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| From | John Micek <jlmicek@verizon.net> |
| Subject | Caution, May Induce Vomiting. |
| Date | Wed, 24 Dec 2008 21:32:41 -0500 |
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From Lefsetz's latest screed.
And, tonight, ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the absolute
apogee of Boomer self-involvement:
"The decade from 1964-1974 represents the musical Renaissance. There
was only one Renaissance in painting. It's not like artists dropped
their brushes and drills thereafter, it's just that never again was
there such concentrated artistic fervor, never again was art at the
center of public focus to such a degree. People have been making
records for decades since the sixties, but they just don't stick in
the same way. "Thriller" may be the second best selling record of
all time, but it has none of the raw energy, it lacks the cultural
impact of "Meet The Beatles". "I Still Haven't Found What I'm
Looking For" is a great track, but it pales in comparison to
"Satisfaction". In the sixties and early seventies music drove the
culture. If you wanted to know which way the wind blew, you turned
on the radio. The radio was an Internet built solely for us, the
baby boomers. It featured not only music, but hip news too. The
deejays were not beholden to corporate masters, we felt they
truly belonged to us. If you wanted to make a statement in the
fifties you wrote a book, if you had something to say in the sixties
and seventies, you cut a record. Which the audience waited in rapt
attention for. We truly believed what was contained in the grooves
was the essence of life. We needed to get closer. To not only the
Top Forty gems, but records that were the beneficiary of no airplay
at all. We had an underground railroad, passing these gems along.
They still make music today, but it's not the same. Hell, before the
Beatles no one knew you could make this much money, no one bothered
to cut album length opuses, we invented it as we went along, which is
why we can't relate to Live Nation and the rest of the corporations
serving product up to us. We thought music was best presented by
Bill Graham, at his vaunted Fillmores East and West."
Well, we might as well stop making music, art or literature. It's all
been done before and those pesky Boomers did it better.
Good Lord ...
john micek
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