At the beginning of the pandemic, Gal Gadot gathered a group of celebrities to sing John Lennon “Imagine.” There is no reason other than hubris as to why she thought a handful of actors croaking through arguably the corniest song in the extended Beatles universe would be any sort of a balm to us plebes in a time of great unknowns and massive fear. She was handily roasted for this bozo move, which did in fact bring some distraction and joy to the masses, inadvertently accomplishing her goal.
As we near the end of lockdown, Dave Grohl and Mick Jagger have released a stupid anthem of their own. “Eazy Sleazy” is a bloodless look back on the pandemic, treating it more as an inconvenient way to spend a year rather than a nonstop global nightmare and the cause of unfathomable deaths. “Way too much TV is lobotomizing me,” Jagger sings in a way that is so shockingly self-interested and obliviously rich it’s actually offensive. At 77, Jagger is at extremely high risk for a devastating case of COVID. Singing about that might have given the song any sort of relatable stakes. Instead, he complains about Zoom fatigue.
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In the last verse, Jagger seems to take an ironic stance as a flat Earther conspiracy theorist ranting against vaccines, which, OK, is better than making fun of TikTok, another thing he does in this song for some reason. Why does this exist? Did no one around them tell them this was a bad idea? In addition to the lyrics, the music also sucks. Generic rock with little personality, it feels painted by numbers, irrelevant to any current musical moment. I understand that aging in a culture dictated by the young must be difficult, all the more so if you used to be one of the coolest people on the planet, but all this type of posturing does is widen the gulf between now and then.
Gadot deserves no favors, but she was at least only a week into lockdown when she organized her song. More than a year later, Grohl and Jagger could have used the benefit of hindsight but appear to have preferred to wear blinders.
