Have only seen snippets of the 12.12.12 show (they’re keeping us busy at the steakateria). Will do more full, and fulsome, review this weekend. That said, we will offer some opinions. Please note that we FULLY applaud the gestures of the artists, and even the sponsors, in providing relief for the hundreds of thousands of victims of Sandy. All criticisms below are not related to the cause itself.
Starting Five
1. God, or whatever you call the greater being, loves irony, so there was something delicious about seeing the man (now age 70)who wrote the song “When I’m 64” share an all-star stage with fellow rockers Mick Jagger (69), Roger Waters (69), Roger Daltrey (68), Pete Townshend (67), Eric Clapton (67) and the corpse of Keith Richards (68). So the answer to your question, Sir Paul, asked nearly five decades ago, is, Yes, we still need you.
“Mu-mu-my generation” is now all eligible for social security
Long live rock? Long live rock stars. And yet, there was something sad and poignant about last night’s show. When Roger Daltrey and his tanned but not so firm belly roared, “Let’s get together before we get much older“, there was a sadness to it. Because “much older” no longer means “grown up” but rather “infirmed.” And as I sat there watching the parade of once-sexy sexagenarians take the stage, still performing well but nowhere near their peak years, the thought occurred to me, “Hope they die before I get old.”
2. Rock-and-roll has always been about youth and hope and sex and dreams. “Sally, take my hand…” or “Together we can break this trap/We’ll run til we drop/Baby we’ll never look back” or “Love, sister, is just a kiss away.” And so watching last night’s show lent a hint of sadness. Sadness that no worthy successors have come along to replace the first wave of massive rock stars (yes, there are a few who approach them, such as U2). Sadness that this probably was, and definitely should be, the last time we see them all assembled on stage together. To use a phrase from another classic Sixties rock band (who deserves to be mentioned at or near this level), The Byrds, “To everything, turn, turn, turn/There is a season/Turn, turn, turn…” (and yes, we know they stole that from Beatitudes). We are not sure if rock and roll is here to stay/it will never die, but last night’s show may have illustrated that rock and roll will never be as big as it was in the Sixties, and that it may be something, like Shakespeare, that will be performed for decades and generations to come but never improved upon.
3. Bigger fashion faux pas: Kanye’s kilt or Daltrey’s belly.
4. Saw a lot of tweets suggesting that Roger Waters’ duet with Eddie Vedder on Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” was a highlight of the evening. We are just watching it now. Will admit that the lyrics of that song have popped into my head more in the past three decades than just about any tune in rock (0utside, of course, of ABBA’s “Take a Chance On Me”). Anyway, here’s a clip.
5. Greg Bishop of The New York Times discusses the irrelevance of college basketball from November until the Ides of March, has a few proposals. We’ve been saying this for years. Here are our three ideas to improve the REGULAR season (that, yes, may come at the slight expense of March Madness): 1. Cut the NCAA Tourmanent in half, to 32 teams (we don’t recognize Dayton). 2. No longer provide automatic berths to conference tournament winners 3. Eliminate one-and-done. You can go directly to the NBA after high school or you must wait three years, just like college football.
Reserves
The Golden State Warriors beat the Heat in Miami. Love Steph Curry, love Klay Thompson, love David Lee. This is a t-e-a-m. Much more fun to watch than that team from SoCal.
Bruce Springsteen opened? In retrospect, why not (they may have gone in reverse order of age; the Boss is 63)? Bruce opened with “Land of Hope and Dreams”, which has been a concert staple and classic of his for more than a decade.
The Sandy set list is here. Songs we would have gone with, by artist:
Springsteen… The Rising, Badlands
Roger Waters…. Wish You Were Here
Eric Clapton…. White Room
Eddie Vedder … Hunger Strike duet with Roger Daltrey in the Chris O’Connell role.
Rolling Stones… Can’t Always Get What You Want, Wild Horses
The Who…. From little we’ve seen, no one played up to their level as well as The Who. We won’t quibble.
Billy Joel…. “I Love You Just the Way You Are”
Paul McCartney… Yesterday
All in all, a crackling good show, but also one that for us was poignant. In the words of Billy Joel, “These are the days/To hold onto/Cuz we wont’/Although we’ll want to…”
Will write more later. Gotta go serve some steak…
