Pop Music Reviews : Richard Marx Could Use Some ‘Attitude’ Adjustment

Richard Marx can be seen touting the benefits of subscribing to Rolling Stone magazine in a proliferation of cable-TV commercials. Those are the ads in which he says that rock ‘n’ roll is more than music, it’s an attitude.

So exactly what kind of “attitude” would we surmise modern rock to have from Marx’s representative sample Wednesday at the Greek? For starters. . . .

-- Talent and professionalism . Marx has a smooth set of pipes, a great gift for penning catchy song hooks, and a skillful, workmanlike approach to pleasing the fans. He also has a retinue of solid, show-off players (including ex-local scene guitarist Paul Warren), all of whom provided mindless, undeniably dexterous solos with lots of notes. The goal, well-realized, was to produce picture-perfect reproductions of Marx’s first album of hummable pop confections.

-- Teen female orientation . Shrieking voices screamed by the thousands at the slightest cue--and Marx was not hesitant to provide cues. At least one teen up front appeared to be pulling her hair out, a la early Beatles shows.

-- Condescension . (See willingness to provide cues, above.)

-- Wholesomeness . Marx let loose only one slightly risque comment, and his repeated hip-grinding was unexaggerated enough not to give the parents on hand too much pause. And (to quote Warren Zevon) his hair was perfect.

-- A moral/spiritual/political vacuum . “This is a song about forgetting your troubles and having a damn good time,” quoth Richard, launching into a tune with the veiled threat of a chorus line, “You better get lost in the rhythm of life.”

-- Betrayal . Of the original “attitude” of rock as embodied in the original Rolling Stone magazine (which started publishing when Marx was still well shy of kindergarten). Which only goes to show that the “attitudes” of the counterculture and/or Marx’s counter-counterculture--as his song says--”don’t mean nothing, don’t mean a thing,” indeed.