? 2. Why did she respond? 3. Why does Twitter give a fuck? 4. Why is this an article? 5. Why are there 400 angry comments on this article? 5. Why am I reading any of this?” It just… doesn’t matter. Or at least shouldn’t.
It doesn’t. You are reading the tweets as if the people writing them really mean them. It’s all just a big joke for us to enjoy. People take up contradictory positions for comedic effect. It’s a sort of long form improv.Nobody in their right mind would write any of those things in a public forum if they really meant them. They would have to be insane!
I read the article because I thought it was about Phoebe Waller-Bridge who is smart, funny and cute as a button. The article, alas, was not about PWB.
I was fine with her until she started talking shit about Clapton. The absolute audacity of it.
This seems to happen annually with SNL. They book an artist who has gotten really successful just a bit outside the mainstream, then a bunch of people who have only heard of them tangentially hear them for the fist time, and instead of having the normal reaction of, “Eh, this really isn’t my bag” they try to prove that this Big New Thing being talked about is somehow objectively bad. It’s just a rehash of everything that happened when Bon Iver played SNL a few years ago.
In fairness Bon Iver is objectively bad
You win today’s “bad take” award.
You’re an idiot. And I promise no one on the earth cares what you think about anything.
Yes, you’re right, people have subjective opinions about mediocre music.
Yeah, Lana Del Ray’s SNL appearance came to mind too. It’s okay to not like someone, or not like their performance, without resorting to things like “this was staged!”
Yes. It was staged. It was literally on a stage. That’s how performances work. Do you think David Bowie’s makeup just spontaneously appeared on his face, or Elton John’s costumes were a result of some closet-based accident immediately before he came out to play?
“Yes. It was staged. It was literally on a stage” is maybe the best rejoinder I have seen to this whole discourse.
Just because you’re on a stage doesn’t mean everything you do has to be “staged”.
Well, sure – if one can’t discern the difference between “stage” the noun and “stage” the verb. Or, indeed, a noun and a verb. Otherwise, it’s a facile and fatuously presented disingenuous “logic”.“Of course it was ‘lip-synced’ – your lips are *always* in-sync with the sounds coming out of them!”
The “everything is staged!!” line also ignores that what people find irritating is that she made a point of *talking about how it was staged* and that everybody sanctioned it. That’s just boring.
Well, I DID think that, but no, you had to go ruin it for me. Thanks.
If I’m not mistaken, with Lana Del Rey, wasn’t it more that she was off key and flat throughout both songs that night? I remember her performance being “bad” because it was legitimately bad and not just “the music is boring and slow thus it’s garbage.”
David Crosby was in a group that argued about, among other things, the size, shape, colour and texture of the Persian carpet that had to be set upon their stage ere their holy feet would tread on it.
He’s also the guy whose drug abuse was so severe he eventually had to get a liver transplant. Not to mention it also prompted Neil Young to quit the group, not once, but twice. And Neil wasn’t exactly a slouch when it came to getting stoned. Seeing old footage of Neil sticking his roach click in the neck of his guitar during concerts still makes me laugh.
Graham Nash is a nice guy, but Stills and Crosby have for decades been known as asshole jerks.
I know David Crosby only as Jon Lovitz played him on SNL’s “Betty Ford Straight Arrow Christmas” special.
Neil was “Hollywood Sober”.
Gah! “clip” not “click”.
I’m pretty sure the “staged” observation is talking about the fake monitor part. Instead of volatility bubbling over into dangerous destruction, it’s drawing up the idea on paper of vamping for a 16 bar crescendo before taking off the guitar and breaking it, first reaching out to the manufacturer to make sure there won’t be any bad reaction from them, and getting the Saturday Night Live prop department to make a fake monitor she can hit the guitar against without risk of damaging the set or offending anyone at the show. I like Phoebe Bridgers’s music a lot, but I thought the stunt’s dumb. Smashing instruments isn’t cool, and preclearing it with everyone and figuratively putting on safety goggles before doing it is even less cool. I guess she got some articles written about her, so mission accomplished.
….please Google “nouns” and “verbs.”
