Rock and Roll Redux

Age. The eternal rock and roll paradox. The original wave of pioneers has now become what it hated most. As ironic as it has since become, it’s not difficult to see what Pete Townshend meant with his deathless line “Hope I die before I get old.” How do you continue to purvey a brand of art meant to symbolize rebellion when you have been integrated into the establishment and live comfortably, extravagantly off of your glorious millions?

Keep working, it seems, is the consensus. Understandable, really. What the fuck else is Keith Richards (rather obvious reference, I know) going to do with his life? Sell insurance? Drive buses? Those leathery viking warriors soldier on because it’s the only goddamned thing they know how to do, god bless ‘em.

But here’s an essential question to ask: what’s the deal with reunion tours?? There’s been a spate of them lately. The Pixies, Rage, Dinosaur Jr., and that’s just the hip ones. The Police played the Grammy’s for Christ’s sake, which to me perfectly symbolizes the show’s tendency to keep pop music entrenched, celebrating and rehashing the past to the point of ignoring the present and future.

Is it really ever about anything but the money? Who knows? After years and years in the music biz, do these people have any feelings left? I was under the impression that Kim Deal and Black Francis (Frank Black, Charles Thompson III) of the Pixies hated each other’s guts, ditto for Lou Barlow and J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. Now I cannot comment upon the former band’s concert performance post break-up and reunion, but I did see Dinosaur Jr. on the second date of the original lineup’s first tour in sixteen years. J. Mascis looked at little worse for wear, but he, Murph, and Barlow all rocked with a vengeance, and Mascis’s signature guitar noise terrorism left that awesome/annoying post-concert “eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee” in my head for 24 straight hours. So one could argue that whether or not their reformation was motivated by sweet moolah is fundamentally irrelevant, given the fact that they delivered the goods with such gusto and played with all the fire and brimstone of their early days.

Given the fact that many reunions don’t produce new albums, it could be fair to give some rockers the benefit of the doubt and assume that they genuinely missed playing with their former band mates. And hell, making albums could just be an extension of that. The New York Doll’s first actual album since 1974’s Too Much Too Soon was well received by critics, and expectation for the new Stooges album featuring original fuzz/wah fetishist guitarist Ron Asheton are high.

(READER'S NOTE: I wrote this thing before The Weirdness actually came out, and ironically enough it was almost universally critically lambasted.)

So as lame as the idea of a reunion tour is in the fundamental rock and roll sense, it’s not always a bad thing. The ones that make me uncomfortable are the mega-band reunion tours. It just seems as though they looked at the Rolling Stones, consulted their accountants, and said “I want in.”

Bands that never really cracked the mainstream are much easier to root for. And anyway, who said economics isn’t a valid reason to do anything? If I had a job that cushy to go back to, I don't think I'd have to think about it that hard. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go pay my power bill.