This post is a follow-up to yesterday's rant about Dave White's article where he identifies some of rock and rolls most hallowed icons as being overrated. After rolling that situation around my head for about twenty-four hours, I actually came up with some of my own additions that I might make if I was constructing a list of overrated acts. Keep in mind, these are not necessarily artists which I dislike or feel do not possess talent. Most of them I simply think are over-exposed, and anyone who knows me well knows that over-exposure is probably my biggest pop-culture pet-peeve. My additions are as follows:
Johnny Cash. It appears for Mr. Cash that no career move he could have possibly made while he was alive would have been nearly as effective as his own death would prove to be. When he dies a few years ago, he all of a sudden he became a guitar slinging, bad-ass musical legend (again), who not only inspired a very successful biopic, with a blockbuster soundtrack that he didn't even sing on (why people would buy a disc with Juaquin Phoenix vocals instead of a regular Johnny Cash album is beyond me), but he also released several posthumous cover albums (which are actually pretty damn good), and had some of his classic tunes appearing in commercials and advertisements ad nauseam. Don't get me wrong, I think dude was a genius, but how he could have possibly surpassed his peer and fellow Sun Records alum Elvis Presley in the public consciousness I cannot understand. Before Elvis imploded, he had thirty #1 singles. That's not a typo. Thirty #1 singles! I guess if he would have lived a little longer and withered away more slowly, like his old buddy Johhny, we'd be seeing his songs in Levi's jeans commercials and watching Reese Witherspoon playing Priscilla Presley, instead of June Carter Cash, on HBO every night.
The Police. The Police are everyone's favorite classic rock band. Well this month they are anyway. They haven't cut any new material in decades, yet as soon as rumors of their recent reunion tour surfaced, people couldn't jump on their bandwagon fast enough. I love the Police (I have for a long time) and I even own some police albums, but I'm willing to bet my life's fortune that if you polled all of these newly-minted Police fanatics, that 85% of them couldn't name one of the band's albums beyond Synchronicity, and probably half of them wouldn't know that one. These guys are a tremendous, original band, but right now they are the vintage flavor-of-the-month, and to me, that's a precarious position for them to be in.
Eric Clapton. Simply put, Clapton is the Robert Horry of rock and roll. For those of you non-basketball fans, let me explain. He's a stupendously successful role player but he is not nearly as effective front-and-center. Is it a coincidence that all of Clapton's most impressive material has been the result of him essentially being just one of several talented people in a number strong ensembles? The best music he ever made was made came while he was playing with Cream (featuring Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker), John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, and Derek and the Dominoes (with Duane Allman at his side). Eric Clapton can make a very good band into a great band, but his solo career has been less than stunning and he is most certainly not God.
Jay-Z. I had to throw in someone a little more current and Jay-Z is the latest example of why, in the modern music machine, good marketing is more important than actual substance. I like some of Jay-Z's music (although I view that primarily as a testament to good production from Kanye West, Just Blaze, Rick Rubin, etc.), but the guy is an admitted sell-out. He has admitted on numerous occasions to dumbing down his music to increase his cash-flow, and dude will pimp seemingly any product from computers to soft drinks (I'm still trying to make sense of that recent ad where he's joy-riding shotgun with Dale Earnheart Jr. behind the wheel and Danica Patrick cruising next to them. Call me crazy, but I think Jay-Z and Nascar make for an awkward mix). Not only that, but he's got the most contrived public image that I've seen in a long time. He carries more self-dubbed nicknames and overzealous, cocksure personal assertions (no Jay, you're not "rap's Grateful Dead," whatever that means) than most rappers have bling, and I don't even want to get into the phony retirement thing. I know everybody does it, but at least wait a couple of months before you start making music again. You have to let it marinade a little. Not to mention he looks like a fraggle. There, I said it.
That's the list for now. I'll probably have my own "Underrated" list to follow at some point this week. I know that this stuff might be beginning to border on overkill, but these are things I think about all the time. Just bear with me if you can.
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