No more schlock'n'toll

Sydney Morning Herald

Thursday February 25, 2010

Ross Fyfe

I AM sick to death of hearing that this geriatric band or that has-been singer is arriving on our shores (always during summer so the arthritis doesn't act up) to provides us with 90 minutes (if the Zimmer frame can stand the pressure) of nostalgia.When I was young rock'n'roll was about rebellion. It was to show discontent with the way things were in society. To bang out music at levels that no sane older person could tolerate, with lyrics that could make a wharfie blush. That was rock'n'roll: smoking and drinking until you couldn't stand, and still claiming the concert was the best ever.You cannot quantify the shame that I feel that the music that defined a generation of rebellious teenagers in the '60s and '70s is by and large now just elevator music, delivered by geriatrics who arrive here en masse to raise a few more dollars before they pop their clogs.It is hard to believe that nearly 45 years on, Mick Jagger still can't get no satisfaction. The only thing Mick wants painted black these days is his financial statements. He has sold out and has become the Establishment that he railed against all those years ago.Artists performing in Sydney in recent months have included Fleetwood Mac, Tom Jones, Boz Scaggs, Michael McDonald, Whitney Houston and, the most embarrassing of them all, AC/DC.Whitney can't sing any more and looks like the drugs are catching up on her. Boz is out to play all of his hits - so at least this concert will be over quickly. As for throwing your knickers at Sir Tom, he won't be able to pick them up as the corset he wears for the hernia is too restrictive.That Angus Young is still in his schoolboy uniform pretending to still be a rebel defies belief. That people still want to see that hackneyed dross makes me think that some people must live very unhappy lives if they have to retreat into that sort of nostalgia. What was once fun and a statement is now just unfunny and a sad caricature.Sid Vicious had it right. Die young and leave a legend otherwise you grow into the thing you despised. The fact that these "stars" appear to be blissfully unaware of the irony of it all is astounding, or perhaps they are just suffering from Narcissistic Public Appearance Withdrawal Syndrome.Ross Fyfe