it's a long way to the top

I sometimes think what I love most about rock are songs about rock life, especially about life on the road. Why not blog about it? Warning: what follows reveals my fundamental un-coolness. 


Let's start with this, from Bon Jovi. I love everything about this song; it always convinces me that Jon and the boys suffer greatly while on the road, and that their suffering and alienation is indeed majestic.  The video confirms the fact of their communal suffering. Note the pained look on Jon's face as he pounds the window of the tour bus at 1:47: I am persuaded that it's very hard for Jon to be all alone and think. 
I feel his pain, and I know you do too, Dear Reader: because black and white footage makes everything look great, and everyone elegantly wasted. 

There's also this wonderful piece of rock melancholia from Bob Seger. It's a reminder that once upon a time, wearing long hair entailed personal risk and alienation. 

The mystic chords of memory. Ah, the Seventies! Ah, America! Ah, sexually transmitted disease! 

(Recommended: Yo La Tengo's cover of this on YouTube)


I've always associated these two songs because of their shared vision of the loneliness that comes from growing old in rock. 

But this is the greatest, or at least my favorite, song about growing old in rock.  "Ballad of Mott," etc. is about the pain that comes from realizing there's no escape from choices you made when you were and foolish. Finally though, the song is about turning suffering into an affirmation.  Mott opened their 2009 reunion show at the Hammersmith Apollo with "Ballad": I have to stop typing now, my tears are splashing the keyboard...

The post has already gotten a bit unwieldy, so I'll just mention "Range Life," the slacker version of Mott's "Ballad" by Pavement, and you can find it yourself on YouTube :)