That's how far we've come, a term that meant something has been bastardized to the point that few know the original definition. Even funnier, the supposed "rock stars" want to be bankers, mostly investors/venture capitalists, they want the same money, even though that door is closed, they can never get that much.
A rock star is not in it for the money. And a rock star has so much money that money is irrelevant, they've got money to burn. On destroying hotel rooms. On exotic cars. It's part of the lifestyle, a rock star can do whatever he or she wants. They're above the rest, outside the norm, they're laughing at convention, they're doing it their way.
I'm getting all this blowback from people telling me that Bob Dylan and Neil Young are not the only rock stars left. If I really think about it, there might be a couple of more people deserving of that moniker, but very few, if any.
Being a rock star has nothing to do with how many tickets you sell, where your place is on the chart, although you must have topped it, been ubiquitous once. Yes, to be a rock star you must be known, otherwise you might be a rocker, but you're not a star.
Have you sold out? Done a commercial? Then you can't be a rock star. This was anathema upon creation of the term, and for decades thereafter. You didn't take the money because it would compromise your identity and credibility. A rock star must be uncompromised so they can create effectively. And the reason they're exalted rock stars is because nobody else can be. That's why the public believes in them, because they're beacons, the average Joe can't be a rock star. And to be a rock star you have to pay your dues. Like an athlete. There are no instant rock stars, they tried that once and it didn't take. I.e. the Monkees. The main criticism? They didn't play their own instruments, never mind write their own songs.
By time the late sixties emerged, with the term "rock star," FM was king. You didn't do it the man's way, you did it your way. And instead of dressing up, because you were so damn rich, you dressed down. This was your middle finger to the world at large. I'm so damn famous I can dress however I want, I don't need to wear a suit and tie, my street clothes are enough. This is how techies superseded rockers, by adopting this philosophy. Zuckerberg with his hoodie... He doesn't care what you think, HE'S RICH! AND POWERFUL! But he's not a rock star.
So Neil Young never took the money. Did commercials, launched products like liquor, sold tchotchkes. Seemingly everybody else did. Even Bob Dylan. But the reason Dylan is still a rock star is because he's inscrutable, you never know if it's a joke or serious, he keeps you guessing, you can never really know him, and that's rare in an era where everybody exposes themselves online. And Dylan keeps putting out new albums, exploring, whereas the supposed rock stars of yore don't even make new music, because there's no money in it, they just go on the road and play their hits to aged audiences like our parents' heroes, the crooners.
Yes, there was a break, a fissure, between the generations. You knew if you were old or young, and the old were set in their ways and the young challenged them. Today the young want to buy in, if you challenge you might not gain some of those riches. The mantra in the old days was to question authority, now everybody wants to succumb to authority, for the money. And today youngsters are not into being singular, they want to be a member of the group, they're scared to go it alone, to be excoriated. Just like the losers bite back, respond to the trolls, get into online skirmishes. A rock star is above all that, say what you want, it makes no difference to them, they're on a higher plane.
And a rock star is not on pins and needles as to whether the next record will sell (or stream). Because that's not why they're in the game, they're in the game for artistic expression, power, they know if you're dying to hang on, keep your perch, you've lost the plot. The goal is to have the audience follow you, not vice versa.
A rock star knows awards are b.s. Because you can't quantify art. If they're blabbing about the number of Grammys they have, roll your eyes, because until the nineties Grammys were completely irrelevant, were laughed at, deservedly. The voters were out of touch and still are. If you need someone else to quantify you, to qualify you, anoint you, respect you, you're not an artist. An artist doesn't care about these things. Furthermore, the system is always behind the artist, the artist's job is not to be co-opted by the system, but to question the system and make its members think and bring them forward, to enlighten them. It's a dirty job and only a few do it, the rest don't have the chutzpah, never mind the balls.
