Rock And Roll’s Complicated Morality
The lure of fame and easy money attracts the unprincipled and corrupts the innocent, but the truth of it is not that simple.
Watching your favorite guitar wizard or power singer strutting around on stage, it’s easy to draw the conclusion that the rock and roll and popular music scenes are populated by larger than life, heroic figures. But the truth is more complicated than that.
The exploits of rockers are well known, and it’s no wonder that the phrase ‘sex, drugs and rock and roll’ is common parlance. From the famous hotel wreckings of Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, and The Who, to the tragic ’27 Club’, to the rumored amorous advances of Madonna towards her young male dancers, the rebellious and dangerous nature of the industry is well known. And the lyrics? What should you expect from a movement that takes its very name for an old jazz euphemism for ‘copulation?’
What started out as folk music and the blues has, across the decades from the beginning of the twentieth century, attracted a rogue’s gallery of misfits, deviants and lawbreakers. For example, as noted in Ed Ward’s book “The History Of Rock and Roll, Part 1” (2016, Flatiron Books) prototypical rock legend Chuck Berry went to jail for violating The Mann Act (allegedly for transporting a minor across state lines for lurid purposes) Beatle John Lennon was a pill popper, and Elvis’ manager Colonel Parker was an illegal immigrant. But it’s complicated. While rock and roll certainly attracts misfits, the flip side is equally true. The simple act of picking up a guitar and playing a few chords has saved countless doomed souls from lives that might have been miserable.
In my own personal experiences in the music industry (I started out as a keyboard player in a techno pop group in 1981), I’ve witnessed a destruction of innocents, as adolescent neophytes (including myself) with modest skills on an instrument or with their voice, attracted by the lure of sweet melody and a desire for easy money, cast aside all semblance of virtue to join the masquerade. However, all of this darkness has a brighter side as well.
Things Have Changed
I started out playing music, in clubs around Los Angeles in 1981 at the age of 18, in an array of shows in dimly lit liquor palaces where it was easy to find a one night stand, and where dangerous substances were offered. Way back then I looked for meaning in meaningless relationships., breaking hearts and having mine broken. I abandoned virtues I would need later, and my career in the 80s ended in a bloody car crash on Santa Monica’s 10 Freeway, in California, on the way to a show that night.
Yet despite these sordid examples, there is a semblance of change. I started out in music when baseball was clean and rock and roll was dirty. Now it’s flipped. Steroid scandals have threatened America’s favorite sport, while the ever present eye of media, heightened awareness and increased help for victims of drug addiction, and shows like Star Search, American Idol and The Voice have moved the music industry in a healthier direction. But this facile analysis denies the truth about the often chaotic lifestyles of those who choose music as their profession.
Rise, Fall, Redemption
In the mid 80s stood in the studio with a minor rock legend as he spoke to someone who wasn’t there, or at least someone or something I couldn’t see or hear. A couple decades later and this fallen star has found his footing again. Perhaps the archetypical example of a rock star who fell to earth after massive success is David Bowie, who is said to have experienced psychosis in the mid 70s, before getting clean while recording his highly regarded trilogy of albums, “Heroes,”, “Low,” and “Lodger.” Countless others, from Keith Richards to Ozzy Osbourne, from Stevie Nicks to Linda Ronstadt — have conquered their chemical demons and gotten clean. Fabled guitarist Eric Clapton has created a refuge where rock stars can get clean, the Crossroads Centre in Antigua, in the Caribbean.
This is one example of the corollary to the darkness of the rock and roll scene, but there are others. In the ’70s George Harrison helped the poor in Bangladesh; in the 80s, as the founder of Live Aid, The Boomtown Rats’ leader Bob Geldof raised awareness and cash to fight world hunger. Also in the 80s, stars like Jackson Browne fought against the spread of nuclear power. In recent years Bono has partnered with RED to fight the AIDS virus and today rock stars continue to champion other worthy causes.
It’s said that the grueling demands of a touring schedule drives artists towards addiction, or that there’s a fine line between genius and madness, and that those who create live on the edge of danger. Regardless of the risks, the lure of the spotlight, the attraction of melody, and the desire to achieve virtuosity is not likely to fade. Neither is the human inclination to change the world in positive ways when possible. And while the figures at the center of these acts are hardly saints, neither are they devils. They’re simply human.