Google actually told me that “staged” is an adjective, so it seems we’re at an impasse.We can get bogged down in equivocating about my glib one-liner. Or we can talk about my actual point: how a performance isn’t just a spontaneous act of creativity, and how artists actually spend a lot of time meticulously planning what they’re going to do and how they’re going to do it as a fundamental part of their job. Again: we don’t think KISS started spitting fire out of their mouths without practicing it first, right?
No one is under any obligation to have enjoyed Bridger’s demonstration, but disliking it because it was carefully planned seems, to me, to be an odd metric that isn’t really used very often against other musicians who also have elaborately planned set pieces in their shows.
She had a fake mixer made. Lame.
Yeah but sometimes it really just is a bad performance. I was rooting for Lana Del Rey but she didn’t do a very good job on SNL. It wasn’t just tired old fogeys saying that either. It was all over the music sites at the time.Maybe she wasn’t ready for that venue or maybe it wasn’t her night. That’s okay, it didn’t end her career.
Yeah, I mean her set was very meh. She was also visibly uncomfortable – unless that was an intentional part of the performance, which would also make it ‘staged’.
But the think pieces that rolled out afterward were, IMO, a little aggressive. Kristin Wiig’s Weekend Update bit the following week, in character as Lana Del Rey, was a pretty spot-on response.
Definitely, I wouldn’t argue that. Some of the response was overly cruel (like it was Ashlee Simpson all over again) when it just seemed to me like she was someone in a venue she wasn’t quite ready for.
remember when prince threw his guitar up in the air and it never came down? spontaneous AND defying laws of nature.
He tossed it up to Heaven where he is playing it now.
Bon Iver is terrible and was terrible before SNL.
Bon Iver just wasn’t the right artist for SNL at the time. He’s actually gotten better at the up tempo sound that works on SNL but his coffee house sound just will never work there and I can’t complain to him because he made a valid choice to get a national TV performance but…yeah…His set was not anything that really belonged on SNL.In general, I thought Bridger was more or less hitting the indie/alt scene pretty hard and it isn’t like they booked her before she was playing major festivals or something. It’s a pandemic, you’re not getting Beyonce or any mega stars to come out.
…then a bunch of people who have only heard of them tangentially hear them for the fist time, and instead of having the normal reaction of, “Eh, this really isn’t my bag” they try to prove that this Big New Thing being talked about is somehow objectively bad.You’ve just described the AVClub comment section from a few years back.
hahaha “a few years back”
You know who’s fucking Great? Sharon Van Etten.I usually hate sad white girl music but her, Dido and Aimee Mann are my exceptions. Etten just fucking goes for it with her voice, no ironic distance there. No point dealing with irony in that genre.
And Etten’s songwriting is shockingly distinct. I can actually tell the difference between her songs. And her voice has a shocking amount of range for the genre.
I can’t necessarily get on with the whole take, but I will stand for Sharon Van Etten 24/7 365. She is wonderful in performance and writes form a distinct point of view. Check out “The OA” she is in it.
Seems like just yesterday, people were flipping out over Nirvana smashing their equipment during an SNL performance.
Well, she certainly handles criticism with a certain nonchalant refinement.
If only her music could measure up to that standard.
*rightfully calls Clapton mediocre*makes boomers, zoomers, and gen z all… angry? for smashing a guitar*calls David Crosby a little bitchI am buying all of her albums. <3
I was under the impression that Gen Z and Zoomers were the same age group? I’m in favor of “Zoomers”. Millennials got burdened with a dorky-ass name, so it seems only fair that the next generation does as well.
I honestly have no idea anymore. I can’t keep track of all the “nicknames.” I’m 39. Depending on who you ask I’m one of three or four different groups. 🤣
You’re Gen Y (Millennial).
Fuckin’ millenials!
Well, if I did, it wouldn’t be a crime, but it would be weird.
All generation names suck.
Correct. Gen Z = Zoomers. Gen Y = Millennials
‘Millennials’ always makes me think of that movie Millennium which was kinda depressing.
Now, like David Crosby, you weren’t looking for that, but you are now stuck with it.
Boomers.:“The Who smashed their equipment ! What rebels, man. They’re cool.”“ Phoebe Bridgers smashed her guitar. How lame.”
“WHEN PETE TOWNSHEND DID IT IT WAS ART, MANNNNNN.”
