A few years ago while hanging wih some friends watching bands at New World Brewery in Ybor City, I spotted a guy inside with a T-shirt with the word "REBEL" (in all caps) written across his chest.
That seemed odd to me - would a real rebel, say Marlon Brando, wear a T-shirt proclaiming him thus?
And, what makes one a real rebel?
Remember Brando in "The Wild One"? When asked what he was rebelling against, his character simply muttered, "What have you got?" I'm not sure Brando ever came out and declared himself a rebel. It all makes me think about the handful of rock 'n' roll artists who feel the need to depict themselves in song as iconoclasts and are therefore suspect to real rebels. These include:
(1) BILLY JOEL, who spent his entire pre-paunchy youth telling us what a badass he was in songs such as "Only The Good Die Young," in which Joel taunts that nice Catholic Virginia to come out and have sex with him. Don't forget "You May Be Right," wherein Joel sings about riding his motorcycle in the rain. "You may be right,' Joel sings, "I may be dangerous." Whoo, dangerous indeed.
(2) MICHAEL JACSKON never tires of telling the world want a tough guy he is, but his rebel declaration rings most clearly on the anthemic "Bad," wherein he demands the whole world needs to answer right now just to tell you once again who's bad. (Um, you?)
(3) According to JOHN MELLENCAMP's "Authority Song", he's always fighting The MAN. But, he laments, he just can't win.
(4) "Wanted Dead or Alive" let us know that JON BON JOVI was a cowboy* , but metaphorically so, since it was "on a steel horse" he rode. What is that? Like, a car?
(5) It takes a a special guy to sing that he's "Bad To The Bone." GEORGE THOROGOOD is so -b-b-b-b-bad, he also drinks alone. (see; "I Drink Alone.')
* All country music fits into this category. Singers of that genre are constantly lauding their own rebelliousness.
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