I just read an interview that Kim did with Anais Mitchell on another website she writes for, and told her I wanted to scream because this woman is so bright, smart and talented. I can’t stand it. Really…when did musicians stop being stoners who threw furniture into pools and shipped off to rehab every couple of months? When did they all vote on moving to Brooklyn to become urban pioneers and not head to Beverly Hills? I guess the collapse of the record business had a little something to do with it, but still…it seems that every man and woman with a guitar has more brains these days than me. And it sucks.
Used to be that when I had hero worship over the life of rockers who could do designer drugs, weigh 110 pounds and sleep with internationally famous models…at least I was smarter than they were. I was a solid citizen, earning a wage, making a living and following my parents into a suburban American Dream. I read a lot of books, sat around and talked about philosophy, art and music, and went to see films with subtitles. I could also play guitar pretty well too, I thought….feeling superior because I did it without pedals and stomp boxes and effects. (Truth…those weren’t invented yet.)
I was a tortoise, rock stars were the hares. I’d survive, they’d burn out. What happened?
Outside of a couple of bubbleheads still leftover from the seventies (Gene Simmons and Steven Tyler come to mind), nowadays it seems every young up and comer has a degree in French literature and a masters in ethnomusicology. They all studied the cello in middle school and took up the guitar “as sort of a joke in their freshman year” so they could play songs by Brian Wilson. Like Anais, their parents were hippies who lived on the land in places like Vermont or Oregon or else were professors at colleges in towns like Amherst or Claremont.