I’m not gonna say whether it was cool or not, but don’t even compare the two. Keith Moon stuffed his drums with fucking gun powder.
Yeah, Keith Moon. When I want authentic stupidity, that’s my go to.
He died young of a drug overdose, like all the coolest people from my high school!
They did call him ‘Moon the Loon’, not ‘Keith the Reasonable.’
The Who also wore skeleton outfits. Well, John Entwistle did anyway
Ox wore the skeleton outfit but the others made some sartorial statements of their own.
Enjoy mediocrity!
Boomers think the slightest whiff of criticism of their beloved culture—most of which they weren’t even personally responsible for—is blasphemy. No one in history has ever sniffed their own farts with the blind devotion that they do.
https://youtu.be/YzBW4tGiPncCan confirm.
(well, I failed at YouTube embed)
Because for you it’s about the brand not actual music right? You’re what’s wrong with people.
Zoomers and Millennials don’t care. It’s not like she smashed a phone.
David Crosby kinda needs to shut the hell up. I’m a fan of Bridger’s. It was a performance. Smashing guitars is a thing people do. The Who put fireworks in their drums and blew them up on TV. It’s a performance thing.
Smashing guitars is a thing people do. The Who put fireworks in their drums and blew them up on TV. It’s a performance thing.
It’s a stupid thing. The Who’s manager quit because they were bankrupting the band by constantly destroying & replacing equipment.
David Crosby’s musical talent is the Sun compared to Bridger’s defective flashlight. She could write a song a day for infinity and she’d never begin to touch his genius. The fact that you like her music and think her sad guitar smashing was cool affirmatively establishes you are a lame.
Imagine asking someone’s opinion and then when it’s not an opinion you like telling them to shut the hell up.
Imagine trying to slip something like that Phoebe Bridgers and the person who asked David Crosby’s opinion are different people by us.
I’m sure David Crosby gives a fuck what you think
I bet if coolmanguy said it on Twitter he would. He seems very thirsty for attention.
Yeah I’m sure you have a lot of insight into that.
Oh come now. I wouldn’t exactly say I’m a scholar of bitter old has-been fucks slagging on the youths, I’ve just happened to read a few articles about Crosby.
Ok
She better leave Jack Wagner alone
Seems like all this could have been avoided if she hadn’t announced her passionate, rebel act of defiance on live television was a staged, committee approved destruction of a fake amp.To her credit, though, David Crosby IS a little bitch. Also, I like a few of her songs.
Who said it was an act of defiance – it was a performance – the song crescendos in such a way that it seemed natural to me when she started smashing the guitar. Also -David Crosby started his career with an abomination of Mr. Tambourine Man. Apart from being generally icky – he always struck me as a bit of a hack and a transplant line jumper. ew.
I can rephrase this for you if you think it sounds somehow less lame.*Ahem*Seems like all this could have been avoided if she hadn’t announced her passionate act of destruction on live television was a staged, committee approved destruction of a fake amp.
You’re an idiot, the first CSN album is a classic for the ages.
Breaking things is general seen as an act of defiance.
What about eggs? Maybe not eggs.
Nah.
Was it Gene Clark or Michael Clarke who popped him one because he wouldn’t stop running his mouth?
“Seems like all this could have been avoided if she hadn’t announced her passionate, rebel act of defiance on live television was a staged, committee approved destruction of a fake amp.”
Or if you fucked off and died in a ditch somewhere…
Yeah, David Crosby is a legend.
I can’t say I disagree with Crosby here. I didn’t understand the point when Pete Townsend did it. I didn’t see the point when Bridgers did it.
Since when were SNL live performances any good? It’s all the bad technical aspects of poorly mixed live recording with all the soul-sucking experience of watching the spirit of live performance over closed-circuit television.
Also, Boomer Rockers need to just shut up.
Idk, but Crosby Still and Nash played their second concert ever to 400k+ people with monitors the size of your cell phone speaker and they absolutely murdered the ever living shit out of it, so I’m gonna say he kinda knows what the fuck he’s talking about.
