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A few years ago Bill Graham, then the country's ranking rock promoter, staged a stadium-sized benefit for the San Francisco school athletics program, which was broke. The affair attracted talent from Santana to Willie Mays, along with some 50,000 ticket buyers, and had a cooperative, positive spirit.
Yet something about it suggested a question: Did Graham think that this frenzy, fantasy and crowd fascination could be harnessed by reactionary forces in the same way the Nazis took control of German culture?
Graham, himself an escapee from Nazi Germany, replied that he thought it couldn't happen here.
Now I'm not paranoid enough to hear coming out of my stereo speakers, but some recent developments speak ill for rock and roll's current relationship to matters of race and religion. The gamut runs from New Wave hero Elvis Costello to the lesser lights of the punk scene. From the utterances of some white rock fans to Frank Zappa's ugly ode to a "Jewish Princess," to punk bands coming on like Hitler's children.
The best-publicized incident concerns the rock and roll tag-team match that took place in Columbus, Ohio, in late March. In one corner was singer-gultarist-Buddy Holly-look-alike Costello and his entourage. Singer Bonnie Bramlett, guitarist Stephen Stills and some compadres held down the other. The festivities began when a drunken Costello punctuated his remarks by
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