First and foremost, my article wasn't really about the Stones, it was about hype/publicity in general, although I did employ the Stones as an example. But they're not the only ones, only the most egregious, especially because they used to be considered dangerous, as the other. Don't let your daughter sleep with a Rolling Stone? Now your grandmother wants to sleep with a Stone and youngsters don't care.
But the reason I'm writing this is I'm always stunned when fans defend their ancient heroes. You can't say a single negative thing about them, they're inviolate, based on what they've produced previously. Not only is that insane, it disappoints me that these people haven't grown up, can't think for themselves, still need to put others on a pedestal to make their lives complete. Because if their heroes had clay feet, where would they be?
We were young once, and oftentimes stupid and naïve. The goal in life is to experience, to take chances, to develop, to progress. But too many can't do this, they can't let go of who they once were, furthermore they're afraid of the future. And I'll place all this b.s. about the digital age in this box too. The smartphone is here, everyone's now connected, it's exciting, but you keep telling us to go on a digital detox while you still use your flip phone... The joke is on you.
But it gets even broader. Did you see the story in the news about electric cars being a political issue, that the right is against them? What, you want to preserve the dominance of fossil fuels and pollution?
"Electric Cars Were Already Having Issues. Then Things Got Political. The 2024 race for the White House reignites debate over EVs": tinyurl.com/2z8kdrn3
But it's even worse, because the Chinese are paragons of electric car excellence. They're gonna eat up the market. Warren Buffett got the message, he invested in BYD, and he's probably older than you are, but you're inured to the past, you can't let go. And not everything is us vs. them.
The most interesting story I read in the past two weeks was this:
"China's E.V. Threat: A Carmaker That Loses $35,000 a Car - Chinese electric vehicle companies like Nio are pulling ever further ahead, partly through government support but also through rapid technological advances.": tinyurl.com/3vxkz5uj
That's really all you have to know, the headline is enough. I'll make it quite simple, in China the GOVERNMENT is underwriting, subsidizing, electric car development. In the U.S. we can't even have a working government, never mind subsidize industry for the future. Hell, someone just wrote a whole book about it, excerpted in yesterday's "New York Times Magazine":
"Longer Commutes, Shorter Lives: The Costs of Not Investing in America - For decades, spending on the future put the nation ahead of all others. What would it take to revive that spirit?": tinyurl.com/2t8scj62
It's simple, St. Reagan declared the government the enemy and the goal of the right is to eliminate federal spending, and on the left many want lower taxes too, the narrative has gone off course, far from the right direction, because it's government investment that has made America what it is today, can you say INTERNET?
Yes, that was a government defense program.
Our government is gridlocked and we're falling behind. We used to spend a ton on R&D, on fixing, on improving America. But no longer, because you earned that damn money and you're entitled to keep it and the government wastes bucks. But this book makes it clear, if you spend you waste, not every investment pays off, just ask a venture capitalist. But no, we must not invest in anything.
This is not the country I grew up in.
But my generation, I'm disappointed in it. The Gen-X'ers too. Because they've refused to grow up.
You know, like the rock writers who still have long hair and wear a motorcycle jacket. Don't you know the rest of us are laughing at you? You're anything but cool, you're frozen in time, and you never even rode a motorcycle, never mind never played in a band.
It's bad enough that the bands are frozen in time, but do you have to be too?
That's one weird thing about growing up, you realize these musicians are just people. Some stayed artists, kept exploring, like David Bowie, but most just rested on their laurels, once they made it they were afraid to risk.
These bands don't care about you. Not whatsoever. In truth, most successful people, the rich you adore, never mind the musicians, don't want to hang with you, they don't want to be friends with you, they just want your money to support their lifestyle. They want to live behind gates, never fly commercial and vacation on private islands. They want nothing to do with the hoi polloi, despite constantly praising their fans. It's a joke. But it's on you.
I mean you're in your fifties, sixties and seventies and you're still looking to Mick and Keith for guidance? Mick, a man who loves money and the fabulous lifestyle much more than you. And Keith is a bit more admirable, but he seems to be the only drinker and drugger who survived, the rest of them succumbed to their vices.
But maybe you're drinking and drugging yourself, thinking you're cool. They call marijuana (or its bogus highfalutin' name "cannabis") dope for a reason, because it makes you stupid. Come on, that's one of the amazing things about growing older, all the stoners of the past, they've gone straight. And so many drinkers are now sober. And you know why? Because they realized these substances were impairing their lives, killing them. But you still revere the rock and roll lifestyle. I get it if you're a teenager or a twentysomething, but at this age? You've got to be kidding.
You see these people grew up and you didn't. I mean if you want to go to the show to hear your favorites, be my guest. But don't tell me about the deeper meaning. It's a show, that's it. There are people to believe in today, but they're not musicians.
And then the inane e-mail about how Spotify killed the music business, it's the devil! Now let me get this straight, the physical world of twelve songs for more than ten bucks on a plastic disc was going to survive? The iPod didn't survive, and it was launched in the twenty first century! The landline has been superseded by the cellphone. But no, music must remain static, the way it used to be, because... Nothing stays the same except you!
It's one thing if you're in one of these bands and you blow back after I diss you, I completely understand that, although I'd never do it, that's rule number one of the internet, you never respond, never fight back, it just pours gasoline on the fire. But it's the people not mentioned, who aren't in the band, who never worked for the band, never worked anywhere near the music business who defend these musicians so prodigiously.
You can't say anything negative about a star of the past because..?
You can say negative stuff about a politician, or a movie star, but since a musician once spoke from their heart, impacted the culture, they get a pass for all time?
Believe me, it's scary growing up, maturing. Talk about satisfaction, I can name a bunch of streaming series that deliver more than the work of any musician. Because music has changed. As the world has changed. Musicians used to be as rich as anybody in America, that's no longer the case. And to make money they're whoring themselves out, which was my point to begin with, which is damn sad, assuming unlike them you grew up.
Are you really that immature? Are you really wearing blinders?
Let's see, you have aches and pains. You can't run as fast, if at all. But in your brain you're still twenty years old, living under a paradigm that evaporated half a century ago.
That was my point. We live in a new world, and you must adjust for a new world. But the key thing if you're an artist is not to sacrifice your values, assuming you had any at all to begin with. Those are the bedrock, the attitudes, the beliefs, who you are at the core. I mean the Stones hanging with Jimmy Fallon? Make me puke.
What did John Lennon sing?
"I just believe in me, Yoko, and me, and that's reality"
Lennon was in the biggest band in the land, in the entire world, and he could see the emptiness at the core. That it's all about the individual, that the mania is bogus.
"And so, dear friends
You'll just have to carry on
The dream is over"
Don't you get it? You were told to think for yourself (by George Harrison too!) and you just couldn't do it. It was too heavy a lift, too much responsibility.
Now Joe Walsh once said that the challenge wasn't dying at twenty seven, but living. Who knows what John Lennon would be like at eighty. He's lucky, his image is frozen in the past. But Walsh was a serious alcoholic and cleaned up. I once sat in a bar with him in Vancouver and he was drunk and nasty, but that's not the sober Joe at all, and he can still play, even better.
And Don Henley cut his hair. But you're still wearing it long. Why?
I'll make this simple...
GROW UP!
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