There is a bit towards the end of the film American Graffiti where a guy who is about to leave home for college is trying to get in contact with a girl, and is trying his luck by getting a dedication out on the airwaves. He goes straight to the god of the airwaves, Wolfman Jack, the guy that knows all, sees all and is the voice of the generation.
CURT
I’m looking for a girl.
MANAGER
Aren’t we all. She ain’t here. Come on back to the booth.
Curt walks around through a few more glass doors and ends up in
the booth with the manager.
The manager sits down and leans back, turning a fan to blow on
his large chest. He’s a large, friendly looking man; he wears a
Hawaiian shirt. He sucks on a popsicle. Curt stands awkwardly.
MANAGER
Hey, have a popsicle. The ice box just broke down and they’re
meltin’ all over the place. You want one?
CURT
No. Thanks. Listen, ah…
MANAGER
Have a popsicle.
CURT
Are you the Wolfman?
MANAGER
No, man. I’m not the Wolfman.
Now we know that this guy is the Wolfman, or is he? Some of us may be taken in, the rest of us are asking, why does he lie? You may feel disheartened that a hero such as he is being so unfair to the kid.
The manager leans forward and picks up a spool of tape. He holds
it up as a magician would for audience inspection, then puts it
on a machine. A record is about to end. As it does the manager
punches some buttons and the record segues into a Wolfman howl
and then the distinctive Wolfman voice takes over. The manager
adjusts the monitor volume down and sucks his popsicle.
WOLFMAN (voice over)
Who is this on the Wolfman’s telephone?
DIANE (voice over)
Diane.
WOLFMAN
How’re you doin’, Diane?
DIANE
All right.
The station manager smiles at Curt, who is watching the tape and
blinking lights of the large console.
MANAGER
That’s the Wolfman.
CURT
He’s on tape. The man is on tape.
Here’s the rub. The Wolfman is on the tape.
The guy later goes on to say:
Listen, it’s early in the morning. Now, I can’t really talk for
the Wolfman. But I think if he was here he’d tell you to get your
ass in gear. Now, no offense to your home town here, but this
place ain’t exactly the hub of the universe, if you know what I
mean. And well–I’ll tell you this much–the Wolfman does come in
here now and then, with tapes, to check up on me, you know, and
when I hear the stories he got about the places he goes. Hell,
here I sit while there’s a big beautiful world out there, don’t
ya know. Wolfman comes in last time talking about some exotic
jungle country, handing me cigars he says was rolled on the naked
thighs of brown beauties. The Wolfman been everywhere and he seen
everything. He got so many stories, so many memories. And here I
sit sucking on popsicles.
Last weekend a bunch of DJ’s relived the pirate radio days on board LV18 in Essex. It was great, really, but somehow the magic has gone. What is really missing is the voice from a box, you know, the one you thought could conquer the world, sees all, knows all etc, and now, by virtue of a webcam, you know that they are grey and balding. Does it matter? No, providing that you know that although DJ’s like Johnnie Walker (who looked great by the way, my gosh, he’s one of the few personalities I actually fancy like mad) probably helped change the face of music in the UK, they are human and not the be all and end all as life as we know it. Behind the microphone, he’s Johnnie Walker. Away from it, he is Peter Dingley. I got to thinking that it’s no wonder that some personalities ‘lose it’ if they have to be someone else hour after hour, day after day. And Johnnie/Peter did ‘lose it’ once or twice. Didn’t stop him being a legend, but it does make him human. I bet there were times when he wished he could say, nah, I’m not Johnnie Walker. He’s on those tapes there. Blessedly, Johnnie found his sanity, although getting shockingly close to the Great Rocumentary in the Sky, and gradually Peter and Johnnie became pretty much the same person.
Neil Tennant once wrote “When you’re young, you find inspiration in anyone who’s ever gone”. I think we should remember that inspiration is the key, and not emulation, and definitely no pretence.