If you think anybody under the age of twenty cares about Michael Jackson,
you’re sadly mistaken.<\/p>\n
Michael Jackson had his hits twenty years ago.\u00c2\u00a0 Not that he’s left the public
eye.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s endured so many plastic surgeries as to contest Jocelyn
Wildenstein as the scariest human on the planet.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, some of his music was great, but the man is now a CARTOON!\u00c2\u00a0 Someone who seems only interested in maintaining his fame and his money.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas Roger Waters and David Gilmour are barely in the news.\u00c2\u00a0 But, amongst the younger set, they RULE!<\/p>\n
There was a fascinating editorial in the L.A. "Times" stating that Live 8 was
a failure because it didn’t appeal to the people that counted, those in the
red states.\u00c2\u00a0 The article said to have a show in the south with a bunch of
country stars.\u00c2\u00a0 Since the goal is to influence American policy, this would be the
best way to reach the people who MAKE UP public opinion.<\/p>\n
But Bob Geldof, for all the good work he’s done, is not in touch with
America.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, most of Europe HATES America.\u00c2\u00a0 Thinks we’re bullies.\u00c2\u00a0 But you can’t
win unless you give us something we can understand, something we can relate to.
\u00c2\u00a0And we can’t relate to that free show in Philadelphia, and those shows
overseas…they seem to be the kind of British thing that just doesn’t cross the
pond, acts that people live and die for in the U.K. but we consider to be
snoozefests.\u00c2\u00a0 But that’s not Pink Floyd.<\/p>\n
Now I’m not going to say Pink Floyd is going to bring in the red states,
although Republicans love the band maybe as much as Democrats.\u00c2\u00a0 But now Americans are going to pay attention, now they CARE, because, you see, Pink Floyd are the last gods.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, the Gilmour incarnation made new records and toured.\u00c2\u00a0 You
could say they sold out a bit.\u00c2\u00a0 But Roger Waters doesn’t know the meaning of
"sell out".\u00c2\u00a0 He only does what feels right.\u00c2\u00a0 And many people don’t agree with his
positions, certainly not re Floyd, but there’s no mistake, he does what’s in
his heart, he can’t be influenced, certainly not for the bucks.\u00c2\u00a0 In other
words, Roger Waters has CREDIBILITY!\u00c2\u00a0 He wrote a whole album about his fucked up life, "The Wall", and unlike the smiling, face-lifted, dyed hair Paul
McCartney, he hasn’t rejected his old angst, isn’t on an endless victory lap in search
of more money than he can use, no, we actually think he’s the same fucked up
guy, and we LOVE HIM FOR THAT!!!<\/p>\n
In the sixties and seventies you didn’t need a hit to survive, didn’t need a
hit to be a working musician.\u00c2\u00a0 You could have a career, sell enough records to
survive, without going gold.\u00c2\u00a0 It was radio, and cult fans, they supported
you.\u00c2\u00a0 Back before everybody was greedy, before everybody spread the myth that
touring was too expensive to do without label support and endorsements, when
people did it for the MUSIC not the MONEY!\u00c2\u00a0 You were a MUSICIAN, not a STAR!<\/p>\n
Sure, Pink Floyd had some catchy early hits with Syd Barrett, and believe you
me, the youngsters know them, but it was their more ethereal work that hooked
people.\u00c2\u00a0 Here was a band that was forging its own way, exploring, with only the desire to make great music, THIS people could relate to, an ever-growing
cult.\u00c2\u00a0 And then came "Dark Side Of The Moon".<\/p>\n
Cults either die out or explode.\u00c2\u00a0 There comes a critical moment when all the
stars align and an act blows up, or it breaks up.\u00c2\u00a0 "Dark Side Of The Moon" WAS
a bit more coherent than "Ummagumma", "Atom Heart Mother" and "Meddle", but
what really broke the album was radio going on "Money".\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t know the band
members, I don’t know if they thought they’d created a hit, but I doubt it,
that just wasn’t the ethos of the band.\u00c2\u00a0 "Money" succeeded almost by accident,
radio CHAMPIONED IT!<\/p>\n
"Dark Side Of The Moon" still sells today.\u00c2\u00a0 Because new bands just aren’t
making this kind of music.\u00c2\u00a0 All that alternative rock.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about SIMPLICITY!\u00c2\u00a0 I
mean do you want to live in a world without BMWs and Macs?\u00c2\u00a0 Where everybody
