Ain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t It Strange? By Patti Smith<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nI have no doubt that David Lee Roth would be able to say something that TRULY captures the spirit of rock and roll.\u00c2\u00a0 But, he’s not part of the intelligentsia, he’s not CONNECTED!<\/p>\n
Never forget that Judith Miller worked for the "New York Times".<\/p>\n
Her sin, secondary to getting the Iraq story wrong, was that she wanted to hobnob with the rich and famous, wanted to be a star herself.\u00c2\u00a0 And using her gig as a point of entry, she curried favor with those in power, who manipulated her.<\/p>\n
If you want to know who really shined the light on the atrocities in Iraq, you’re gonna have to look to the Internet, to the World Wide Web.\u00c2\u00a0 True, there may not be much investigative journalism on the Net, but stories don’t get buried because they might offend someone you dine with.<\/p>\n
This smarmy Patti Smith editorial just proves the point.\u00c2\u00a0 That the connected New Yorkers believe they’re above the rest of us, that what they say and think is more important than those west of the metropolis.<\/p>\n
But those days are gone.\u00c2\u00a0 People in Iowa, the dreaded flyover Midwest, are now just as hip as those in New York.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, they’ve got the same cable channels and high speed Internet too.\u00c2\u00a0 So why do those in New York have contempt for them?\u00c2\u00a0 Because it makes them FEEL GOOD!<\/p>\n
There’s a great democratization going on in America right now.\u00c2\u00a0 And it has to do with the pipe, the Internet.\u00c2\u00a0 Used to be the institutions talked down to us from on high, no different from those in political office.\u00c2\u00a0 If the "Washington Post" said it, that’s the way it was.<\/p>\n
But then the "Washington Post" got caught in its own Web conflagration, you see the oldsters there had no idea how the Web WORKED!<\/p>\n
The Web is a free-flowing marketplace, where EVERYBODY fights for attention.\u00c2\u00a0 Not all get it, but those that appeal to the masses gain traction via e-mail and IM, their ratings go up on Technorati.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s a hierarchy all right, but it’s EARNED!<\/p>\n
The "New York Times" earned its station eons ago.\u00c2\u00a0 Somehow those in charge there no longer believe they have to continue to earn it.\u00c2\u00a0 Just like the major labels believe THEY have the right to determine how music will be distributed in the future.<\/p>\n
Funny, isn’t it, how both are in severe trouble.\u00c2\u00a0 Their guts ripped out by this newfangled Internet.<\/p>\n
They call it a Hall Of Fame, not a Hall Of Influences.\u00c2\u00a0 Patti Smith is an all right gal.\u00c2\u00a0 But that husband she married, none of the New Yorkers gave a shit about him until she did, the MC5 were seen as a joke when their debut on Elektra was released, faux revolutionaries at best.<\/p>\n
Their Atlantic follow-ups fared better, but had absolutely no traction.<\/p>\n
I purchased them all.\u00c2\u00a0 But I can’t tell you they’re more than footnotes.<\/p>\n
I’ve got a bunch of Patti Smith records too, but I almost never spin them.\u00c2\u00a0 God, if want earthy New York, I’ll spin Lou Reed’s solo DEBUT!\u00c2\u00a0 Shit, there’s more power on "Rock ‘N Roll Animal" than on ANY Patti Smith album.<\/p>\n
So, she’s a girl.<\/p>\n
Well, so is Linda Ronstadt.\u00c2\u00a0 And Ann and Nancy Wilson.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d rather meet their "Magic Man" ANY day of the week rather than Fred "Sonic" Smith.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, they were from Seattle and they were CUTE!<\/p>\n
Rock and roll was based on irreverence, questioning authority, pushing people’s buttons.<\/p>\n
I find it UTTERLY hysterical that all the Patti Smith defenders are so offended that I’m railing against her induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.\u00c2\u00a0 They should be laughing, they should be egging me on.\u00c2\u00a0 Otherwise, they look no different from Comiskey Park fans blowing up disco records, before they fucked to Chic.<\/p>\n
Hell, I hate KISS.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve never given Gene Simmons a red cent.<\/p>\n
But I smile every time I hear "Lick It Up".\u00c2\u00a0 And "Rock And Roll All Nite" is the ESSENCE of rock and roll.<\/p>\n
But I don’t think they believe in the Hall either.<\/p>\n
But Alice Cooper and Genesis…they’re no-brainers.<\/p>\n
But they never played CBGB’s.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re not New Yorkers.<\/p>\n
They’re not gonna beg, they’re too big for this shit.\u00c2\u00a0 Peter Gabriel’s sang about Stephen Biko, he didn’t cover a Springsteen song about love in the middle of the night for his one big hit.<\/p>\n
Just so you know, I’m watching you.\u00c2\u00a0 Unlike Judith Miller, I’m not letting this one slide by.<\/p>\n
That editorial space?\u00c2\u00a0 That was David Lee Roth’s ten inches.<\/p>\n
And I think he would have used some mighty fine double entendres inappropriate in the paper of record to get his point across.<\/p>\n
The point is…\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re not making people uptight, if you’re not making them question who they are and what they believe in, then you’re not rock and roll.<\/p>\n
Patti Smith flubbed her chance.<\/p>\n
David Lee Roth wouldn’t do the same.<\/p>\n
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Tell me, do you think this is good? Ain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t It Strange? By Patti Smith I have no doubt that David Lee Roth would be able to say something that TRULY captures the spirit of rock and roll.\u00c2\u00a0 But, he’s not part of the intelligentsia, he’s not CONNECTED! Never forget that Judith Miller worked for the […]<\/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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-bB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719","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=719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}