Saturday, July 17, 2004

SANTA FE MUSIC WARS

Lordy lordy, I leave town for a few days and a civil war breaks out amongst Santa Fe musicians.
 
As Anne Constable wrote about in The New Mexican a couple of days ago, (Read it HERE ) David Lescht, who heads the Summer Bandstand committee hated my brother Jack Clift's Plaza performance so bad he cancelled three other "improvisational" bands that were scheduled to perform. Not only that but he fired Jeff Sussman from the committee, apparently for hiring Jack and the other bands.
 
Since Jack is my brother (yes, different last name. But we're brothers. Ask him ...) I have an obvious bias here.
 
I've always liked David and have admired and written about his program Outside In, which brings music to prisons, hospitals, retirement homes, homeless shelters etc. But these recent actions make him seem like he's trying to be the Ayatollah of rock 'n' rolla.
 
And all to please the tourists?
 
Reminds me of the last verse of "The Bozo Buck Stops Here," a song I wrote in the late '70s partly about the frustrations of being an original musician trying to get gigs in a tourist town:

"I never could pull off any John Denver image,
I'm not as sensitive as Jackson Browne.
And as hard as I might try I'll never look like Linda Rondstadt,
So they won't let me play my tunes in this here town
I'm sick and tired of trying hard not to scare the tourists
When maybe all they need's a shot of fear
(BOO!)
Just keep 'em out of touch and it won't hurt 'em very much
When the Bozo Buck stops here."

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