SVZ

Steven Van Zandt is a man of great wisdom.

When he is on air on Underground Garage, in between songs he tells stories, gives you a little history, offers obscure information about colorful characters and lots more. I live for these breaks in the music; I love the man.

His inspiration for launching Underground Garage on Sirius XM was his love of fifties music and his despair at how it got pushed aside by sixties rock. But also about the connection between the fifties and the sixties, and the continuing evolution of rock 'n roll and rock 'n soul into 2022 and beyond. His playlist blows your mind.

His knowledge is complete, his love of the music is deep.

Yesterday he gave a short dissertation, a brief history of the origins of early rock, fifties into the sixties, beginning with guys like Muddy Waters. He wound it all up by focusing on the contributions of one man - Bob Dylan. Said something like "if you were going to write songs that were personal, political, intelligent, and revolutionary - you got one man to thank for opening the door and opening eyes - Bob Dylan."

I never thought of it in those terms, but his words hit me right in the face. What I got out of it was that there was this evolution of rock music over decades that reached a pinnacle with Bob Dylan. Not that it has stopped evolving, just that this one man was so central to making music life or death to my generation.

This is one reason why I love Steven Van Zandt.

He delivered the commencement address at Rutgers University in 2017. Here is some of what he said (I'm cherrypicking) :

"Our contemporary society has forgotten what greatness is because it has no time for it. Nobody expects to experience greatness. We may not even recognise it if we saw it. Reason why greatness is scarce is because development is scarce. Development takes time. Don't let the desperate panic of mediocrity that is all around you, uncomfortably hurry your development process. Anybody who needs an answer right now, you say 'No'. You'll make your own opportunities, you'll have the choice to choose the path to greatness, in spite of our contemporary society's low expectations. It'll be up to you.................

Summing up, what did I learn in this crazy life? Two things might come in handy. When your ship comes in, you'll probably be at the airport. You can make all the plans you want, but keep your eyes open for the unexpected opportunities because that's where most of life comes from............ 

Don't compare yourself to your contemporaries, compare yourself to the best...........Hang out as often as you can with people smarter and better than you..................Don't listen to excuses and negativity about why something can't be done.....................Don't tolerate incompetence and mediocrity...........And give a little back on a regular basis, doesn't matter how small. You don't have to bring down a bad government everyday. Just do something nice for somebody. You'll feel better."

I did some research to find out who gave the commencement speech at my own graduation from Northeastern University in 1977. First of all, it says a lot that I don't even remember who it was. Looks like it was Ted Kennedy.

I would have learned a lot more from Steven Van Zandt.