Super Opportunity Lost

I must admit that I ended up watching the Super Bowl last night.  Well, that's not entirely accurate.  It was on in front of me but, I paid it little attention.  The only reason it was on is that we couldn't find a movie that interested us as an alternative.

The ads probably received more of my attention than the game, although they really were not particularly interesting.  The only one I thought had merit was the one set at an awards banquet which had all of the old players in attendance that ended up scrambling for the football.  It was creative and entertaining.  I don't know what they were advertising though.

I really wanted to see the halftime show and was much more focused on it than I was the game.  I wanted to hear the music and listen to the words.  All of the hype prior to the game had me expecting something a bit more profound.  What I heard instead was noise.  Lots of noise -- except of course the parts in which the profanity of the rappers was muted by the broadcaster -- thankfully.

I think every "successful" musician needs to periodically watch the movie "Pure Country" in which George Strait plays a musician that becomes lost amid the glitz and glamour of spectacular shows.  In the end the movie brings the message that it should be all about the music because it is the reason he took the path in the first place.

I had no idea who Adam Levine and Maroon 5 were until I saw him on The Voice.  I am not a fan of his music, but he is extremely talented both vocally and as a guitarist.  I didn't hear that last night.  What I saw was an attempt at "wowing" the crowd with fire and drones and a subtle social message of multiple races dancing and singing together on stage beneath a drone message of "one love."  I really just wanted to hear good music.  I couldn't even understand the words.

Probably the best concert I ever attended was Ricky Skaggs in which he did a purely acoustic set alone on stage.  There was no band to back him, no crazy lights or glitz and glamour -- just his pure, amazingly talented performance of music.  Nothing beats live music for lifting the spirits or, conveying a message.  Too bad the musicians themselves have lost that knowledge.