Get your wallets ready: Ed Sheeran signature tele announced

richardhomer

hobbio said:

I really, really like Ed Sheeran. Great voice, great songs, great talent. He deserves every bit of his success imho.

I really don’t mind him - seems a nice guy in interviews and has probably sold more guitars than anyone else, over the last few years.

Whitecat

richardhomer said:

hobbio said:

I really, really like Ed Sheeran. Great voice, great songs, great talent. He deserves every bit of his success imho.

I really don’t mind him - seems a nice guy in interviews and has probably sold more guitars than anyone else, over the last few years.

And the “proceeds” from his Martin guitars all go to charity... whatever “proceeds” means in this case (his royalty? Martin’s margin, with their hoping the halo effect is worth it alone?)

shuikit

I'm not a fan but found this quite interesting

jonnyburgo

Relax guys, it's just pop music. He knows what works and if it ain't broke why fix it. He's a bit of an anomaly I suppose in that he isn't conventionally good looking and yet he is very marketable. what I'm trying to say is I find it a bit baffling how it all happened.

Garthy

jonnyburgo said:

Relax guys, it's just pop music. He knows what works and if it ain't broke why fix it. He's a bit of an anomaly I suppose in that he isn't conventionally good looking and yet he is very marketable. what I'm trying to say is I find it a bit baffling how it all happened.

Catchy radio friendly music. If you can get on the playlists of Capital, R1, Absolute, Kiss, Heart, Radio X, R2, R3 and Magic then you've pretty much got 100% saturation of the airwaves. How many artists get played on both Kiss and Radio X? Less than a dozen would be my guess and two of those are dead. He also appeals to multi-generations, my 6 year old niece and my 86 year old nan both love his songs. Personally I find many of his songs insipid but I don't have to change the station if my young nephew is in the car or if watching music TV like I would with CharlieXCX, 5thHarmony or Little Mix or some south London rapper swearing with his mouth full like Ramz, Stormzy or Steel Banglez. I find it baffling how that droning crap Drake punts out gets so much airplay.

Ed reminds me of James Blunt, nice chap when talking, quite clever at finding something that works really well and the royalties from SmoothFM alone means he'll never have to work again.

Danielsguitars

I think the big music companies only back a few and hope they get really big, it's very controlled including the talent shows

In the 70's and 80's and 90's good music was everywhere, every genre was covered, I personally like soul funk disco rock n blues pop, dont forget go go music from chuck brown and co
I can't really do jazz but even some classical tunes I like and film scores 

I'm just glad I grew up with the music I listened to and not what most of today's artist's have to offer 

I find ed's singing style just bloody annoying cheesy and irritating to the point of switching channels

equalsql

I just find him just so.. yyyyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwnnnnnnnnnnn....um what was I saying?  I forgot...zzzzzzzzz

EricTheWeary

There are 9 writers credited for Shape of You, includes Ed although maybe he's not quite the auteur his image suggests. There is a line in it about Van Morrison and he's a bit of a Clapton fan so it seems quite endearing that he is happy to admit these things and isn't trying to seem relentlessly trendy.
My eldest son went to see him live and it was just Ed, guitars and looper live for 90 minutes to an arena. To do that well is no mean feat really. 

BRISTOL86

I find it incredible that so many people on a forum for guitar enthusiasts can be so damning of someone who has almost single handedly got an entire generation interested in playing the guitar. 

You don’t have to enjoy his style of music but anyone calling him ‘shit’ is so wide of the mark it’s unreal, and has clearly never seen him do what he does best which is play live. 

impmann

BRISTOL86 said:

I find it incredible that so many people on a forum for guitar enthusiasts can be so damning of someone who has almost single handedly got an entire generation interested in playing the guitar. 

You don’t have to enjoy his style of music but anyone calling him ‘shit’ is so wide of the mark it’s unreal, and has clearly never seen him do what he does best which is play live. 

This.

