Well, if you read my blog yesterday, you know I predicted David Archuleta would win it all on “American Idol.” If you read or heard the news since, you also know I was wrong because David Cook is the new American Idol. So, please excuse me while I remove my foot from my mouth.
Now that that’s done and over with, let’s get back to classic rock talk. In the last couple of years, I have developed an extremely nasty habit of posting regularly on music message boards. It can be consuming at times, especially when you get into heated arguments with others.
On one board, there’s a guy — let’s call him “Johnny” — who thinks he knows everything about classic rock (by the way, that guy isn’t me). I get into quite a few arguments with Johnny because most of his classic rock knowledge has absolutely no basis in fact. Whenever I point this out, Johnny goes ballistic and says a lot of things that make no sense.
I have to tell you, Johnny and I have had some pretty silly arguments. One time, I told him the band presently touring under the name “Lynyrd Skynyrd” is nothing more than a glorified tribute band. I saw Skynyrd back in the 70s and they were great. The Skynyrd of today is a mere shadow of the original.
But, according to Johnny, the Skynyrd of today is just as good. His argument is that if original members are dead, then it’s OK for the group to go forward. I asked then why the Beatles weren’t still around; after all, John Lennon and George Harrison are no longer living. Using Johnny’s own logic, it would be OK if Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr recruited new members and called themselves the Beatles. Johnny came back, saying that’s different because they are the Beatles.
Johnny also thinks the Allman Brothers Band should hang it up because they fired Dickey Betts. Forget that Duane Allman and Barry Oakley have departed — Betts was the glue that held the group together. While I agree with that somewhat, I also believe that since Betts was let go, the Allman Brothers Band continue to be a great group with Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks. Johnny, however, has stated that because he and his buddies no longer like the Allman Brothers Band, their popularity has taken a dive. Johnny must have a lot of friends.
Arguing with Johnny is like arguing with your younger brother. You don’t know why you keep doing it and it never goes anywhere, but you can’t stop. The latest scrap has to do with the Rolling Stones’ album, Their Satanic Majesties Request. If you know anything about the Stones, you know this particular album has suffered its share of abuse, especially when it first came out. Johnny, however, maintains that it was wildly successful and probably one of the top albums of 1967. This is where I felt compelled to counter Johnny’s declaration with a few well-worn facts:
In the book, According To The Rolling Stones by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Dora Loewenstein, Charlie Watts and Philip Dodd, there’s an entry on page 109 that says, “….Their Satanic Majesties Request was a critical and commercial failure…”
Bill Wyman: “I hated it!”
Keith Richards: “I thought the album was a load of crap.”
Charlie Watts: “It wasn’t one of our great records.”
Jon Landau, Rolling Stone, February 1968: “Their Satanic Majesties Request, despite moments of unquestionable brilliance, put the status of the Rolling Stones in jeopardy.”
Johnny wasn’t buying any of it. Instead of coming back with glowing reviews and comments from the late 60s about Their Satanic Majesties Request, he continually berated me with off-the-cuff statements. He said I wasn’t a true Stones because most fans know Their Satanic Majesties Request was a very successful album. I couldn’t quite wrap myself around the rationale behind that one. In the end, he claimed he had proven to me and everyone that the record wasn’t a failure, compared to other Stones releases (which I never brought up), and that I should face up and admit I’m wrong. It’s impossible to argue with logic like that.
Hopefully, this blog will wean me off the message boards once and for all. And then Johnny can have it all for himself.
