simon cowell apparently has noted in an interview that he is bigger than springsteen and should therefore be compensated five times as much because he has sold five times as many records in the past five years than Bruce has. to be sure, cowell has contributed significantly to the musical sewage that pollutes our TV and our airwaves. he has shown how incredibly gullible people can be — it has been reported that Idol winners make so little cash because plenty of it ends up in cowell’s and other Idol producers’ pockets. it also shows just what a greedy, uncaring person cowell is — it’s not like he actually uses any of that cash to do anything to help anyone but himself; and considering he sucks that money out of a lot of the poorest and most desperate americans, he should be ashamed. but the best part is how little those American Idol fans care about any of that. people want instant stardom so badly, continuity and longevity mean little to them. i want the world, and i want it now.

if there was any ambiguity when john lennon said that the beatles were bigger than jesus, there certainly isn’t any with cowell’s statement. people threatened lennon’s and the other beatles’ lives; they burned beatles records; they said some nasty ugly things. all because they thought jesus was being slighted. i don’t expect anything but snide remarks from springsteen fans. the Boss, himself, probably won’t dignify this stupid inanity publicly, though privately, he probably is laughing at cowell, i’m sure.

i wonder what cowell was doing in 1973, when bruce started out. i wonder whether cowell will ever actually produce anything of merit, anything lasting, anything beautiful during the course of his career. he certainly hasn’t yet. has he taken any risks? has he broken out of the formulaic, moved away from taking UK hits and bringing them, lock, stock and barrel, onto US screens?

i wonder whether anyone will remember him in 30 years.