And that's why we have no rock stars today. Today it's all about cash. Supposed rock stars are chasing the aforementioned bankers and techies as well as the Kardashians. They think it's all about money, when it never was. And they sell out to corporations because everybody else does. Not acknowledging it inherently compromises your credibility. Everyone is bitching about Alito taking fat cat money, how it clouds his judgment, and you don't think the same applies in art? Take the money and...at best you'll worry about maintaining "your brand." You don't want to lose your deal, you want to make more deals, got to keep that image clean. And the audience on board. Which is why today's performers won't take a stand, they believe it's too dangerous, they might alienate some of their audience if they come out against this or that, look what happened to Bud Light! Yeah, Bud Light is a brand, sold by the man. That's not an artist, that's not a rock star. A rock star is just that, a musician. There's no branding involved. The rock star's scope is very narrow. They write and play music. They might have some hobbies, but they don't ram them down your throat. That's part of their 3-D life, everybody needs inspiration. And most rock stars don't reveal their hobbies, their everyday life, because they speak through their music, that's their statement, and that's enough. And the audience thinks they know the rock star but they don't. They infuse their hopes and dreams in the rock star. The rock star is inherently mysterious, even when they're available. That's Bob Dylan's strength, is he being serious or ironic?
A rock star speaks truth to power. To live outside the law you must be honest. Bob Dylan said that, you may know the line, but maybe don't know the song, "Absolutely Sweet Marie," from "Blonde on Blonde." It was an album track. But a rock star is so powerful that lines in their songs penetrate the culture, are repeated by those who are not only unaware of their provenance, but didn't even know they come from a song! Sure, the line can be from a hit, but it doesn't have to be. As for living outside the law... That's the essence of a rock star. And their honesty is what gives their words power, because you can't look at them and point out the flaws, the creaks in the armor, the points of selling out. This is how the rock star feels, this is their statement, you can reject it, but not on the basis that the person who uttered it is compromised.
You can argue over what a rock star says and does. Because it's just that powerful and different. Once again, the rock star does what the average citizen cannot.
And just because a performer has blind followers, that does not make them a rock star. A rock star's fans adore the artist, but respect those who can think, that's what the artist is selling.
And a rapper/hip-hop star, can never be a rock star. This is why they don't belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, even though that ship sailed years ago. You see the ethos of hip-hop is different. It's all about selling out, taking money from the man. An African-American art form...Blacks have been ripped-off, put down, not adequately compensated and denied opportunity from the moment they set foot in America. And that's still the case, even though the Supreme Court says otherwise. So the rapper gets all the money they can, as soon as they can. And knowing that the man will never truly accept them, some continue to flout the law. Rappers keep getting arrested, but you see they don't believe this hip-hop thing is forever, they can't give up their old ways, they rely on their old ways to get them through. They know they're the other and will ultimately never be accepted. And rap is adored by kids whose parents hate the music, the lifestyle. Rap has a similar foundation to rock and roll, but rap is not rock, never forget that.
And all the rockers were influenced by Black musicians. The foundation of the blues. That's what inspired the rock records of the golden era, those unheralded tracks that were cut when few were paying attention and the pay was so poor that many of the purveyors had day jobs. You see the blues musicians' heads were in the right place. The music needed to be unsullied, honest. Then again, these people didn't even have an opportunity to sell out. They were ripped-off. And when the rock stars that followed were ripped-off... They hired sui generis managers who were rock stars themselves to get that money for them, to allow them to be rock stars: Albert Grossman, Peter Grant, Irving Azoff and David Geffen, before he turned his back on Laura Nyro and revealed he needed to be a rock star himself. A great manager knows they're subservient to the talent, ALWAYS! Quick, who is the manager of Neil Young? You might know his career was directed by Elliott Rabinowitz/Roberts, but only because Neil was so damn famous, Elliott didn't look for his own publicity, he wasn't doing promo, interviews, writing a book, he was there to serve Neil, who could trust him. And Neil still exhibits Elliott's picture on a road case, observable from the audience. Neil knows where he comes from. Loyalty is everything, loyalty pays dividends in a world where you can't trust anyone.
So now you know why even though there's a ton of coin in music today, it's not as powerful as it once was. Because there are no rock stars.
If you want what rock stars delivered, you've got to watch a streaming television show, that is interesting and uncompromised. That's the essence of "Squid Game." And "The Sopranos" before it. How did they come up with this stuff? That's what we always asked about the work of our rock stars. We needed to listen to see what they were up to.
