Ryan Adams, from an interview with Pitchforkmedia:
...when I wrote the record Gold, I was trying to close a chapter in my life, on who I was, a relationship that I'd been very possessed by and obsessed with. I was trying to find a musical way of closing doors, so that new ones could open. But after that record, 9/11 happened. And then everybody looks back at that song-- where I'm trying to say to this girl, whatever...
Pitchfork: "New York, New York"?
Adams: Yeah. Where we had a run, but OK, it didn't work. And in some weird way that song was almost like that Bon Jovi song, you know (sings), "Better to have loved and lost..." Basically saying that same thing, but people attached this meaning to it. Recently somebody sent me a funny e-mail they'd gotten where this guy wrote, "It's bad enough that this guy, like, totally calls himself Ryan Adams, so that he can get Bryan Adams' fans, but like, he's still playing that 9/11 anthem?" And I was like, that's the best e-mail I've ever seen! But you know what I mean? That song, for some people, changed. It didn't change for me.
Ryan Adams, from an interview with Pitchforkmedia:
...when I wrote the record Gold, I was trying to close a chapter in my life, on who I was, a relationship that I'd been very possessed by and obsessed with. I was trying to find a musical way of closing doors, so that new ones could open. But after that record, 9/11 happened. And then everybody looks back at that song-- where I'm trying to say to this girl, whatever...
Pitchfork: "New York, New York"?
Adams: Yeah. Where we had a run, but OK, it didn't work. And in some weird way that song was almost like that Bon Jovi song, you know (sings), "Better to have loved and lost..." Basically saying that same thing, but people attached this meaning to it. Recently somebody sent me a funny e-mail they'd gotten where this guy wrote, "It's bad enough that this guy, like, totally calls himself Ryan Adams, so that he can get Bryan Adams' fans, but like, he's still playing that 9/11 anthem?" And I was like, that's the best e-mail I've ever seen! But you know what I mean? That song, for some people, changed. It didn't change for me.
http://pitchforkmedia.com/interviews/a/adams_ryan-05/