The Day the Music Died Mad Mark After Dark, the man that hates everything except the real thing, writing to you from the deepest, darkest, depths of hell. In a futile journey of going from one dirty and dark club to another, searching for that one special band and not having much luck finding it, I decided to take a well-deserved break from berating and criticizing all of you until right now. With all of the holiday season and all of that miserable, fake cheer thankfully behind us, it felt like the perfect time to put pen to paper and write once again. With February, the second month of the new year and one of the saddest months of rememberance in music history in front of us, we remember, or at least I remember, the great legends: Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, Richie Valens leading off the the trail of tears on the third of the month, leaving us back in 1959. I remember a recent death from, oddly enough, the bass player of the Buddy Holly Band and country music legend Waylon Jennings's anniversary of passing on February 13, 2002. The saddest for me, and the day that I consider the day the music really died, was on a Thursday morning, February 21st, 1980. Bon Scott, who is my ultimate hero, has inspired me to do all the things that I've ever done, that has opened my eardrums up to everything. I'll never forget hearing the news on the radio, when Carol Miller on the then Album-Oriented Rock station WPLJ waking me up that very cold morning to go to school with the news. I didn't go to school that morning because I wasn't able to. I always promised myself that I would keep his memory forever alive in whatever I did. So, I became, "Mark After Dark" in his name. What will the rest of this year and this, the Underground Scene hold for Rock-n-Roll? Who will be the next ego-maniac, rock star, wannabe? It could be you, or it might be your glamorous friend sitting right next to you at the bar, guzzling a beer. You know, his world famous band just happened to play at The Continental last Thursday night. The club was packed with every scenester in town, pictures were taken, interviews were done, history was made, egos were stroked. As I've said time and time again, most people on this, the Underground Scene, play in bands not because they like music, but because it's more of a status symbol than from any true devotion to music. That explains why the music is so good and you can remember each and every song, just like all the classics. Most of the greatest rock stars that actually made some sort of dent in Rock-n-Roll History left their egos at the door and decided to concentrate on writing songs that most people can sing to and remember. Also, most of you DeeJays at the local bars love playing this stuff before your friends go on stage for their evening of classic romping for their fifteen minutes of fame. For example, in the AC/DC movie"Let There Be Rock", Bon Scott was asked by the interviewer, "Do you think you're a star?" Bon's answer probably would not be any of your answers. His response was simple and direct, with a laugh and a smile, "No, but sometimes I see stars." In another interview for BBC Radio One Network dated interestingly February 1978, Bon was asked, " How does it feel to be a rock star?" His response yet again was truly admirable; it was like he had never left the club circuit. "I don't know. I'll let you know when I get there." At this point in his career, he was playing to packed arenas as frontman for AC/DC, opening up for the top acts of the seventies, like Aerosmith, Ted Nugent and during the 1979 tour, Bon was asked why he wore a Lynyrd Skynyrd belt buckle on stage. It was a tribute to one of my heroes, Ronnie Van Zant, who died as a Rock-n-Roll Martyr in a plane crash two years before. Had that not happened, AC/DC would have opened for them on the Highway to Hell tour. The most important thing Bon Scott taught me about making good music, which still holds relevant to this very day, is that besides being able to possess the art of listening to all kinds of music, it's also about being a fan. Bon always said in most of his interviews, "Being a Rock fan made me what I am today" If it wasn't for Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry, I wouldn't be standing on the stage, belting out and putting my full heart into it." You can hear his ode to his heroes in a song called "Rock In Peace", which is on the original "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" album, not the 1981 reissue. I always thought that the people on the Scene made fun of me because I am a music fan, and get excited whenever I get a new CD or concert video, or when I discover a band that I like. I don't notice that reaction towards anyone else on the Scene. The thing I notice the most is that most of you are too cool to be fans, and being a Rock fan is beneath you. You believe that you ARE the band, that you ARE the number one reason that you're on stage. You want people to like what you do without having any idea of taking the music past where you found it. The people who are really smart and who have real talent will know how to do that and will struggle to do exactly that. That's a real musician AND fan. Making good music takes passion, not just posing. Bon Scott was able to combine real soul, real passion for the music with painful soul mixed with alcohol and a shot of straight blues to become a god in my mind on stage. He was allowed to pose, but he was never a poser. There's a passion on this current scene, but it's not for Rock-n-Roll. It's a passion to see and be Scene, to find out who looks cooler, not about what sounds better or what sounds amazingly best. If you read the lyrics on "Rock and Roll Damnation", Bon said it all, "Take a chance while you've still got the choice." Most people on this scene wouldn't get what he was trying to say: "It's a hard life for putting you down" Bon always thought that the music was chosen for him, not by him. Most of you have chosen the music for YOU, and that's where your mistake comes. There's nothing inspired in what you're doing. There's no deep blues, no soul. These qualities made him and others like him real artists. This article is dedicated to my number one hero, who died twenty-three years ago this month, and I will never forget him. A candle is lit in the wind for ya, as always. Back to Mark After Dark BACK TO HOME