The Eejit

Chapter 18: Running on Empty

Hilly Kristal had a John Goodman – esque quality to him. He was an imposing looking guy, with a broad frame but he was quietly spoken and thoughtful too. A bit like Sharpy, he only spoke if he felt he really needed to and his voice was deep and gravelly which added to the impact that the few words he spoke, made. He was greying, with a beard and darkish glasses. He had an almost professorial air that belied his lifetime at the cutting edge of US punk and new wave. He was unquestionably the genuine article and those that had the good fortune to get to know him, understood this point above all. Why is this last point important? I will explain.

There are two ends to the rock and roll spectrum. At one end is the hugely polished, stylized, made for purpose, high selling mega acts that are supported by a huge machine. Think Crooners (except for Sinatra – he was a bad boy) and boy bands. Great guys, I've no doubt and absolutely talented. However, they are a feature of a record label / manager alliance that has developed a formula and understands how to market this to a specific and highly reactive audience. The music, the look, the videos, the hairdo's etc etc. They are all the expertly executed, constituent parts of a well healed plan that has worked since Johnnie Ray cried his way through his first hit in the 1950s. White, unthreatening and your mum would love them. At the other end is an artist like Elvis Presley; in his prime, utterly untameable, raw, rebellious, innovative, would get your oldest daughter pregnant, and scared the shite out of older white people. All the ingredients of the artists version of the rock and roll dream. Only Elvis (and a bunch of the best blues records and musicians) made Elvis and his music caused a sensation because kids recognised at the outset that no one controlled him.

From the outrage of his sexually charged gyrating pelvis, to the mesmerising train track, Hollaback rhythm of his music; a rhythm that literally begged you to choose between the side of the train tracks you were born on and the side of the tracks you'd actually prefer. It scared the establishment and it scared the very people that sold you Johnnie Ray because they will never be able to create this in the marketing labs of the music industry. Kids understand this and they just get authenticity. This real X factor is what rocketed Elvis to very top of the industry and kept him there, despite the Hollywood movie / Vegas sequin jumpsuit phase.

If this image is not your goal as a young boy when you first pick up a guitar or even a tennis racket and begin the tortuous finger splitting rigmarole of learning to play, then you aren't aiming high enough.

For me one of the most impactful pieces of music television for demonstrating this is the 1968 Comeback Special. No other piece of televised music more radically demonstrates this yin and yang of rock and roll. Half the show is pure musical theatre; big sets, colourful costumes, and dancing girls. The Johnnie Ray set. The other half is Presley in black leather, playing a Gibson J200, sitting in the round with just a few other musicians, doing exactly what had scared everyone's parents back in 1950s. When he sings 'That's All Right', 14 years after it first caused a sensation, none of the power is gone. We are right back in Memphis, Tennessee. It helps that he has lost none of his outrageously good looks. Things that would have finished the careers of lesser artists, like enlisting in the army, making 2 good movies and 26 really shitty ones had dimmed none of the talent, originality, or energy of his early years. These raw sections of this extremely bizarre television movie, rate as some of the greatest live performances ever.

In case I haven't mentioned it, I like Elvis.

So, the reason for this meander is to explain something of the psyche going on within the aspiring rock and roll star. There are those who aspire to drink from the pool of purity that nourished the greats; to either achieve greatness themselves or have it revealed to them in their journey, even if that is not ultimately successful by the ridiculous standards of the industry. Then there are others who don't give a fuck about the pool of purity or the journey but just want to be stars and are just as happy to use another medium to achieve this if that is an option. These people still have a talent, but they lack an authenticity that distinguishes artists from entertainers.