 |
|
|
 |
|
What's your reaction to this column? Share your thoughts on the MESSAGE BOARD
Also From Modern Humorist: Colin Powell's Pop Pals Dear Dick: A Letter From George W. Boredom in the Court Behind the Music Napsteropoly Macdonna's Wedding Box Set of the Year Rock 'n' Roll Factory Worker Phish Fan Resume |
|
Ryan Adams: Heart First, Biz Later by Bob Lefsetz It was Springsteen. It was the Stones. Yesterday my friend J.B. called me. He was reading a September 1970 issue of Rolling Stone. Traffic's John Barleycorn Must Die, Dave Mason's Alone Together and Rod Stewart's Gasoline Alley were all reviewed. Oh, how far we've come. Seeing Ryan Adams is like stumbling upon your youth. Like stumbling upon a time capsule from thirty years ago. All you believed in. There it is. Up on stage. There were no lasers. No tapes. No chick backup singers. The band was so rehearsed, they were so TIGHT! They came out and they ROCKED! It was a wall of sound. Ryan on electric. A bass player. A Joe Perry lookalike on Fender then Gibson. An organist, a pedal steel player and a drummer. It was SO different, yet SO right, that one wondered how we got here. We've got SYSTEMS. We've got a MUSIC BUSINESS! But what they're selling... It lacks life. It's all about commerce. So far from the source that the source is a distant memory. Until you see Ryan Adams. Click here to read our interview with Ryan Adams and watch video clips. Songs are supposed to reach your heart. Make you identify. Reflect upon your life. They're supposed to be instructional. They're supposed to TOUCH YOU! Look at those tracks in the Top Ten. They fit NONE of these criteria. Lord only knows how Ryan Adams became who he is. It's like he grew up in an alternative universe. Then again, maybe he was influenced by country. Where it was about the song. Where it was about the performance, not the STAR! Now I'm not talking about the new Nashville. The Garth Nashville. I'm talking about Hank Williams. Songs were a way to COMMUNICATE. Joy. Heartbreak. But it's not pure country. There's a heavy dose of rock and roll. That's one of the reasons why it reminds one of the Stones. Ryan's music, like that of the English supergroup, is an amalgamation of rock, country and blues. Compared to what's being sold today, it's positively PRIMAL! "Nobody Girl" was a tour de force. It started one place, then ended up somewhere completely different. It reminded one of Neil Young's "Country Girl" from CSN&Y's Déjà vu.Ó But BETTER! The verse was SO slow and quiet. And then a sledgehammer of a chorus. And then back to quiet. Wait a second, we've got tape loops! We've got a bed underneath! We've got to keep the listener OCCUPIED! We haven't got time for boozy dirges. Then, at the end, there's a veritable FREAK OUT! Bruce Springsteen's band was together. One noticed that from the very first note. But Bruce was taking it all so SERIOUSLY! It was like church. You had to pledge your allegiance before they let you in the room. Ryan Adams is different. He's just like you and me. No charisma, no posing. You're a plumber, a doctor, a carpenter. He's a singer. You take pride in your work, he takes pride in his. You don't only see one patient a week. Work on one house a week. Psyching yourself up. Delivering. Then retreating into meditation. No, life is about doing, then doing again. Bruce released an album every two or three YEARS. Ryan Adams CUTS three records in a YEAR! He's got something to say! It's not a marriage of convenience. It's not old. He's speaking to YOU! He's changing styles, trying on new ideas, he's COMMUNICATING! Live performances have become an afterthought. Just a way to clean up in the wake of the giant marketing machine. The concept that the only way you can get it is to see the show... Come on, do you need to go to Staples Center to GET Britney Spears? You've got to SEE Ryan Adams to fully get him. Because live, the songs are more POWERFUL, they're more fully fleshed out, they come ALIVE! Oh, the record is a decent souvenir. But really, your memories of the show are where it's at. Rock used to save lives. You had more questions than answers. You stood in line to buy a ticket. You stood in line outside the venue in the freezing rain waiting to get in. You went alone. Nobody else would get it. The act would hit the stage and you would feel this amazing sense of connection. You felt that this is what life was about. That the music spoke to you. You wanted, you NEEDED, every album, every track. You had to see the act AGAIN AND AGAIN! You played the record for your buds, the girl you had a crush on, spreading the word. All that, it's BACK!!! Hanging on the railing at the House of Blues, my life flashed before my eyes. Like it used to at all the great concerts of yesteryear. The music set me adrift. I forgot my problems, my foibles, my everyday life. As we're teetering on the edge of the precipice. Just when I thought music was DEAD. Here comes some dude from left field who's got it ALL! He's the new college campus hero. He's the replacement for the Allman Brothers and the Dead. He's the guy the girls want to make it with, the guy the boys want to be. He makes me feel like I'm in my twenties again. He makes me think that life isn't an endless parade of jive-talking. He makes me think that rock and roll is something to base a life around. That it's more fulfilling than money and religion. That if it doesn't have the answers, at least I'll be soothed and understood. This guy could spark a revolution. Because after you see him, you just aren't interested in all the other bands out there. They've all read Don Passman's "All You Need To Know About The Music Business.Ó They're great businessmen, great career planners, great marketers. Ryan Adams isn't ignorant. He's aware of Passman's book. But one night he was cold and he used it to build a fire. He's not interested in how everybody else did/does it. He wants to find his OWN way. He's an individual. It's his life to lead. I'm an individual. I don't want to be like everybody else. I want truth. I want peak experiences. I want feeling. I got all that I wanted tonight. |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
