SPEW

Ed Sheeran - He looks like Van Morrison, kinda, huh? Check the tats.   Ed Sheeran is the highest paid entertainer on the planet. I think. I don’t know. They say he’s worth 65 million. Anyway, I read that somewhere. God knows he travels light and doesn’t have to share that dough with an orchestra or anything. I saw Ed once. At least that I’m aware of. He opened for the Rolling Stones in 2015 (or was it 16?) at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. Just me and several thousand of my closest friends. He came out with a guitar in front of that throng and mesmerized the crowd. Okay, not really. Some kids seemed to like him. Old people, eighty percent of the attendees, treated him as a curiosity or mild irritant, not uncommon for a warmup act served up before the Stones’ Lions and Christians, bread and circuses exhibition. Later, he sang “Beast of Burden” with Mick. He was better than Dave Matthews. I see his ruddy little mug and tousled ginger top here and there in the ...

THE AESTHETICS AT THE ROCK CRITIC’S FUNERAL My self-identified role as a curator of popular music is one that I’ve gradually been shedding, part from changed perspective, part from failure to sustain a meaningful audience. That’s a fancy way of saying that when so many people don’t give a shit, they start to seem convincing after a spell. I ran out of gas. I felt tapped for maintaining blogs and that kind of shit. For years I had some tangible connection to the ‘industry’ that made me feel, I dunno – active? relevant? I ran a really good record store. I wrote for a major metropolitan newspaper. I wrote for various reasonably high circulation periodicals. I appeared frequently on public radio stations. But when my record store died after 52 years (I was there for 39 of them) and the newspaper gave the axe to freelancers, I lost my base, if you will. Sure, people tell me they miss the store. Or my reviews. And it’s nice. But these ripples of awareness are dr...