True of music, not of rock

[Hart Deer <D.Deer@students.oglethorpe.edu>]

Since this is a response to a few articles in the Who Newsletter, I 
wish

my mail server was functioning properly. However, it's acting funny and

refusing to quote the previous e-mail the I reply to. Maybe it's 
because

I have a gay mail server. No, just kidding.


But seriously.


"Bigotry"? Now really. Well, that's better than "homophobia", so I'll

leave it alone. Still, I would advise you to consult a dictonary and

make sure you know what you're saying before you say it.


What all of you say is true about pure art and of music as a whole, but

not of rock music. My second favorite composer Menotti is as gay as

they come, but I couldn't give less of a damn, because Menotti writes

operas and classical music. He's not a rocker. In terms of the purely

artistic and musical element of Pete's music, nothing about Pete

himself effects the music. Pete's still the greatest musician that's

ever been, hands down, without question.


Rock is something more, it transcends art. Rock n roll is ALL ABOUT

personality, lifestyle, and social behavior, perhaps because rock is

something that we can crudely label as CULTURE. It's just like, if you

look at the pure ART of the book Wuthering Heights, it doesn't matter

who wrote it, just so long as it's a killer book. However, when culture

is taken into account, one looks at the history of the book and finds

out about Bronte's awesome struggle to covertly write and publish the

book despite being a social outcast, and from this cultural standpoint,

the book becomes a whole lot cooler. So it is with rock music.


Everything about the artist and the context that his work was created

matters. It matters whether Pete was doing drugs. It matters when Pete

had his spiritual awakenings. It matters how Pete had his hair cut

during this or that concert. All of it directly effects the meaning and

the very nature of the music. Of course, all of these things matter

in proportion to how much a part they are of the creative artist in his

act of creation, so i.e. Pete's drug habits are more important than his

hair cut, and so on. THE HIGH NUMBERS WEREN'T JUST PLAYING SOME GOOD

OTIS BLACKWELL TUNES, THEY WERE <bold>MODS</bold>! And that makes ALL the
difference.

If it made no difference, there would be no punk and no godfather. It

is because these personal things about the artist are parts of his

music that you all discuss them all the dang time, and of course you

very well should. Chew on that.


More than having to do with my feelings about homosexuality one way or

the other, it has more to do with distance. I would also be very thrown

for a loop were I to find out that Pete is really a giraffe from

Lithuania (PLEASE say it's not so). But I've known about Pete's

possible sexual tendencies for a long time now, so my "little illusions

about reality" are still nicely entact. I'm still not convincd one way

or the other the issue, and if it turns out he was gay, I can deal with

it, believe you me. But that doesn't change the fact that it matters!

If Pete wrote "Sea and Sand" about some drag queen he was trying to

impress because of his aggresive sexual feelings for him, the song

immediately is stripped of all its meaning. Evidence to refute this

possibility is the fact that the song occurs in Quadrophenia, and such

a song would not fit in with Jimmy's life (unless I have grossly

misunderstood Jimmy).


One thing about this newsletter: it's never boring.


- -Hart


"If you complain you disappear

Just like the lesbians and queers"