When I was a teenager in the 70's living in the little town of Johnstown, when a national rock band came to town, it was a big deal.
We were pretty much land locked and isolated by mountains... so needless to say, football and ice hockey were biggies.
Everynow and then we were treated to a big rock concert... it was always at the War Memorial ( the ice rink) and it was a big event.
I saw Jethro Tull there , and Ten Years After and learned that every concert has a guy on crutches ripping through the audience mid- vomit... It's usually an injured high school football player whose older brother bought him a quart of Pabst.
One year , the Guess Who came to town and I couldn't wait to see them... The song "These Eyes" was such a great tune and I loved Burton Cummings voice.. After I wrangled permission to go to the concert I spent a week deciding what to wear and who to go with and omigod who NOT to go with... I'm sure I bought some Bonnie Bell lip gloss for the occassion.
The lights cane up on stage and the band started this mad groove and Burton Cummings in his perfect dark curly rock hair started belting out a song called "American Woman"... Oh hey it's a tribute to us, my teenage mind thought... "get away from me " ooh that sounds kinda mean "American Women". Yes? "momma let me be -hee". ... Hey wait a minute...
As Burton was singing this and the Guess Who was rocking out, he lifted both his hands up and gave us all the finger.... The double handed finger... Reserved for the most deliberate of bird flipping known to man... Or as it was, American Women.
I walked out of the War Memorial and headed straight to the inclined plane to take me back up the hill to Westmont. It was a silent ride, me in my new Levis and leather vest and peace symbol earrings I bought just for the concert. My Frye boots felt heavy on my feet as I stood on the platform heading home. I couldn't believe a band came to my town and gave me the finger while singing an insult... Damn Canadians.
Which brings me to American Idol... You never thought I would get there did you.
This week was the first eliminations of the lucky 24 chosen as finalists... And the one male rocker in the whole bunch , I think his name was Tyler... Stands up to the mike to sing "American Woman" .
He shouldve fainted or fell ,or faked swine flu, he never should have song that song.
Why ? Because American Idol is ruled by the American Girl... About age 14 ... and she likes cute boys who sing love songs... Even if they are gay.. They want a cute guy who sings a song that speaks to them,
NOT "American Woman get away from me"... Let me be 14 for a second here and say "Duh" .
The AMerican Idol band did a hatchet job of playing the song and Tyler seemed off as he sang... Almost as if he was regretting his song choice already and should have listened to the voice of reason who may have suggested this was a bad song choice ... Not just for the fact that the majority of 14 yearolds have never heard of the Guess Who , but it's not a terms of endearment kinda song.
So yes, he was kicked off the idol island the next night... and some other less talented guys went on to sing another day all because of a bad song choice....and I can only hope if Burton Cummings is still alive, he was able to watch his song be murdered on American Idol and the subsequent smack down by the American girl population ... because it made the teenager in me smile at the perfect full circle.
We were pretty much land locked and isolated by mountains... so needless to say, football and ice hockey were biggies.
Everynow and then we were treated to a big rock concert... it was always at the War Memorial ( the ice rink) and it was a big event.
I saw Jethro Tull there , and Ten Years After and learned that every concert has a guy on crutches ripping through the audience mid- vomit... It's usually an injured high school football player whose older brother bought him a quart of Pabst.
One year , the Guess Who came to town and I couldn't wait to see them... The song "These Eyes" was such a great tune and I loved Burton Cummings voice.. After I wrangled permission to go to the concert I spent a week deciding what to wear and who to go with and omigod who NOT to go with... I'm sure I bought some Bonnie Bell lip gloss for the occassion.
The lights cane up on stage and the band started this mad groove and Burton Cummings in his perfect dark curly rock hair started belting out a song called "American Woman"... Oh hey it's a tribute to us, my teenage mind thought... "get away from me " ooh that sounds kinda mean "American Women". Yes? "momma let me be -hee". ... Hey wait a minute...
As Burton was singing this and the Guess Who was rocking out, he lifted both his hands up and gave us all the finger.... The double handed finger... Reserved for the most deliberate of bird flipping known to man... Or as it was, American Women.
I walked out of the War Memorial and headed straight to the inclined plane to take me back up the hill to Westmont. It was a silent ride, me in my new Levis and leather vest and peace symbol earrings I bought just for the concert. My Frye boots felt heavy on my feet as I stood on the platform heading home. I couldn't believe a band came to my town and gave me the finger while singing an insult... Damn Canadians.
Which brings me to American Idol... You never thought I would get there did you.
This week was the first eliminations of the lucky 24 chosen as finalists... And the one male rocker in the whole bunch , I think his name was Tyler... Stands up to the mike to sing "American Woman" .
He shouldve fainted or fell ,or faked swine flu, he never should have song that song.
Why ? Because American Idol is ruled by the American Girl... About age 14 ... and she likes cute boys who sing love songs... Even if they are gay.. They want a cute guy who sings a song that speaks to them,
NOT "American Woman get away from me"... Let me be 14 for a second here and say "Duh" .
The AMerican Idol band did a hatchet job of playing the song and Tyler seemed off as he sang... Almost as if he was regretting his song choice already and should have listened to the voice of reason who may have suggested this was a bad song choice ... Not just for the fact that the majority of 14 yearolds have never heard of the Guess Who , but it's not a terms of endearment kinda song.
So yes, he was kicked off the idol island the next night... and some other less talented guys went on to sing another day all because of a bad song choice....and I can only hope if Burton Cummings is still alive, he was able to watch his song be murdered on American Idol and the subsequent smack down by the American girl population ... because it made the teenager in me smile at the perfect full circle.
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