GREETINGS TO ALL PERTINENCES AND IRRELEVANCIES...
AND NOW TODAY'S HEADLINE...
EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT! SIXTIES ICONS RENOUNCE ROCK AND ROLL AND ALL THEY STOOD FOR!!!!
Before I begin, let me tell you that this is a response
to an article I read in the Edmonton Journal, but it came under the Knight Ridder Newspapers byline, written by Brad Kava, so people outside E-town may have read it also. I should point out that this is a commentary on the piece's CONTENT, and not the author or what he wrote. Specifically, Mr. Kava's subjects are what pissed me off. As articles go it was good, as it drew an enormous emotional response from me, which is what good art does.
Okay, here we go. The article is about the impending Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young reunion. Folks, I'm not too thrilled about these incessant reunions. Reunion concerts are among the most expensive, and often the artist involved has past their prime vocally and vitality-wise. Mostly they're expensive, and they clutter up the publicity pathways and airwaves and record stores and take dollars that are badly needed developing and producing NEW stuff. After a Rolling Stones concert and Rockfest, your average John Q. Public type is probably done in terms of spending money on live music that year. At any rate, beyond that it's all just these old guys
cashing in.
I have no problem with a band getting back together if they really want to. Even I went and saw The Who's 3rd or 4th (there've been so many I can't remember)reunion show in Toronto. It was cool to see the Who. What I hate is groups who try to attach some kind of false importance to the sad proceedings. The only bands I've seen be honest about why they're back together are KISS and The Sex Pistols. It makes me want to vomit when you're fed platitudes of delusional grandeur by these old fat guys acting like their integrity is never at stake. Case in point- CSNY.
Stills et al are back together for a reunion tour in the new year. The cheap tickets are $75. Here's what they had to say about that:
"The dollar is worth about 10 cents or 7 cents," says Crosby. "So if you look at what ticket prices were and then take inflation and count it in, we're not really charging more now than we were in the first place. We don't pick the prices. We made a deal with one promoter and he set the prices. We're charging about what the other groups our size are charging."
(what "size" is he talking about do you think?)
Nash:"We're doing much less than the Rolling Stones and about the same as Rod Stewart, U2, and other bands."
Wow. Now if only they had had that attitude at Woodstock, everyone would've made some coin. They go on to excuse their attitudes in the sixties: ""We never set out to write anthems," says Nash, suggesting the group members see themselves as troubadors than political spokepersons. "We don't know what that is. I have a certain comment to make about teaching our kids a better way about looking at their fellow beings..."
Man, do I ever feel dumb for thinking there was more passion involved in his "certain comment". Do I ever feel dumb for thinkiing they were right on the ball with the suspiciously timely release of OHIO after the Kent State massacre. I guess I read too much into it. I was dead certain that song was a rallying cry. Guess I was wrong.
"We're counting on the magic of playing together and having a good time being enough," says Young.
Dutch TV Reporter- What will you say to people who call you dinosaurs of rock?
Neil Young- I'd say hello.
There it is from Neil's own mouth. I find it a little undignified that he is being so reticent about a charge such as that. Being a dinosaur of rock would seem to me to be a bad thing. Looks like it suits Neil just fine. I guess his attempt to recapture his youth using Pearl Jam failed. I feel like my hero surrendered and is in bed with the man.
The article, to me, was full of explanations and excuses for the reunion tour. Why can't they just come out and admit that they're doing it because people still want to pay to see them? They're trying to cloak it in this false idyllic mystique, and they seem to have pulled their teeth. To me, they renounced the rebels. Link Wray would spit on them. The author in the article referred to their recent recording as "hard rock for the Jimmy Buffet set". Nowadays they couldn't piss off a sleeping dog if they kicked it. The tour is called CSNY2K tour. I call it the YCSNY2K tour. The Who are
selling cars now. We need a new Bible…
(Mike McDonald has kindly given us permission to reprint from his McDonald Papers which he sends out by email. This is an excerpt from his weekly email newsletter. Please visit his site, sign up for the McDonald Papers and/or preorder his new album if you can.)
