“Up and Coming like an elevator…later”: Rock & Roll’s Future is now
“I saw rock and roll future and it’s name is…”
Ah, famous words from a famous man, John Landau. Who was he talking about? None other than Bruce Springsteen. Landau used those words the first time he saw Bruce play live. That was a different time. Rock and Roll, having recently emerged from it’s nacent phase, was, by all accounts, beginning to calcify. Bruce, and Tom [Petty] for that matter, were R&R’s future whether they knew it or not. The future was still bright then.
Today? The future isn’t so bright…and we’ve certainly stopped wearing shades. The music industry is in a state of confusion. The role of the big record labels is up for grabs, the fucked up concert/touring scene and the true effectiveness that long tail has on the industry…all of these factors are having impact on the fragile infrastructure. Who is losing here? Big labels and touring conglomerates. Who is winning here? The fans…free music and bargain basement convert ticket prices are becoming the norm. Who is still not sure if they are winning or losing? The artists.
The balance of power has shifted to the artists. The rise of the DIY artists is at it’s peak. Anyone can make music, connect through social media and use online distribution tools to sell their stuff. Yes, the power has shifted to the artists…but is that a good thing? Power comes at a cost. While this was, well, empowering at first, it just isn’t easy to do it all. Still though, in spite of all of the industry confusion, power-shifts and pounds of flesh…new artists are still having a go at it.
The other night I saw Leon Russell play a gig a the Jazz Cafe in London, England. Leon is no newbie. No sir, he has paid his dues and played his ass for many a year. He’s part of Rock and Roll’s past. The opener for Leon that night was a young English kid by the name of Ed Sheeran. I am certainly not going to go so far as to make a Landauian statement about Ed Sheeran, but I will say that young guys like Ed are small part of what Rock and Roll’s future needs to be about.
He sang this one the other night. He left home and moved from Surrey to London on his own. He wrote this on his first night in London…
Ed came on the stage solo with just his guitar and foot pedal loop gizmo. He had presence. He was comfortable in his skin and was extremely affable and gracious. He rattled off six or seven songs, each one his own work. He told stories in between each song about the songs or his experiences when he wrote them. He told of one he wrote when he was in L.A. he made mention of the fact that he could not drink due to his age while in the States. “Oh shit”, I thought…this guy is quite young. Actually, Ed is still a teenager…19 years old.
Ed is young, but he doesn’t sing and play like a kid. What he lacks in total experience he makes up for with exuberance. He is a product of DIY band culture. He creates loops on stage and plays to them to create a much more full sound for his songs to settle in to. Ed says that at an early age [!?] that he was “deeply effected by everything”. Well, I guess we all are, aren’t we? At only 19, Ed still has many experiences out in front of him to write stories about. It was refreshing to see someone ‘going for it’ and not getting caught up in it. He seemed grounded and took all the hype around him with tongue firmly planted in cheek. In one of his songs, he shrugs off the hype with a bit of indifference, “They say I’m up and coming like an elevator…later”. Ed’s future is bright.
There are lots of Ed’s out there. Always have been. We can only hope that with all of the bullshit that prevents Ed’s from enduring the already tough road of living out a rock and roll fantasy, that they still keep trying. Rock and Roll was never really about the future anyhow. It is and was about impulse, passion and self-expression. Those are the characteristics of now not later. As any Ed can tell you, you can dream big, but the future is now.
Check out a couple more vids from Ed:
A very cool program that shows Ed performing in London’s St. Pancras Station
Ed sang this one as well.
