Monday, February 16, 2004
An excellent essay on "scumbag rock" at The Morning News had me listening to "Stay With Me" over the weekend. It's tempting to think that that there was a ton of that sort of music being pumped out at the time, but really there was never that much, and there was certainly never enough. After the Stones and The Faces who else was there, really? That loose guitar sound with the honkytonk piano was never good enough for too many bands that might have made more great rock'n'roll. Somewhere along the way (I'm looking at you, Pete Townsend) people got the idea that they were supposed to be writing operas, or Making Artistic Statements. Big mistake. Going down that road is what rendered The Kinks' output from this period useless, for one. There was probably no saving Rod Stewart, so I suppose we should be thankful for the worthwhile things that he did produce. Still the only good singer Jeff Beck ever worked with, and the stuff on Mercury as well as the Faces material. Hard to believe that someone with those kind of chops could have become the sort of self parody that is now crooning Cole Porter-- what it illustrates, I'd say, is exactly how important Keith Richards really is. Mick is every bit as much of an asshole as Rod, but the Stones have managed to keep the faith.
