I dont know all that much about the myth of Sisyphus except that there was a man named Sisyphus who was somehow sentenced to eternally pushing a rock up a hill.
Well, i feel like i can really relate to this idea on a couple levels. One is that he's pushing a rock and i'm pushing a Rock Music. The other is that being in a band trying to make a living and get recognized and make it into the higher levels of bandhood feels alot like i would imagine eternally pushing a rock up a hill feels like.
Because, its eternal- this work never stops. More people to call, more emails to send, more promo packages and materials and flyers to pass out and put up and more shows to book farther into the future, more legalities to handle, more meetings, more false white horses that dont carry you away like the pegasus you thought they were, more broken dreams....
Then there's the equipment, heavier than many rocks, that needs to be lifted and carried and set up and torn down and carried and put back, whether it was a 3 hour show or a 30 min show. Eternal.
Also similar to the rock pushing is the toll it takes on your body. To be screaming and jumping and dancing and shredding and dragging up entertainment value every show from the depths of your soul is exhausting. Its awesome but it is tiring and, owwwwwwwwww!
Its like we're pushing Rock and Roll up a hill. But the trick is, its show business. Which means it needs to be seen as pure magic. Nobody should know that we're ACTUALLY pushing a rock up a hill! They need to see mythical golden nymph lords of east arabian music heaven up there casting starlight and infinite purple glory down upon their thirsty senses.
But i've found the best way to convince others of something is to first convince yourself of it. Which is where the ROLL comes in. When i think of roll, i think of something going fast, downhill. Which means that the whole point is to make myself and thus everyone else fully believe that instead of pushing a big heavy rock up a steep hill, i'm actually just a dude hanging out with a nice friendly rock which is effortlessly rolling DOWN a hill.
If you watch a good ballerina, you see somebody light and graceful, easily gliding and bouncing around. You don't see how hard it is, the strain, the years of discipline and effort, and the concentration and personal battles going on inside. You see Magic!
Which is what rock and roll is supposed to be too, in my opinion. Rock and Roll performance is a tasty cake that is made of hours of practice and lifting and calling and trying and fighting and driving and researching and hoping and comparing and sulking and praying and mixing them in a bowl of determination, pouring it into a pan of faith, and baking it in an oven of ACTION, and it comes out tasting just like MAGIC.
Its a victory over gravity. The rock effortlessly rolls itself up a hill. Because its Rock, and... ROLL! Its the fundamental primary rebellion which fuels rock and roll. Not merely the specific little rebellions against your parents, your school, your government, your society, it goes much much deeper and gets much more primal than that. Its the rebellion against the forces of nature and against that which IS. A rebellion against Gravity, against time, against reality, against the forces that have trapped us in this difficult dimension where rocks go downhill and can crush our soft little bodies. Rock and Roll has been around since the beginning of time, it is a river that has been swam in for centuries, because it is the fundamental rebellion against the fact that life is HARD. If you get to the core of specific rebellions, they all lead back to this primary one anyhow.
If your government is bothering you and you need to be a rebellious person who sings about hating the government, well, is it really the government your hating? The only reason you could hate them is if they could cause you pain, and they didnt invent this world where pain exists. We must rebel against pain. Against existence. Rock and Roll to me is standing up and making the most heartfelt and complete noise you can to scream at gravity and pain and death which trap us all and make us scared and make things baaaad. It is the ultimate victory of mind over matter. Of fantasy over reality.
Its pushing a giant rock up a hill for all eternity; yet headbanging and screaming and ripping a badass solo and dancing the primordial mating dance and feeling the adrenaline surge of the whole universe all the while.
-Rushadicus, jan 8 2010
animated