Time Is On My Side

So you’re a bar band.  You start out playing Chicago Blues and 50’s R&B.  Rock and Roll takes over.  Then things move on to Motown, Psychedelic, Hard Rock, Disco, and Alternative.  How the devil do keep getting gigs through all these changes? 

Answer: you become the Rolling Stones.

Hurry Hurry Hurry

I have this friend ...  he says he loves Rock and Roll, but he thinks punk is rubbish, and he can’t stand heavy metal, which - according to him - is exemplified by Led Zeppelin and AC/DC.

Yes, he is older than me.

I try in vain to explain to him that Zeppelin and AC/DC are Rock and Roll bands, but he won’t have it.

I say: “Listen.  There is no difference between You Shook Me All Night Long and Communication Breakdown and I Want To Be Sedated and Roll Over Beethoven (either The Beatles or Chuck Berry, take your pick).

The sound may differ, but it’s the feeling, right?

Well, You Know

Yes, it’s a political song, but when I hear John screaming “alright!” at the end of Revolution, I hear him saying: we already showed you we could do everything else.  Did you think we couldn’t handle hard rock?  We’re still punks, you know.

You Need Not Look Too Far

Probably not too many people remember Hot Smoke and Sassafras by Bubble Puppy, but I do.  And it’s great.

Genrification

Speaking of genres (well, I was two posts ago), wasn’t it all so much easier when we though of everything as just pop – or rock ‘n’ roll (take your pick)?

But this genre thing is outta control.

I mean, I get that Easy Listening and Pop and Rock and Folk and R&B and Hip Hop just don’t cross paths too much any more(except maybe on awards shows).  I’m inured to the fact that rock has gone through all this cell division so we’ve got Folk Rock, Punk, Metal, Alternative, Prog, Indie and so on and so on and even more so on.

I’ve slowly come top recognize that we need additional labels such as House and Psychobilly, and Emo and Hardcore.  I guess they serve a purpose.

But brother, when I browse some online music sites, I’m overwhelmed by all these weird genres:  Doom?  Sleaze?  Sadcore?  Red Dirt?

Really?  What are these about?

OK, you can kinda guess what Melodic Death might be like, or Screamo, or Horrorcore, or Trip Hop.  Gothabilly you can almost picture (or hear, I guess).  Ditto Acid Folk, even Swamp.  I think.

And it turns out most ‘em have entries in Wikipedia, so I suppose there’s more than one band doing them.  But simple folk like me have to be enlightened as to why we need Shoegaze, Glitch or Grime.

But some of this sub-genrification is kinda pointless isn’t it?  I mean, Wikipedia defines Street Punk as “a working class-based genre of punk rock.”  Hello?  Was normal Punk something reserved for the upper class?  Like The Sex Pistols gave us music for Toffs?

Maybe some of these bands are just trying to distinguish themselves in ways that don’t involve their actual music.  Maybe they’re having us on.   Noir?  Heartfelt and Lyrical?  Youtube?  Jack Daniels?

I think I need a swig.

I Put A Time Bomb In Your Submarine

Let’s play a game.  Picture a band doing a long jam that kinda summarizes everything that’s au courant, you know, everything that’s going on around them.

OK, when I say au courant, I mean sometime around 1970, since that’s about where I’m stuck.

Anyway, imagine them doing a really good job, so good that you find yourself thinking, “gee, that bit could be Zeppelin, and that bit sounds like The Moody Blues, hmm was that Cream or Deep Purple, maybe Black Sabbath?”

I came up with Alice Cooper’s Halo of Flies.  How about you?

No One Here Gets Out Alive

In each of the six decades since the birth of rock and roll, you can find some magic, and you can shake your head and wonder how anybody could listen to such rubbish. 

But for me, the 70’s is the big enigma.  Some of the best rock, much of it indelibly stamped into the concrete of our collective consciousness, was made in that decade.  And I couldn’t do without it.  But it was a confusing decade, one with little or no direction, a time of extremes and excesses.

Hard rock, prog rock, power pop, funk, metal, disco, jazz fusion, punk, folk-rock, singer-songwriter … and the leisure suits.  Brother.

The 70’s were not kind to a lot of 60’s icons.  The Stones, Clapton, and The Who, for example, all had their moments, but really they drifted through with mixed results.  Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd triumphantly pushed through, and then collapsed at the finish line.  Deep Purple didn’t make it.  The Beatles and Hendrix didn’t even get out of the starting block.

The energy that began as punk and coalesced into New Wave was certainly welcome.  It brought some much-needed focus to all that aimless thrashing about.  To borrow from Rossini’s invective against Wagner, the 70’s had wonderful moments, and dreadful quarters of an hour.

Shaking At The Knees

AC/DC’s Thunderstruck belongs right there in the dictionary as the picture beside the word(s) rock and roll.  It’s got it all:  Angus Young’s riff buzzing around your face like an aggressive wasp, a driving rhythm from the drums and bass that feels like a runaway train, mindlessly juvenile lyrics, a soccer chant that conveys an urgent menace – and three (four?) guitars with absolutely perfect tone.

If you want to study how to write, perform, or produce a rock song, look no further.  Brian Johnson’s vocals, Angus Young’s solo, Malcolm Young’s rhythm, the sound of the mix  - they are all perfect.  And, what – three hooks?

Go have a listen.  Take a breath or two.  You’ll need to, because you’ve been thunderstruck.

Arena Rock

The 70’s was (were?) a good time to be a young rock fan, so says the Rolling Stone Readers Poll on the 10 Best Metal/Hard Rock Albums of the 1970s.

Sure.  Until things got a little excessive.  Then again, it was better than disco.

Anyway, here’s the list:

  1. Zeppelin - IV

  2. Zeppelin – Physical Graffiti

  3. Sabbath - Paranoid

  4. Deep Purple – Machine Head

  5. Van Halen

  6. AC/DC – Highway to Hell

  7. Aerosmith - Rocks

  8. Kiss - Alive

  9. Sabbath – Master of Reality

10. Montrose

I know I’m in the minority in my inability to adore Black Sabbath and Kiss, but it certainly isn’t a surprise to find them on the list.  At least Zep and Deep Purple are well represented.

Then again, a strong case could be made for a top ten list than only had Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple albums.  OK, ok, we’d need a couple of AC/DC albums to get to 10, and that wouldn’t hurt one bit.  But you know, Houses of the Holy, Deep Purple in Rock, Made in Japan … these were big records.

Not complaining, just sayin’.