Over the weekend many of the world’s brightest stars, both past and present, performed in New York, Washington, Toronto, Atlanta and other places around North America in concerts benefiting the victims and families of the September 11th attacks. Their stated collective goal? To raise money.
But was there something else at hand? Record sales maybe?
Now call me one cynical Diablo, but why did almost every act mention that this song or that was their “new single”?!?! If the only goal was to move people, and not units, then who cares whether or not someone was playing a “new single.”
Let me specifically focus on one artist. Now I don’t want to use his real name, so let’s call him Elton John. No, let’s call him Reginald Dwight. It was reported that ole Reg graciously gave up his time to perform at The Concert For New York City to raise money for others. Now, out of all of the hundreds of songs in his catalogue that he could have chosen to justly capture the moment, “Tiny Dancer”, “I’m Still Standing”, “Empty Garden”, etc., what song did he choose to open his two song set?!?! “I Want Love”. His “new single” from his just released new album.
And he isn’t the only culprit. There were many others. But I don’t have the time, space or inclination to list them all, so let me digress.
The shows that featured our culprits will raise money for the less fortunate and, who knows, maybe these artists need the money too. After all, because of the attacks many of them are being forced to cancel their tours. And that has to hurt financially. Maybe not as much as losing a loved one in an act of terrorism, but it probably hurts nonetheless.
But then again, maybe I should just stop thinking so much. Maybe it is just that the performers sang songs from their latest releases. After all, many people in America will be thinking about “new singles” for the next little while. The people who lost a wife, husband, fiancĂ or lover are just that: a new single.
But it’s unlikely that they will ever see the top of any chart, except the chart of compassion, which is what I thought these weekend concerts were supposed to be about.
I’m Dan Reynish.