The Foo Fighters latest performance, a Tribe Called Quest, James Bay, Childish Gambino and Frank Ocean are perhaps the only performances I haven’t fast forward through. Felt the guitar smashing was unnecessary, but I guess it’s gotten people talking. Would rather she ripped up a picture of [insert crooked world leader] though and seen how that went down. The guitar smashing didn’t go with the vibes of the song. It was very static before. Had she been belting around the stage with more agro I would have been into it. Gotta build up to the release. Not just shock for the sake of shock.
Nobody tell Crosby that Alice Cooper wasn’t actually beheaded during his stage shows.
I hope she’s better at playing music than she is at comebacks.
This is a tough one. Bridgers is 100% correct about Crosby and Clapton. But she looked like an 80-year-old person chopping wood when she “smashed” her guitar, and it was obviously ironically staged too. I guess on net I don’t need to hear Crosby opine on modern music, so I’ll grant the match to Bridgers.
*shrug* The guitar company did warn her it was a solidly built piece of kit. That said, at $85 a pop, a practice round or two couldn’t have hurt.
I mean she clearly had a hard time lifting it over her head, and you can’t recover from that. Either take some stuff out of the body to make it lighter (was she really playing it?) or think about swinging it like a baseball bat, anything so you don’t look like an alien trying to imitate the action humans call ‘smashing a guitar’.
Nah, it’s pretty easy. Crosby is a musical genius and a pretty funny guy. She’s a lame retread who makes tired derivative music.
I just watched it. The real problem: those are some weak-ass swings. Why is she holding it at the bottom of the neck?
I figured it was because she’d not done it before and was trying not to send pieces into the audience of essential workers/health care professionals that SNL had seated at ground level.
Figure “phoebe bridger blinds healthcare worker with piece of smashed guitar” is a worse headline than “david crosby is old, does predictable boomer shit.”
This mirrors my problem with the guitar smashing, which is the technique of holding it like an ax. The neck is the apparent weak spot, so that’s the part you try to break. Hitting the side of the body puts the physical stress in the wrong place.
Irrelevant has been tries for attention. Gets wrong kind.Isn’t smart enough to shut up.
He’s not wrong. Her performance was a wet fart, and her guitar smashing was just embarrassing. David Crosby is a goddamn legend, she should feel lucky to have her mediocre name pass his twitter lips.
David Crosby is just waiting for another way more talented musician to die so he can immediately shit on their legacy. Dude has to kill time somehow.
Well now that he’s off the shit, he’s not killing brain cells or liver tissue.
The dude is such a miserable prick, even Graham Nash, world’s greatest harmony singer and Crosby’s last friend, won’t have anything to do with him anymore.
Wow. She sucks more than was apparent from her boring-ass music.
I like her even more now, for shitting on Crosby.Do Jimmy Buffett next!
Maybe if Jimmy Buffet just started weighing in on everything.
This stuff cracks me up. Why ask David Crosby about it? Why get mad at him when he says what he thinks about it after being asked? For whatever it’s worth (nothing) – I’ve never heard of Pheobe Bridgers before but I liked the song. Crosby nailed it though, that was a pathetic guitar smash.
I don’t know. Phoebe Bridgers and Guy Who Wanted to Know What David Crosby Had to Say About This Event appear to have different Twitter handles, so I’m not seeing the connection.
I think you’re misunderstanding what I’m saying. I know Pheobe Bridgers didn’t ask him. Some random person asked him. That doesn’t erase my point – I’m just saying that someone asked him his opinion so he gave it.
It’s like people who insist they don’t care about the Kardashians.I mean they’re obsessed about how much they don’t care. They reply to every Kardashian post about how much they don’t care.If they think Crosby is an overrated irrelevant boomer (like I do), why do they care so much about what he thinks?BTW “Our house is a very, very, very fine house” is an OK nursery rhyme.
Holy shit Van Halen isn’t fucking metal and wasn’t metal in 1977. They’re a fucking bebop group and they’d tell you that. Jesus what is wrong with people.
Look, like most people it breaks my heart to see them stars smashing those perfectly good guitars.But I don’t make a big deal out of it or anything
I kinda hate all sides in this one 1) Breaking a perfectly good instrument for the performance is shitty2) Finding out that this “rebellious” act was planned ahead of time and approved by the guitar maker is shitty3) People being outraged that she did this are shitty It’s was stupid committee approved performance art crap but getting angry about it is just silly
Thats about where I stand too, Nilus. I think Bridgers writes some good songs. I don’t think you have to be a “boomer’ to think staging smashing a guitar is lame. And, since she’s mimicking a classic rock act, it’s a strange criticism.
