PR and Lying Are Not Synonyms

There are limits to everything, or at least there should be. One of the things we deal with as music fans are press releases that stretch the boundaries of truth. Every time an album comes out, someone is telling us it is the best thing a band has ever done, or that the aging musicians have never played and/or sung better, or that they are more excited now than at any point in their career.

We know this is puffery, but we put up with it because we know they have to make the new music sound as appealing as possible. We allow for a degree of self-delusion for the purpose of selling us what they're offering, because there is a universe in which it's possible these people believe what they're saying. Most of the time, these things go in one ear and out the other. But every now and again, something is said that stretches the line of credulity so far it snaps, and hopefully recoils directly into their eye, blinding them for the sin of being dishonest.

That happened recently when I came across a song from a new project. I pressed the play button and started reading the description. I didn't even get to the chorus of the song before I had already written it off as being too morally bankrupt to bother with.

The key phrase came when it described the singer as having "become the frontman of the Dio band, renamed Last In Line".

Bull-fucking-shit he did.

The Dio band ended when Ronnie James Dio passed away, full stop. Last In Line was an attempt to cash in on his legacy, put together by someone Dio had been feuding with for decades. That group had not been 'the Dio band' in decades, and they were not 'the Dio band' as it was when Dio passed. It was no more 'the Dio band' than if Ringo Starr tried to call his solo tours The Beatles.

Here's the thing I don't get; Why isn't the truth enough? Being chosen by former members of Dio's band to be the frontman of their 'tribute' to Dio is fairly high praise. Putting out multiple albums that some people (but not me) enjoyed proves he is a capable singer. So why the need to lie?

Maybe this is just the time we live in now, where the truth doesn't matter. We see that every time we turn on the news, so why should music be any different? That feels too easy, though. What I think is going on here is a manifestation of the pathological weakness we now inhabit. Writing a song is no longer enough, it has to be on par with the classics. Having notable musicians play on that song is no longer enough, they all have to be legends. After a while, we hear so much of this laughable hype that we start to tune it out.

When was the last time you heard a band say their new work is their best ever and actually believed them? We are smart enough to know how the PR game works, so the usual gimmicks aren't effective on us anymore. Running through the old cliches isn't going to move the needle, because moving the needle is itself an old cliche.

What would actually work is telling us the truth, and trusting the product to win us over. Every time bands lie to us like this, it makes it harder for anyone who is telling the truth to be believed. The well is poisoned by those who don't care if anyone else has to drink from it, and most of the time it's all for nothing.

Notice that I've yet to mention the song's name, or the fact that for all the hype it's entirely mediocre and forgettable. I think that makes the point; someone knew the song itself was not going to make an impact on its own, so they were looking for a way to drum up as much interest as they could. Congratulations, I don't think this is what they had in mind.

Is this a bit overboard for a single sentence on a YouTube video that the musicians themselves probably didn't write? Perhaps it is, but I think it speaks to character, and not just with regards to honesty. The whole idea of this project is to pay tribute to the classic rock they grew up worshiping, and to bring music back to those glory days. How much do you actually revere that music if you disrespect it? Anyone who loved Dio knows that the version of the band with Vivian Campbell was not 'the Dio band' after "Sacred Heart" was released. More than two decades came and went with many other musicians filling the roles, solidifying that Ronnie James Dio was Dio.

It's a simple fact that the members of Last In Line were not the Dio band when Ronnie passed. If anyone had the right to make the claim they were the continuation of that group, it wasn't them. They were a version of the Dio band, but by the end they were the spare parts that allow us the paradox of The Ship Of Theseus.

For these people to claim the replica was the original is a slap in the face to everyone who actually did love Dio. If they can't respect the past, if they can't respect what they claim to hold so dear, why in the blue hell should I respect them even the slightest damn bit?