Episode 4: Musicians vs. Rock Stars, Part I

Ok, so I'm going to end up going back to Guns 'N Roses with pretty much everything, so get used to it.

I couldn't have been older than five... My biological parents were still together, and we were all sitting in our basement "family room" in lovely little Ligonier, Pennsylvania. Don't remember what we were doing- board game or something- but we had the TV playing in the background. This was probably in 1989 or '90... I don't want to date myself here, but it's safe to say that GN'R and I were born around the same time. They imprinted themselves on the public psyche at about exactly the same time that my psyche was awakened to its own existence.
This was back in the days when MTV (Music TeleVision- yes "Teen Mom" watchers, sorry but that is what the acronym stands for) was still a music channel. I know, that era is so far gone... I am really feeling like a dinosaur here. Anyways, so to reconstruct the scenario, I am five years old, sitting with my parents, engaged in some recreational activity, not paying any attention to the boring parade of dancing monkeys jumping and jiving all around the TV screen. Pretty soon I catch my mother staring at the tube. I followed her gaze... and there they were. In all their badass-ness. And I am a life forever changed.
It was the video for "Welcome To The Jungle." When I allow myself to fictionalize (not fabricate mind you, more like make a movie out of) my life story a little, I kind of love the fact that one of the very first things I remember about the world I live in is this moment. What an appropriate introduction to being- "Welcome To The Jungle." And if this was the world I lived in, these were its inhabitants? Yes please.
So my ultra-conservative Chief of Police of a father got up to change the channel.
Me (wide-eyed with wonder):"Who's that?"
Father (ashamed that his young daughter just observed such wretched filth on his watch): "That's Guns 'N Roses. They're very dirty people."
Mom (eyes fixed on the screen with kind of a zombie thing going): "But they're very talented."

And that was it.

Next thing I knew it was 2nd grade, the video premier for "November Rain" was literally a scheduled cultural event, like the State of the Union Address, and the world stopped. There are probably lots of people just like me who remember where they were when it happened, like 9/11. Am I aggrandizing my favorite band a little too much? Well get over it, that's why they're rock stars. They get aggrandized. And that's really what the content of this episode is going to be dealing with, this is not some hyper-exaggerated soliloquy on why I think Axl Rose is the coolest person who has ever been. Ok maybe a little.
I was at a birthday party. And about forty snot-nosed second-graders, who didn't know a darn thing about life, or pain, or struggle or rebellion, or anything rock 'n roll stands for, put down the whiffle ball bats and left the pinatas dangling full of candy to gather around the tube and watch it. We were totally transfixed, and we didn't even know why. For those ten minutes, Bobby forgot that Billy had stolen his candy bar, nobody cried or wet their pants, and no one cared that Jenny smelled. Now of course as soon as it was over, Bobby gave Billy an 8-year-old slug in the jaw, Billy cried, Susie wet her pants and we all ran away from Jenny as fast as humanly possible. But for ten minutes...
You know, if I recall correctly, I think I even went so far as to sit next to Brian. He had cooties. But I did it for Axl.

That's power.

That's what "rock stars" do. They can take a moment when something might be going on that is actually important, and make it all about them. The question is, once the moment is theirs, what do they do with it? Once they've grabbed your attention, what are they filling your brain space with? In the case of Guns 'N Roses, it was sheer brilliance. Not only was the band visually arresting, but sonically as well. Each individual band member was beyond proficient at his craft, there was substance to the song lyrics, the arrangements were spectacular and elaborate. And their bad behavior was legendary. In short, these guys were the real deal, onstage and off. There was an authenticity to Guns N'Roses that can't be replicated, though many have tried and will continue to do so until music itself no longer exists.


There have really only been a few, and most of them are dead. We all know all about the 27 Club- Jim, Jimi, Janis, Kurt(5 whole big whopping cool points to those of you who actually know the fifth member without Google)... The mythical pantheon in the sky for five genuine souls who truly lived and died for their craft. Well theylived for it- most of them died for the love of reality-altering substances. But the world mourned these deaths differently than others, not only because of the untimely nature of their passings, but because we lost something genuine.
These young people are listed among the few, the proud, the entirely dysfunctional... The Artists. The ones who actually straddled the fence between creative spirit and public figure. The ones who "made it" on the strength and beauty of their spirits, and the pain that drove them over the edge. They were "Out there on the Perimeter where there are no stars," so to speak, forging new pathways through the emotional landscape of a new era, seeing, thinking, FEELING things the rest of the world was afraid to see, afraid to think, afraid to feel. They were real.
What disappoints me today is, well, everything. If I want something real, I am completely out of luck if I turn on MTV. And completely out of my mind if I think that could yield me results. Today, the record industry and media giants, with their vice grip on the cojones of public opinion, won't give it to us. I'll save the tirade about empty pop stars and the "values" they promote, I won't launch into a drawn-out diatribe about how most of them are picked out of a model casting-call and CAN'T SING. If you've tuned in to this blog, and have read this far, chances are you are a music lover and already get what I am saying.
I have a bit of a conspiracy theory. It is my personal opinion that the labels are literally afraid to release anything else- it's the immense risk-factor involved with dealing with the personality types who really embody rock'n roll. Guns'N Roses broke up (ok, imploded) after about 6 years of grand success and in the end probably cost David Geffen a pretty penny. Jimi, Kurt and Janis died young because of their self-abuse, usually common to the deeply creative types. And as for the Doors, look at the number of times Jim Morrison got his band and his record label sued just by being Jim. So you can imagine why the powers that be who stand on the blazing corporate battlefield between profit and loss might regard these personality profiles as something of a liability.
It's so much easier for them to just pick up an actor and MAKE them into a pop star. Think about it... every act that comes out these days is "the new so-and-so". Every rock band with a guitar player in a leather jacket is the new G'nR. Every big-voiced, big-haired, female vocalist is the new Joplin (although without exception prettier and much more delicate of manner). But there's always just that something missing. Usually you can just look at these types and just tell how much they CARE. They CARE what you think. Yeah, I think that's it. They are more than willing to put on the outfit, the sneer, the smile, whatever it takes just to keep your attention and please you. They will sing the songs they're told to sing. Dance, monkey, dance. Just for the fame, and the fame alone. They will promote any message they're told to promote, even if it leads to the demoralization of a generation of youth. Not that Jim Morrison and Axl Rose were promoters of traditional family values. But at least they weren't posturing themselves as anti-heroes because that's what they were told to be.

So we've gone on in abstractions long enough. Who are They? It's a fine line I'm walking here with this "blog." Don't want to get too incredibly personal, but want to keep it personal enough that it's relevant. However, I'm kind of easing into the heart of the topic, as it would be a very easy thing for me to speak and hit too close to home for some and I don't want to do that.
But this does bring me to the real meat of this discussion...

US.


Where does this leave us struggling musicians at the bottom of the barrel? How does the public, private and corporate blueprint of our heroes affect how we forge our own identities? Or should it affect us at all? How do we see the difference in ourselves- how are we able to answer honestly, completely honestly, if we really have it burning deeply within our beings to create and share our art and our hearts, or if we're just a bunch of wanna-be Axls?

Come back in next time to continue this discussion, and we will delve a little further into the real world.

Tune in tomorrow — same Bat-time, same Bat-channel.