The Road's Already Been Paved

Looking at old rock star memorabilia makes me sad. It could be the dead god factor. That being when someone dies you put them on a pedestal and make them a god. This gets even worse if they were achieving god status while still alive. While it could be that, it could just be true that something that was will never be again and can never be reproduced.

It's the depression that sets in when I look at Michael Jackon's sparkly glove, Sid Viscious' necklace, Madonna's "Who's That Girl - Tour" red dress or the underwear she wore as an outfit to a fancy awards show. I look at it all. I stared at that necklace thinking about how much sweat and blood it saw. How many parties and good or bad drug trips had it been through?

Those times seem to me like the perfect combination of drugs, fame and money to bake a cake that can never be baked again. I think this because I don't feel the same way when I see Gwen Stefani's outfit or what Katy Perry wore in some video. It's not because I am disconnected from current fame, it's because it's not the same. I love Gwen Stefani, but I hardly wanted to run over and hump her gown like when I saw Stevie Nicks'. Which is why it doesn't seem to be a dead god thing either. Stevie's still alive. So is Madonna. So is Johnny Rotten, well, sort of. But who they are now is so not who they were then. Nor could they be if they want to keep breathing.

Is it a love of a time period instead of a love for a people? Damn right it probably is! We all know Gaga is living in some kind of creative haze and Marilyn Manson will never deviate from his norm, yet it's not the same. I believe it's because those roads have already been paved. You can come flopping down a red carpet in a k-hole dressed in light bulbs, but it will never be like the first time.

Unless I'm getting old and distanced from some sort of glamour. Will your 15 year old visit a museum when they are 50 and see Lady Gaga's egg and outfit on display to get chills down their spine? I don't know about you, but I'll still be staring at Marilyn's dress in the next display.

With every new trail blazer comes the statement that it has all been done and said before. Yet with each generation that becomes more and more true. We're hitting the ceiling for recycled fame creations. You can only remake The Hills Have Eyes so many times. They do it once and it's ground breaking because it's never been done. They do it again because they have the technology to do it right. Why do it again?

Before Monroe there was Harlow and there's been a bunch of Madonna's after Madonna. I wonder if people will ever realize that walking on a paved road is hardly interesting. Just because you never walked on it before doesn't make it interesting. Knowing no one ever has walked on it before is what makes it interesting ...