There are plenty of ‘serious’ musicians from many different genres that don’t do much for me. 
However I would never describe their music as ‘shit’ as that’s unfair - they just don’t connect with me.
Much like some fiction writers don’t interest me, some painters, some foods, some beers (not a wheat beer fan for example)... but I appreciate others think very highly of them.
Sadly I find a lot of guitar players are the biggest bitches and often the most dismissive musicians  - especially when it comes to being ‘holier than thou’ about another player’s technical ability or general playing.

I know this Ed Sheeran thing is a joke - but does anyone remember the chap from one of the big metal bands (I think it was Anthrax but I don’t remember for sure) that didn’t have any frets in his guitar past the seventh or tenth as he never played beyond there? It’s not my genre so I can’t remember the chap involved but I remember reading about it in Guitarist back in the day...

hotpickups

Multi millionaire so he's doing something right

EricTheWeary

impmann said:

BRISTOL86 said:

I find it incredible that so many people on a forum for guitar enthusiasts can be so damning of someone who has almost single handedly got an entire generation interested in playing the guitar. 

You don’t have to enjoy his style of music but anyone calling him ‘shit’ is so wide of the mark it’s unreal, and has clearly never seen him do what he does best which is play live. 

This.

There are plenty of ‘serious’ musicians from many different genres that don’t do much for me. 
However I would never describe their music as ‘shit’ as that’s unfair - they just don’t connect with me.
Much like some fiction writers don’t interest me, some painters, some foods, some beers (not a wheat beer fan for example)... but I appreciate others think very highly of them.
Sadly I find a lot of guitar players are the biggest bitches and often the most dismissive musicians  - especially when it comes to being ‘holier than thou’ about another player’s technical ability or general playing.

I know this Ed Sheeran thing is a joke - but does anyone remember the chap from one of the big metal bands (I think it was Anthrax but I don’t remember for sure) that didn’t have any frets in his guitar past the seventh or tenth as he never played beyond there? It’s not my genre so I can’t remember the chap involved but I remember reading about it in Guitarist back in the day...

Scott Ian, just looking at a picture and I'd say about the 14th fret although I guess he will have done different versions. 

darthed1981

BRISTOL86 said:

I find it incredible that so many people on a forum for guitar enthusiasts can be so damning of someone who has almost single handedly got an entire generation interested in playing the guitar. 

You don’t have to enjoy his style of music but anyone calling him ‘shit’ is so wide of the mark it’s unreal, and has clearly never seen him do what he does best which is play live. 

To be fair, I don't think anyone has called him 'shit', at least not in this thread.

We have had a couple of jokes, and a few dismissive comments, but mostly it's been "I don't like him and this is why..."

Dominic

I see him as a busker.......albeit a very wealthy one....and a perfectly good busker.
It's the genre that I don't like .....not him specifically .
The style of lyric writing just bugs me because it is so mundane ;
" Looked for you outside Sainsbury's......because you do your shopping on Tuesday afternoons,
 You weren't there so I bought a sandwich and went to the bookies,
Then I remembered you were going to the Laundrette first, 
 Couldn't call because my iPhone had run out of battery ....."
        Perhaps it's just a pet hate of mine but quite a few artists today have this very pedestrian style.Not just Sheeran.
Dylan was very naked,Joan Baez,Joni Mitchell even Leonard Cohen.....yes there was a few more chords but the Lyrics,metaphors,comment and protest were just so much more clever.
  I found a lot of that boring when I was listening to Slade,late Beatles and Marc Bolan but I have long since learnt to appreciate and enjoy it...........I don't see Sheeran style being so evergreen or influential.

EricTheWeary

Dominic said:

I see him as a busker.......albeit a very wealthy one....and a perfectly good busker.
It's the genre that I don't like .....not him specifically .
The style of lyric writing just bugs me because it is so mundane ;
" Looked for you outside Sainsbury's......because you do your shopping on Tuesday afternoons,
 You weren't there so I bought a sandwich and went to the bookies,
Then I remembered you were going to the Laundrette first, 
 Couldn't call because my iPhone had run out of battery ....."
        Perhaps it's just a pet hate of mine but quite a few artists today have this very pedestrian style.Not just Sheeran.
Dylan was very naked,Joan Baez,Joni Mitchell even Leonard Cohen.....yes there was a few more chords but the Lyrics,metaphors,comment and protest were just so much more clever.
  I found a lot of that boring when I was listening to Slade,late Beatles and Marc Bolan but I have long since learnt to appreciate and enjoy it...........I don't see Sheeran style being so evergreen or influential.

