I was stealing music last night, and a trader, probably a Scot, had the entire Silencers album "A Night Of Electric Silence".

Why do I think he’s a Scot? Because he also had Simple Minds’ "Live In The City Of Light".

Or maybe he’s just a fan of Scottish bands. SO AM I! Felt so great to hear those classic Simple Minds songs again. Actually, what I liked most was the version of "Let There Be Love" from a bootleg, recorded somewhere in the USA. How MAJESTIC! You DO know that "Don’t You (Forget About Me)" was not written by the band, right? And if you delve deeply into their catalog, you’ll be rewarded. Start with "Let There Be Love", but if you want some ENERGY, try "Stand By Love"…

You know my heart beats rhythm and my dreams still take me higher
I’ve traveled ’round the world but they can’t cure my desire
The city looks pretty tonight
Hold on now let’s go till morning

You know how you’re at the gig and you’re so infused with the music that you feel completely alive and you feel like everybody in the room is your brother and the night is full of POSSIBILITIES? That’s what "Stand By Love" sounds like…

Give me one good reason why you don’t come play with fire
‘Cause when the earth starts moving you know I’m no liar

That’s what music does to you. Turns you into your best self.

And I’ve got that official double live album around the house somewhere, but it’s ECLIPSED by this bootleg. As for the Silencers live album…that’s unavailable in the U.S. at ANY price.

Funny how your favorites are not those on the radio. The bands on the radio are for everybody. You can get their material in one listen. It’s for those not paying attention, those who don’t NEED the music. Whereas the records we hold near and dear speak to us, reveal themselves over time. We would no sooner part with them than disown one of our children. We need them. We grow old with them. They might not change, but we get new insight every time we listen to them. This is how I feel about the Silencers. Especially their first two albums, "A Letter From St. Paul" and "A Blues For Buddha". You can check out what I had to say about them in my Rhinocast:

Bob Lefsetz talks about The Silencers

And I get e-mail from Jimme O’Neill now and again. He’s still at it. Living in France, where they got his music. He never gave up. That’s a musician, not those pretty boys you see on TV.

And thinking about the Silencers, I decided to see if there were any YouTube clips. And checking out the listings, I came across a video for "Wild Mountain Thyme":

The Silencers – Wild Mountain Thyme

I have not been myself since Nashville. Or maybe myself too much. I crashed. All that excitement, all that interaction. And now I’m back to my own little life. I wonder…should I just stay on the road forever? Watching this Silencers video last night I got the desire to go Scotland. Look at that SCENERY!

And it’s that scenery that got me to see "Into The Wild" this afternoon.

You see I’m living in bizarredom. I woke up this morning, and the light was akin to the end of the world, after the nuclear holocaust. All muted and golden. As if we were in a halfway house on our way to heaven. Or maybe hell. It was creepy.

There were too many ash particles in the air to go hiking. So I decided to ride the crisis out at the movies. The new Landmark, in Westwood:

Landmark in Westwood

You see that picture in the lower center? With the orange couches? I sat right behind them, in that love seat…

Sean Penn takes himself way too seriously. The only humor in this 140 minute flick was encapsulated in the few minutes when Vince Vaughn was on screen. Do people really live their lives with this few laughs, with this few smiles? Was Chris McCandless really this humorless?

I doubt it. I think this is Sean Penn’s version of Chris’ story. Which is not akin to the real version. The real one was more similar to Sean’s life. Someone trying to play a role, to turn himself INTO something. We live in a lonely world. We want to feel a part of something. We want to be the star of our own movie.

And the moral of THIS flick…that we need people. I think that’s a message for Sean too. Since he’s removed himself from the rest of us so much by being such a smug pugilist. Hey SEAN! You’re just the scion of low-level Hollywood royalty. Uneducated at that. Why don’t you enjoy the ride a bit? Then we wouldn’t need to constantly attack you. For taking yourself so seriously.

Which brings me right back to where I started. At a movie that wasn’t good enough to recommend. But there’s a performance contained therein deserving of an Oscar. Hal Holbrook’s. As a discharged military loner. You know excellence when you see it. And I saw it.

Just like you know it when you hear it.

And nothing Eddie Vedder composed for this film stopped me in my tracks, made me think this guy is as legendary as he acts. Hell, he and Sean deserve each other. But at least Eddie can laugh a LITTLE!

Still, out in Slab City, deep into the movie, Emile Hirsch and Kristen Stewart get up on a makeshift stage and start playing "Angel From Montgomery" and the whole movie suddenly makes sense.

I am an old woman named after my mother
My old man is another child that’s grown old
If dreams were thunder and lightning was desire
This old house would have burnt down a long time ago

There’s more honesty in these lines than there was in this whole damn movie. That’s the power of music. That’s what has us burning the candle. That’s why we care. Because these troubadours, laying down their sound, we believe in them. We NEED TO! We need to feel someone has insight, that someone can help us make sense of this crazy world we inhabit.

That’s the music that got us baby boomers addicted. Sure, we loved the train-wreck of MTV, but those acts that laid their souls upon the wax… Those are the ones we cared about. Those are the ones we still care about.

Sure, the superstars of yore can play stadiums. But we went to see a whole bunch more we still care about in clubs, and theatres. Because they didn’t just represent a good time, they represented LIFE!

"Into The Wild" talks about the pain of family. We’ve all experienced it. But in this movie, you can’t FEEL IT!

And the scenery is oftentimes beautiful, but too often we’re not awed. Or the effect is compromised by the bogus filmic effects.

Having said all that, this movie isn’t bad, it just wasn’t GOOD ENOUGH!

I don’t want my three hours back. I just want something that delivers. Too much of what’s out there doesn’t deliver.

Hate to tell you, but Led Zeppelin at the O2 Arena won’t deliver. It’ll be sans all the danger, all the importance the band held back in the seventies, when it still counted. You may want to go to impress your buddies, but you’ll get more soul-fulfillment listening to Robert’s duets album with Alison Krauss. Because, you see, just like you, Robert kept on living. He didn’t get a facelift. Didn’t record dance numbers. He kept lifting the rug, seeing what was underneath.

Dinosaurs can still do this. But too often they don’t. Because it’s not what the audience wants. The audience wants to relive its youth, as its hair grays and its body thickens. The audience wants to look back. And the music’s greatness, its importance, was based on looking forward, leading us.

But now we’re led by Live Nation. It’s not about the acts, but the institutions. But we’re still the same, we might have changed on the outside, but we’re still desirous of that hit, that surprise, that insight right around the bend. We still want to drop the needle and be taken away. The song doesn’t have to be new, sometimes it’s just a different interpretation. But we want something added, we don’t want rote. Just like Chris McCandless didn’t want rote.

Chris McCandless wanted to believe there was something more. Than the moneygoround. He didn’t want to be burdened by the past. He was just another kid graduating from college. I’d say no different from you or me, but today’s college graduates are not the same. They want the cushy job, they want the accoutrements, they’re not interested in finding themselves. Maybe that’s why their music is so vapid. Maybe that’s why those coming up behind them look to classic rock.

I recommend "Into The Wild". The BOOK! Because Jon Krakauer is a fabulous writer. Check out his story in "Eiger Dreams" about soloing in Alaska if you doubt me. Sean Penn is a brilliant actor, but a second-rate director. I wish a true auteur had helmed this film. But the story lives on, in the book. Just like our history lives on, in these records.