"Commitment" is a very difficult word to find in the vast majority of today's musicians who choose to make singles music - usually in collaboration - instead of committing to an entire album. That is why it is a true lesson in courage to find in the middle of 2020, a terrible year for the world and especially, the entertainment industry, an important list of original albums by artists who are over sixty and seventy years old.
To mention a few, here is Paul MacCartney III, Bruce Springsteen (Letter to You), Deep Purple (Whoosh), Ozzy Osbourne (Ordinary Man), Accept (Too Mean to Die), Bon Jovi (2020), AC/DC (Power Up), Iron Maiden (Nights of the Dead) and Whitesnake (Flesh and blood), among others. What does this mean? Actually, many things that might not be understood at first glance.
The quality of a society depends on the commitment of the idols that it follows. As I write this, I think a lot about the book of the Scotsman Thomas Carlyle and his six categories of heroes, the god, the prophet, the poet, the priest, the man of letters and the king. Without a doubt, today's musicians would be in that of the poet.
When a middle-aged man hears the news that, for example, Bruce Springsteen continues to produce complete LPs, in reality, he is receiving an even more profound message: commitment to goals, validity in time and workforce. Of course, we are talking about artists with a trajectory of more than forty years and who, apart from the commercial failures that the pandemic would imply, still continue to bet on adding one more piece within their personal discography.
In contrast, what does it mean for a young artist to take months or years to release a collaborative single?
In reality, it is an unfortunate setback within the history of music and culture in general. Before the Beatles the music and radio business operated like singles and the album was a mere commercial vehicle with filler songs.
That's why records like Rubber Soul, Revolver or Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band were so culturally significant: they were complete albums that defined an artist completely. In fact, from that decade on, the album would be the creative measure -not the single-, prompting two or three generations of musicians to give their best to produce pieces like Are you experienced? (Jimi Hendrix), Tommy (The Who), Sticky fingers (Rolling Stones), The Dark Side of the Moon (Pink Floyd), British Steel (Judas Priest), The Number of the Beast (Iron Maiden), Thriller (Michael Jackson), Nevermind (Nirvana) and so on until we reach the decline of our present time.
Returning to the thesis of Thomas Carlyle and even to that of the decline of the gods by Frederick Nietzsche, we find here the importance of demanding and calling for commitment and perseverance from our idols, regardless of the gender in which they are found.
For this reason, I unpack with genuine gratitude the new classic rock and metal LPs, because they are a life lesson for me.
As Ronnie James Dio sang with Rainbow, long live rock'n'roll!
March 2021
Luis Alberto Suescún
Content Writer & Author
