CAMPAIGN CONCERTS: Rockers reconnect to roots
_____________________
BY BRIAN McCOLLUM
DETROIT FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
August 5, 2004
freep.com
It has been argued that rock is now an aged art form, less revolution than institution.
But Wednesday's announcement of the Vote For Change tour, which will swing through Michigan on Oct. 3 with a caravan of high-wattage artists, signals the arrival of a new brand of rebellion for the grand old genre -- as well as innovations in the even more ancient art of political campaigning.
It's not that Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp and Jackson Browne have been silent on social issues. It's that this fall's tour finds those artists forcefully bucking trends that had overtaken rock -- a 50-year-old genre now a part of the establishment the music once defined itself against.
"'The word unprecedented keeps coming to mind," said R.E.M.'s Mike Mills. "Not only do we have this many musicians, but there are people who don't usually do these kind of things."
With President George W. Bush and Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry locked in a tight battle, it's an election season in which two traditional Democratic strongholds -- grassroots groups and the entertainment community -- have banded together in unprecedented ways.
The tour arrives as the entertainment community, from Hollywood to the corner coffeehouse, ramps up its activism to levels unseen since the contentious days of the Vietnam War. While the Vote For Change concerts are not officially affiliated with the Kerry campaign, they're built with artists inarguably on the left side of the spectrum, and many have spoken publicly against Bush.
Seminal event
Whatever your own political arguments, it's hard to debate that Oct. 3 will stand as a watershed in the Michigan rock annals. Not since 1971's Ann Arbor concert for imprisoned Detroit radical John Sinclair -- a blowout featuring John Lennon, Stevie Wonder, Bob Seger and others -- has the state seen a music-and-politics rally of this magnitude.
Sinclair, who managed Detroit's rabble-rousing MC5, said Wednesday's news renewed his optimism for the state of rock -- a genre he feared had lost its fortitude.
"Back then, we didn't have anything to lose, so we did whatever we felt like. These weren't millionaires -- these people were coming off the street," Sinclair said. "But this, I like. I don't care for millionaires in general, so they have to do something pretty interesting like this to attract me."
The rock world has been reliably liberal since the mid-1960s, when the leftist folk movement merged with young pop to give rock 'n' roll a formidable voice: culture, politics and art wrapped into one. While cynics will tell you the hippie movement was as much about fashion as principle, there's no doubt artists and their audiences were glued to the same page in the political playbook.
But subsequent years saw musicians shy away from the activism of the Woodstock era, when the antiwar and civil rights movements were magnetic rallying calls. Whether motivated by diplomacy -- fearful of alienating audiences -- or simply a lack of galvanizing issues, rock steadily separated itself from its overt political tendencies.
The causes that drew musicians together became less partisan and more universal, directing attention to world hunger (1985's Live Aid), agricultural struggles (the annual Farm Aid shows) and religious oppression (the Tibetan Freedom Concerts).
The MC5's emphatic manifesto -- "You're either part of the problem or part of the solution" -- had evolved into "We Are the World."
Political rock, once so standard the phrase was a redundancy, became a musical niche, peddled by such artists as Rage Against the Machine and Billy Bragg.
But the confluence of 2000's bitter election and 2001's terrorist attacks began to turn the tide.
A new activism
Rock's initial reaction to Sept. 11 was subdued, even solemn. A nationally televised tribute concert, featuring many of the same artists playing this fall's tour, was a graceful candlelit event. Springsteen's "The Rising," a 2002 album viewed as the most prominent musical response to Sept. 11, was a record of reflection and grief.
Since then, the tone has changed. Bit by bit, soul-searching evolved into frustration and ultimately into downright anger.
Still, the '00s aren't the '60s. There are unabashed conservatives out there; two of the most notable are Michiganders Kid Rock and Ted Nugent. In a sharply divided America where research shows even young people split along the left-right divide, artists have learned to proceed with caution. As the Free Press reported last month when breaking the news of the October concerts, the tour was developed in a shroud of secrecy, details known only to a tight-lipped group.
Russ Gibb, Detroit rock impresario and Grande Ballroom founder, isn't sure Vote For Change recaptures the organic heat of '60s rock radicalism.
"The difference is, I don't think it's coming from the folk anymore -- it's coming from the PR puffery boys," he said. "When I see everything packaged in that way, I get nervous. It's just not the same."
The whole affair induces intriguing questions. A Dave Matthews enthusiast who happens to push for Bush may find himself in a bind: Does he hand his cash to the Other Side to catch his favorite act in a potentially awkward environment?
Some artists have already confronted the tricky terrain. Pearl Jam seemed startled when hit with boos last year at a Denver concert in which the band impaled a Bush mask. The Dixie Chicks learned that bashing the president was a quick way to drive off a chunk of its fan base.
The willingness of these artists to grab the megaphone in such a prominent way, plowing ahead despite such risks, means that rock may be embracing a new kind of revolt: a rebellion not against the establishment, of which it is now undeniably a part, but against the tepid state of rock itself.
Contact BRIAN McCOLLUM at 313-223-4450 or mccollum@freepress.com.
Copyright © 2004 Detroit Free Press Inc.
____________
ON STAGE
Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews, Pearl Jam and the Dixie Chicks are among several acts scheduled to play Michigan on Oct. 3 in a series of political concerts.
The shows, part of a tour dubbed Vote For Change, will feature power-hitter musical matchups staged simultaneously at venues across the state. Tickets will go on sale Aug. 21 through Ticketmaster, and presale sign-up forms are online at www.moveon.org.
The tour will hit 28 cities in nine states.
Artists are donating their time for the tour, staged by the left-leaning political groups MoveOn and America Coming Together (ACT), which will receive tour proceeds. Here are the lineups for the Oct. 3 Michigan shows.
Chrisler Arena, Ann Arbor: Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, R.E.M., John Fogerty, Bright Eyes.
The Palace of Auburn Hills: Dave Matthews Band, Jurassic 5, My Morning Jacket.
_____________
Detroit area: Dixie Chicks, James Taylor.
Grand Rapids: Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Keb Mo.
The Delta Plex, Grand Rapids: Pearl Jam, Death Cab for Cutie.
Wings Stadium, Kalamazoo: John Mellencamp, Babyface. |
