With the economic downturn there is the news that a host of US industry icons will go under. Already Chrysler and GM are caught up in bankruptcy and chapter 11 proceedings. It is yet another sign of the changing face of the US economy. First of all the sprawl of the malls (and Walmarts in particular) put paid to the main streets of all of the mid size and small US towns. Now there is the news that a significant number of corporate entities will not see the end of the year and there will be wholesale closures of certain franchise brands. The empty tumbleweed mainstreets of middle America will be played out again, to a degree, in the huge malls that cover the nation. While I doubt that anyone will have shed any tears for the demise of Lehman Brothers or Bear-Stearns Investment houses the job losses for the firms in other sectors other sectors will be huge. It is tipped, for instance, that Borders, Avis, Gap, Crocs, Eddie Bauer (think a HUGE Paddy Palin outlet) will all pass. Of course the demise of AIG is really a just a slick, weasely re-branding. The company it will just resurface in a new guise as AIU, which is such a transparent effort at corporate re-invention as to represent an affront to the American nation that has bailed them out.
Beyond the impact of the jobs there is also the news that a number of iconic car brands – like the Pontiac – will disappear forever. This has not a whit of bearing upon Australia of course, but think what it will mean for songwriters the world over. If Bruce Springsteen can’t sing about Thunderbirds or Chevrolets or Pontiacs what will he be left with? It seems hard to think of any driving rock song – or even melancholy ballad – being written against the backdrop of driving around in a hybrid Prius. Admittedly the recent Chrysler models have not inspired any musos to come up with homages to their creations (think the Saturn, Cruiser or Sebring). In short the transition to economical, hybrid sensible cars is at odds with the whole ethos of rock and roll. Muscle cars like the Mustangs, Valiant Chargers or the Falcon 500 (alright I confess, I had to google to find their names!) are the dinosaurs of the new millennium and their demise leaves me with mixed emotions. While the journalist PJ O’Rourke has recently published a paean to the passing of the muscle-car era (see the link below) I admit, upfront, that I was never really into cars. While the other kids are high school were reading car magazines (or hunting magazines, or war comics) I was into music magazines, science fiction, football (soccer) and super-heroes (at different times, on some occasions over-lapping and some to this day). My history of car ownership is singularly “un-musclecar-ish”…comprising VWs, Charades, Toranas and Astras. So the news of the demise of Pontiac and, more recently, the dramatic down-turn of the fortunes of Harley Davidson, leaves me with mixed emotions. Clearly Harleys are not just the vehicle of choice of outlaw biker gangs alone. That much strikes you when you drive on any pleasant Sunday afternoon along the highways of California. They are clearly the recreational vehicle of choice of a vast number of baby-boomers. A recent article tracing the downturn in Harley Davidson’s fortunes noted that the average owner was now 49 and the average income of owners was $89000. The signs are clear too that the demise of the baby-boomers has not been matched by an uptake amongst riders from the younger generations, who are going across to BMW, Honda and Yamaha.
I have to declare at the outset (no doubt to the horror of my nephews who love bikes) that the most powerful motorbike I have ever ridden was a 125cc farm bike on a block outside Robinvale. It was a singularly unimpressive beginning, with Graeme Payne finally stopping me and begging me to try and change up the gears so I didn’t thrash the bike in first. I never really graduated beyond that one humiliating experience. Which makes me a bit like the character in the Lemonheads song “The Outdoor Type”. Evan Dando certainly nailed it when he sang about the character who:
… lied about being the outdoor type
Ive never owned a sleeping bag let alone a mountain bike
I cant go away with you on a rock climbing weekend
What if somethings on tv and its never shown again
Its just as well Im not invited Im afraid of heights
I lied about being the outdoor type
Never learned to swim cant grow a beard or even fight
I lied about being the outdoor type
I would, in my defence, argue that I am a tad more of the outdoor type than the character in the song. I mean I do own a sleeping bag and I can swim but I have only attempted to grow a board and well, going rock-climbing or …riding a motor-bike or fixing a car!!! In short I have to admit to being an absolute abject failure in cars and bikes. But the Harley and muscle cars are both symbolic of so many things and the signs of their passing bring on a wave of nostalgia in me (despite having never owned and having no desire to own either, well perhaps I have secretly coveted a 1967 mustang convertible). It is questionable whether Harleys will even survive as the ultimate symbol (along with the red sports convertible) of a mid-life crisis, which was so cringingly lampooned in the movie “Wild Hogs” with John Travolta, William H Macy, Tim Allen and Martin Lawrence. One wonders if that will leave the Harley Davidson driving off into the sun-set as a distant memory, like a scene from Easy Rider. In very un-Springsteen fashion I am left to ponder whether, as Joni puts it, “you don’t know what you’ve got till its gone”. Perhaps I had better slip down to the Harley dealer before its too late!
PS
Links to some of the stories I mentioned above
Harley Davidson decline article from the New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/business/economy/22harley.html
P J O’Rourke article on why Americans fell out of love with cars
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203771904574173401767415892.html
Mall closures in the US
http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/17/news/economy/retail_wasteland/index.htm?cnn=yes&eref=edition_business
Disappearing brands
http://247wallst.com/2009/04/15/twelve-major-brands-that-will-disappear/
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