A while back I was informed that a Who clone band from Toronto (where else?) was disbanding and there was a send-off concert bash for them. My retort was "Is the drummer going to drink himself to death on stage?" Apologies to Keith Moon fans, but you get my drift. Clone bands, at best an exercise in extremely bad taste are now an epidemic.
How did this revolting situation come about? The first clones were of Elvis Presley, the man most call the King of Rock and Roll. The majority of the Elvis clones chose to emulate the Pelvis in his latter pathetic period when he was mentally unstable and addicted to numerous drugs, because the whole clone trend satisfies a cruel pathetic urge in the bowels of the public psyche. The audiences who go to see the bearded lady at the circus, the dog-faced boy, the dead baby in the jar, the people who slow down at an accident to see the charred bodies up close are those you'll find gawking like idiots at a clone concert.
When several of rock's deities died, they became targets for clone 'musicians'. Jimi Hendrix, the Doors' Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin all have clones. There are four Rolling Stones clone bands in Toronto alone, and as many Led Zeppelin clone bands. I count two Creedence clone bands, an AC/DC clone band and now, obscenity of obscenities, there is a John Cougar Mellencamp clone band and they have played Carleton University at lease twice in 1986-1987!
Make no mistake, I am not castigating the bookers and club managers. They would gladly put a two-headed pig that skipped rope to the theme from Gilligan's Island on stage if it meant they could make a buck off it (and it probably wouldn't be in a union either). Even then, some would, deep down, be aghast at the death of and dearth of originality and integrity in music today. So why does this abominable situation continue?
Borderline musicians with no principles exploit the 'meat-head' factor. Mentioned earlier, the 'meat head' factor is best described as a lamentable lapse in taste and judgement, either temporary or chronic. Everybody makes mistakes. But when the 'meat-head' factor begins to not only impinge upon, but to infect and violate the integrity of the live music scene, it is time for a righteous crusade against the deplorable degeneration of the music.
I am not, let me stress, talking about top-40 bands. They have always been around and always will be. Their selection and breadth of cover material can, in some cases, be interesting and it surely must be fairly hard work to cop the licks from so many different styles of hit songs. But--when one goes to lengths such as dressing, looking and acting exactly (well...) as the star(s) do/did, then this becomes a disgraceful, tasteless juvenile act, devoid of any redeeming artistic value whatsoever. It is the worst kind of artistic prostitution.
True, the Rolling Stones copped Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. But they turned it into something slightly different. Did they put on black face and act like a bunch of bluesmen from Chicago? No, they became arguably the best band ever by avoiding the temptation to merely clone their heroes. The Beatles too. Any band worth anything~ will have influences. To quote Harmonica Frank, "If you don't take something from somebody, you ain't got nothin'.' That doesn't mean Rory Gallagher starts a band called "Rock Island Line: A tribute to Leadbelly and Lonnie Donegan". That would be degrading, insulting and should be neither tolerated nor excused, let alone patronized.
Going to see a clone band? Shame on you.
Tony McLean is a former CKCU announcer and the co-producer of the Fenton Brothers' recently released EP--' Whatever It Takes'. TRANSFM AUGUST 1987 page 16