About That 'Legendary' Gear Word...

[László]

When I was a kid I thought my Memphis strat copy into a Gorilla amp or a Pignose was legendary.

Because your kid self was legendary!

 

[Moondog Wily]

Yay be it the parlance of snake oil salesman and grifters! Legendary in their own right by fleecing the suckers who are born every minute!! Scroll on good people and cast off the filth of their pitches!!!

 

[Bogner]

When I was a kid I thought my Memphis strat copy into a Gorilla amp or a Pignose was legendary.

And For The Time And Based On What You Knew And How Happy It Made You It Was! I Was Right There With You With My Memphis Les Paul And Little Cheap Amp About 50 Steps Lower In Quality From A Beat Up Pawn Shop Gorilla or Pignose Version.

 

[garrettb]

Couldn't agree more! Everything is legendary! And it's not the only thing that's getting to me now I'm at a certain age... people literally use the word 'literally' to describe everything. Someone used the phrase "I literally died" on the TV the other day. I literally swore loudly and literally switched off the TV...

It's officially now in dictionaries that the word literally can also mean figuratively. This pains the English pedant in me, but hey, language changes over time.

 

[FragileThunder]

It's officially now in dictionaries that the word literally can also mean figuratively. This pains the English pedant in me, but hey, language changes over time.

Irregardless ( ) of what they are willing to put in the dictionary, every fiber of my English degree stands on end when I see these things.

 

[László]

It's officially now in dictionaries that the word literally can also mean figuratively. This pains the English pedant in me, but hey, language changes over time.

I know, and you're absolutely right. There's a very good book, Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue, that celebrates the many changes in our language. I liked it.

Thing is, there were words imported from other languages that took the place of changed words. Is that still happening, or are we merely watering our words down?

Anyway, the gravitas of the original meaning of legendary is lost. The word becomes a valueless superlative, overused, like Fantastic, that used to mean something was fantasy. Now it conveys another unearned superlative, nothing important. Same with awesome.

Fabulous, dahling, absolutely fabulous.

We're fudging all of these word meanings, but the language isn't assimilating new words to take their place. Yes, it is in technical-speak, but that's pretty limited.

Irregardless ( ) of what they are willing to put in the dictionary, every fiber of my English degree stands on end when I see these things.

I wasn't an English major. But I never mind pickiness in the use of language!

 

[aamefford]

Not all legends were good.

Legendary gear is literally awesome.

 

[Troubador222]

Today's rant:

One of the emails I get way too many of was an ad for a brand's plugins matching their and others' 'legendary' hardware. Every single piece of recording equipment or software these days is freakin' legendary.

Legendary!

Wooo!!

It's not enough that a piece of equipment has been adopted, used and admired by lots of pros on records. Merely saying that it's acclaimed or extraordinary doesn't go far enough for these ads. No. It has to be 'legendary'.

So are we talking, like, King Arthur legendary? Hercules legendary? Siege of Troy legendary? I mean, those are millennia-lasting legends.

Or are we just talking about gear with a good reputation that lots of the folks in the audio business use as tools?

Attention audio equipment and instrument manufacturers, reviewers and so-called influencers:

Maybe the artists using the gear have become legendary over time. The gear they used didn't create the recordings, it just captured them. There are plenty of alternatives that work just fine. Much of the original stuff has been improved on.

Don't annoy me with the word, 'legendary'. It's silly. It's overused. It's just ad-speak.

A '59 Burst? OK, I'll give you that; a legend has certainly grown around that guitar. And maybe even a '65 Strat, or Jimi's actual amp. Probably a real Dumble qualifies. Certainly some 17th and 18th century instruments of renown do. But...not the copies and reissues. And definitely NOT the plugins! Sorry.

[end of rant]

So about 15 years ago, I discovered the works of Joseph Campbell the Mythologist and did a deep dive into his work and world mythology. There is a problem with what we think of "Legendary" because all those old "Legends" usually end in serious tragedy. The "Legend Hercules" is a great example, because of you read the actually myths, yes he exhibited great feats of strength and destroyed everything he tried to do, at the cost of his best friends life and his families life. The God's were so disturbed at the path of destruction he was wielding in the world among us mere mortals, that they took him to Olympus to live with them, because has killing so many of us as collateral damage. You know who forgot to convey that part of the Myth? Disney. So we tend to think of it as a happy ending.

Hell, the definitive Norman work on the story of King Arthur is called "Le Morte De' Arthur" which literally translates as "The Death of Arthur".

On a happier note, if you ever want to fall into a fascinating Rabbit Hole, Google Joseph Campbell and start with the Bill Moyers interviews on "The Power of Myth" that was done in the late 1970s. The interviews were done shortly before Campbell died and talked about his life long work on Mythology. The interviews were done at "The Skywalker Ranch" owned by George Lucas. Lucas and Spielberg both acknowledged Campbells work as huge influences in their movie making. Back when I was still writing Americana songs with lyrics, Campbells work inspired me to write lyrics with Appalachian Christian themes, even though I am a committed Agnostic and an Apostate Baptist from my southern upbringing. Campbell was a follower of Carl Jung and his idea of "Archetypes" implying shared mythology in the "Unconscious Mind"

And now I am typing about things that are way above my pay grade and I only have my layman's dim understanding about, but yeah."Legendary"!

 

[BigChrisW]

It's officially now in dictionaries that the word literally can also mean figuratively. This pains the English pedant in me, but hey, language changes over time.

I didn't know that and much of this is down to me getting older and being less open to the way in which the world changes around me... everything was better in the 80's... wasn't it?

I better go and take my rose tinted spectacles off...

 

[Nadir]

And when as well as "legendary" it is also "iconic" then it is the apotheosis ...
Marketing is a curious world ...

 

[aphantomvaper]

This post is Legendary, Laz! I love Philology, which may be redundant.

 

[László]

On a happier note, if you ever want to fall into a fascinating Rabbit Hole, Google Joseph Campbell and start with the Bill Moyers interviews on "The Power of Myth" that was done in the late 1970s. The interviews were done shortly before Campbell died and talked about his life long work on Mythology. The interviews were done at "The Skywalker Ranch" owned by George Lucas. Lucas and Spielberg both acknowledged Campbells work as huge influences in their movie making.

I watched those interviews on the power of myth at the time; they were fascinating, and also read Campbell's work. Not only thought-provoking, but enjoyable!

I didn't know that and much of this is down to me getting older and being less open to the way in which the world changes around me... everything was better in the 60s... wasn't it?

Fixed it for ya!