The Boys Are Back

By Ashley Strickland

In the world of music, what’s old is new again.

The original boys of rock are still here and better than ever. The reigning kings haven’t lost their touch and continue to make innovative music.

We have reached a unique point in music history where genres, audiences and generations are beginning to overlap. Baby boomers and college kids can be found at the same concerts. Just glancing at the Billboard Top Grossing Tours for 2008 proves that the older acts can still draw the biggest crowds. Bon Jovi, who have been playing for 28 years, came in at number one, making $210.6 million off the “Lost Highway” tour and reaching out to 2.1 million fans across the U.S. and Europe. The sound of “Lost Highway” is a completely new one for Bon Jovi, and the country-esque “jaunt” proved successful for the tour. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band claimed second, grossing $204 million.

Bruce Springsteen had a whirlwind year in 2008, and has already made his mark on 2009 without any end in sight. Springsteen and his E Street band played the halftime show at the Super Bowl and released their 16th studio album, “Working on a Dream,” which was recorded during breaks while on the road with the 2008 tour to promote his previous album, “Magic.” With no time to spare, Springsteen is racing into the future, trying to accomplish all that he can. Truly, the man hasn’t slowed down since he started in 1972. “Working on a Dream” has been compared to Springsteen’s best album, “Born to Run” of 1975.

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Springsteen commented on this mania.

“It’s a funny thing to say. But I’ve got a deadline! And that fire I feel in myself and the band – it’s a very enjoyable thing. It carries an element of desperateness. It also carries an element of thankfulness. We are perched at a place where we want to continue on – with excellence,” Springsteen said.

Tom Petty is a free spirit born to create music and using that right since 1967. The Heartbreakers did not form until ’76, but Petty became inspired by a meeting with Elvis Presley at age 10. He knew he had to form a band after watching the first Beatles appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1964. Tom Petty has reached great success as an innovator in the music world, as well as paved the way for musicians’ rights to their own songs. He is known for the Heartbreakers and his time with The Traveling Wilburys, a supergroup featuring Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne (of Electric Light Orchestra). But a name that few associate with Tom Petty is Mudcrutch.

Petty’s original idea for a band in 1967 was to form a band called “The Epics.” Always on the cutting edge, Petty thought the name too corny.

“So we picked this really terrible one,” he said in a recent interview, laughing. “Mudcrutch.”

More of a live band, Mudcrutch never recorded an album. Their record company broke apart in 1975 and half of the members became Heartbreakers. Normally, that would be the end of it, a failed garage band put to rest where it stalled in the ‘70s. Not so for Tom Petty, ever the innovator and optimist. When promoting his new album in 2006, “Highway Companion,” Mudcrutch resurfaced in an interview. And Petty was just crazy enough to consider a resurrection. The band reunited and put out an album within two weeks of reconvening. The self-titled album reached number 26 on Rolling Stone’s Albums of the Year and one of the singles, “Crystal River,” was included on the Best Singles list. During his recent tour, which kicked off at the 2008 Super Bowl, Petty played with Mudcrutch in the middle of each concert.

Lawrence Jones, a junior at the University of Georgia, has a passion for classic rock. As a writer, musician and someone who views playing the guitar as an art form, Jones identifies with the revival of Mudcrutch through their words.

“Mudcrutch’s lyrics, as well as other older artists’ lyrics, appeal to me and speak to me due to their simplistic, nostalgic and progressive nature,” Jones said. “They are trying to accomplish something with their lyrics, which gives them strength and purpose, an aspect that much of today’s musicians overlook.”

When focusing on the actual music, Jones believes that Tom Petty is blending old and new to create a unique sound that appeals to a broad audience.

“Mudcrutch is easy-listening music, like much of Tom Petty’s music from the ‘70s and ‘80s,” Jones continued. “The twangy guitar element is present, as is the driven country rock sound – complete with barrelhouse style piano breaks and a dynamic sound that encompasses music from an older generation, hand-picked and delivered directly to ours. Mudcrutch is able to give us a fresh sound that is new, but reminiscent of [classic rock].”

This has become a trend, the original men of rock turning to their past for inspiration and thus creating a new sound.

“It seems that bands now are living past the old expiration date,” said Jordan Stepp, a junior journalism major at the University of Georgia. “While none can quite match those dinos of rock, The Rolling Stones, for sheer longevity, a lot of artists are getting on up there in age. Springsteen and Petty were out in the ‘70s making music and still seem to be holding on great.”

Stepp, the self-titled Athens Music Junkie blogger, works on the WUOG staff as a DJ and within the departments of Operations and Local Music. With a passion for bands like R.E.M. and U2, she is a young expert on older musicians and how they continue to remain progressive.

“R.E.M. has taken considerable steps to reach out to fans, especially young fans, with technology,” Stepp said. “They made video from their first single [off their latest album ‘Accelerate’] ‘Supernatural Superserious’ available to fans to remix, edit and create however they wanted. A Twitter account was set up by the band to allow fans to follow the shows each night on the tour and get live minute by minute updates of set lists, funny happenings and general atmosphere surrounding the tour. They invited concertgoers to take pictures, video and Twitter messages and combine them on a site to create that ‘show’ feeling for anyone who couldn’t attend. It was documentary by crowd sourcing. And the young fans came out in droves.”

But it is the ability to witness this dynamic ability of older bands as they reach out to several generations that is so compelling. Stepp had this opportunity when she attended an R.E.M. concert over the summer. She was in the pit, directly in front of Michael Stipe.

“On June 21, 2008, R.E.M. had just finished a playing a song to their home audience in Atlanta,” Stepp observed. “The crowd - and to some extent, the band - was trying to catch its breath. Michael Stipe walked up to the microphone and conducted a survey...”

“‘If you were born before 1985, please raise your hand.’ About half the crowd lifted an arm.

“‘If you were born after 1985, please raise your hand.’ The other half jumped up in glee.

“Stipe glanced at his bandmates and smiled. They launched into ‘Harborcoat,’ a song that was written before most of the audience had been born. And every last person sang along.”

Stepp can also see U2, whose new album, “No Line on the Horizon,” drops March 3, as following this pattern of looking back to create a new sound for the future.

U2 recorded the album partly in an open-air courtyard of Fez, Morocco and then completed their songs in London’s Olympic Studios, where the Rolling Stones once recorded “Sympathy for the Devil.” Driven by influences from John Lennon to Led Zeppelin, U2 is tapping into the past while utilizing progressive lyrics about the future.

According to Rolling Stone, “The new album mixes some of the loudest and fastest tunes U2 has ever recorded with songs that reclaim the experimental spirit of their ‘Achtung Baby’-to-‘Pop’ Nineties run.” Full of old charm but a new rush, the album is making waves as the single, “Get On Your Boots” drops on airwaves.

“U2 is THE band of the world,” Stepp said. “The [new] album sounds like the familiar U2; whether that is good or bad depends on the listener. Regardless of time, they still retain a stunning level of popularity.”

Ironically, only time can tell where the future will take these energetic bands and performers. For right now, they are exactly where they want to be. They have maintained their original audience while picking up new generations of listeners. They constantly reinvent themselves while staying true to their original creed, creating fresh waves of appeal with each new album.

“When you come down to it, the reason that fans still care is the music,” Stepp said. “It makes you think, feel, move. The songs matter. Young or old, a fan will stand by a band if the music continues to reach them in a way that nothing else can.”

Welcome back, boys. Coasting in on a parade from last year’s success, 2009 seems like it is going to be another incredible year for the original men of music.