It’s a Personal Thing…Like a Phil Collins Song.

“We Built This City on Rock-n-Roll” by The Jefferson Starship is a cliché. It has become one of those go-to jokes that everybody is in on, but is still constantly brought up like it’s breaking news? “Have you heard that song by the Starship? It’s horrible.” It’s a lot like pronouncing “Target” (department store) as “Tar-shay” (like cliché). We get it; we’ve heard it a 1000 times.

Cliché aside, it’s really a horrible song and deserves all its negative accolades. Really, if the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame had any balls, they’d ban them for life for this song. Regardless, the songs give me some kind of visceral enjoyment, the same way I find enjoyment in movies like Pointbreak and Roadhouse.

Awhile back the SF Tourism Board asked my Live Karaoke band to play a gig at Pac Bell Park. Yes, the place where the SF Giants play ball. The idea was this: hire bands that represent the diversity of San Francisco and have them play in luxury suite at Pac Bell that represent the neighborhoods of SF (for example, a Salsa band would play in a suite called The Mission. I’m not sure what neighborhood we would’ve represented) and invite SF party planners and pretty much anybody that worked in jobs that dealt with tourists. It would be like a big, multi-culti, look-how-great-we-are SF hug..

Guests would walk down the hallway the led to the suites and partake in different musical flavors that were emanating from the suites. At the end of the evening, partygoers and band members would proceed outside and watch the Jefferson Starship on a big stage in center field. The Starship would play a short set, and then all the band members – including us - would join them on stage to sing “We Built This City on Rock-n-Roll.” It doesn’t get much better than this. I would’ve played this gig for free.

Unfortunately, it was a bad idea – a real bad idea and some smart person at the Tourism Board nixed it. Idiots.