American Hare

At the risk of being completely wrong and making a sweeping generalization, let me share an American thought. As I sat and watched the fireworks in our town tonight – and as mostly horrendous rock songs vaguely associated with the pride we feel as Americans as we re-create the rockets’ red glare – I got to thinking about that late-period, minor X hit, “Fourth of July”, or something like that. It’s a staple of AAA radio and other Coffee Table Rock outlets, but not the kind of thing you’d hear at a suburban town’s fireworks display, sandwiched between Mellencamp, Springsteen, and Diamond’s patriotic numbers. Man that song’s a real lowpoint in the already creatively spent portion of X’s career at that point!

American Wear

So I got to thinking: Why do so few American bands develop? In places like these hallowed Halls of Rock, we can go on for days, weeks, months on the various phases of any of a number of British bands, such as The Beatles, The Stones, The Kinks, The Who, Roxy Music, Elvis Costello, U2, and so on. Beside Bob Dylan, who developed from somewhat-traditional-yet-edgy folk singer to Voice of His Generation to wizened husk of his glorious self in a scant 8 or so years, who among American rock artists has developed as far as three distinct, interesting phases over the course of their career? Canadian artists who seem American, like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, don’t count.

I can think of Los Lobos. And The Doors. And The Velvet Underground. Probably a few more, but this isn’t going to turn into Monty Python’s Spanish Inquisition sketch.

Like X, most American bands that come out of the gate on fire quickly fizzle into some low-grade version of their original American greatness: CCR, The Ramones, even Chuck Berry and his Mercury releases. There are no “phases,” no periods of development. Just the end or, worse, a painfully slow decline.

There’s the rare band like Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, who have managed to maintain a consistently good level of the same old, same old. There’s also the rare band like Aerosmith, who managed to re-imagine themselves as an enjoyable, reliable “brand” that merely hints at what they once were.

What is it with our bands? Is it something about “American music” itself that limits development, or is it something about the American aesthetic? Perhaps I’m way off base. I look forward to your thoughts on this day of American independence!

In seeking out some tracks and an entire album by Jefferson Airplane last night, I came across an album by another SF band I’d always heard about but never heard, Sons of Champlin. The album I stumbled across is called Follow Your Heart. After checking it out last night, I’m tempted to say that I’ve finally found a SF band I can sink my teeth into: really soulful singing, nice ensemble playing, little of the melodrama that has always bogged me down with Jefferson Airplane. Along with the title track, I was impressed by “Children Know”, “Before You Right Now”, “Hey Children”, and “Child Continued”.

I encourage you to hang in there with this video.

The new essentials!

I’m blanking on answering what is probably an easy question to answer: Name an artist beside Springsteen who started as a “new” version of an established artist (eg, The New Dylan) who later developed into a major and influential artist in his or her own right.

Which Velvet Underground & Nico deep track would you be more likely to skip, “Black Angel Death Song” or “European Son”?

Honestly, what are you more likely to listen to when it comes on the radio, a Phil Collins-era Genesis song or a Peter Gabriel-era Genesis song other than “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway” (ie, assuming other PG-era Genesis songs ever get played on the radio)?

When you think “struck harmonics on the guitar,” what are the first TWO songs that come to mind?

What’s so good about David Bowie’s “Heroes”? In other words, what “makes” the song for you, assuming the song is one you like. (I like it myself, by the way, so don’t think I’m setting you up for some rock crisis of faith, as I may have done with one of these other questions).

What rock band made the most unlikely use of piano?

What makes one “wasted” artist cool and another one pathetic? When does the cool wasted artist cross the line and become a pathetic wasted artist? Is it all about the music? The Look? Something else?