There are so many better ways to destroy a guitar too.ChainsawPipe BombAttack DogsCrane Kick
Drum SoloSatanic Sacrifice
Or you could mix and match. Who doesn’t love a Satanic Drum Solo for instance?
Now you’re talking!!!Together we’ll go far in the music industry. Very little music, just visual gimmick after gimmick.
Or the old Jeff Jarrett/Elias method of smashing one over someone’s head to win a title belt!
What I don’t understand is how she gets away being billed by herself when she requires 8 backing musicians. Is she too narcissistic to be part of the band she clearly needs to make her music work? Right now the majority of people who make her songs possible get zero credit. THAT is pathetic.
I never saw her on SNL. But Bridgers is mostly a one guitar folk singer type. Or was , historically. Perhaps she upped her game just for the show
Also, Crosby isn’t technically a boomer. Crosby being a jackass should surprise no one, since he’s been doing it for over 50 years. I do enjoy his music though. If I removed all music from jackasses from my collection I would not have much left to listen to.
As I’m reading about this it’s becoming clearer that the only reason people find guitar-smashing less corny than, say, giant inflatable mascots, laser lights, or spandex pants with lightning bolts on them is that nobody ever came out and said, “the guitar smash was a planned stunt, which is why we had a tech with a replacement guitars standing by.” So this young person is just.l continuing a recent tradition of saying the quiet part loud.
The guitar smash is supposed to come from a place of pure passion, not just be some lame-o stunt. From conception to execution she basically ruined guitar-smashing forever. (not that it matters anymore because real rebellion would smashing your laptop or DJ set on stage, it’s 2021)
I’ve known people for whom it was not a stunt, and who kept a lot of people busy trying to put their guitars back together before the next show. Eventually they came up with a couple encores using harmonica so they could play them after all the guitars were destroyed. Man, they day the neck of one pretty red guitar snapped, I just about cried.
Danelectros aren’t exactly perfectly good. They’re made out of like dry wall and unless you got Jimmy Page’s guitar tech, they don’t sound or feel all that great.
Aw man, my nerdery about this is an itch I need to scratch (sorry). Danos are indeed cheap (made from composite wood, not drywall, but I get the hyperbole), but also plenty of great guitarists have played them and used them consistently. They have flatter fretboards than other leading brands so they make some kinds of playing easier, and their pickups have enough of a unique voicing that several studios keep them on hand. To use a car analogy, they’re kind of like the VW bug or Citroen 2CV of the guitar world. Cheap and weird, but loved all the moreso for those same reasons. Kind of a shame their current owner is a fundie homophobe, mind you…
They certainly have their fans. My friend liked mine better than I did; I should give to to him.
My number one if-money-were-no-object-dream-guitar is one of those Ampeg Dan Armstrong’s.
Oh yeah, I love the look of that thing. Must be so heavy though, haha
A little heavier than a Drywall-electro!
The opposite of hollow, yes, haha
Yeah it’s like we’re all now talking about the criticism of people criticizing the reaction to the actual guitar smash.
Meh, if she staged it that’s fine. Other performers stage shit as part of their performances, both on SNL and beyond.
Everyone complaining about her ruining a perfectly good instrument has clearly never played a Danelectro
I mean, if it’s not your guitar, I can’t imagine why you’d care if it were smashed, but sure.
Imagine you are a young musician who can’t afford to even buy a guitar and you see her smash on TV for “the performance”. That’s a pretty shitty feeling. Like I said above, it’s not a world ending act but it’s still a shitty act.
Oh for fuck’s sake this is absolute weak sauce.
Her first song – the one my station is playing – sounded like it was being played through a pillow. No life.
Manufactured smashing done with misguided irony is super lame. Especially with the fake pyro added in.
