GROWING up in a sports loving family, I had a mitt in one hand, a basketball in the other, a football helmet on my head and a bouncing soccer ball attached to my foot by the time I was seven years old. Instead of blood, the only thing flowing through my veins were competitive juices! From the age of seven until I was about fourteen, I played every organized sport I could. I practiced everyday after school with my buddies trying to be the best - or, at least better than my older brothers were when they were occupied with this same zest years before. By the time I was fifteen, though, I was getting a bit tired of being sacked as quarterback and dodging those line drives targeting my forehead at shortstop (man, they really hurt when they connect!) just didn't do it for me anymore. Plus, I was at that age where I needed to set aside time to be used specifically for school oriented activities like parties, girls and whatever I was going to do that weekend that wouldn't involve hundreds of schoolmates seeing my mother's 1972 Buick Electra. The point being, though, is that I needed to purge any unnecessary activities, channel that energy and focus. That focus became my first true love, basketball. Basketball quickly became my life. All my friends played it, talked about it and spent nights dreaming about it. Luckily I was about 6 foot 1 at the time that was good enough to be big amongst my peers. My position of choice was point guard because Magic Johnson has always been my hero numeral uno, and 'practice my dribbling and no-look passes' was my mantra. And throughout the years I played basketball manically, I became pretty damn good. I was always a starter on teams, I was always picked immediately on the playground and I had a good repoire with my coaches and fellow players. I wanted to win and I wanted to lead, and those are the things that woke me up in the morning and put me to sleep at night. That was my identity! When high school ended and I chose not to try out for the team in college, I started playing less and less. I started to become distracted by new friends, new experiences and mostly, I started applying the same love for basketball into music, listening and playing the drums. I also started smoking and that never helps the ability to play full court basketball. I had always loved music quite a bit. My older brothers were very passionate about it, too. For years, I listened to militant rap. Groups like Public Enemy, Boogie Down Productions and Eric B. & Rakim were my favorites. Even though I was a product of my age (86-91 were the years of my most intense rap listening.) and certainly fueled by a good dose of teenage rebellion, my brothers kept me honest. I will always be thankful for their mocking jokes of 'my' music and how they forced me to listen to the Stones, Rod Stewart, Bob Marley and yes, even the Black Crowes. Anyway, my new friends and I would spend hours talking about the music I was really starting to appreciate fully, music like the Crowes and the Stones. Unfortunately, at the time, we became a little closed-minded. If it wasn't either one of those groups, or at the same level, then they just plain sucked! We started playing in a band together and playing gigs in the Midwest. Now, at this time, we were all about 21 years old and filled with dreams of being a 'real' rock and roll band. A band like those that we looked up to. We didn't want to compromise, do pop songs or sound like Nirvana. We wanted to bring back honesty and passion to what we thought was a generation of bands that didn't have any. So, naive attitudes in tow, we set out to do that, and only that. The band and it's purpose was are identity and I guess that made us cool. Here I am now, at the age of 26, and I have no band, not much desire to play basketball and I am finding new endeavors to channel my various creative energies into. I know what you are thinking, "This ain't the Jeff Dashley Fan Club, what the Hell does this have to do with anything?" (If anyone wants to start one, by the way, I can send you some info and pics...kidding, of course!) My point is this: As we all go through life's unpredictable journey, we change very much and frequently. That goes for everyone, including the Black Crowes. When Shake Your Money Maker came out, the Black Crowes were all in their early twenties, full of piss and vinegar and setting out to prove something. Their were young and the only responsibilities they had were to make the music they cherished and do it in a way that they felt was honest and true to their ideals. Those are the things that woke them out of bed, and put them to sleep at night. They hadn't been through divorces, drug problems or the birth of children yet, and those are the types of things that change people. Southern Harmony and the Musical Companion only furthered their ambition to make music with a sense of urgency. In eight days they recorded this rock and roll masterpiece and it was received well by the critics and fans alike. Touring after it's release and continuing the endless quest of playing in front of thousands of fans kept the fire burning. But, folks, like every fire sooner or later it will burn out, and it did after the 'High As the Moon' Tour. Press, interviews and constant obligations to the business they were in can be exhausting. It has been proven time and time again with actors, writers and especially musicians. They are human, after all. Amorica came out almost three years later, and I have never thought it was a disappointment. The Crowes took a good amount of time, maybe too much, to make it, but artistically, I thought they were improving from the prior record. It was a bit darker, and certainly created with an album mindset, rather that a record of singles. The tour that followed, in which I only saw one show, was a great tour. At least, that's what the bootlegs and tapes of them lead me to believe. However, when Three Snakes and One Charm followed, I started to notice a drop off of musical urgency and passion. The songs were good, but not near the quality of the two preceding it. Again, it seemed as though they took too long of a time doing it, which is never wise in today's state of music. Fads come and go, but you have to at least stay consistent by putting out a material. For Example, Pearl Jam has always remained in the public eye because they have always kept their audience satisfied. They have always had something like a single, or live album, to keep their music on people's minds. The tour that followed the Crowes' fourth album has been viewed as sloppy and inconsistent, but with the changing set lists and choice covers, I thought it was worth seeing the four or five times that I did. The thing that I noticed most was that they were changing very much from the hard rockin' days of 90-93, to a more melodic jam oriented type concert style. Ultimately they took on the Furthur tour and were quickly become a jam band. The press didn't like it and a lot of the crowds didn't like it either. Imagine this frustrated things for the seemingly always volatile state of the Black Crowes. They needed to do something about it. Then the Crowes changed lineups, and returned to what they thought brought them to the place they were at to begin with, swaggering blues-styled rock and roll. The only problem with that is that they weren't young like that, they had a lot of baggage and they had done it before. Yet, they still pushed through and put out something, toured and hoped for the best. What that tells me is that they still love music, still like playing live, but they don't have the same urgency that they had a decade before. After all, they thought they had proven all that they needed to prove, but for some reason, they have never really received the respect they deserved. After a year of disappointing record sales and not selling out the venues they used to, the Crowes were asked by one of the greatest icons of rock and roll to do a show with him. Would you refuse? That is a sign of respect the Crowes were probably looking for. Then they do the shows after that and are well received by the media and especially the fans. The Crowes were getting the boost they needed. Due to all that, they decided to do a tour. Sure, I'd rather see just the Crowes, or timewarp back to 1976 and see Led Zeppelin, but the market for this tour was there, do you expect them to pass it up. This isn't fantasyland! Nobody is that noble and selfless to do the things that make people happy and go broke in the process. The nature of the music business, the capitalist system and most of society, in general, is living by the rules generated by supply and demand. I realize this is all speculation, but I imagine through all the tours, good and bad times, long recording sessions that didn't pan out, loss and firing of members, bad press, personal problems and drugs, it can wear you down a bit. You can't go back, and for the most part, who would want to return to the things that created these times. These are all the trials and tribulations that inspired them to create the albums that we love, but we can't asked them to feel the same way and do the same things that made them create them no more than I can ask myself to go out and practice hard this fall to make the NBA, or play a weeks worth of bar gigs. I don't have the same desires I did back then, and I don't imagine the Crowes do either. All we can hope is that they love music the way they always have and let that do the work. Hopefully, for us the fans, that will be enough to keep us around. I have faith that they will, but I refuse to get my hopes up for Amorica Re-visited. After all, I understand why that is probably impossible. |