Just before today's editorial meeting, I ran to the post office, returning with a big, flat envelope for Brad. It contained an editorial cartoon, a dandy bit of illustrated rebellion. Someone's upset that Duane Allman and Berry Oakley's graves are being fenced in and kept away from their fans. Apparently, one of their family members stakes out Rose Hill and had "security" posted during the Georgia Allman Brothers Band Association (GABBA) Festival, an event that actually draws people to Macon to enjoy something that isn't related to the blossom of a fruitless tree.
While I'm a casual ABB fan (compared to the sometimes rabid ones I meet) and wish that the city's music heritage as a whole were as present in our minds as the Allmans are, I'm taken aback by the stupidity. Yo, I know you want respect for your family members and that makes sense, but those dudes were sitting on other people's plots smoking weed and whatnot back in the day. I think the more respectful thing would be to let the tradition continue... or at least to let folks see the damn things.
It brings this to mind: Macon hails its music history and does little to build on it, choosing instead to mimic it. Yeah, I just said the tradition should continue, and that's what I mean. Let weirdo artists be themselves and stop trying to exhault people who you didn't even like when they were alive. How many folks embraced the long-haired hippies? How many in Macon really thought Little Richard was awesome? How many thought he was just a cross-dressin' negro? How many felt like Otis Redding should be hanging out with the Waldens? Yeah. Exactly but today they're all our favorite folks. (When they're remembered at all.)
Macon is probably not much different, in attitude, now than it was "back in the day". And that means, if any weirdo artists are reading this, that you still face an uphill battle for respect here. More than likely you'll have to die first. Or leave town for good.
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