Big Yellow Taxi

So, it may be trite, but my train of thought definitely has driven me to Joni Mitchell tonight. The whole "Don't know what's you've got till it's gone thing" is always applicable, so I'll just move past that one.

On the contrary I was thinking more of "They paved Paradise, put up a parking lot." They so did.

We won't even get into the commercial, McWorld ramifications, and we'll focus on the musical implications. As I have mentioned/ranted about before, one of the things that bothers me about music today is that nothing is new. We consider bands like The White Stripes, The Vines and The Hives revolutionary, but all they are is a send-up of real bands circa 1979. Bands who actually had and cultural social circumstances against which to react; bands who had commentary.

Nowadays it's all about me-me-me. (And, yes, I realize the irony of this statement coming from blogging, but...)

White Stripes lyric: "It might sound silly for me to think childish thoughts like this, but i'm so tired of actin' tough ,and i'm gonna do what I please."
Hives lyric: "Do what I please, gonna spread the disease - because I wanna./ Gonna call all the shots, all the no’s and the not’s - because I wanna."

Versus

Ramones lyric: "Well I don't care about history 'Cause that's not where I wanna be.... I hate the teachers and the principal. Don't wanna be taught to be no fool."
and even a decade or so later,
Nirvana lyric: "Load up on guns and bring your friends. Its fun to lose and to pretend. She's over bored and self assured. Oh no I know a dirty word."

You get the picture...

So I've lost my point somewhere in here, but the gist is that nothing today is new. Bach we will not birth, but we will sample him and throw a techno/hip-hop beat behind him while putting it on a commercial and market our product to 13 year-olds spending mom and dad's food stamps/social security check. How have we come to this?

So that's, I think, a legitimate frustration. I'll leave it here for the night because I'm sure I'll revisit this point over and over and over again...

Don't forget to fall back tonight (Oct. 26)!