Rock Minutes

Let me start out by saying I am not trying to say that John Mellencamp is better than Bruce Springsteen I am not looking to sway your opinion on either one of these artists. I am sure there are some of you that will read this story and think that you could care less about either one of these guys. I am OK with that. If you think reading about these two aging rock stars is not worth your time you can always head back to Facebook and read about how someone’s kid scored 6 touchdowns in little league football or how the weather sucks or some other riveting status update.

I will preface what I am about to write with the fact I am a huge John Mellencamp fan. He was the first concert I ever attended in 1983 and I have lived in Indiana virtually my entire life where liking if not loving Mellencamp is almost as synonymous with the state as not being able to buy beer on Sundays. With that being said I am also a huge Bruce Springsteen fan and he was the second concert I ever attended in 1984 on the “Born In The USA” tour. I love both artists and have enjoyed nearly everything they have released but I have a problem with the way these two artists seemed to be viewed by fans, the music industry, and the critics.
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A friend of mine e-mailed me the other day stating that the 1960’s were the greatest decade for music. He wanted to know what I thought was the next best decade for music assuming the 60’s were in fact the greatest decade in music history. That really got me thinking so I thought I would write about it this week.

To start with I would agree the 60’s were the greatest decade we will probably ever see in music. The 60’s had the Beatles, The Rolling Stones and the British Invasion in general. You had the beginning of Motown, Memphis-Stax, and the music coming out of Muscle Shoals. You also had Bob Dylan who led a revolution as a folk singer but he also changed the musical landscape when he went electric. Woodstock closed out the 60’s as the most important music festival any of us will see in our lifetime. I would hope you all would agree that the 60’s are the most important decade we have ever seen in music. The real question is what decade would I put behind the 60’s?
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I knew the minute I read Aaron’s story what I would be writing about this week. There are some things in life that have answers and there is no need to argue. The greatest receiver of all time is Jerry Rice. The greatest basketball player of all time is Michael Jordan. The greatest hockey player of all time is Wayne Gretzky. The greatest rock guitarist of all time is Jimi Hendrix. These are just facts of life. One more fact of life is that the Beatles are the greatest band of all time. Notice I did not say they were my favorite band of all time. There are several bands that I enjoy more than the Beatles but I cannot deny the impact this band has had on the world.
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If you have not figured it out yet there are a lot of things that piss me off. I thought I would dedicate my story this week to a few things that are currently pissing me off. Enjoy!

Head Mics

I hate musicians that wear head mics. I am not sure if that is the technical term for them but they are the microphones that you can wear on your head and they make you look like you work in a call center. There are several offenders that wear these things: Garth Brooks, Madonna, Janet Jackson, most boy bands, Rascal Flatts, and Britney Spears. I am sure the “artists” that use these things claim that that give them the ability to provide a better show for their fans but really it just makes them look like a bunch of assholes. If a standard microphone is good enough for The Rolling Stones, Elvis, The Who, Led Zeppelin, and any other band that is worth a shit then it is good enough for you Garth Brooks. Just because you are wearing that gay ass microphone when you sing “The Dance” does not make that song suck any less.
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It was the fall of 1990. I was heading off to Indiana University for my freshman year of college. I was supposed to be rooming with my best friend Josh. We had everything planned out. We were going to take over the campus. Our dorm room was going to be incredible. Josh had a home stereo system that was second to none. It was definitely way better than the clock radio with a double cassette deck I was rocking. We were going to combine our music collections for what would be the most powerful music collection in Bloomington, Indiana, or so we thought. In what at the time seemed to be a disaster of epic proportions our room assignments were screwed up and Josh and I would not be roommates in what would be the only year we would spend in Bloomington as students.
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