It’s a new year and let’s hope it won’t be like the old year.
Let’s hope we have seen and heard enough of Taylor Swift. I have nothing against her but enough is enough. The girl has invaded American’s pastime, The NFL.
Let’s hope that Travis Kelsey is so taken by Ms. Swift and all the attention he is getting that he falls on his face. Enough with the Kelsey boys and their Mom. I thought seeing Gronk everywhere was annoying, these two are insufferable.
Let’s hope that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame rights a lot of the wrongs they have created over the years. They can’t undue the stupidity of a Kate Bush induction but they can put the J Giels band or War back on the ballot. How about Emerson, Lake and Palmer as well. This institution, in the desire to be “correct” has put artists in with little talent and no direct connection to Rock and Roll and completely lost it’s focus. You would think that booting Jann Wenner would reverse course and bring the museum back to it’s mission. Let’s hope.
Let’s hope we don’t lose any more rock icons. The legendary performer ranks are thinning each day and at some point we will be looking at Billie Joe Armstrong as legendary and that will be a sad day indeed. 2023 was another bad year as we lost Jeff beck, Jimmy Buffet, David Crosby, Robbie Robertson, Randy Meisner, Tina Turner, and many more. We also lost music legends as well. Tony Bennett, Harry Belafonte and Burt Bacharach.
Let’s hope that every legendary band that is out there touring in 2024 makes it through the year. The Rolling Stones, The Eagles, Alice Cooper, Bruce Springsteen and the East Street band, Journey, The Beach Boys and Chicago will all be on tour and let’s just say that they have more than their share of AARP members in each band. let’s not forget Aerosmith and the demons that Steven Tyler is still fighting. Or Grand Funk Railroad and ask why? All these bands will making stops at The Villages in Florida and Sun City in Scottsdale. Contact Ticketron.
Let’s hope that Rock and Roll has not officially died. Yes, we still have any number of classic rock stations in this country but those numbers are dwindling and ratings are not going up. It seems that talk radio has taken over and music ranks around the middle tier of formats on local radio. Technology has basically killed radio as we know it. I can plug my phone into my car or stream to my Sonos or Bose audio speaker pretty much anything I want to hear. I do still listen to Sirius radio but I have found that they too are acting like AM radio in the late 60’s. They won’t play the longer version of a song and tend to cut away whenever a song has a trailing component song. By this I mean, for example, If they play the opening tract to The Who’s Quadrophenia, “I Am The Sea” they cut it off before it goes into “The Real Me” which cuts right into the Title track. These three songs were always meant to be played together yet Sirius will never put them together, ever. That is where Sirius Radio has failed. They think like AM radio and think more about the length of a song instead of the songs that naturally fit in with each other. I am not sure why because they have no commercial constraints. Which brings up two more people Rock and Roll lost this year, Jim Ladd and Dusty Street. Both were incredible DJ’s with a long history of creative Rock and Roll music mixes. I know for a fact Jim Ladd would never break up a two or three song musical arc for timing reasons. The guy knew the importance of the work that was recorded and he respected it. Now that is lost.
Let’s hope that the country is still in one piece at the end of the year so we can complain about how bad the current music scene is.
Amen to All that!!