Comment of the Week

Sean smacks down my boomer sentiment and musical tastes in this week's comment (I haven't been as regular with these as I want to be, but them's the breaks). Here's the pull-quote:

As silly and ill-formed as the "review" is, it's a sentiment I share. The Who are not "artists," (they haven't been a real band in about 35 yrs) they're an oldies act with a proper schtick, still peddling Culturally Important Signifiers, like mini-operas, decades after they were worn out. Someone like Jon Pareles should know better, but guess what...he's a boomer himself, so The Who, like most of their ilk, get a free pass (and this is from someone who adores the Who Sell Out). Ditto, Springsteen the Stones, and anyone else you care to name.

What Haider's really stumbling on about is The Rolling Stone Effect: where stars in general, but boomers esp. are slobbered over by critics (witness Kurt Loder's 5-star review for Springsteen's The Rising, and Wenner's 5-star suck up for Jagger's Goddess In The Doorway)eager to keep those rock-is-eternal, the-sixties-are-still-with us myths alive. (Prediction: new Who album--4 stars.) But the Sixties are long gone, and no amount of false-boomer worship is gonna bring em back anytime soon.

He's right about the Rolling Stone rating system and the "giants of rock" hagiography it supports. But I humbly submit that I'm not part of that. Pete Townshend's not an oldies act, if you follow along. He is very much an artist (and as such, has released some god-awful stuff in the last three decades, but also some brilliant sides). The Stones? Springsteen? Yeah, they're masters at leveraging the past, selling to the incredibly power boomer demographic (I'm a last-minute boomer, by the way - just caught the wave). But they also come up with the hooks, and sometimes, they light it up along the way.

Finally, I'm not a Sixties guy - late 70s was the sweet spot for me, musically: the coming of age moment. It was a weird, wonderful time and the arena bands competed with the tiny clubs and destructive punk bands for my dollar. I was picky, too - the hippie shit left me cold. I hated The Dead, long drawn-out jams, drum solos. I loved power chords, short songs, stuff I could play myself. I've broadened since then (no weight jokes please) and could care less about the age of any musician; truth be told, I'm about halfway between Dylan and the Arctic Monkeys, generationally speaking.

And I agree with Sean and with Jason (who has said this before) that "Culturally Important Signifiers" in rock are pretty much dead; indeed, throughout pop music in general. It's just the music, in my ears, at my desk, on the train, or blasting through the speakers across from this old leather chair.

Note: If you care, you can see what I listen to on my office PC here - every track, artist, etc. I enjoy checking this out every now and then, but it doesn't count the iPod, the car, the home stereo.

Comments

[sean]

Fair enough. Age is not so important (though I still tend to think of rock as a young mans game) if someone still has something to say, and the means to put it across. Dylan evidently does, at least on album (not gonna see him live.)
My idea of a post-40 auteur is someone like Jon Langford who runs/is part of the Mekons (once wrote an answer song to the Clash's "White Riot," called "Never Been In A Riot"), Waco Brothers, Pine Valley Cosmonauts, and a few others in addition to managing a reasonable solo career. He's a roots guy, (the Wacos template: part Cash/part Clash) a Brit whose been carrying on a dialogue with America and its heritage (he loves Bob Willis)for about 30 yrs. And he's as acerbic as hell.

[Mudge]

As a sixties "boomer", I certainly agree that most of those acts are living off of past glory. One who I respect over the ages, as it were, has been Eric Clapton, who in my mind, has maintained a unique creativty through it all.

[Tony Alva]

"Finally, I'm not a Sixties guy - late 70s was the sweet spot for me, musically: the coming of age moment. It was a weird, wonderful time and the arena bands competed with the tiny clubs and destructive punk bands for my dollar. I was picky, too - the hippie shit left me cold. I hated The Dead, long drawn-out jams, drum solos. I loved power chords, short songs, stuff I could play myself."

Exacty... You probably pushed pass me at a few shows on your way to the front row. Great post. The Dead sucks.

[Bob A]

Music is nothing to get hung up about. Just enjoy it. Ellington said there's only two kinds of music- good music and bad music. Sounds simple enough to me. I remember the 60s but I'm still discovering plenty of good music all the time. I just started listening to this guy Bob Wills. At first he sounded like Benny Goodman crossed with Gene Autry, and what's with all this wierd stuff he keeps yelling out. But after a few more listens I began to realize what all the fuss was about, these guys can play, and rock.

I don't know what old Pete's up to now, but I just heard a song off their first album called "The Good's Gone"- outstanding. And Robert Randolph's new album- very nice. Lots of good music still to be discovered, no matter what your age is or how much you need to be into labels.

[David]

Seen the Beatles at Shea Stadium .... etc.
Don't much listen to music these days, but escorted grandson to Dylan's local ball field tour this summer. There were lots of young people there enjoying the music. The same has been true when I have gone to other 'old and in the way' performer's concerts in the past several years. Multi generations enjoying the music. Guess that's why they call in classic rock.

[Kate]

Yes, the late 70s was a wonderful time for music - I'm a Gen X-er and that was the time I really started to develop an interest in popular music. Many of the bands I loved then have fallen by the wayside, but I still enjoy listening to The Clash (noticed them in your sidebar charts) and The Stranglers.

I'm not a fan of The Dead either, it's not that I don't like them though, more that I just don't get them. I think they were a product of their time and can seem alien to anyone who wasn't around when they were fresh and new.

[Old Hippie]

As the song goes..."where have all the good times gone". Hippies these days are too strung out. They are too health conscious and read too much gobbeldygook. I feel sad at the whole new rich so called "cyber hippies". What ever happened to protesting on the grass. Now It's...the secret...this...and ....what the bleep...that...I thing the indoor couch potato hippy has taken over. I miss the flowers in the hair.