"and prog bands are playing clubs in Tokyo if they can get a paying gig at all."
 
Maybe they need more cleavage and/or tattoos.

bitflipper
My initial reaction to this song was very upbeat and positive, despite its dreary lyrics. Why? Because it filled my teenage mind with hope for the future of commercial music - people were actually making a living playing inventive, interesting stuff! 
 
Fast-forward to today. Britney, Gaga, Justin and Kanye fill stadiums and prog bands are playing clubs in Tokyo if they can get a paying gig at all. Ah, to be 18 again and full of hope.

I am not into the "public" and "crowd" mentality and a lot of it has to do with the situation in our old country, that used propaganda and this kind of top ten activity to get it's way, and to tell people that it was the right thing to do and enjoy.
 
I never really looked at it "to be 18 again and full of hope", because I am more of a dreamer today, than I was when I was 20, spoke almost no English and was having a dreary and hard time in high school, with the likes of Bapu (Hehehe!!!)  playing games with my head! It wasn't fun. But you knew right away, who "meant it" and who didn't care ... and there is a HUGE difference for me.
 
"Fame" is a type of "control" mechanism ... and we need to get off that bus, so we can be free to do what we want to do with our art ... otherwise, you will only have your 15 minutes and tomorrow you will file for bankruptcy and feel destitute the rest of your life, and hopefully you can get things straight again and come out of it not damaged.
 
Fame is not about art, and never was. Reminds me of a PBS thing on Picasso, when someone did not like what he did in front of the camera and he said ... "I don't care" ... that's your problem. And we have to learn to do that to this so called "popular" thing. 
 
As a reminder, a certain label and group in the 70's could not compete and one day they decided that they would start their own top of the pops list ... and a year later? Huge with fake sale numbers and such ... but the label became known world wide! Well, to be fair they had good stuff, but they also ripped all of those folks! Mike Oldfield, Tangerine Dream and Gong, are still owed money and royalties!
 
Create your own list ... and debunk that "fame" thing on many of those folks. BUT, it tells you which media company has invested in those folks ... otherwise they would never be shown the light of the day!

I thought Fame was a song by David Bowie!

craigb
I thought Fame was a song by David Bowie!

Actually I pretty much paraphrased Dave Cousins' comments on his book.
 
It's a tough book that was really neat to read, but I can not figure out how to write a review for music folks, since 2/3's of the book is about his work in radio in England, and Strawbs, during that time, was behind the scenes. I guess you could say he was broke and Strawbs wasn't cutting it, but it's hard to tell.
 
A lot of really good stuff, though.
 
But going back to "Epitath" ... again, I find the song really sad, when taken away from its real context, and how much it meant at one time to so many people. Pure anti-war song, but it's no longer that.

I was always full of Scope. I wanted to have great breath so all the girls would want to kiss me and have wild exuberant sex with me. Plus...it was a cheap high.

yorolpal
I was always full of Scope. I wanted to have great breath so all the girls would want to kiss me and have wild exuberant sex with me. Plus...it was a cheap high.

Yeah ... and you even had your Scott Mckenzie hat on?
 

 
(By that time, I had my Grace Slick finger on!)