Summer of "Huh?" Late Sixties Reappear in Bizarre Flashbacks

In a strange confluence of space and time, 1969 (and thereabouts) found its way into several recent news items: George Winston covers The Doors. Yes artist Roger Dean designs houses. Bowie hits Wall Street. The Hendrix family feuds. Joan Osborne fronts The Dead. Jagger, The Doors & Bowie find themselves on a "Worst Artists" list. What's happening, man?

For starters, according to Blender magazine, the absolute "worst artist in music history" is the rather contemporary Insane Clown Posse. But the ultra-hip (just ask them) editors did not confine their long knives to recent times, reaching back in time to scorch the following rock oldies as part of their September "50 Worst Artists in Music History" feature:

• 2. Emerson, Lake and Palmer
• 6. Kansas
• 19. Dan Fogelberg
• 21. The Alan Parsons Project
• 37. The Doors
• 50. Iron Butterfly

Spinoffs and side projects fared badly. Starship (which sprang from Jefferson Airplane) ranking 5th worst, Asia (from Yes & King Crimson) ranking 7th, Tin Machine (with David Bowie) at #12, Mick Jagger's solo work right behind at #13, Rick Wakeman (of Yes) at #42, immediately followed by Mike and the Mechanics (a Genesis side project) at #43.

Traditional hipster whipping boys the Grateful Dead and King Crimson were spared this time around. (And why no Milli Vanilli?)

And consider this long, strange convention of summer news stories:

• New Age pianist George Winston is on tour, promoting "The Night Divides the Day," his CD of... Doors covers. In a recent interview, successful, self-described "folk pianist" claims, "The biggest moment of my life was the first time I heard the first album by the Doors in 1967," and that his 1980 album "Autumn" is "right out of the first Doors album." Who knew? And does Winston wear leather pants on stage, we wonder?

Artist Roger Dean, who drew all the trippy-drippy artwork and logos for progressive rockers Yes, has resurfaced in the real estate business. More accurately, he has translated his unique vision of homes and villages, which adorned many album covers over many decades, into actual products, perhaps spurred on by the recent popularity of ring-bearing Hobbits and their cozy, angle-free warrens (or the Teletubbies, who appear to have copied some of Dean's designs). He hopes to create entire communities of his affordable "Homes for Life" across Britain.

• Glam pioneer and perennial chameleon David Bowie is back in the news for his Bowie Bonds. (Not to be confused with San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds.) Six years ago Bowie "securitized" his future royalty streams by selling them for $55million to an investment group, which then issued bonds backed by those expected residuals. This set off... well, not actually a flood, but a stream of such sales by other artists, although the name "Bowie Bonds" stuck. Recently, the bond rating service Moody's has placed the original Bowie Bonds "under review" because of concerns about how much revenues they are actually generating. It may be that a savvy Ziggy Stardust got out of the market at the top -- before Internet file sharing turned part of the music industry to icky sawdust.
  
• The family of the late Jimi Hendrix is squabbling over the right to direct his legacy. [see also Vibrations feature in July issue]. Two separate organizations are vying to be the legitimate voice of the innovative guitar icon. Stepsister Janie Hendrix's "Experience Hendrix," which controls the estate, has been marketing everything from air fresheners to golf balls and boxer shorts using his likeness, as well as recordings of his music and other artists. The "James Marshall Hendrix Foundation," started by Hendrix's late father Al, is appalled -- and pursuing other ways to spread his message. Brother Leon Hendrix has been left out of the estate, and out in the cold.
  
• The Dead (no longer Grateful) have been on the road this summer with a new line-up to "adjust for," not "replace," the late guitarist-icon Jerry Garcia. Fans have been buzzing all season about their choice of Joan Osborne as vocalist. Osborne, best-known for her 1995 hit "One of Us," has been rising to the challenge of pleasing their very hard-core, fussy fans; breaking into a decades-old "boys club"; steering around the ghost of the much-loved Garcia... and learning all those songs. Osborne told the New York Times, "This whole experience has been really intense and really difficult, especially learning this huge amount of material. I'll literally get a set list in the afternoon that has five or six songs on it that I've never even heard of, and then spend the entire rest of the day... learning my parts... The next day the set list will be completely different."
  
• A recent essay in MusicDish points out that boomers are getting back into music. With their kids grown or otherwise taking care of themselves, and more time & disposable income available than before, Mom & Pop are getting the band back together, and finding their lost roots. Larry Mistrot writes, of the revival of these long-dormant musicians, "Musicians that were born and bred in the 60's were raised on a fundamental understanding of what makes popular music work." They also have already had careers, don't obsess about musical fame, and even have catalogs of old material to rework. With Adult Alternative audiences growing, classic bands still drawing crowds, and the Internet allowing purchases without facing the disdain of young retail clerks -- Mistrot says we shouldn't be surprised if the next Beatles are Beatle-aged.

Visit Blender magazine and find out about the "50 Worst Artists in Music History" (Sept. 2003), read their complete list of 50 on MSN, and sample some news coverage on Yahoo news

Read a story about George Winston and his new Doors homage, or find out more about the recording on Amazon.com

Visit George Winston at his own site or at his Dancing Cat label

Visit artist/designer/architect Roger Dean at his site, and read a New York Times article about his housing business [fee required]

Visit David Bowie at his site

Learn more about Bowie Bonds with an overview of how they work, the original announcement, a "Who’s Who" in Bowie Bonds and the recent Fortune article [fee required]

Browse Linda Davies' novel Something Wild, which uses Bowie Bonds as a central plot point, at Amazon.co.uk

Read the New York Times article about the Hendrix controversy [fee required], then see the dueling family sites, Experience Hendrix and the James Marshall Hendrix Foundation

Visit Seattle's Experience Music Project, which recently opened an expanded collection of Hendrix memorabilia

Visit The Dead, reincarnation of the Grateful Dead, at their web site. including information about their Summer 2003 tour with Joan Osborne as vocalist, then learn more about Joan Osborne herself

Read about Osborne and the Dead in Rolling Stone and the New York Times [fee required]

Read about what Mom & Dad are really up to in Larry Mistrot's essay on MusicDish