letshunt

hehehehehe

Okay, I admit I am an old guy, pushing fifty. I was around for Vietnam, I was around to go though the punk era...I drove half around the country just to see the Sex Pistols. And have watched an awful lot of bands come and go, no matter what style they played.

I can still remember some the early seminal records that came out of Vox/Stacks recording studios, along with the whole Muscle Shoals Southern rock scene. Very few bands have stood the test of times because they were unable to keep up with the times or simply drugged themselves into oblivion.

I was a performance piano major my first three years in college, so I have a resonable knowledge of classical music, as I played countless recitals that all featured great classical minds.

My point is, unless you have an intimate knowledge of what went into each piece, most are ill equipt to judge any music. Each piece of music must be judged within the historical context it was written and what circumstances were part of that musical composition.

Obviously, many of the titles that have brought up will be little more than an after thought in ten years. Case in point, at one point in my life, I really thought Alvin Lee and Ten Years after were a god send to rock n roll..."If I could change the wordl" is still one of the great tracks ever laid down. You don't exactly hear it dominating the radio waves these days, and only of handful of individuals really know who Alvin Lee was. Let along what his music was about.

The music I have loved in parts of my life include: Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Led Zeppelin, Bruce Springsteen, Warren Zevon, Procol Harem, Bob Dylan, Sex Pistols, Public Image Limited, and a host of others.

Today I enjoy a wide range of music, bluegrass music has a certainly earthiness and authenticity about it that few rock n roll bands can match, Springsteen has reinvented himself in so many different ways that his music carried a certainly revelancy about it that few indivudals can ever hope to match...he just keeps changing as time goes by....as his life changes. Is his music hokey, sometimes, but by inlarge it reflects the confusion many of us feel in 2002...he did stand the test of time. I went to Viet Nam, I shot people, and much of his music reflects the ambiguity that individuals like myself feel. Lets face it, the guy has taken an awful lot of chances in his carrer that few would.

One thing that I have learned, tho, is that people who condemn a certain type of music usually reflects a certain "insecurity" in which thier music belief system lies. The idea that you dislike a certain form of music and means you are unable to understand the political and socio economic conditions at the time. Recently I was in San francisco and went down to the Haight-Asbury section of the town. It is caught in a time warp....I went there for a summer to find myself...all I found were great drugs and a hollow existence. Doesn't make the Greatful Dead of all the bands that followed irrelevent, the times were different.

The Beatles and Elvis existed at a time when their art forms were so new and novel that the mainstream refused to accept who they were. They were the victims of widespread prejedice and they were not allowed to participate in many of the activities that were afforded most artists of their time.

I guess my point is, you need to look at music in the time frame it was written, because a band reflects you viewpoint at a given time doesn't mean it is bad or lacks validity...it means that you simply don't understand the historical viewpoints and events that shaped the music at the time. It is you who have failed to miss the point.

The list of great musicians goes on....woody guthrie, Bob wills and the texs playboys, Rolling stones, Frank Zappa, and a host of others, are you willing to dismiss this music as old fashioned and irrelevent? Or take Ozzie, he is a shell of what he once was, but I can remember when people hung on every word he said and each album, not CD, was pure genius....in retrospect, maybe they weren't, but we thought so.

New bands are exploring new territory, too. Is it good? bad? It is good for now, is anyone going to remember Henry Rollins as some sort of visionary? I doubt it. How about Iggy Pop, maybe a beter chance....he was doing shit in the sixties that is just now sounding relevent.

What is ignorant, tho, is judging music based upon how it sounds at the time of release, sure it may touch a chord with you today...but will it stand the test of time, probably not. And therein lies the rub. Music affects all of us in certain way, our hopes, or ambitions, sometimes it seves as an excuse for bolstering out own insecurities.

I know one thing, tho....Bob Dylan still writes about real things that are happening today...and I am not a Bob Dylan fan, but you sure have to understand where he has been and look forward to where he is going.

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The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his. -George Patton