I was looking up the lyrics to Shape of You ( which is why I knew they reference Van Morrison) as this Discussion reminded me of something about the Grammies ( may have been the Brits) where someone had said the Times Up campaign is being promoted at the same ceremony where Sheeran is getting an award for a sexist song about a woman's figure. 
I found the lyrics close to unreadable so I'm not sure if it's sexist or not but it is otherwise as you describe. Not quite sure what all those 9 people involved were doing. 

darthed1981

Apparently, there is a documentary about Ed's songwriting process (the Guardian didn't rate it, but it isn't 15th century plainsong, so don't let that put you off...)

Review here - https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/feb/25/songwriter-review-ed-sheeran-ordinary-bloke-songs

Johnnyseven

A good few years ago I went to see a friend's acoustic duo play in a pub in Islington. Headlining that night was a ginger guy playing with a looper pedal. I didn't really like his songs, that kind of music isn't my thing, but this guy was miles better than any artist on the bill that night. Fast forward a few years to when Ed Sheeran became big, i'm now certain that it is him that I saw that night. If it was, i'm not surprised at all by his success. I've seen many bands and musicians play in the toilet venues of London and i've remembered none of them like I remembered this guy.

stickyfiddle

EricTheWeary said:

There are 9 writers credited for Shape of You, includes Ed although maybe he's not quite the auteur his image suggests. There is a line in it about Van Morrison and he's a bit of a Clapton fan so it seems quite endearing that he is happy to admit these things and isn't trying to seem relentlessly trendy.
My eldest son went to see him live and it was just Ed, guitars and looper live for 90 minutes to an arena. To do that well is no mean feat really. 

That's really an indictment of the modern pop machine more than Ed - every fucker who pops their head round a studio door gets writing credits these days. I'm quite sure there were 2 or 3 producers who had their say on a melody line or lyric, but there's almost no records get released these days without 10+ people on the writing credits. 

EricTheWeary

darthed1981 said:

Apparently, there is a documentary about Ed's songwriting process (the Guardian didn't rate it, but it isn't 15th century plainsong, so don't let that put you off...)

Review here - https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/feb/25/songwriter-review-ed-sheeran-ordinary-bloke-songs

I don't know any full time pro musicians but there is a chap I've met a couple of times and know people who know him. He's a very dull chap. Worked very hard, been absorbed in music and his career for years, knows an incredible who's who of musicians but has no small talk and hardly relates to 'normal' people. Perhaps it's a bit unfair to ask Ed to be witty or insightful, he's been busy doing other things. 

darthed1981

EricTheWeary said:

darthed1981 said:

Apparently, there is a documentary about Ed's songwriting process (the Guardian didn't rate it, but it isn't 15th century plainsong, so don't let that put you off...)

Review here - https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/feb/25/songwriter-review-ed-sheeran-ordinary-bloke-songs

I don't know any full time pro musicians but there is a chap I've met a couple of times and know people who know him. He's a very dull chap. Worked very hard, been absorbed in music and his career for years, knows an incredible who's who of musicians but has no small talk and hardly relates to 'normal' people. Perhaps it's a bit unfair to ask Ed to be witty or insightful, he's been busy doing other things. 

Essentially what the documentary says apparently.

Probably applies across the board, I bet if you spent a lot of time around Katy Perry or Taylor Swift you would find an exceptionally hard working and yes talented person as well, or Justin Bieber, or Kanye West...

I'd be amazed if any lazy, talentless person has ever succeeded in the music business.  We might all think negative things but I bet they all have quite the drive and ethic.

Of course none of that obliges me to like their music...