REAL MUSIC (about politics and culture)

My buddy, Matt, writes:

Ron,

Have you ever heard the old Chicago song Dialogue (Parts 1& 2)? I'm listening to it at work and it reminded me of you. It reminds you that these guys started out as a political band, calling themselves the Chicago Transit Authority in reference to the '68 Democratic convention until forced to remove the "TA" part.

I find it particularly ironic that Peter Cetera plays the part he does as I've always felt that after Robert Lamm died, Cetera led the charge to mediocrity. Typecasting?

Matt

Matt also included the lyrics to "Dialogue:"

Dialogue
Chicago
(Robert Lamm)

Part I

Terry
Are you optimistic
'bout the way things are going?

Peter
No, I never ever think of it at all

Terry
Don't you ever worry
When you see what's going down?

Peter
No, I try to mind my business,
that is, no business at all

Terry
When it's time to function
as a feeling human being, will your
Bachelor of Arts help you get by?

Peter
I hope to study further,
a few more years or so. I also hope
to keep a steady high

Terry
Will you try to change
things, use the power that you have,
the power of a million new ideas?

Peter
What is this power you
speak of and this need for things to
change? I always thought
that everything was fine

Terry
Don't you feel repression just
closing in around?

Peter
No, the campus here is very, very free

Terry
Does it make you angry
the way war is dragging on?

Peter
Well, I hope the President
knows what he's into, I don't know

Terry
Don't you ever see the starvation
in the city where you live, all the
needless hunger all the
needless pain?

Peter
I haven't been there lately,
the country is so fine, but my
neighbors don't seem hungry 'cause
they haven't got the time

Terry
Thank you for the talk,
you know you really eased my mind
I was troubled by the shapes
of things to come.

Peter
Well, if you had my
outlook your feelings would be
numb, you'd always think
that everything was fine

Part II

Group
We can make it happen
We can change the world now
We can save the children
We can make it better
We can make it happen
We can save the children
We can make it happen

Here is my response:

Dear Matt,

I've known this song for many years, but, thanks to you, I'm hearing it anew. That is, I have a really bad habit of not paying much attention to lyrics for the first fifty or hundred times I hear a song. I think it's probably because most lyrics suck as far as meaningful content is concerned: this has made me miss out on some really great messages over the years--it's also kept me liking some songs longer than I should; Genesis' "Blood on the Rooftops" was eventually ruined for me when I realized it's about watching television in a sort of bored, politically neutral way.

I already really liked the song "Dialogue" and pretty much all of CTA and Chicago II. Now it's more than a cool song with great guitar solos: it is a song criticizing apathy and the comfort that breeds it. Very cool.

It's funny that there is a sort of career parallel between Phil Collins and Peter Cetera. Both were important members of "serious" rock bands and both later led their respective groups into crass commercialism. I think that, while I still judge their career moves as bad, I am more forgiving of their pop motivations than I used to be. That is, as an actor, I have seen lots of artists over the years that I know and that I read about who are caught between art and stardom or art and paying the bills. Both the recording industry and Hollywood have moved in a very bland, non-controversial, heavily commercialized direction over the last three decades or so. On the one hand, pure art is great, but laboring away in obscurity can be very demoralizing, not to mention financially impossible in many cases. Collins and Cetera aren't the only ones who have (been forced?) to sell out. Steve Winwood did it. One can reasonably argue that even Peter Gabriel has flirted with selling out. Al Pacino did "Devil's Advocate" and some other crappy movies. Jessica Lange announced that she was quitting show business a few years ago because of the state of Hollywood. Paul McCartney has selling out in his blood. And who can really ever tell what the hell is going on with the Rolling Stones?

Thanks for sending the lyrics my way.

Ron

Matt emailed a couple of responses:

Yes, I've also noted those folks who manage to sit on that fence. I have a little stable of them that I like to think are doing their "commercial" work with tongue firmly planted in cheek, but shrewdly doing commercial work to fund non-commercial work. John Cusack & Tim Robbins are great examples.

And:

Two more thoughts, given a night's sleep.

First, Cetera and Collins are also similar in that they started out as secondary players in their respective bands but took on progressively larger roles as the original "spiritual" leaders of the band moved on or passed on. To me it's a metaphor of the baby boomers in general: a few highly principled idealists surrounded by a large group of people who affected the stances only because they were hip, eventually moving on to 3 bedroom houses in the suburbs. Of course, that gets me on a rant about our two boomer presidents and how both are prototypical middle aged boomers, one a selfish, self-centered opportunist posing as a high-minded idealist, the other a guilt-ridden former hedonist turned to Jesus to help provide some meaning for his life. Whew!

Talk to you soon!

Matt

NOTE: these emails have been slightly edited.

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