I watched the documentary "American: Bill Hicks" on Saturday. Bill Hicks is the Texan stand up comic, hailed as one of the greats after his death of cancer in 1994 at the age of 32.
I had never heard any of his stand up before, and to be blunt, i don't think he is very funny in the movie His riffs on everything from advertising to the armed forces are for the most part both obvious and tautologies.
Now. before writing this post I went a little further and , well, he could be very, very funny. Check out this video (I can't embed it) http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/80751100/
But when he lost his restraint he went too far off the deep end and ended up being simply obvious
Yes, advertising uses sex to sell product and the prurient rift in the country is hypocritical.
Yes, the US Government uses the Armed forces to further their political desires.
Point being?
Saying if the people of the earth stopped fighting and used the money wasted on arms on food, we could feed the world is about as useful as saying if people were bees there would be no hunger because we could all eat honey.
Decrying our species is silly and pointless and Hicks' calling card.
More interesting is Hicks, who played for a band, claim that unless music comes from the heart unless the band has a gun and his head and said "Did that move you, good?" and blew his head off at the end, it was bad. That New Kids On the Block had are so ordinary and mediocre they have no value.
That isn't a tautology. it is a lie.
Let's call it the Lester Bangs syndrome, that only the music that touches us deepest matters at all.
No.
Not so.
Music matters on other levels than simply emotional catharcism. For dancing, for background, as the soundtrack to puppy love, for rebellion. For the passing moment.
Here is the mistake guys like Bob Lefsetz makes all the time. He denies the ephemeral, as though because the pleasure is passing, it has less value intrinsically.
This is a question I find myself in disagreement with so , so many people about. That value can't be limited. That we can't enjoy the mediocre more than the sublime.
And it points to Bill Hicks problem: he misunderstands the type of albums we are is such that we must fight or die. We can't let our guard down not because we are good or evil but BECAUSE WE ARE HUMANS. WE HAVE TO DEFEND OURSELVES AND OFTEN, MAYBE ALWAYS, BY ATTACK.
it isn't even a tragedy. It just is.
Maybe we won't last another 1000 years, maybe we won't last another 100 years. But we can't help it, we are what we are.
We are also wonderful, and we can enjoy the moments and sometimes music doesn't have to be wrenched from the heart to help us do it.