Agree. I hope it doesn’t make me a bad feminist but I thought it looked *extremely* lame. I don’t care about destroying an instrument or whatever, but it just looked so lame and silly. I feel bad for saying it, but I will also say that I enjoyed her performance overall. I am not hip to the musics of today (I’m so very old…not boomer old though) so I hadn’t heard of her, before that, but I liked it, besides the guitar smash.
I hear ya man, to me the whole thing was a meh. I was actually getting bored with the second performance and then she started screaming and I thought, ok this is different. Then she went to “smash” that guitar I was like, wait, huh? It didn’t even look like she was even smashing that guitar. More like giving it a good thump as if she was trying to hammer a nail in that amp.And c’mon, saying Eric Clapton made extremely mediocre music is a bit childish. Let’s see if you career lasts as long as his honey. Stop being so bitter and staging your guitar “smashes.” Its not a good look and you’re no riot grrl either.
bReAkInG a PeRfEcTlY gOoD iNsTrUmEnT fOr ThE pErFoRmAnCe Is ShItTy
Shut up nerd.
One of the most widely-seen instrument smashes was when The Who played “My Generation” on the Smothers Brothers show in 1967. (It was used as the opening scene in their “Kids Are Alright” documentary). They didn’t really play their instruments — Keith’s drumming was almost comically out of sync with the recording — and Pete’s amp was rigged with smoke bombs and flash pots. In other words, these things have been “staged” since the very beginning. No big deal.
She didn’t actually break the guitar.It was more like she scuffed it up a bit. I’m pretty sure it’ll buff out.
Kurt Cobain and his tech used to purchase guitars specifically to be smashed, then pre-break them to ensure total destruction. Keith Moon used to pack explosives in his kick drum, most famously the time he used too much on the Smothers Brothers when he blew up his entire kit. Jimi Hendrix had the lighter fluid ready to go.Et cetera.
The mixing was terrible for the performance, and although I love her music, Phoebe has never sparkled for me in live shows, so i do understand folks not being taken with her set.The guitar smashing…eh. She was having fun. That’s really the main thing that matters. It looks like it feels cathartic as hell to smash a guitar on stage, and normally she’s using decent guitars that she likes and wants to keep, so this was a prime opportunity to smash.
Calls out Eric Clapton for being mediocre. Gets Boomers riled up for smashing a guitar on stage. Makes quality bomb ass music as a solo artist. Makes bomb ass music in groups. Likes skeletons. Gives off positive “I used to be emo” vibes. Doesn’t give off negative “I used to be emo” vibes.The best.
I’m definitely biased because I listen to “Punisher” multiple times per week and have possibly listened to “Woodstock” and “Ohio” once or twice in the past year (neither of which was written by Crosby FWIW). I thought the guitar “smash” was fun! She was kinda smiling and laughing the whole time from what I could see. If I recall correctly, she did an interview with Pitchfork or Stereogum or some site like that where she said that performing this song now is basically like goofing around and she wants people to know it well enough that they just sing her messed up lyrics back at her from the crowd (the line “A haunted house with a picket fence / to float around and ghost my friends” was instantly glued to my brain the first time I heard this song). So maybe that’s too much inside baseball for people to know, but she’s not taking this whole thing as seriously as they are. I love “little bitch” as a response because it’s scathingly low effort, which feels very much on brand for her.Asking Crosby’s opinion on other musicians is like asking Ja Rule about politics – bound to be irrelevant and wrong.Can we get Eve 6 to comment on The Byrds guy?
Nobody’s asked David Crosby anything in years. He still tells us, but I don’t think anyone has to ask him.
it was pathetic. they rigged up the monitor so fake sparks came out. it was embarrassing. Also this woman is a rich kid industry plant playing warmed-over post grunge nonsense. She’s hardly alone in that, but she is still awful. Funny tweets though.
She’s doing something she loves. You’re pissing and moaning on the internet. You should be embarrassed.
Smashing guitars is corny no matter who does it. This was corny and cringy.
Paul Simonon of the Clash smashing his was absolutely NOT corny and became the basis of one of the all time great album covers. Then again, his was out of true rage and he admitted to regretting it later.
