According to the Sunday Times of London, organizers of the 2012 Summer Olympics approached the manager of Keith Moon recently to ask if the Who drummer would be available to play as part of the closing ceremonies in this year’s games.
The manager replied that unfortunately, Keith was booked at another venue and would be unable to appear.
Keith will now have to share that gig with another famous rock drummer, the great Levon Helm of The Band, who died this week after a long fight with throat cancer. Helm, an Arkansas boy who never lost touch with his roots, played a central role in American rock history in the ’60s and ’70s.
And then, of course, there was the passing of America’s oldest living teenager, Dick Clark, longtime host of American Bandstand. Clark, too, played a critical role in the development of rock and roll, helping to convert it from a dangerous, rebellious form of music to a mainstream business opportunity. To Clark’s credit, he performed that function without ever seeming to lose respect for what that music really was. He was rock’s ambassador to mainstream American culture.
I thought for a while about how to mark the passing of both Helm and Clark. The most obvious way would have been to post an appearance by The Band on American Bandstand, but I’m quite sure without even researching the question that such a thing never happened. Let’s just say that Clark and Helm moved in different circles.
So, as a compromise, we turn to the Righteous Brothers:
– Jay Bookman