Bruce Springsteen may be haggard, a bit worse for wear, but it befits his ethos, I’m just a hardworking journeyman telling the tales of the working man.\u00c2\u00a0 He wants to appear vibrant, alive, still in the creative mode.\u00c2\u00a0 He even puts out new albums.<\/p>\n
Same deal with Paul McCartney.\u00c2\u00a0 He dyes his hair, but wants you to believe he could pop out a hit single at any moment. Listen to "Memory Almost Full" recently?\u00c2\u00a0 I doubt it.\u00c2\u00a0 You probably haven’t listened to "Working On A Dream" either.\u00c2\u00a0 But they’re trying.\u00c2\u00a0 Just like U2 and the Stones.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t want to admit they’re has-beens, they’re still working it, they’re asking us to still believe.<\/p>\n
And some do.<\/p>\n
But most don’t.<\/p>\n
I thought the Who at the Super Bowl was a brilliant idea.\u00c2\u00a0 They killed at the 9\/11 tribute concert.\u00c2\u00a0 Emanating waves of power that blew hair back across the floor of Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n
But it’s ten years later.\u00c2\u00a0 And those songs are ten years older.\u00c2\u00a0 Forty one years old in the case of "Pinball Wizard", thirty eight and a half in the case of the "Who’s Next" standards.\u00c2\u00a0 The classics have become TV show anthems.\u00c2\u00a0 Suddenly, classic rock is our father’s music.\u00c2\u00a0 And we’re our fathers.<\/p>\n
But Mick Jagger is still skinny!\u00c2\u00a0 Still prancing!\u00c2\u00a0 Still making new music!\u00c2\u00a0 He’s older than I am, he’s young, so am I.\u00c2\u00a0 I can put on my leather jacket, go to the gig and believe I’m a teenager again!<\/p>\n
But I’m not.
Hell, it’s great that we can still see so many classic acts live.\u00c2\u00a0 But, the reality is it’s like going to a museum.\u00c2\u00a0 We don’t want them to be alive, don’t want them to be vibrant, we don’t buy their new albums and if we do, we barely listen to them. SoundScan doesn’t lie.\u00c2\u00a0 The days of running down to the store on the day of release to buy the new album, playing it over and over again so you know every note of the new material at the show, are done.\u00c2\u00a0 You just want to hear the hits.\u00c2\u00a0 All anybody cares about the hits.<\/p>\n
But we delude ourselves.\u00c2\u00a0 If our heroes are young, then we’re young too.<\/p>\n
Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend are no longer young.\u00c2\u00a0 If, like Robert Plant, Roger wanted to step his vocals down an octave and do new material, I’m all for it.\u00c2\u00a0 But to see him on stage trying to replicate what once was…is utterly creepy.\u00c2\u00a0 It was great to see Townshend windmill.\u00c2\u00a0 But he gave up on the Who, until we all gave up on his solo material, and then he decided to dash for the cash.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, when was the first retirement tour, 1982?<\/p>\n
So, afraid of a titty, afraid of the current acts, the NFL decided to go with the classic rockers.\u00c2\u00a0 Not acknowledging that they’re as aged as George Burns and Mickey Rooney and as lame as Up With People were in the old days.\u00c2\u00a0 These were cutting edge, vibrant acts.\u00c2\u00a0 We all bought into the construct until Sunday night.\u00c2\u00a0 When an act that hasn’t eked out memorable new material in decades took the stage looking like the senior citizens they are and mostly played to tape.<\/p>\n
Ever see Zak Starkey in concert?\u00c2\u00a0 He may not be Keith Moon, but he plays with passion, banging his kit incessantly. Sunday night, he was tapping along to his prerecorded fills.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, Townshend was windmilling, but who were those drab guys going through the motions in the background?\u00c2\u00a0 If this worked, it would be a conflagration, everybody strumming like it mattered.<\/p>\n
But it doesn’t.<\/p>\n
This music hasn’t mattered for a very long time.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s truly classic.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s aged.\u00c2\u00a0 We want something new.\u00c2\u00a0 But we’ve got nothing new.\u00c2\u00a0 So we hearken back half a century.\u00c2\u00a0 Suddenly, Sunday night, you could see how threadbare the concept had become.\u00c2\u00a0 The NFL has run through the greatest acts of rock and roll history.\u00c2\u00a0 Now what?<\/p>\n
The only option is to go forward.\u00c2\u00a0 Just like human beings.\u00c2\u00a0 You can’t live in the past.\u00c2\u00a0 You can talk to the dead, but they don’t talk back.\u00c2\u00a0 You can jerk off to a past love, but they’re never coming back.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to march forward.\u00c2\u00a0 However scary that might be.<\/p>\n
And it’s plenty scary.<\/p>\n
The reason everybody weighed in about the Who at the Super Bowl is because they know the Who and their music and they were watching the Super Bowl.\u00c2\u00a0 What are the odds another person even knows the music you’re listening to today? What are the odds you even know what new music to listen to?\u00c2\u00a0 What are the odds we’re all tuned into the same TV show?<\/p>\n
Just about nil.<\/p>\n
But to contemplate things being different is just too scary.\u00c2\u00a0 Record companies want to sell albums.\u00c2\u00a0 Diehards say they love CDs, even vinyl!\u00c2\u00a0 But they’re dying, all of them, just like the physical book.\u00c2\u00a0 Doesn’t mean you can’t play an LP and enjoy it, it’s just that most people don’t own a\u00c2\u00a0 turntable and just don’t care.<\/p>\n
I can’t believe the Saints went for it on fourth and one.\u00c2\u00a0 But they believed in themselves.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s the key to forward progress. You can’t doubt yourself.\u00c2\u00a0 You can’t play it safe.<\/p>\n
