After the death of Brian Wilson, I was reading an interesting newspaper article about how there are no musical geniuses anymore. And I suppose that relies on what you judge a genius to be. But the guiding principle was the depth and originality of their work and its effect on other people. Bob Dylan v Ed Sheeran if you will. I don’t say that to put anyone down, more to illustrate the comparisons and the sheer gulf. Sheeran is super popular, but does he have any greater heft or profundity? Probably not a fair comparison really.
These are different days, of course, nonetheless tense with unfairness and injustice at every turn. What a terrible legacy we’re leaving, and it all started so promisingly too. Is there anywhere left for a new musician or band to go? Many rock artists openly acknowledge they are standing in the shoes of giants, just reworking what has already been recorded.
The piece I read made claims for the originality of grime and drill. I won’t humiliate myself pretending I know anything about that, however, that very fact may be significant. Culture is now so fragmented into niches. You can be big in one and unheard of in another. That was rarely the case in the 60s and 70s. You can affect people massively in one but be anonymous in another.
It seems obvious to me that we don’t have songwriters like Dylan, originality like the Beatles, but I’m 63, spent many years listening to loud rock n roll at Newcastle Mayfair and still listen to vinyl records, and as a result, are likely to miss modern musical developments. All I would say is that we’re still listening to the music of our childhood and youth. If you’re 15 now, do you think that’ll be the case in 2075? No, they’re more likely to still be listening to the Woodstock Generation than someone talking over the When The Levee Breaks drumbeat, wearing outsized trousers.
As I was reading, I reflected on how, year after year in the 60s and 70s we listened to music that didn’t sound like anything before and we totally took it for granted it would always be like that. There was nothing like Good Vibrations before Good Vibrations, nothing like The Nice, Jimi, Crimson, Fairport, Tull, Moody Blues, Purple, Sabbath, Zeppelin and loads more before they came out.
I don’t think this is just nostalgia. The width and breadth is such that it must be a bit overwhelming for modern generations. Oldies music, certainly, but it covers so much territory and crowds out new developments. You want to be a songwriter and immediately you’re up against Paul Simon, Dylan and any number of others. How do you compete with that? I listened to Planet Rock radio last week and I suppose it was OK to hear while I painted the gate posts, but it was so derivative and without light and shade or individuality, like it could have been anyone or made by AI And it sounded horribly compressed and consequently intensely loud. It made your ears tired.
Then they played some Aerosmith from 1974 and the difference was huge. A warm, full sound that didn’t hurt. I can’t help feeling lucky that I was around for rock’s and music’s golden age when everything was fresh and new. The feeling the music is putting down the first footsteps in the virgin snow was once commonplace, but is something teenagers today will probably never experience.
The Woodstock Generation...