I didn’t think it was outrageous, just silly; like Zamfir smashing his pan flute or something
“I Know the End” to me is a song whose ending is about release of all these frustrations and this brief dropping of the façade that Bridgers as a female singer-songwriter has to maintain. It’s a haunted ethereal ending that is about release in so many ways as the second half of that song is in direct contrast to so many of the things Bridgers has become known for. The smashing of a cheap acoustic guitar seems like an appropriate move, though I may have gone with a prop guitar designed to be smashed if I were her. Part of music is performance and honestly I felt like this was closer to the real Phoebe.
Acoustic? Let me re-watch but….
It wasn’t an acoustic guitar and she didn’t ever break it, she just kept flailing it at that fake monitor.
More ageism from the AV club. Well done.
Fuck that old walrus looking motherfucker.
Imagine dismissing David Crosby for whoever the fuck Phoebe Bridges is.
There oughta be a law.
It’s been about 60 years since David Crosby started making music and it’s still relevant and widely listened to today. Some might say it’s classic.
I hope Phoebe enjoys her 15 minutes while it lasts.ALSO: that was the lamest guitar smashing I’ve ever seen.ALSO: unless you’re The Sex Pistols, guitar smashing is lame and wasteful. See: Cake, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Lifestyle”
*chants* FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT
I love his music but he really has become just insufferable in his old age.Get off Twitter, grandpa. You’re doing it wrong.
A old dude of some import in the music industry won’t stop yelling at a young woman who did something tons of male musicians have done before her?I’m so shocked.(Also, fuck Eric Clapton and his pro-plague bullshit)
No one asked you or cares. “Won’t stop yelling” – Source for this? Or is it just another dumb thing you’re making up because you’re not a very intelligent person and you crave attention?
No one asked you or cares. “Won’t stop yelling” – Source for this? Or is it just another dumb thing you’re making up because you’re not a very intelligent person and you crave attention?
“rock guy Bridgers is going to take down next?” I’ve no dog in this fight , but calling someone a whiny /little bitch , isn’t really what anyone would call ‘taking down.
This is the AV Club. No middle ground. It has to be a power move.
Didn’t watch the guitar smash, haven’t heard anything by Phoebe Bridgers, so have no opinions on that side of things. But gotta say; from the outside looking in, this all seems like utterly pointless bullshit. I mean, did anyone really need to hear from or expect Notorious Sour Old Curmudgeonly Crank David Crosby to express any kind of interesting or unexpected opinion on this situation? This is clearly trying to just stir him up so we’ve got something to talk about regarding a situation that, really, doesn’t seem warrant all the controversy and fuming.
This is the kind of shit you expect to see on supermarket tabloids and zerg net articles, it’s literally just noise. Stop it.
155 (156 now) comments and counting. Every other article nearby has like 12.
There’s a way of getting them to stop though, it has Paul Anka’s guarantee
Gen-X’rs knew how to really do it: throw the guitar really high in the air and let it come down and almost brain you.
I love it whenever our dumb outrage du jour is something that people forget has so obviously been happening for decades.
“Weed-addled” …really? What decade is this?Crosby is a living rock legend with a career spanning nearly 60 years. I wish Phoebe all the success in the world, but the reality is she has been well known nationally for…maybe 2-3 years if we are being generous. He’s a bit of dick and always has been, but has had the career and talent to back it up. Let’s see if Phoebe can maintain or grow her career over the next few years.
If it’s ok with Jimi and Pete, it’s ok for Phoebe!
I’m no boomer but how can anyone say it is NOT lame to “plan” this to the point you have a fake mixer made?If you’re gonna do it go full Kurt Russell in Hateful 8.
They clearly planned this. There’s a conspiracy at play here.
I thought the “little bitch” was just PB finishing Crosby’s tweet for him, as in “pathetic little bitch”. That’s what he meant because this whole thing is just so fucking sexist. If a guy smashed his guitar, no one would even mention it.
I’m with you on this. Even premeditated, who gives a shit? Townsend later on would use specific guitars that broke easier. Also best guitar smash ever is clearly Paul Simonon of The Clash from the London Calling album cover.
It is funny to me that half the comments are “Crosby should shut up but also Phoebe Bridgers sucks” Like those comments have the same sexist undertones as what Crosby said.
