In uncertain and stormy times past, popular culture has repeatedly found itself self-medicating its internal angst through musical tirades shouted in the most current voice. The questions and certainties of the day often caught in a musical diary that is both reflection of and inspiration for the collective soul. Back in the day, when the skies greyed with the threat of conflict and destruction, and darkness loomed on the horizon, the air suddenly filled with song, as we so desperately tried to let our light so shine before men. The Big Bands plucked primal gut strings even as our eyes and ears were filled with fears of the faceless Axis demon, and mythic celluloid dancers turned a slightly scandalous toe, wrapped in a blanket of recruiting slogans..

When the edges of the propaganda posters began to peel, and We the People took a collective peek underneath, our inner vision was accompanied by the brasher tones of rock musicals that hacked at the roots of the socio-political bramble, leading listeners down a newly hewn path of insight into, through and beyond contemporary cultural and spiritual programming . These heralds of the new Age of Reason recognized the power of their work to encourage society took take a peek over the fence and a good long look in the mirror. "Where is your Messiah now?"

And now, when a long contemplation of the national navel is demanded more than ever before; when the walls of Jericho should be torn asunder by the sonic scream of this generation; who will give us the next great rock opera? Who will rise above shameless self-promotion and musical masturbation to stir the heart, groin and intellect of a hungry modern consciousness? Where is our counter-cultural anthem, our defining lyric? Is it hopelessly drowned out by the callow commercial lowing of the mass market cash cow? Or it out there in the field, slowly taking root and ready to rise up and raise our eyes again?

As for me, I can only wait, fight for my meals, and hope that love will reign o’er me.