...the x whatever winners become the voice of this degeneration...

As I've gotten older, I've become more insular. I don't go out or socialise, I don't drink or eat takeaways and seldom go to gigs anymore. I used to go to an obscene amount of gigs, following bands from town to town, sleeping rough sometimes and going to work straight from the street but as you get older, the rough and tumble of youth gives way to the need to do things in a more leisurely and refined way. A case in point was seeing Rush with my Dad a few years ago (R30 for those in the know). We went for dinner first at a small Italian restaurant and then on to the concert. I do miss the thrill and sweat of the small club gigs sometimes but where I used to resent seated gigs, I don't have a problem with sitting nowadays and politely applauding after each song.
The other thing that goes is excitement. I used to get excited about gigs but now I have trepidation, it could be a mild case of agoraphobia. I have dreaded gigs for a number of years, I enjoy them once I'm there but the lead up hasn't been fun.

With all of this in mind, tomorrow is Friday 13th, about as unlucky a day as it's possible to have. The weather forecast is rain all day and I am due to stand in a field all day in a huge crowd of people at  a festival. How much worse could it be for me?
However this morning after my run as I climbed into the shower I had "Spoonman" by Soundgarden running through my head and I actually felt the hairs on my arm standup and I laughed....I am finally going to see them again. I saw them in 1992 on the "Badmotor Finger" tour but missed the next tour which means that their big hit, "Blackhole Sun" I have seen Chris Cornell perform solo but never with Soundgarden so tomorrow will be the first. On "Badmotor Finger" the band were in the ascendancy, there was everything left to play for, the next album, "Superunknown" was their White Album, experimental and pulling in different directions, a truly great album, none of which I ever saw Soundgarden perform live. I've seen Chris Cornell do them but to even intimate it is more or less the same thing would be disrespectful to a truly momentous and legendary band that owe more to Black Sabbath than the Grunge scene that they developed from. You already know my thoughts on Chris Cornell and he is simply a fantastic singer and songwriter but Soundgarden completes part of his character, I am thinking of the power, the anger, the venom, the growls and the curdling screams of "Jesus Christ Pose" (fast forward a minute or so to get to the vocal).Laid bare like this, it shows that even without instruments, the song stands up and what a voice.....

To put my relationship with this band in context and segue into my rant, you grow up with the influence of older bands, the music of your parents generation shaping your way. As you get a little older you discover your generations music and your view becomes that of your peers, the music of your age. Guns and Roses and Soundgarden era was my peer generation of music. The shame for me is that the current younger generation still hasn't found its voice. It rehashes the brilliance of yesteryear and is steeped in the dross of reality TV so the x whatever winners become the voice of this degeneration and Glee is the new Fame but without a shred of originality, deconstructing the once brilliant songs of bygone ages, releasing them as substandard karaoke mush that will forever play in lifts and shopping centres.
We had Stock, Aitken and Waterman, the equivalent to Simon Cowell's stable of manufactured pap but they didn't rule in the same way, there was still room for growth and expansion. Pop pap Cowell has stifled the music industry and any creativity or individuality that threatens to rise, couple this with an industry that is afraid to cultivate new talent, what hope does this current generation have? I haven't heard anything new in 10 years, my kids are excited to be going to see a band that split up 16 years ago when they should be excited to be going to see a rock band that I find objectionable and don't understand.
The one saving grace out of all this may be the rise of online music and the ability for people to release songs without the need of a record company. I had this rant a few weeks ago and I mentioned Ginger Wildheart and Pledgemusic. Ginger released his album and made the national press and TV when his album peaked at number 5 in the UK National Chart, outselling Coldplay, Rhianna, Paloma Faith and the other 92 of the top 100.
C'mon kids, start recording and releasing songs, let's have something original and exciting. Don't leave it to the monsters of rock to show you how it should be done. Soundgarden should be relaxing and showing you how it used to be done but instead they are riding in as the saviours of rock, something "new" and different for the kids of today to own and be cool for liking. Soundgarden bucked trends and sold millions of albums as a result and I am sure they will continue to do so but I get angry that it takes a group of middle aged men to create something fresh. Ginger is the same age. Why is it taking older people to show the younger ones that it can be done and it is okay to do it? Do they really need permission? I am trying to address a generation that has more opportunity to pursue their dreams yet they get bogged down in fame for fames sake and all original thought is rinsed from their heads as they toe the line of no talent TV tryouts.
They spend time looking for a gimmick so they can make it when the only gimmick they really need is originality. To hear something new with a spark of fire in it would make my day. I don't even have to like it, infact I would prefer that I don't like it, I want my children to have their musical rebellion without my record collection being involved. I don't want to understand it and I don't want them looking to me for approval. I want them to come home wearing the T-shirt that says "This is it and if you don't like it f**k off because this goes up to 11" because that is effectively what my Dad did to his parents and I did to him (except he is a music lover and understood the rebellion bit).

Music is a huge part of my life, infact my life has a soundtrack, I can play songs that will reflect my life at any time. Jerry Keller "Here comes Summer" charmed the little boy with it's 1950's feelgood way, a feeling that stays with me to this day. Thin Lizzy "Dancing in the Moonlight" for a teenage boy waiting for life to begin, not understanding that it had already started. Guns n Roses "Nightrain", the sound of a weekend of excess all areas, gigs and alcohol, the sound of an immortal young man. Kate Bush "Cloudbusting" reminding me of heartbreak and tough times and so it goes on, songs for moments, songs for passages of time and songs for memories. Just so you can see where I am coming from, this rant isn't the half baked ramblings of an opinionated fool who knows nothing of music and its effects on....OK, it might be, it may also be the ramblings of an old guy that wants to hear something new or possibly it's a rant of an older guy that was listening to Soundgarden in the car on his way to work, excited about an up and coming gig and it suddenly dawned on him that his kids may never have this feeling unless something changes in the music industry. They will never have the history that comes from growing up with bands.
The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Elton John, Queen, Led Zeppelin, Sex Pistols, Adam Ant, Status Quo, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, U2...all bands that someone has grown up with in some form or another, each of them adding to the rich fabric of music, taking it and twisting it in a new and exciting way. Can you imagine the first listen of "Bohemian Rhapsody"or "Saturday night's alright for fightin"? There aren't many songs that change the face of music and none that I've heard in a few years that have created something new. Muse have brought something new but they've been around for about 10 years, Lady Gaga brings the image but the music is good but not new, Marilyn Manson and NIN brought something new but again, old people.

It pains me greatly to say this but it is time to put my generation in a box marked special memories and lock us away somewhere while the younger generation have their day....make sure that Simon Cowell, Glee and all that crap are also put somewhere, a bonfire appeals.