I'm a big sucker for these VH-1 rock documentaries. This week I learned about
David Cassidy, John Fogerty, and Fleetwood Mac. The common them for all of
them is as follows:
1) Work your way to the top (or, in David Cassidy's case, get really lucky)
2) Go through and incredible period of popularity which usually includes drugs,
alcohol, women and lots of partying through the night.
3) Begin a chemical addiction to "cope" with whatever it is you need to cope
with.
4) Try to "really express yourself" by taking a chance with your music. This
is the part where you want to be accepted as an artist and all that crap. There
is a 99.9% chance that this attempt will fail miserably. However, a rare few
manage to put one over on the public and get to skip stages 5-8!
5) Go nuts somehow or other (usually in relation to #3) and then go into
seculsion and/or obscurity for a period of between 5-10 years.
6) Lose all or at least most of your money and posessions.
7) Piss off a lot of people by doing stupid things.
8) Get a divorce
9) Attempt or ponder suicide.
10) Make a "big comeback" where you play all of your old songs and VH-1
makes a documentary on your life/career where the public learns that you
finally grew up even though it took you times as long as the normal human
being, but we still feel sorry for you because we like it when you play that
song that we all grew up with even though we have no idea what it actually
means but would never admit it and tell our kids that they just don't understand.