Jack Flash Jr wrote
Hmmm....My thoughts are that we need to be careful about confusing music with real life. A song about rebellion (even though it may incite rebellious thoughts amongst teens or um... me) is not the same as leading an actual rebellion. Mr Rotten advertising butter is not the same as Che becoming a corporate head. Iggy Pop selling life insurance is not the same as a humanitarian aid worker selling supposedly free food aid. I'm not even sure what artistic integrity is, especially when I support the artist's right to choose!
Let me start off by pointing out that I am not actually using my holiday to surf GFSA. We are moving on to Bath this morning, the wife is packing and I am banished from the hotel room and from doing anything that I could even try to pass off as productive. I'll get a call when it's time to do the carrying, but until then....
The other problem with rebellion and overt anti-establishment posturing is that it's cool when you're 20, getting a bit hard to believe when you're 50, and by the time you're 60 it can get pretty ridiculous. I can't take Mick Jagger seriously as a rebel these days. If I had a daughter I'd probably let him near her. He's SO establishment now, right down to being "Sir Michael". Paul McCartney sent his OBE back in protest in the 20s. Now he's happy to accept a knighthood.
I admired the way that Johnny Cash "grew up" over his career. Towards the end he wasn't singing about shooting a man in Reno just to watch him die, he was singing about being old and knowing that one's days are numbered. I wish more stars would grow up in that sort of way.
Of course one approach is to not fall into those traps in the first place. Leonard Cohen never did that (even though I think he's peddling a nostalgia show these days, it's still plausible for a man of his age and experience).
More generally one shouldn't confuse the artist with the art. Songs with a first person narrative are not always the singer giving voice to what he thinks (either that or Randy Newman approves of slavery, really hates short people and also manages to hate rednecks).
But to return to what I think the point is, some people have not made as much money as we think they have, and musicians have families and have to think about retiring too, and have to do mundane things like put food on the table. Of course some of them just go to prove Kerry Packer right: "there is a little bit of the whore in each of us."
Oscar Wilde was once drunk and obnoxious at some rich country house party. He lurched up to the hostess and asked "Madam, will you sleep with me for a million pounds." She tried to change the subject but he was persistent and, besides, everybody knew that Wilde had nowhere near that kind of money. So she says "yes." A little later he's back again. "Madam, will you sleep with me for a farthing?". She says "Mr Wilde! What do you think I am?". He replies "Oh, I know what you are. I'm just finding out what your price is."
