More on Morality and Rock and Roll

Please allow me to introduce myself ...

We have discussed here whether rock musicians are leftist: no. We have discussed whether rock music is immoral: no. But are rock musicians immoral?

This is the common perception. “Sex, drugs, and rock and roll.” Is it correct?

Concerning drugs, Keith Richards explains this quite simply: musicians feel they need them to keep going. Without them, performing on a stage and he fishbowl life of being famous can be too intimidating and too emotionally exhausting. You take one drug to get the energy for the performance, then you need another drug to calm down afterwards and get some sleep. So drugs are everywhere. Then, of course, many get hooked.

Is this sinful? No, perhaps just foolish. Perhaps just unfortunate.

Then there's the sex. Here, I think it is difficult for a non-performer to cast stones, because we face nothing like the same temptations. it is just the way of things that women will throw themselves at anyone they see on stage. How many of us could say no every time?

Keith Richards:

Nothing like a good ten, fifteen minutes of pubescent female shrieking to cover up all your mistakes. Or three thousand teenage chicks throwing themselves at you. Or being carried out on stretchers. All the bouffants awry, skirts up to their waists, sweating, red, eyes rolling.

,,, And I remember walking back out onto the stage after the show, and they'd cleaned up all of the underwear and everything, and there was one old janitor, night watchman, and he said, "Very good show. Not a dry seat in the house."

... You stand as much chance as in a pool full of piranhas.

On the other hand, there is something else quite noticeable about rock stars once you start to read the autobiographies. They are, almost invariably, models of the virtue of forgiveness. Somebody will have messed them over pretty badly, and they will not seem to hold it against them. They will be back playing with them a couple of years later.

Keith Richards, in his autobiography, revealed affairs with the paramours of Mick Jagger, claiming that they preferred him because Jagger's penis was too small. Hard to imagine anything more perfectly calculated to break up a friendship. Yet two years later, they are back on a big tour together, giving joint interviews.

Ian Tyson has absolutely nothing bad to say about his ex-wife and ex-partner Sylvia. Neil Young and Steve Stills reputedly fought endlessly in Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young; Young has walked out on Stills, at great financial cost, at least twice. Yet they still are best friends, and Stills says he still trusts Young more than anyone in the world. They still perform together often. Eric Clapton famously stole George Harrison's wife. Still best of friends. Half of the Byrds sued the other half over use of the name. Careers were at stake. Still best of friends. Bob Dylan slept with Liam Clancy's wife while he was on tour. Still best of friends. There seems to be no guile there, and no grudges.

What virtue is more important than the virtue of forgiveness?

I think that music—art in general—fosters that virtue.

It takes a Pharisee not to see that.

Met him at the crossroads ...