Some bands aging rock stars insist on making new records full of mediocre-at-best songs whether anyone asked for them or not. What's not entirely clear to me is how aware they are of the situation. By that I mean, do the Rolling Stones crank out crappy, pointless record after crappy, pointless record KNOWING that the album will only serve as a reason for content starved magazines to talk about them and their obligatory supporting tour? Or do they think that people actually want to hear new Rolling Stones music? Are they self aware enough to know that the digital turds they're grunting out in a London studio are nothing more than a means to a promotional end or have their yes men and record reps so snowed them as to make them believe that the world is clamoring for yet another record that will fail to capture the genius of Let It Bleed or Sticky Fingers? Well, regardless of whether Mick knows his records suck or not, the thing that he and his band mates are absolutely clear on is that when it comes to playing those songs in concert, they had better make sure they're book-ended by Jumpin' Jack Flash and Brown Sugar. Unfortunately that’s a lesson that Yusaf Islam (AKA Cat Stevens) just learned. See, Yusaf has been out of the game for a while. Back in the day he could slide his balls down a sitar and it would go to number one and the weeded out fans in the crowd would demand him to do a 30 minute freestyle interpretive jazz remix. But after walking away from music for a couple of decades, because he somehow thought God gives a crap what vocation you choose, Yusaf failed to realize that as fans age they become more picky, impatient and a hell of a lot more demanding, especially when they're dropping $50 a seat on a Sunday night. Yusaf committed the cardinal sin on set list building during his show in Ireland. He started off strong with a parade of hits and then about half way through broke it down for a 40 minute performance of only new stuff. Now, being his big comeback tour and playing for the first time in 33 years in Dublin, fans were respectful but did express their disappointment with some harshly worded comment cards, right? Oh, no, wait, I'm thinking of Canada. This is Ireland, so people booed, threw things and chanted "We're bored" before walking out. Apparently he did get the hint. He wrote on his blog, "Philosophically and educationally I have gained something from the experience, so has the public generally, and we can now move on to the next gig a bit more prepared. But to not expect me to sing my favourite new songs, from two carefully and thoughtfully created albums, and demand a 'Beam me up Scotty' return to the Cat Stevens persona of yesterday, is more than any amount of imagination can hope for."
Here's a band who knows how to treat the fans: Public Enemy. Public Enemy recently performed on the back of a flatbed truck driving through the streets of Washington DC to raise awareness for homeless youth. And I know this isn't the first time they've done something like this. Public Enemy have been fans of the free block party shows in the past and I have to wonder if it isn't things like this that have kept the band alive all this time.
