Nothing Ever Quite Dies, It Just Comes

Look At It This Way: There Are Many Here Among Us For Whom The Life Force Is Best Represented By The Livid Twitching Of One Tortured Nerve, Or Even A Full-scale Anxiety Attack. I Do Not Subscribe To This Point Of View 100 Percent, But I Understand It, Have Lived It. Thus The Shriek, The Caterwaul, The Chainsaw Gnarlgnashing, The Yowl And The Whizz That Decapitates May Be Reheard By The Adventurous Or Emotionally Damaged As Mellifluous Bursts Of Unarguable Affirmation.

. . . Rock And Roll, As I See It, Is The Ultimate Populist Art Form, Democracy In Action, Because It's True: Anybody Can Do It.

What All This Posturing And Fake Glamor Results In Is A Vast Detachment And Cynicism On The Part Of The Artists. Since It's Impossible To Have Respect For An Audience That'll Take Just About Anything You Care To Dish Out, And The Impassive Demeanor Is So Central To The Role, A General Numbnose Is All That Can Be Expected.

At Its Best New Wave/punk Represents A Fundamental And Age-old Utopian Dream: That If You Give People The License To Be As Outrageous As They Want In Absolutely Any Fashion They Can Dream Up, They'll Be Creative About It, And Do Something Good Besides.

Rock Is For Everybody; It Should Be So Implicitly Anti-elitist That The Question Of Whether Somebody's Qualified To Perform It Should Never Even Arise.