Sound Like Any Band You Know?

I get the daily dispatches from Bob Lefsetz, who always has some interesting comment or insight about the music industry. This mornings had a couple paragraphs that caught my eye…

The classic rock artists raped and pillaged in the seventies, went on tour in the nineties and early twentieth century at exorbitant prices for boomer listeners who wanted to relive their youth, now what?

It’s creepy to see the oldsters trot out the warhorses one more time.  It’s like being sentenced to an endless “Groundhog Day”.  Like being in college forever.  At some point, you want to graduate and get on with your life.

But this is illegal in the rock world.  You can’t take a risk, your audience can’t handle it.  You can’t even age.  You’ve got to get plastic surgery and diet down to look like a twentysomething when the audience is now round and lined and nothing like you.

Sound like any band you know? I personally want to spend my money on someone taking a risk. These classic rock artists got started in rock n roll by not playing it safe, they were taking risks. By raising their middle finger and saying we don’t give a “F”. Maybe success and money have taken the rock out of rock n roll for these bands and now they are just rolling along and have forgotten how to rock.