Over and over, through various web searches, channel surfing, or other circumstance, I have seen ghosts from the past up there on stage still performing. Bands that I saw or listened to on the radio(!) as a teen are still out there singing those old songs and, while many or even all of the original members might be long gone, the band's name- it's 'brand'- survives to milk any audience that still cares to listen because.....
.....a good song (or set of songs) just never dies, does it? The hallmark of a good song is that you never get so tired of it that you never want to hear it again. Good songs and the bands that created them get shadowed by all the upcoming bands and singers but they never really go away.
But- is this still going to hold true for the generations beneath mine? Will there be Classic Rap? Will the songs of Taylor Swift, Adele, Amy Winehouse, Rihanna, and Beyonce be sung in the shower by the ones currently listening to those artists? Probably and of course. Or, will services such as Pandora and Spotify bury them under tons of new content?
Last night on TV I saw the most amazing thing. Foreigner (remember them?) was playing- with an ORCHESTRA. PBS tends to run this sort of content. Crooners from the 60's were on awhile back, playing for an audience that wanted to hear the old standards, but those original singers weren't belting it out like they used to. They had trouble hitting and holding the crisp notes. Still, that's not bad, for somebody pushing 70 or more!
What is sad to see, in my view, is when any band, proud and peaking, starts to age. Other bands eclipse them, their audience starts dwindling, they can't fill arenas anymore, key members leave, the band changes direction (Styx made a radical shift on the cusp of the 80's), key members die (The Doors, Skynyrd, The Who) the artist or band gets hobbled by contractural obligations (Neil Young, Prince), gets weird (Michael Jackson), or gets drugged out (Elvis).
Right on, brother!
Wesley Tingey- Unsplash.com
Singular stars can't ever be replicated but bands can try and get away with acting as though playing without original member(s) in the lineup doesn't matter (Crosby, Stills, & Nash, minus Young) and sometimes that shift can be made, but most times (Pink Floyd, Allman Brothers) it's not the same. The leader or a critical creative spark in the mix is gone. Plus there seems to be a time limit for each particular band's ability to create their 'sound'. When that's gone they've said what they were feeling they needed to say and then after that they're just a group of writers in search of a song (or a plot for a screenplay, like me) with nothing juicy coming to mind (latter career Aerosmith).
But despite this apparent lack of ability to churn out fresh stuff, with many bands the decision is made that the band just HAS to play on and on and on. They go from filling arenas to signing up with the state or county fair's booking agent, agreeing to gigs at casinos, or showing up at specialty events (ZZ Top, at Sturgis).
I think of all the artists, Bowie did it best. He knew that fame was fleeting so he kept reinventing himself. If any audience begged him to sing an oldie, he would do so oh so reluctantly, and only in an abbreviated fashion, because his mind was elsewhere. But rest assured, when it comes to reluctance to give it all we've got one more time, he's an anomaly. Money and fame is what drives bands, and once you've established a brand it's hard to walk away from The Life. Hell, it hands down beats holding a job. That's why the band was started in the first place!
So, if the weirdness of seeing Foreigner playing with an orchestra is any indication, it just might be possible that 'Creedence' is playing in Croatia right now, at some World Cup finals after-party.