As usual, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to helping people lately, like, on a global scale. Originally I was thinking about assembling an all-star heavy metal band comprised of some of the biggest heavy metal stars of the ’80’s to record a heavy metal song for charity. And I was pretty excited about it too. That was, of course, until I remembered that somebody already did that with Hear ‘n Aid, an all-star heavy metal band comprised of some of the biggest heavy metal stars of the ’80’s. Hear ‘n Aid was formed as a reaction to that “We Are the World” song and also that “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” song that Bono and a bunch of other European people sang on. Rainbow and Dio bass player Jimmy Bain thought the heavy metal community could probably make a pretty sweet song for really hungry people too and next thing you know Jimmy, Ronnie James Dio, Ted Nugent, Yngwie J. Malmsteen, and a bunch of guys from Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Dokken, Quiet Riot, Rough Cutt, Queensryche, Blue Oyster Cult, Y&T, Motley Crue, Twisted Sister, W.A.S.P., Night Ranger, Giuffria, Journey, and even Spinal Tap were all hanging out in the studio recording a song called “We’re Stars.” I can’t even imagine what the catering must have been like. Can you imagine helping yourself to a big plate of macaroni salad while the Nuge is right there next to you making a ham sandwich or something? Man, that would be awesome.
Above is the video for the “We’re Stars” song mentioned in the last paragraph. Personally, I think they could have just gone from the beginning part where Dio sings “Who cries for the children? I-I Doooooo” straight to all the guitar solos. And then they should have just let Yngwie and George Lynch trade off the whole time. But hey, that’s just me. I’m a purist when it comes to shredding. And all these years later, still no one has addressed the elephant in the room: Where in the hell was Ratt? My guess is that they were banging groupies in Tokyo that day or something. Otherwise I just can’t understand why Carlos Cavazo couldn’t have just swung by Warren DeMartini’s house on the way to the studio or something. You know it was on the way. It’s just weird any way you slice it. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this song and video on some level or another (and there are many, so if you can’t find at least three or four levels to enjoy it on, well, I just don’t know what to say to you anymore).
On April 3rd, the Stone Temple Pilots officially declared that the band will reunite to launch a massive 2008 concert tour with 65 North American dates. This would be the first national tour for Stone Temple Pilots in almost eight years. And just last week, classic rock legends Fleetwood Mac announced that they are planning one “final” tour, slated for early 2009. Interestingly, Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, and co. may be joined by pop-rocker Sheryl Crow, who has publicly expressed interest in joining the band. These tour announcement shouldn’t be too surprising, considering the recent rash of classic rock heroes that have decided to un-retire one-last-time.
For a while now, music fans of a certain age have been experiencing an eerie deja-vu with the violent resurgence of the reunion tour. Bands that ruled the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s (and still rule most commercial classic rock radio) have somehow been coming back together to profit hugely from playing arenas. Fans with school-age children and large vinyl collections have been paying a lot to see their childhood heroes play the songs they loved (a quarter century ago), be they botoxed, stuffed or post-surgery. From the misty mountain top came Led Zeppelin, blowing audiences in London away. The Police wrapped their fans around their finger yet again and walked away with the top-grossing concert of 2007, earning $131.9 million. That reunion tour was apparently amazing enough to warrant its own Wikipedia entry. Van Halen, another band most people thought they would never get to see, took in $56.7 million. A Peter Gabriel-less Genesis (what?) earned $47.6 million. Few people thought they would ever see Tommy Lee and Nikki Six playing in the same band again–they were a surprise top grosser with $40 million in 2005. The Eagles always make good money when it comes to touring. Everyone knows these stories, and the well publicized successes certainly aren’t going to stop every other old fart with a lengthy back catalog from trying to do the same.
A good question that comes out of this is, what new bands (read: formed this century) will get to enjoy this second life? It’s hard to say, in an age when bands form, toil for a few years in relative anonymity, perhaps get a bit of buzz, and then no one bothers to see them a second time. Maybe today’s bands can’t maintain the same quality, maybe audiences are too fickle, maybe drugs get them to the point where touring is dangerous or visas don’t get granted (sorry, Lilly Allen).
An answer somehow lies in newer bands breaking up, then re-forming under different lineups. Think of it as a Venn diagram of musicians (or maybe just make an entirely new kind of chart). Take Drive Like Jehu, for example. Formed in 1990, they were an amazing band with as much influence as Fugazi but somehow even deeper underground. DLJ members Rick Froberg and John Reis (née Speedo) parted ways, but Speedo went on to form Rocket From the Crypt, which sadly disbanded in 2005. The band Hot Snakes sprang up in between, running in 1999-2005, with Froberg and Reis at the helm (almost a DLJ reunion!). Today, Froberg and Reis have their own bands: Obits (touring the east coast now) and The Night Marchers (fresh off a bunch of dates at SXSW, with a release pending on Reis’ label, Swami).
So while it’s exceedingly rare for a band today to get to the level that The Police originally did–much less the chance to do it again twenty years later for $100 mil–keep an eye on the bands that keep going at an “indie” level. For them, as for the superstars of the past, breaking up and getting back together really just means working hard and taking breaks in between.