Well…you’re probably right but I could argue there might be one or two folks who just don’t like her music. I don’t know enough about her or her music to honestly say, but I do know that there’s nothing wrong with her smashing a guitar. Even premeditated because plenty of folks have done that.Now I’m off to listen to her and see if I like her music. I’m a Replacements/Big Star/Clash fan boy so I’m curious as to how this will go….
Lol at articles saying Machine Gun Kelly throwing his guitar in “act of defiance” was dumb a week beforehand like Phoebe Bridgers (or SNL or her management) were all “hold my beer” and now somehow saying this even more staged bit of “anarchy” was also fucking stupid means we’re all nerds, boomers, whatever
“any bets on which white classic rock guy Bridgers is going to take down next?”Not that I give a shit about either of these people, but one person got criticized on about a half dozen critical points and the other one just said “bitch”.I think your takedown-ometer may be broken .
This is the AV Club. There is no middle ground. It can’t just be a pointless Twitter exchange. It has to be a world class takedown power move.
Wish we could just go back to a simpler time when things were not staged and twitter wasn’t this all powerful source of opinions and we could just watch a comparably semi talented hack like Bridgers & Crosby, tear the head of the Pope on live TV
When was anything ever not staged?
Aged boomer vs low talent baby diva.If this is the most idiotic Twitter controversy going on these days, I’ll take it
It remains to be seen, but I’d wager Crosby has had more of an impact on popular music and culture than Bridgers ever will. I write that not because I dislike her, but because he’s one of the few musicians that truly has had staying power across the decades.He is/was not untalented. He’s hugely talented. He diluted his appeal by becoming a horrible, unmanageable drug addict, a condition that almost always magnifies one’s assholish tendencies. It’s terribly revisionist for people to now claim that he’s irrelevant, or was some side-show in the very influential bands of which he was a member. Young musicians have to realize that being derivative is almost inescapable, and that many performers or their contemporaries whose music or acts are being recycled are still alive, and they’re entitled to say, “Yeah, somebody already did that, and better.” A young person who not only can’t accept that people might have opinions that aren’t fawning (Bridgers sure hasn’t had to deal with much negative criticism) but feels that they score points by calling one of the guys who is responsible for the popularity of the art form a “bitch”, is just weak. I’m less embarrassed for a guy in his late 70’s than I am her.
“Don’t worry,” said Bridgers. “The whole thing was fabricated and planned ahead. What you saw was not a spontaneous result of playing that song. It wasn’t a cathartic release of churning emotionality, brought on by a year of pandemic and the intense stress of performing on live TV while also being shocked on the lower lip multiple times by a faulty, ungrounded mic. It was totally, utterly shallow; performative and fake.”
“Little bitch,” she added.
Maybe focus less on the smashing of the guitar and focus more on the fact that she actually had a guitar. You’d think the classic rock guys would be thrilled that a performer who plays guitar-driven music, backed by a live band, got mainstream attention on a popular show. And not an oldy like Springsteen, but someone under 30! Maybe Phoebe Bridgers is showing there’s still life in rock music after all.
Pretty silly beef. If you think anyone came off looking good here, well, everyone’s entitled to their opinion, but I politely disagree.
The headline seems to be buried here; it’s OK to call people bitches again?Wish people would let me know this shit.Fucking bitches.
Who do you think is going to be more famous in 5 years? I’m going with David Crosby.
I don’t know Phoebe Bridgers but Crosby is a little bitch and his famewhoring knows no bounds. He’s the Richard Dreyfuss of boomer icons. But I still love “Guinnevere.”I think if I did SNL I would smash my guitar, rip up a picture of the Pope, stop in the middle of the song to play “Radio, Radio,” then do a little jig off the stage. Oh, the takes I would inspire!
Irrelevent Blue Hair has Opinion. More news at 5.
I…why the fuck does anyone care to ask Crosby any question other than “How the fuck are you still alive?”
She doesn’t deserve the criticism imho but can’t wait to see Oberst’s new projects and what else comes out of the Phoebe camp soon including her own label …In the meantime I’m just here waiting to see when Rouse The Borough finishes liminal frequencies so I can recover from hearing Afterglow … Link if you haven’t heard it yet : https://rousetheboroughs.bandcamp.com/track/liminal-frequency-1-afterglowAlso waiting for Pat Parker to finish his new record …