Time You Enjoy Wasting Is Not Wasted Time

I was listening to Alice Cooper’s radio program tonight and he was complaining that Led Zeppelin wouldn’t be touring because Robert Plant would rather do his folk tour with Allison Krauss. He felt that Plant owed it to his fans to tour with Led Zeppelin. That is an interesting concept. Do musicians owe anything to their fans? If I go see Tom Petty in concert but all he does are Tupac covers certainly I would be pissed since there would be the expectation that he would be playing mainly his songs, specifically his hits. Similarly if an artist plays only B-sides and unknown songs, even if they are originals, the expectation of the concert would be broken. Generally concert goers are not only going to see the band, but to hear the band play specific songs. And that is unfortunate for the musician.

I can imagine that after 30 years you might want to do something different. I’ve been at my current place of employment for just under seven years and already my job is vastly different from what it was when I started. I could only imagine the frustration that goes along with doing the same thing, playing the same songs, over and over again. Don’t you want to hear the new stuff I’ve been writing? No way! Now play Stairway to Heaven again! The closest thing I could relate musically is when Cheese Log had a ‘hit’ song and we left it on the set list long after we would have liked to take it off. Why, because that was an expectation our fans had. They wanted to hear that song, so we played it. So yes an artist has a certain responsibility to live up to their fans expectations.

However, an artist should also have the right to move on and grow. By refusing to tour with Led Zeppelin and instead do something different Robert Plant is making a conscious choice to tell his fans he wants to do something different. At least he’s up front about it. It’s not like he’s selling tickets to a Zeppelin concert and then doing nothing but folk and bluegrass. That would be breaking expectations and people would rightly be angry. But he’s not doing that and I salute his decision as well as his right to do it. He does not have a responsibility to tour again with Led Zeppelin if that is not what he wants to do. So sorry Alice, I think you are way off base on that one.