Teenager brings up a good point here. It's sad when I found out who Nick Drake was because of the VW commercial that used his title song Pink Moon. Worse then this, is the fact I found out through Rolling Stones magazine. These things are trivial because the trend of selling out is deeply enriched in the glamorous life of the celebrity.
We have all seen it happen before; Nas strapped to a cross (with Puffy) rapping about his diamonds; Green Day completely transforming from normal losers from SoCal to the bitchy punk babies of the Clash and the Cure (and doing justice to neither ;) or the countless of others who have put a price on their art. But are they not reaching the capitalistic nirvana our society preaches? Even if they are, Elvis Costello and Company are still sons of a bitches. Why? Just listen to Oliver’s Army by Mr. Costello. Sadly, Elvis is just one of many 60’s icons to “sell out.”
This past month was Rolling Stones 40th anniversary issue. The issue was compiled of interviews with a slew of such cultural icons; including Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, Tom Wolfe, Martin Scorsese, Jimmy Carter, Jackson Brown, and Patti Smith. After reading each article the general sense was a pretentious self-serving hand job. Trust me I love the music and the political angst of the 60's. I am down for a revolution; but there was no true revolution of the 60's. Maybe in fractions yes, but politically or socially (to me) there was no paradigm shift. Yet littered through out the issue is the sense of victory. The term Yuppie came to mind when reading. A word created strictly for the sell out hippie. They sold their buses for BMW's and their ideals for jobs. It’s this hypocritical reversal that holds tight in my chest. I can’t remember, but I can imagine hearing Street Fighting Man during 1968 when Beggars Banquet came out. These resurrected Frankensteins today are so far from the gritty subculture they were once apart of its scary. That’s the way it goes as All Things Must Pass. Liberalism is a luxury of the youth; and conservation is for the fleeting elderly. As Bob Dylan wrote in It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue, “You must leave now, take what you need, you think will last. But whatever you wish to keep, you better grab it fast.” So hold true because we will one day see our icons of subculture sell out; if they haven’t already.
