The Wannabees

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.In many ways, the Wannabes arrived in the wrong decade... Born of frustration and privilege, the Wannabe Rastafari are a case study in contradictions... Many believe they changed the face of pop music, others pass them off as drunken erudite hacks.But what cannot be disputed is the passion for the music.The Wannabees glory years span 1986 to 1989. Formed at UC Berkeley by The Fearless Jeff G, Jerry Whiting, and He Who Must Not Be Named, The Wannabes took the local music scene by storm. Alas, by 1989, He Who Must Not Be Named graduated from the stuffy halls of Berkeley and ventured out into the "real world" of Stanford, forever eschewing the evil temptations of Rock And Roll and instead fawning over exotic cheeses and bad football teams.Without the focus of a "Lead Singer", the remaining members of TWR lost focus and never recorded as a group again. I've met hundreds of people who claim to have been at the final Wannabe Rastafari Show on that fateful day in 1989 (alas, at a venue that could barely support 50... so goes the stuff of legend)... Of those who claim to have been there, a foolish look of pseudo-hipness crosses their face... But for those lucky few who were ACTUALLY THERE... those precious individuals who witnessed the final TWR show... a tear comes to their eye.A tear for the end of an era. A tear for the loss of innocence... And a final lonesome tear to say goodbye to a raucous youth that can never be reclaimed.Fools or Kings... It doesn't matter. All Hail the Wannabe Rastafari.