"Disco Ergo Sum" --Rene Discortes.
Some people don't think it's a serious thing, rock and roll. Well listen--if this column has led you to the adoption of the false belief that rock and roll is not the most serious business in the world, I'm sorry. The point is, there is nothing short of the SALT talks and the World Series to rival a good Led Zeppelin concert for seriousness.
Alright--so some of the people have their flip sides, they're a little flaky, and they sometimes say non-serious things, but by and large, and I can say this on the basis of 24 years of covering R&R, these people are some of the nicest, most serious in the world.
People are always talking to Frank Zappa about the perverse things he's allegedly done, but nobody ever seems to get around to what's really important--the varying tonalities of different bongo drums, for example--the stuff that the guy's seriously interested in.
Let me convey to you something Dave Crosby said to me just after CSN&Y descended from the stage at Woodstock: "We may be a little flaky, a bit flip, and sometimes we may say non-serious things, but just listen to the words of 'Wooden Ships' if you really want to know where we're coming from."
My dear friend Vicki Sue Robinson put it somewhat differently at a party thrown at Toots Shor's last week. "Turn the beat around," she said. "I love to hit percussion, and I'd really love to hit the people who think that I'm not serious about my music."
This music is much more important than virtually anything you can think of, and from now on, it will be accorded--at least in this column--the respect that it is due.
What's on tap for this week:
GWM 24 5'7" 130 beau masculin cherche GWM qui parle francais tu es masculin beau 20-30 sexe musique films sports. Respond to "Crime", box 11. YWMinterested in others into mutual massage--let's rub each other--also interested in dominant (sic) female. Respond to "Crime" box 11. BYP who likes to dance on raisin bread seeks companionship with farm animals. Respond to "Crime", box 11.
Oops!! (Ha, ha)
Here's what's in store for this week--seriously (really). I mean it.
Robin Trower with special guest Montrose will be at the Music Hall Nov. 18 at 8 p.m. That's tonight, and if it's tomorrow already, then you've already missed it, and it's serious.
James Q. Cliff will be at the Orpheum tomorrow, Friday, Nov. 19at 7 and 10 p.m. Seriously.
Melissa "Serious" Manchester will read dramatic monologues from Shakespearean light opera in tandem with Aztec Two-Step, at the Berklee Performance Center on Nov. 19 at 7:30p.m.
Chicago, whose new album has a picture of a big chunk of Ex-Lax on the cover, (go check for yourself if you don't believe me) will "perform" at the Boston Garden, Nov. 20 at 8 p.m.
Across town, Johnny Cash and Family will family in on the Boston cash market in Syhmphony hall, at 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. the same night.
Barry Manilow, recently discharged from the Red Line, will be in concert with Lady Flash at 8 p.m. at the Music Hall the same night. If you time it right, you can go to all three, and be back in your pitiful Mather House cubicle in time to retch.
Oh, and I almost forgot "serious" Steve Stills, who'll give a solo acoustical performance on acoustical instruments at the Orpheum, a really acoustical place, that night at 8 p.m. Forget Mather--be there!
Hey, hey, hey hey--Don't forget Toots and the Maytals, at the Orpheum Nov. 21 at 8. What's a Maytal? A Jamaican washing machine? Then again, in the '60s, people were asking what a "Drell".
Oh yeah--don't forget ol' Neil Young, the Beach Goys, the farm animals, the Martian Martians, the thought police, and all the people you stopped writing letters to once life became so serious.
Seriously later,
