Steve Sailer writes: It would be interesting to do a big statistical study of the background of rock stars. I suspect they tend to come from fairly high achieving if sometimes self-destructive backgrounds.
The most memorable background for a rock star is perhaps Clash frontman Joe Strummer’s, who pretended to be working class by never brushing his teeth. But Strummer’s dad’s cover story was he was a British diplomat, but was actually MI6 — he was the code keeper at the British embassy who translated incoming and outgoing messages for the James Bonds. Joe’s dad was good friends with Soviet spy Kim Philby.
Joe was head boy or whatever it’s called at his boarding school in England
The more I learn about Joe, the less I think about Joe’s ostensible leftism and the more the name “Rudyard Kipling” comes to mind. Joe’s dad was born in Lucknow, India, where Kipling’s protagonist Kim went to boarding school.
Joe’s last released song during his lifetime was “Minstrel Boy,” which plays over the credits in Sir Ridley Scott’s Somali war movie “Black Hawk Down.” “Minstrel Boy” is what Sean Connery sings on the rope bridge at the end of John Huston’s adaptation of Kipling’s “The Man Who Would Be King.”
The minstrel boy to the war is gone,
In the ranks of death you’ll find him
His father’s sword he hath girded on,
And his wild harp slung behind him
“Land of Song!” cried the warrior bard,
(Should) “Tho’ all the world betrays thee,
One sword, at least, thy rights shall guard,
One faithful harp shall praise thee!”
The Minstrel fell! But the foeman’s chain
Could not bring that proud soul under
The harp he loved ne’er spoke again,
For he tore its chords asunder
And said “No chains shall sully thee,
Thou soul of love and bravery!
Thy songs were made for the pure and free
They shall never sound in slavery!
* Punk depended on young men, and young men being rewarded for being rebellious, shocking, and kicking dirt right in the face of respectability. Attitude mattered more than virtuosity and the music was fast and aggressive; music to mosh to not dance like a disco inferno. And yes it was very anti-Black and anti-Gay, the two linked in gayer than gay and Blacker than Black disco.
Can the same dynamic work today? I dunno. Maybe. It will depend on how many alt-righters are seen to be rewarded. By sex, bluntly.
