Conventional wisdom is musicians are fungible.\u00c2\u00a0 If one dies or quits, you just get another.\u00c2\u00a0 But players are not like cars, which you crash and then replace, they’re not like workers on an assembly line, in the best cases they’re unique, which is why we love them so, which is why their legends live on long past their deaths, which is why when bands pick up and go on without them, they’re oftentimes missing a crucial element.<\/p>\n
Ozzy Osbourne’s album with Zakk Wylde, "No More Tears", is almost a masterpiece.\u00c2\u00a0 The last worthwhile thing the Ozzman has done, it’s listenable from start to finish.\u00c2\u00a0 But after that, nada.<\/p>\n
But, before that…<\/p>\n
Ozzy was seen as washed-up.\u00c2\u00a0 A fat joke.<\/p>\n
And then he hooked up with Randy Rhoads.<\/p>\n
Mr. Rhoads had played with Quiet Riot, which had only managed success in Japan.\u00c2\u00a0 This was years before "Cum On Feel The Noize".\u00c2\u00a0 Randy bolted from the initial incarnation along with Rudy Sarzo and joined Ozzy’s backup band.\u00c2\u00a0 And you couldn’t pass a Saturday night in Los Angeles without hearing "Flying High Again" on the radio.<\/p>\n
Ozzy’s vocal is enticing.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s Randy’s buzzsaw guitar that shreds your brain, makes you jump like a snake chopped into bits, across the room, to drop the needle on the track once again.<\/p>\n
They say today’s acts are just as good as the classics.\u00c2\u00a0 I won’t say it’s an impossibility.\u00c2\u00a0 But just because you top the charts, you’re not as great, as talented, as endearing as those who came before.\u00c2\u00a0 That would be like equating "The Da Vinci Code" with "Anna Karenina".<\/p>\n
But it’s not only Mr. Rhoads.\u00c2\u00a0 A man I never knew and have no personal affinity for.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s also Keith Moon.<\/p>\n
Like "Flying High Again", I heard "The Real Me" on shuffle on my iPod.<\/p>\n
Let me start with John Entwistle.\u00c2\u00a0 The Ox who never moved on stage.\u00c2\u00a0 He stood stock still.\u00c2\u00a0 But his fingers positively danced over his bass strings.\u00c2\u00a0 Up and down.\u00c2\u00a0 He was channeling sounds we were unaware of, transmitting them to the audience.\u00c2\u00a0 He was such a virtuoso, hit the notes so effortlessly, that he never got the credit he was due.<\/p>\n
Sure, Daltrey could sing.\u00c2\u00a0 And Pete not only wrote those songs, he came up with the riffs.\u00c2\u00a0 But the underpinning was Entwistle.\u00c2\u00a0 And Moon.<\/p>\n
Did you ever see him?<\/p>\n
At this point, Ginger Baker was seen as the best drummer in rock.\u00c2\u00a0 After all, he played with Eric!\u00c2\u00a0 But the Who was always one step behind.\u00c2\u00a0 They peaked after not only Cream, but the Beatles and Hendrix too.\u00c2\u00a0 With "Tommy".\u00c2\u00a0 Which they performed in its entirety twice, at the Fillmore East, in the spring and fall of 1969.<\/p>\n
To watch Keith Moon was better than any Disney ride.\u00c2\u00a0 He didn’t seem human.\u00c2\u00a0 He locked on to some vibration.\u00c2\u00a0 And then he hit the drums in sequence, crossing his arms, positively scrambling like a spaghetti-limbed automaton.\u00c2\u00a0 More powerful than anybody, louder than anybody, and more inventive, more CREATIVE than anybody.<\/p>\n
The band’s apotheosis is "Who’s Next".\u00c2\u00a0 A better album cannot be named.\u00c2\u00a0 But if you want to hear great playing, check out "Quadrophenia".\u00c2\u00a0 Where the instruments exist in their own spheres, air between them, yet come together to render a delicious whole.<\/p>\n
The Who, like Ozzy, is still on the road.\u00c2\u00a0 Give credit to the musicians for carrying on.\u00c2\u00a0 But both acts are missing something.\u00c2\u00a0 The players that made them great, that cemented their reputations.<\/p>\n
And that’s sad.\u00c2\u00a0 But although we can no longer see these legends live, we can listen to the records.\u00c2\u00a0 And that’s why they still sell, are still stolen, are so desirable today.\u00c2\u00a0 Because listeners can hear that undefinable genius.<\/p>\n
Anybody can play, but not anybody can be great.<\/p>\n
Anybody can learn scales, technique, but that doesn’t mean they add to the canon, that they transcend what became before, that their work burns itself into our brains and never leaves.<\/p>\n
This music used to be the most important cultural element.\u00c2\u00a0 TV was a joke.\u00c2\u00a0 Movies a collaborative effort that simulated reality.\u00c2\u00a0 But when these players, these great bands, took the stage, it was life itself!<\/p>\n
That’s what sold the records.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what sold the tickets.\u00c2\u00a0 You couldn’t even get in the building.\u00c2\u00a0 Desire was just that great.\u00c2\u00a0 To see these twentysomethings testing limits, having honed their skills in basements and clubs when few were paying attention, only to get so good that they transcended everybody else.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, they wanted money, chicks, but the music was an end unto itself.\u00c2\u00a0 There was no big media machine.\u00c2\u00a0 Only the high of playing with your bros on stage, for an adoring audience, which could never get enough.<\/p>\n
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Conventional wisdom is musicians are fungible.\u00c2\u00a0 If one dies or quits, you just get another.\u00c2\u00a0 But players are not like cars, which you crash and then replace, they’re not like workers on an assembly line, in the best cases they’re unique, which is why we love them so, which is why their legends live on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-Cu","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2386"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2388,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2386\/revisions\/2388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}