Kiss on the eyelid,
Kabuki with a wink .
A nod to theater :
Rock dramatis personae
Rolling forth a
Guitar business plan :
Beatles on steroids .

Crooked esses and
Costumed clowning
Through fog and flamethrowers
And hydraulic drumming ;
Riffing, posing, stomping
And jumping .

Be that as it may,
The boys could play :
Lethal Beatles
With Jagger swagger ;
Whether starry-eyed,
Or with nine lives,
Cynically hadean, or
Electrically alien .

Kiss on the auricle,
The real article .
A potent mix :
Of anthems for pumping fists,
And earworms of heavy strings,
And experimenting
With sound effects and choir,
Orchestra and acoustic wire .

The band wintered
And splintered,
The music nonstop
Past solos, disco and pop .
The Campbellian
Odyssey oddity
Plopped,
But the heroes did return—
Interstellar yells,
Growls and cowbells .

Unmasking and remasking
Superhero
Rock legends
Garishly glam
With anthems galore
And the stamp of camp .

*[ WSB ]_.