I figure if you came of age in the 60’s (as I did not), you probably have an innate sense of how to stay on the punk rock side of every issue… it’s likely in your blood. For the rest of us, it just comes a little harder. But whereas bands like The Who and The Rolling Stones built their careers on the back of songs like PAINT IT BLACK, SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL, and WON’T GET FOOLED AGAIN, modern (read: younger) artists in the COVID era seem eager to sign on to every new Governmental encroachment on liberty, and indeed are often willing to actively market those restrictions to their fans.
Apparently, we went from “don’t trust anyone under 30” to “stay the fuck home because the government says so” in less than forty years… ugh, we might be doomed. Also, pro tip: Screaming “fuck”‘ is not very transgressive when it’s done in support of a Governmenrt mandate. “Fuck tha Police!” will always be a better revolutionary anthem than “Imagine Obedience to Government.”
If you’ve ever seen the video of Mick Jagger theatrically rolling his eyes in protest of a Network demand that he sing “let’s spend some TIME together” instead of “Let’s spend the NIGHT together”, then it’s pretty easy to imagine him mocking the concept of wearing a diaper on your face. That’s why it was nice to see that Mick Jagger wrote and recorded an anti-lockdown song.
Similarly, check out this video from last year wherein The Who’s Roger Daltrey finds himself unable to work up the required amount of Anti-Brexit outrage for a young idealistic Remainer who desperately wants him to share her level of put-out-ness.
So, so good!
But all this brings up a critical question… if the only Revolutionaries among us are in their seventies, what are we going to do once they’re all gone and all our remaining artists are young squares and Narcs?
I mean besides surrender.