Rock 'n' roll will
never die
PHILLIP COOREY in New York
26sep04
YOU know rock 'n' roll ain't what it
used to be when one of its crowning moments is sponsored by a low-calorie
beer and is open only to corporate guests and competition winners.
Or when Alice Cooper, 56, who has developed a single-figure golf handicap
and votes Republican, hits the stage with high pants and an aged stoop to
belt out his old hit Eighteen.
Thus it was over two nights at New York's Roselands Ballroom where a dozen or so great artists of past and present gathered to celebrate 50 years of rock 'n' roll.
Sponsored by US beer giant Miller and Rolling Stone magazine, the event was billed on the banner outside Roselands as: "Miller: 50 years of Rock 'n' Roll. Sold Out."
"More like sell-out," quipped one jaded rock goth as he surveyed the sparse, Miller Lite-drinking crowd.
And Miller's celebration of rock history last weekend didn't end there.
Across the Atlantic at London's Wembley Stadium on Friday, it sponsored a tribute to the 50th birthday of the ultimate rock 'n' roll guitar, the Fender Stratocaster.
Guitar heroes who paid homage included David Gilmour (Pink Floyd), Joe Walsh (The Eagles), Hank Marvin (The Shadows) and Irish bluesman Gary Moore.
The Rolling Stones' Ron Wood joined Buddy Holly's old backing band, the Crickets, on stage for a spirited jam.
Back in Roselands, most folks there would have been just as happy getting boozed up at the office Christmas party while playing air guitar to George Thorogood in an effort to impress Betsy from the accounts department.
Friday night featured The Doors, Wyclef Jean, James Brown and Lenny Kravitz.
The Doors were, of course, without frontman Jim Morrison, whose booze- and drug-addled life ended in a Parisian bathtub in 1971.
He forfeited the right to become a parody of himself and was replaced by The Cult's Ian Astbury, who managed to look like and ape Lizard King Morrison. Drummer John Densmore, who wants nothing to do with The Doors any more, was also missing but keyboardist Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robbie Krieger were there and the band was great.
Highlight of the set was a guest appearance by the disturbingly talented Ben Folds, who played the keyboard solo for Riders on the Storm, lending a hand to Manzarek, whose between-song babblings indicated he may have dropped acid one too many times.
Brown, 71, whose age is inversely proportional to that of his hair, puffed his way through his set complete with scantily-clad dancing girls.
Folds opened the show last Saturday and performed a superhuman feat to warm up the small crowd for Cheap Trick.
Like a pub band of yore, the Tricksters blew the roof off with a hard-rocking set.
Sure they were cliched, but when you invent the cliche, you are entitled to use it.
Cooper, meanwhile, was out in the street in his tour bus waiting for the call from Cheap Trick.
He appeared, with make-up and the leather pants, sang his song, bowed humbly and went back to his bus.
To show all is not old, the night ended with The Strokes and Velvet Revolver, a hybrid of The Stone Temple Pilots and Guns N' Roses.
Sean Lennon joined The Strokes for a version of Little Richard's Lucille.
It took two nights to get there but it ended with a party atmosphere.
As a fitting finale Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen and Robin Zander joined Velvet Revolver for Cheap Trick's Surrender.
"Mommy's all right, daddy's all right, they just seem a little weird.
"Surrender, surrender, but don't give yourself away . . ."