Advice for kids who want to be rock stars: Minister of Culture
by Michael Heaton/Plain Dealer Reporter
Tuesday January 27, 2009, 4:01 PM

Do you want to be a rock star? Who doesn't?

Today's Friday magazine cover story about the Tri-C High School Rock Off semifinals speaks directly to the enduring desire of young people to create world-changing music. I marvel at the intensity my kids bring to their own music collections. And to the range of music to which they listen. Their taste spans the pop music world from the Beatles to MGMT, with Nirvana and Neil Young in between. The listening is more than casual. They want the lyrics, they want the message, whatever that message is.

Another sign that rock 'n' roll is here to stay, is the burgeoning success of the Paul Green School of Rock on the West Side. Where rock music created the generation gap when I was a kid ("Turn down that music"), it's now a bridge between parents and children. Although, I have been heard to echo my parents' complaint about noise levels emanating from the kids' bedrooms. More often, though, I'm yelling at them because they have their iPod buds buried deep in their ears and can't hear me asking them simple questions.

I call that the "I don't want to unload the dishwasher" gap.

The 18 semifinal bands were whittled down from 65. The 65 bands made the cut from more than 100 submissions. Imagine all those kids playing, taking lessons, practicing and rehearsing. They're giving it their all, going for the glory.

But if any of them asked me for advice about pursuing a career in rock music, I would tell them to study its roots. Know your rock 'n' roll history. If you live in the Rock Capital of the United States, you have no excuse for being ignorant about the history of rock 'n' roll.

Why, just today I was listening to local college radio and the DJ said a caller had asked for some Beatles. The she proceeded to play the Paul McCartney and Wings song "Band on the Run." There's no excuse for that kind of sloppy scholarship. Not in this town.

If you want to be a rock star, go back and study those roots. Go back and listen to the Rolling Stones. Guess what the Rolling Stones used to do when they were your age? They studied all the black blues musicians from the American South. Mick and Keith sent away to the United States for records by Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry and Little Richard. Then they put their own twist on the music and sold a sound that became the soundtrack for what was called the British Invasion.

Bob Dylan was a Jewish kid from Minnesota named Robert Zimmerman who studied the music of folk singer/social activist Woody Guthrie. Everybody who's anybody goes back and pays homage to someone who came before.

Once in a short-lived frenzy of self-improvement, I was reading the Good Book every day. One morning I came across some verses that seemed really familiar. Then I thought, hey, these are the lyrics to Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower."

So my advice if you want to be a rock star?

Steal from the Bible.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-01-28 19:22 by pgarof.