beware false mythology, love Dylan
As I've mentioned before, I am a big music person. And when I say I like music, I mean I really like it. The only kind of music that really doesn't do it for me is country and the kind of hip hop where they wax poetic about bitches and hoes and whatnot. I even like the music my parents were into. The Who, Pink Floyd etc. but it's not my MOC (music of choice). Anyhoo, I got a subscription to Rolling Stone about two and a half years ago and it has been the only magazine I liked enough to renew my subscription. And I will again when it comes time to do that. I consistently read it cover to cover. But as much as I love the magazine, I have some problems with it, which were made really apparent by the latest issue; the fortieth anniversary edition.
See? Here it is, right here. It sure has got a great cover. The stuff inside is pretty good too. Mr. Wenner and staff decided to use this issue to talk about the events in our world that have brought us to where we are now, and where we are going in the future. To enhance the dialogue they marched in a cavalcade of iconic figures from the past and interviewed them. All I can say about that is thank God, because it sure makes it more interesting than if the journalists had interviewed eachother. If you happen to buy the thing, go straight to the interview with Stewart Brand; definitely a cool guy. Then read Jimmy Carter's, and finish it off with Jack Nicholson's if you want something light.
But here's the thing I thought before I even opened the magazine: How many interviews with Bob Freakin' Dylan are these people going to try to force on me? And sure enough he's the first one!!! God damn guys, enough is enough! There is nothing he has to say about anything that I haven't already read somewhere else. I mean it makes sense when you read the other interviews, because probably 95% of the people referenced him, but therein lies the crux of the issue. The people they chose to be in the issue were all around during the sixties. Which in itself isn't a bad thing. It's always nice to hear what the older generation has to say about the state of the world from their perspective. But I have a problem with it being the only commentary there is. You end up missing so much, and it becomes more of a parody of a dialogue than anything of real substance.
If Jann Wenner had managed to unwedge his head from his middleaged ass and found somebody closer to my age to talk to, maybe they would've told him that the kids of today have the abilty to see through not only the bullshit of this administration but also the bullshit being spewed by the peace loving boomers as well. If they made such a difference back in the sixties then why are we looking at Iraq and being reminded of Vietnam? The name may change, but the song remains the same, ya know? If Jann wants us to believe that the hippies of his generation are on some kind of higher moral plain than Cheney because Halliburton is just exploiting the invasion of Iraq for its own gain then I command him to never do another selfish thing in his life ever again. Bob Dylan didn't change the art form for the people, he changed it for Bob Dylan. What the people got from it, well that's their own business.
And if I really believed that there was a politician out there who would do something about the state of the world that we live in today then I might actually vote for one of them. But politicans don't run for office because they want to make the world a better place, or because they want to end a war. War will happen. It is the great constant of our species. No, the only reason politicians run for office is to stroke their already bloated egos. They make the package slick and shiny with platitudes for themselves and blame for the other guy to deflect from the larger, and harder truth that the Christian (and capitalist) west may never have detente with the Islamic east. The ideologies may be too far apart to for either side to grasp and the practicioners are most definitely too zealous on both sides. Something pretty damn amazing would have to happen to change that sad fact, friends, more than elections, or anitwar movements.
Perhaps just a thing in and of itself.
Perhaps Music.
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