has a dialup connection and TiVo doesn’t exist?\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what today’s new rock
is about.\u00c2\u00a0 And hit rap is about SELLING OUT!\u00c2\u00a0 What with the logos not only in
the videos, but companies being pimped in the SONGS!\u00c2\u00a0 Everything is made to be
catchy, so you’ll hear it once and not forget it.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas Pink Floyd music is
hard to even COMPREHEND the first time through, one can sometimes even
consider it GRATING!\u00c2\u00a0 In a world where all the marketing hypes are spoonfed to you, after being ground up to be palatable, Pink Floyd exists in its own universe,
and still contains the chunks, which is why kids LOVE IT!<\/p>\n
And baby boomers have never forgotten the band.\u00c2\u00a0 Because the music isn’t
pimped out in commercials and movies.\u00c2\u00a0 And now that radio has become more
corporate, most of the band’s tracks are too outside to even be PLAYED!\u00c2\u00a0 The act is
now solely owned by the public, by the fans.\u00c2\u00a0 Almost like the Doors.\u00c2\u00a0 Both bands
permeate the culture, you can’t quantify it, other than by CD sales, but it’s
palpable, neither act has been forgotten, as the productions of the faux
musicians come and go, their music endures.\u00c2\u00a0 As Eminem spouts in the media,
releases mediocre material that sells but nobody cares about, Pink Floyd and the
Doors just lay back and rake in the dough from an annuity that will go on
FOREVER!\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, "Dark Side Of The Moon" is our modern Mona Lisa.<\/p>\n
Not that it’s only "Dark Side Of The Moon".\u00c2\u00a0 "The Wall" movie is just about
as outside as the album, which is why it’s a rite of passage to view it, just
as it’s part of growing up to sync "Dark Side Of The Moon" to "The Wizard Of
Oz".<\/p>\n
And in the wake of 9\/11, when Fred Durst and Johnny Rzeznik sat down to play
a song, it was "Wish You Were Here".<\/p>\n
Oh, the media will tell you that everybody cares about Michael Jackson, they
stopped the world to tell you about it, it was on EVERY TV channel, every
radio station, every Web portal homepage.\u00c2\u00a0 But people aren’t going to be talking
about the trial next week, if it even stays on their mind until the end of
tomorrow.\u00c2\u00a0 But Pink Floyd endures.\u00c2\u00a0 Not because of the hype, but because of the
music.<\/p>\n
Come July 2nd, America’s youth is going to be in front of the TV.\u00c2\u00a0 Watching
their heroes perform.<\/p>\n
Not long thereafter, Floyd’s entire show will be available on P2P sites.\u00c2\u00a0
Major label majordomos will speak of piracy, but really this will be about
spreading the word, keeping the music and spirit alive.\u00c2\u00a0 Because great music is
meant to be UBIQUITOUS!\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not supposed to be marketed like fish, in a
controlled manner, rather it must be set free, like one of the flying pigs in Floyd’s
old show.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, I don’t mean the music should be free, hell, a FINANCIAL
BONANZA could be reaped by exacting a toll on these P2P trades.\u00c2\u00a0 But, don’t be
shortsighted, doing good works, getting life force in people’s hands today pays
dividends tomorrow, which the pricks at the labels seem to have forgotten.\u00c2\u00a0 Used
to be the label was a midwife, aiding the band in birthing their baby, and
bringing it into the world.\u00c2\u00a0 Today the label is a dictator, exacting conformity
and killing art.<\/p>\n
I’m not the biggest Pink Floyd fan.\u00c2\u00a0 I own most of the albums, paid for them
myself in fact, but I rarely spin them.\u00c2\u00a0 Still, when I hear "Comfortably Numb"
I get this feeling…of hope and understanding.\u00c2\u00a0 It reminds me of an era when
musicians ruled the world, only by following their muse.<\/p>\n
I will be in front of the TV on July 2nd too.\u00c2\u00a0 Witnessing history. <\/p>\n
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If you think anybody under the age of twenty cares about Michael Jackson, you’re sadly mistaken. Michael Jackson had his hits twenty years ago.\u00c2\u00a0 Not that he’s left the public eye.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s endured so many plastic surgeries as to contest Jocelyn Wildenstein as the scariest human on the planet.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, some of his music was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","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":[2,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-L","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}