And the media was not aligned with the performers. Which is why Woodstock was such a revelation, THAT MANY PEOPLE SHOWED UP? No one predicted it, no one was prepared for it, not even the promoters. And then came a rash of festival cancellations, because towns and their elders didn't want to risk chaos in their own backyard. Today there are too many festivals, we're losing them instead of adding them. And the promoter is the ultimate power, whereas the act always had the power in the past, always for rock stars. This is how Peter Grant changed the touring industry. Led Zeppelin is always going to sell out, we're the draw, not the promoter, who needs to do little. Therefore Led Zeppelin gets 90% and the promoter gets 10%. Believe me, if Peter Grant was alive and booking Zeppelin at a festival today, the first thing he'd be looking at was how much money the promoter was making, then he'd decide on the fee. And if the festival was bigger than any act, the band wouldn't play. The band needed to be primary. Or paid more than any other act ever before.
Then again, Robert Plant is a rock star. Because he refused to rest on his laurels, he's making new and different music, and he allowed himself to age, to appear scraggly. But the interesting thing is Plant has rejected the moniker himself. He was so big, he wants to now appear normal, sans airs. He doesn't need to hold on to what he had, he can move on and leave it behind. This is the problem with Jimmy Page, he stopped. Like I said above, a rock star keeps creating, keeps going, exploring.
Do I expect rock stars to return?
Well, first and foremost rock is dead. Could come back, but I'm not holding my breath. But anyway, what I've focused on here is the ethos of the rock star, that can be adopted by anybody who plays music. But it's not.
And a rock star does not have to brag about their talent or success, that's a boxer, that's Muhammad Ali, that's not a rock star.
So a future rock star must focus on the music, and must pay his or her dues, which is why a thirteen year old cannot be a rock star, they haven't lived enough to experience and react. The Beatles may have been young when they broke through, but they had spent those hardscrabble years in Germany, not only on stage, but with the prostitutes and the rest of society, seeing how life really works.
So maybe you reject the above. Because you don't want to confront it, you don't want to ask yourself the hard questions, you don't want to change, you just want to put on the blinders and follow. The rock stars of yore were appealing to both head and heart. What they said counted, and you metabolized it and it changed you, opened your eyes.
I can't open your eyes because they're permanently closed. You need to believe in what you believe. This is the problem with the entire nation, on both the left and the right. The right isn't even exposed to the truth and has blind faith. And the elite think they exist outside society, that they made all that money independently and deserve to keep it.
A rock star is aware, knows all viewpoints, is in search of truth. And is willing to go all in, to risk everything for their art.
I know, it's a foreign concept. Which is why they call it "classic rock."
But most of the classicists are frozen in time. Trading on the past. Stuck in who they once were, as if life doesn't go on.
Life does. And we're all looking for illumination, for how to live our lives, we desire not only stimulation, but insight.
Provide all these and you'll not only rule hearts and minds, but the world.
Then again, Robert Plant did go accept a Kennedy Honor. Whereas Bob Dylan refused to show up to accept his Nobel Prize. Dylan knows it's all b.s. All those invested in the award and propriety were up in arms, which is exactly what Dylan desires. He forces them to look at his choice and who they are, do they want to double-down or maybe question themselves...that's the power of a rock star.
Like I said above, Robert Plant is past rock star status. He reached the mountaintop and there was nowhere to go. But rather than try and hold on to his perch, unmoving, he marched downward, put his image at risk, did it in a way no one of his stature had done it before. And you know what resulted? His acclaimed work with Alison Krauss. Meanwhile, Jimmy Page is at home fighting over real estate.
Just because the term "rock star" has been bastardized, that does not mean the true meaning, the essence, doesn't still exist. It was very hard to be a rock star back in the heyday, nearly impossible, and we respected those who succeeded. And the funny thing is oftentimes they didn't respect us, that's not what they were in it for. You can go see Bob Dylan live, but he's wants to make it interesting for himself more than you. He doesn't want to just play his hits by rote. He mixes up the melodies, changes things and doesn't care if you recognize the song or not. But you keep coming. BECAUSE HE'S BOB DYLAN!
Who else can you say this about?
Neil Young.
And that's about it.
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