Sixty years ago, today, ¾ of The
Beatles (John, Paul and George) played their first show of their first tour at
Alloa Town Hall in Clackmannanshire, Scotland. McCartney was still
playing guitar then, Stu Sutcliffe on bass and Tommy Moore on the drums.
Moore was the first of a parade of drummers that would continue for two more
years until Ringo completed the "Fab Four" in August of '62. It
is hard for me to comprehend that those four dudes who would’ve likely amounted
to very little on their own, coalesced into one of the greatest rock and roll
bands ever only to create and play together for barely eight years before
breaking up and that less than ten years after that unfortunate, John would be
dead. The Beatles only made music together for eight years? Are you
kidding?! Have you seen / heard / felt their catalog? John was only
a "rock star" for eighteen years? That is not only ridiculous,
but also a remarkably unequalled fact when one considers the length and breadth
of the shadows of influence cast as a result of this shaky impetus. Just
think what they could have been if they'd had a legit drummer throughout!
(Sorry Ringo...Pete Best was a cool, cool cat.)
Lennon is a touchstone for me in
a lot of ways, and I've often tried to imagine what he would think and say
about the world today, especially now. I'll try to resist going down the
rabbit hole of musical "what ifs” but imagine if they'd all lived
through. John, Janis, Jimi, Randy Rhoads, Dimebag, Razzle, Shannon Hoon,
Kurt, Sid, Bradley Nowell, Tupac, Biggie, Stevie Ray, Billie, Morrison, Buddy,
Keith Moon, Freddie, Cliff Burton, Layne Staley. The list goes on
forever, right? What if they'd all made it through the storm? Would
I really be listening to Mandolin Orange records on a Wednesday night if they
had? Maybe. Hopefully even because MO is an incredible duo that
gives me much joy and is a band that you should know that I’d love to tell you
about if ever you would ask what I’m listening to these days like humans used
to when music was cool...but still I wonder. My heart and head believe
that “music” would have been appreciably different especially had Kurt,
Jimi and Tupac came through...but that is a fantasy I hope to explore another
day. BUT for the sake of having something to imagine, imagine what Kurt
Cobain's musical response to the drivel that fills the airwaves today might
have been. In all honesty, it would probably be drivel too but it would
have felt and looked a whole lot cooler.
IF 80-year old John Lennon were alive to add color to this tapestry, can
you imagine how different “this” would be?
Also, further random, today is
the birthday of Joe Cocker, Cher, Jane Wieldin, Iz, Patti Russo and Busta
Rhymes - what an arbitrary bunch of musically special humans and how surprised
am I that I'm just a few weeks older than Busta?
My homie Nick Cave once said, "I've
spent my life butting my head against other people's lack of
imagination." That's a helluva truth right there, no?
Leonard Cohen is quoted as
saying, "If I knew where the good songs came from, I'd go there more
often."
What if "this"
is where the good songs come from? What if "this" is
where our collective lack of imagination meets its demise? If you listen
to anybody who is talking right now, they are selling their own personal vision
of the truth devoid of fact or precedent and that is an exceedingly
selfish and dangerous game to play. I often quote my Stoic heroes when I
write, when I talk, when I endeavor to lead, but I stop short of that tonight
to ask the questions that so many people have answered lately irresponsibly and
emotionally – what is it that you are chasing, what are you trying to prove, to
whom are you trying to prove it and why does that approval matter? I have
listed and quoted several personally influential people tonight, but I would
never do a thing because Joe Strummer did it or because Johnny Cash might see
me do it or because Buddy Holly heard from a friend that I might.
We draw our internal ability to
act from a multitude of external influences and influencers –
some (most) of which we have no
control over, but we should never let anyone's influence outshine our
own. Perhaps it is because of my Stoic leanings, perhaps it’s because I'm
an aging punk / headbanger, perhaps it's because I'm a yet to be realized and
acknowledged, brilliant goat farmer, but either way I know that MY voice
matters. More importantly maybe, I know
that YOURS does too. The trouble lies in finding that voice I suppose, and
maybe that is what I came here to write about.
At the end of every day, we are ALL solely responsible for the mark we have
left on the world that day – good, bad, or indifferent. I think we all
aspire to speaking our own truth and most of us convince ourselves on the reg
that we are. When nobody is looking
though, and when you are being honest with yourself, have you found your voice? Have you ever even heard your own voice? Are you willing and able to stop apologizing
for it if you have? Are you going to be
okay if your voice does not align with the sheep that we are all unavoidably
surrounded by? Is your voice strong enough
to outshout the din? Are you going to be
cool when and if it does? Can you
surround yourself with people who do not insist that you’re surrounded by only
their obnoxious voices? These are obvs
rhetorical questions, but ones that I ask myself on the daily.
I'd like to continue writing this
stream of consciousness wandering nonsense around myself and expand deeper into
my personal manias on irony and the dichotomy of mankind and all the other things
as I promised some friends earlier this week, but it's the 20th day of May and
these are all of the thoughts I've had so far today.
I don't know all of the things, but I know that all of the things I know are true.
