Macon
Life is hard. Not in the media, but real life. You’ve got too many commitments, not enough money and certainly not enough time. You’re either running at a hundred miles an hour or stuck in neutral. And it seems like nobody wants to hear your story. Except music.
When done right, music makes you want to join the circus, leave everything that bothers you behind in pursuit of the sound. You wonder why people followed the Dead, still follow Phish? It’s because when the music hits, everything’s all right.
I was reading the new "Entertainment Weekly" about the song of the summer. And I just didn’t care. I can live without hearing "California Gurls" ever again. I turned the pages, more interested in the feature on the Millennium Trilogy. Scott Rudin’s boyfriend picked up "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" and told Scott not to bother him for a week. That’s what music used to be. But it’s rarely that way anymore.
But reading the magazine from back to front, which is my wont, I came to the "Must List", where the editors list the Top Ten of the week, stuff you need to pay attention to, and they’re recommending Jamey Johnson’s "Macon".
I immediately hop up from my perch, fire up Safari and Google the track and find this:
Endure the ad. No one in the music business can leave money on the table, can forgo an opportunity to cash in, but if you wait fifteen seconds and you once believed, if you were a fan of classic rock, you’ll be stunned, because Jamey Johnson’s doing Skynyrd’s act, but it doesn’t feel dated, it feels positively today.
It feels just like rolling down the highway with the window down, your elbow perched on the sill, the wind blowing through your hair as the radio plays. Summers past come wafting through your brain, you suddenly feel like your life works.
Then study this clip. Maybe the second time through. Does it make you want to take the stage and join in or what?
Isn’t that what "Almost Famous" was really about? Joining the circus? We didn’t want to go to Silicon Valley and hang with the nerds, we wanted to get on the bus, get high and have an adventure. We wanted the music to squeeze out the need for money, for advancement, we wanted to leave the straight world behind. That’s what a great concert is, a respite from the bullshit.
A rock concert is not dancing, it’s not rear projection, it’s music. It’s a religious revival, when the backup singer wails you feel you can see her insides, you thrust your arm in the air, stamp your leg and die to go backstage.
We live in a fractured society. The scene is so overwhelming as to be unfathomable. Then you stumble on something basic, something real and you feel…home.
Everybody wants to get paid, but that is never enough, if you’re doing it for the bread, you’re gonna have a rough slog. Isn’t it AC/DC who sang that it’s a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll? Getting old, getting grey…getting ripped off, underpaid?
You do it for the time on stage. When you can blend with the music. And if you do it right, the audience can tell.
There’s nothing fake about this clip. What you’ve got is musicians, playing live, having a good time. It’s infectious!
The studio take is absent some of the energy. Then again, as much as we loved the records live, we remember the concerts.
And we can sit back and analyze the song intellectually, catalog its faults Clive Davis style. But that’s missing the point. This performance has great feel! And that’s where the magic lies. That’s how you build an audience. Not by squeezing out the mistakes, but putting forth your naked all.
Scroll down and click on the triangle next to Jamey Johnson – "Macon". A player will pop up at the bottom of the page and stream the studio take:
