{"id":682,"date":"2007-07-03T23:21:59","date_gmt":"2007-07-04T03:21:59","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2007-07-03T23:23:15","modified_gmt":"2007-07-03T23:23:15","slug":"american-wear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/american-wear\/","title":{"rendered":"American Hare, American Wear"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><small><strong>American Hare<\/strong><\/small><br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/W35e_ztm3-I?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nAt the risk of being completely wrong and making a sweeping generalization, let me share an <strong>American thought<\/strong>. As I sat and watched the fireworks in our town tonight &#8211; and as mostly horrendous rock songs vaguely associated with the pride we feel as Americans as we re-create the rockets&#8217; red glare &#8211; I got to thinking about that late-period, minor <strong>X<\/strong> hit, &#8220;Fourth of July&#8221;, or something like that. It&#8217;s a staple of AAA radio and other Coffee Table Rock outlets, but not the kind of thing you&#8217;d hear at a suburban town&#8217;s fireworks display, sandwiched between Mellencamp, Springsteen, and Diamond&#8217;s patriotic numbers. Man that song&#8217;s a real lowpoint in the already creatively spent portion of X&#8217;s career at that point! <\/p>\n<p><small><strong>American Wear<\/strong><\/small><br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jgzruM7g24w?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nSo I got to thinking: <strong>Why do so few American bands develop?<\/strong> In places like these hallowed Halls of Rock, we can go on for days, weeks, <em>months<\/em> 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 <strong>Bob Dylan<\/strong>, 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 <strong>Neil Young<\/strong> and <strong>Joni Mitchell<\/strong>, don&#8217;t count. <\/p>\n<p>I can think of <strong>Los Lobos<\/strong>. And <strong>The Doors<\/strong>. And <strong>The Velvet Underground<\/strong>. Probably a few more, but this isn&#8217;t going to turn into Monty Python&#8217;s Spanish Inquisition sketch.<\/p>\n<p>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 <strong>Chuck Berry<\/strong> and his Mercury releases. There are no &#8220;phases,&#8221; no periods of development. Just the end or, worse, a painfully slow decline. <\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s the rare band like Tom Petty &amp; the Heartbreakers, who have managed to maintain a consistently good level of the same old, same old. There&#8217;s also the rare band like Aerosmith, who managed to re-imagine themselves as an enjoyable, reliable &#8220;brand&#8221; that merely hints at what they once were.<\/p>\n<p>What is it with <strong>our bands<\/strong>? Is it something about &#8220;American music&#8221; itself that limits development, or is it something about the American aesthetic? Perhaps I&#8217;m way off base. I look forward to your thoughts on this day of American independence!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 &#8211; and as mostly horrendous rock songs vaguely associated with the pride we feel as Americans as we re-create the rockets&#8217; red glare &#8211; <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/american-wear\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}