The NFL’s been playing it safe since the uncovering of Janet Jackson’s nipple.\u00c2\u00a0 So scared of the future, of the present, that it lives in the past.\u00c2\u00a0 It can’t go on forever.\u00c2\u00a0 Just like Phil Simms can no longer suit up and play the game.<\/p>\n
And the great surprise of Sunday was the onside kick that opened the second half.\u00c2\u00a0 Had never ever happened before. Except in the fourth quarter.\u00c2\u00a0 When it’s desperation time, when you’re behind and praying.\u00c2\u00a0 The Saints decided to take hold of the game.<\/p>\n
Are you ready to take hold of your life?<\/p>\n
Do you want artists to take hold of their careers?<\/p>\n
Or do you just want the same damn thing over and over again.<\/p>\n
It’s weird getting old.\u00c2\u00a0 The body doesn’t work as well.\u00c2\u00a0 You have aches and pains.\u00c2\u00a0 But you don’t give up.\u00c2\u00a0 The Who gave up. There’s no new music.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re afraid no one wants to listen.\u00c2\u00a0 But that shouldn’t stop an artist.\u00c2\u00a0 You still write,\u00c2\u00a0 you still compose, even if you end up playing clubs.<\/p>\n
But you make a hell of a lot less money.<\/p>\n
The Super Bowl didn’t sell Bruce’s album.\u00c2\u00a0 Nor the Stones’.\u00c2\u00a0 Because no sporting event has that power.\u00c2\u00a0 Especially if you don’t risk playing the new music to begin with.\u00c2\u00a0 Especially if you’re playing by someone else’s rules, in this case the NFL’s.<\/p>\n
You can say no.\u00c2\u00a0 But you leave all that exposure on the table.<\/p>\n
But modern artists realize the game has changed.\u00c2\u00a0 Exposure doesn’t mean what it used to.\u00c2\u00a0 Because only the target audience truly cares.<\/p>\n
Rock and roll was about taking risks.\u00c2\u00a0 Testing the limits of the audience.\u00c2\u00a0 Whether it be the Beatles with "Sgt. Pepper" and a year and a half later "Revolution 9" or Neil Young going on tour after the success of "Harvest" and playing loud rock and roll, alienating his audience.<\/p>\n
When did music become about fulfilling expectations?\u00c2\u00a0 About giving people what they want?\u00c2\u00a0 Wasn’t it always the opposite?\u00c2\u00a0 About leading?<\/p>\n
Of course.<\/p>\n
You could enjoy the Who on Sunday night.\u00c2\u00a0 But there’s no way in hell you could say you were inspired, that you were taken to new heights, got new insight from their performance.\u00c2\u00a0 They gave you just what you were looking for.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve demanded this from acts.\u00c2\u00a0 We want them to stay the same.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re the problem.\u00c2\u00a0 And the aged acts can’t say no.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re on the gravy train, they want the money. Pete Townshend was an outsider, all the stars of yore were not cool, they picked up instruments to get noticed, to get laid, because they saw no other way.\u00c2\u00a0 They were beat up and bullied in high school.\u00c2\u00a0 They didn’t play on the team, they weren’t winners.\u00c2\u00a0 How ironic they all want to play this sporting event, populated by the people who had contempt for them.<\/p>\n But I am one<\/span> That’s the essence of rock and roll.\u00c2\u00a0 Turning your outsider status inside out.\u00c2\u00a0 Letting your freak flag fly and convincing everybody that they should follow YOU!\u00c2\u00a0 That you’re the one who’s got it right, not them.<\/p>\n You can’t have it both ways.\u00c2\u00a0 You can’t be against the man and for him.\u00c2\u00a0 You can’t test the limits and play by the rules.<\/p>\n You’ve got to be able to say no.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to be able to turn down the opportunity because it just doesn’t feel right, no matter how many people are watching, no matter how much money is involved.<\/p>\n Or else you’re a parody of yourself.\u00c2\u00a0 In a circle jerk with your old fans.\u00c2\u00a0 Both believing in what once was.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is now long gone.<\/p>\n The NFL could continue to play it safe.\u00c2\u00a0 But I think the jig is now up.\u00c2\u00a0 Like you and me, it’s time to take a risk, to try something new, knowing that it may not work, but you’ve got a chance of something great happening.\u00c2\u00a0 Remember hearing "Baba O’Riley" the first time?\u00c2\u00a0 That can only happen once.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s time to hear something new, to get that rush once again. Because without that rush, we’re calcified, we’re dead on the inside.<\/p>\n Thank god the NFL is not dead.\u00c2\u00a0 They can credit the Saints for that.\u00c2\u00a0 They surprised us.\u00c2\u00a0 The Who did not.<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bruce Springsteen may be haggard, a bit worse for wear, but it befits his ethos, I’m just a hardworking journeyman telling the tales of the working man.\u00c2\u00a0 He wants to appear vibrant, alive, still in the creative mode.\u00c2\u00a0 He even puts out new albums. Same deal with Paul McCartney.\u00c2\u00a0 He dyes his hair, but wants […]<\/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":[3,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-shows","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-H8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2674","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=2674"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2676,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2674\/revisions\/2676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Every year is the same<\/span>
And I feel it again<\/span>
I’m a loser – no chance to win<\/span><\/p>\n
I am one<\/span>
And I can see<\/span>
That this is me<\/span>
And I will be<\/span>
You’ll all see<\/span>
I’m the one<\/span><\/p>\n