Good job Larry…(and coming from an ex-musician myself!)

Thank you Larry, and I hope you come back soon. It looks like I have a million things to write about, and I’ve just gotten started.

I don’t go to big-time concerts any more, but the ones I see on TV have giant walls of flashing lights behind and surrounding the performers, all manner of theatrical stage lighting as well as banks of spinning, pulsing, undulating disco fixtures, and all of it is timed flawlessly to the music. I’m sure it’s run by computers, so nothing is left to chance.

By contrast, what you were doing in 1966 was pure chance, and the unpredictability of it was pretty much the point (From the sound of it, the band wasn’t completely sure where they were going next, either.). I especially like the fact that the film would burn occasionally, not only producing a spectacular effect on the screen, but also guaranteeing that your exact performance would never be seen again.

None of this would be acceptable today. The performers have to put on perfect shows, to protect their reputations (for putting on perfect shows), so that everyone will feel like they got good value for their ticket purchase, so more tickets will be sold for the next show, so the band and the ancillary circus known as The Music Business can — say it with me — make more money.

Of course there are still garage bands all around the country playing their hearts out in similar spirit to those guys in 1966, but it seems to me that they are marginalized by the fact that the audience at a single Madonna concert dwarfs all the fans of all the indie bands at all the venues in all the cities of America. You can say you’re playing just for fun or for the pure creative joy of it, but you are validated by people coming to participate.

To sum up: It’s the money.

It’s a sad state of affairs, but on the bright side I’m glad you had a rock’n'roll birthday, and I wish you as many more of them as you can stand.