Homage to the Stones (and Other Fancy Rockers) - by Jon Wahl
|
|
|
So you saw the Stones…
WHO ARE THE ROLLING STONES?
Chances are, you’re reading this right now because you got to this website by way of a little freebie CD called “Homage to the Stones” which was politely handed to you while you were waiting in line to see the Rolling Stones at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles, California, November 4th, 2002. And, chances are, if you were waiting in that line, you spent hundreds, if not a few thousand dollars to cram your sorry ass into that theater to see this “rock ‘n roll event of the new century!” even though truer events were, and are, going on, ignored, around the corner and directly under your bored and blasé chins!
“Homage to the Stones (and other fancy rockers)” is a dedication to the “music industry” right now, which is comparable to that of, say, a toilet manufacturer. An industry that is seemingly over-run by CEO’s that don’t know a song from an accounting program; A&R geeks that don’t know truly inspired music from a pocket-full of backstage passes; radio moguls who “forgot” that payola is illegal.
Both of these tunes on this little freebie were tunes I’d written about a year and a half prior to this “corporate gig” and I just couldn’t maintain myself when given the chance to be the flea biting the elephant. That big fat corporate elephant called the Rolling Stones, sponsored by CLEAR CHANNEL and all its unbridled laissez-faire glory.
You see, Rock ‘n Roll was once unbridled and unpredictable. It got quite popular but remained unbridled and unpredictable and soon a slew of good freaks controlled this new sub-culture and profited, but so did unbridled and unpredictable music. All was relatively good. But, as years passed and music technology and money-managing processes matured, the predictability essence soon became a bane to the new banal “music industry” and, voila!, the modern world of boring but very popular music!
Meanwhile: where the hell is the radio these days? Do they not feel any pangs of consciousness over this present state of crap?!!! And what the hell’s a DJ any more? I know, a programmed robot with a good voice and a fat CLEAR CHANNEL paycheck indeed.
And check this out: you are the populace; they are the usurpers; their medium is music and the usurpers are laughing all the way to your wallet. In their eyes you’re nothing but a healthy bloated punching bag and they just sit around you, smoking their fat cigars, taking blasé swings at you between their chuckles and swigs of imported cognac while you get blacker and bluer and number, dollar by dollar.
What do you do? What the hell do you do?!! Let music, pop music, rock ‘n roll (or whatever the heck you call it these days!) roll over the modern and dumbfounded populace like a massive Suburban Utility Steamroller, garnished in corporate logos, like it’s been doing for that past decade?
NO!
I recall a good friend of mine in high school back in 1980 donning a Rolling Stones t-shirt, which he’d altered in indelible black ink with two simple words and a question mark to make it read “who are the Rolling Stones?” It really meant a lot back then because, indeed and undoubtedly, they had paved their last road years prior to 1980. But boy does that have unfathomably deep meaning now in 2002. I sure wish I owned that shirt right now.
And indeed, WHO ARE THE ROLLING STONES? Dead music for a dead populace that just eats what’s put in front of it; plain and simple.
The Rolling Stones represent one thing now and that’s the true essence of maximizing the almighty buck, or the British pound, or any other unfortunate currency on this new modern planet of ours.
Hell, if true talent, vivaciousness and finesse were an ocean, then this godforsaken music industry has built a massive breakwater far out beyond the horizon to keep the beaches balmy and pleasant, twenty-four /seven. A beach genuinely safe so these fat corporate men can sprawl the opulent and mundane populace across the sands, with all their mighty dollars, to enjoy the old farts of yesterday perform without making any real waves. And for the little kids on this pleasant beach resort? Well, have you ever heard of the safe and phony Limp Bizkit or Korn or Creed? Bland facsimiles of bland facsimiles before them; pillars of stupidity and economic prosperity.
The list goes on and on, duller and duller, dollar for dollar, logo by logo.
So, who the Rolling Stones? I dunno. They died before my time.
Jon Fucking Wahl, a musician.
Your thoughts (click email link below):
For up-to-date information on Jon Wahl's gigs and new releases, visit: www.myspace.com/TheAmadansHome • The Amadans • Clawhammer • Clear Channel Links • Homage to the Stones • Sour Suite • Email