Collage: Life During Wartime / Post-Mortems, Punk & Prog Genius

 

RTomens, 2023

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Oh, you're back! I wondered where you'd been. Me? I've been doing loads of things, most of them pertaining to the business of living, by which I mean breathing (first and foremost), eating and sleeping. What? You think I set my sights pretty low? Maybe, but I've achieved more than Joe Strummer, who would have been 71 today if he hadn't died 21 years ago, aged 50. OK, I've only achieved more in terms of time, but did he achieve more than me in actual achievement? I don't know. What is 'more'? Just because he lead a band that became famous does that make his achievement greater than anything I've done? 

The Clash were my favourite band 46 years ago (46! Christ!). I saw them 'live' at Friars, Aylesbury, twice. Back then there were 'No Elvis, Beatles or The Rolling Stones', as Strummer declared on 1977. Why? Because Punk killed them. It didn't literally kill Elvis that year. Preliminary autopsy findings determined Presley's death was the result of a "cardiac arrhythmia", which is ironic because he made his career out of rhythm (of the rock 'n' roll and hip gyratory varieties). He was only 42, but overweight and full of opiates Dilaudid, Percodan, Demerol and codeine, as well as Quaaludes. 

Strummer died of a heart attack caused by an undiagnosed congenital heart defect. I can still see him 'singing' amidst a torrent of saliva from fans, as disgusting as that sounds, so I doubt that was good for him. Meanwhile, today, The Rolling Stones are still going! And The Beatles will go on forever in our hearts, won't they? Perhaps The Clash will also be eternal, their torch carried by each new generation that discovers them. Yes, I'm sure. I, however, stopped loving them so much a few years after they split up and rarely play them, these days.

Every generation claims to 'have seen the best bands'. The claim gets weaker as time passes, though. Is it really such a great claim to have seen Oasis, Blur or Pulp 'live'? For those adoring fans who were there, yes, I suppose it is.  A stronger claim, though, would be to have seen Elvis in his prime, surely. What about The Beatles? Or James Brown in the 60s. The Doors? Hendrix? Etc, you know the roll call of 'legends'. Yes, each generation has its own legends, but how do they compare to the forerunners, the mould-breakers and makers? Those who forged the template used by thousands of artists to come?

So I turn my gaze towards today. I look around, admittedly incapable of properly assessing 'the scene' because my ear is far from 'the ground'; instead it's content to be far away absorbing all that has passed, musically, since the dawn of Jazz...through the Blues, Rock 'n' Roll, Electronic music, Soul, Rock, Reggae, Funk, Punk/New Wave/No Wave (I wish I'd never started this list) and all points connected and disconnected. Still, I like to think that somewhere in sweaty basements bands are doing something new and interesting, followed by youths who dress in new and interesting ways. I see no sign of them on the streets, though.

For now, let us go then you and I...back to 1974 and Peter Gabriel's performance during which, to illustrate the lyric, he reappears in a terrifying old man mask. I doubt there's anyone today who's as committed to conjuring up such a fascinating and disturbing theatrical vision. A mere two or three years later, Punk would banish such Prog eccentricities, but today this level of creative imagination would be welcomed.

I've been waiting here for so long / And all this time has passed me by / It doesn't seem to matter now / You stand there with your fixed expression / Casting doubt on all I have to say.