THE REST OF THE RECORDS ON YESTERDAY’S LIST ARE FROM AMERICAN GROUPS—BUT OH THE DIFFERENCE:
THE ONE SONG (in this case almost) WONDERS: The Kingsmen’s miracle with Louie Louie: In 1963, The Kingsmen were playing local teenage nightclubs and highschool proms in Portland, Oregon. A local DJ liked what he heard and asked the group to make a demo. One hour and $40 later, the record “Louie Louie” was sent to Boston and a disc jockey in the area began playing it. The rest, as they say, is history.
(Louie Louie sold more than 12 million copies and reached and held #2 positions on pop charts for several weeks)
The Kingsmen were catapulted into overnight stardom. The next 5 years found the band on the road with many major groups” on tours. http://www.classicbands.com/ KingsmenInterview.html They were almost a one hit wonder until 1965 when their
“Jolly Green Giant” made it to the top 10.
OLD SCHOOL ROCK and BLUE EYED SOUL: RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS were around long before I got into Rock and Roll and were makin’ music as the 60’s changes started to rock a lot more than R&R. “The vocal duo of Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield virtually defined the term “blue-eyed soul.” As the Righteous Brothers, they cut a string of hits that fared well on both the pop and rhythm and blues charts: “Unchained Melody” (Number Four pop, Number Six R&B), “(You’re My) Soul and Inspiration (Number One pop, Number 13 R&B) and their masterpiece – and one of the seminal singles of the rock and roll era – “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ (Number One pop, Number three R&B). In the mid-1960s, the Righteous Brothers became a fixture on Top Forty radio and the televised rock and roll variety show Shindig!, on which they guested frequently. Medley’s commanding baritone and Hatfield’s forceful tenor ranked among the most indelible voices of that charmed era.” https://rockhall.com/inductees/righteous-brothers/bio/#sthash.emJiqLNW.dpuf
SURFIN’ OR CALIFORNIA ROCK: BEACH BOYS: “The Beach Boys are an American rock band that were formed in Hawthorne, California in 1961. The group’s original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their friend Al Jardine. Emerging at the vanguard of the “California Sound“, the band’s early music gained international popularity for distinct vocal harmonies and lyrics that evoked a southern California youth culture of surfing, cars, and romance. Influenced by jazz-based vocal groups, 1950s rock and roll, and doo-wop, Brian led the band to experiment with several genres ranging from pop ballads to psychedelic and baroque, while devising novel approaches to music production and arranging.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beach_Boys
PSYCHEDELLIC: THE DOORS were like we hadn’t heard before and may never again, they brought us the true essence of the craziness we were living through: The Doors, one of the most influential and controversial rock bands of the 1960s, were formed in Los Angeles in 1965 by UCLA film students Ray Manzarek, keyboards, and Jim Morrison, vocals; with drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robby Krieger. The group never added a bass player, and their sound was dominated by Manzarek‘s electric organ work and Morrison‘s deep, sonorous voice, with which he sang and intoned his highly poetic lyrics. The group signed to Elektra Records in 1966 and released its first album, The Doors, featuring the hit “Light My Fire,” in 1967.
AND THEN IT WAS 70’S
1. Stairway to Heaven – Led Zeppelin
2. Imagine – John Lennon
3. Hotel California – The Eagles
4. What’s Going On – Marvin Gaye
5. Born to Run – Bruce Springsteen
6. Layla – Derek and the Dominos
7. Superstition – Stevie Wonder
8. Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen
9. Bridge Over Troubled Water – Simon and Garfunkel
10. Let’s Stay Together – Al Green
LED BY ZEPPELIN: They did get big once they changed name from the New Yardbirds. Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The band’s heavy, guitar-driven sound, rooted in blues and psychedelia on their early albums, has earned them recognition as one of the progenitors of heavy metal, though their unique style drew from a wide variety of influences, including folk music. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Led_Zeppelia
ANOTHER BRIT AT NUMBER TWO: JOHN LENNON recording alone after the break-up of the Beatles (who didn’t outlive Christianity) which some think started ” In February 1968, the Beatles went to study Transcendental Meditation at Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram in Rishikesh, India. Something about the whole venture seemed to transform Lennon in ways that nobody readily understood; after that, according to insiders, he always seemed angry. The truth is, he was in great despair; all he had to save him was his art, and even that wasn’t relief. “Although … I was meditating about eight hours a day,” he later said, “I was writing the most miserable songs on Earth.” http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/why-the-beatles-broke-up-20090903#ixzz3kn2OCvZp
AND ONE MORE A GROUP THAT WASN’ T EVEN A ONE YEAR WONDER AND WAS BOTH BRIT AND AMERICANS: Derek & the Dominos was a group formed by guitarist/singer Eric Clapton (born Ripley, Surrey, England) with other former members of Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, in the spring of 1970. The rest of the lineup was The group debuted at the Lyceum Ballroom in London on June 14 and undertook a summer tour of England. From late August to early October, they recorded the celebrated double album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (November 1970) with guitarist Duane Allman sitting in. They then returned to touring in England and the U.S., playing their final date on December
AND THEN THE AMERICANS:
GROUPS
THE EAGLES: The Eagles chronicled America in the high-flying Seventies, a time of rapidly changing social mores leading up to what they called “life in the fast lane.” Between the lines, their favorite subject matter was the pursuit and unraveling of the American dream. They began as wide-eyed country-rockers on the fertile Los Angeles music scene and evolved into purveyors of grandiose, dark-themed albums about excess and seduction. The Eagles were defined and bounded by the Seventies, forming in 1971 and parting ways in 1980. They were born again in 1994 as public demand for their music and messages persuaded them to reunite.” https://rockhall.com/inductees/the-eagles/bio/
2. QUEEN WHICH WERE WELL FLAMBOYANT?: “Queen’s popularity continued to soar through the late 70s and early 80s. “We Are the Champions,” off of News of the World (1978), became a Top 10 hit in the United States and in Britain. It was featured on a single with “We Will Rock You“—both songs have taken on a life of their own as popular anthems played at sporting events. Always exploring new and different sounds, Queen also tried their hand at the big music trend of the time, with the disco-flavored “Another Bites the Dust” in 1980. Off that same album, The Game (1980), Mercury and the rest of the band showed their range as performers with the rockabilly-influenced hit “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” which Mercury penned. ” http://www.biography.com/people/freddie-mercury-9406228#queen
THERE WERE OLD & NEW MOTOWN/SOUL REPRESENTATIVES:
1. MARVIN GAYE: Whom we noted previously. Gaye would not survive long beyond the 70’s: moved into his parents’ home in late 1983 at a low point in his struggle with depression, debt and cocaine abuse. …was in horrible physical, psychological and financial shape, and now he found himself living in the same house as the man” His father who was a minister and apparently an abusive parent”….After an argument between father and son escalated into a physical fight on the morning of April 1, 1984, Alberta Gay was trying to calm her son in his bedroom when Marvin Sr. took a revolver given to him by Marvin Jr. and shot him three times in his chest. Marvin Gaye’s brother, Frankie…later wrote in his memoir… Marvin Gaye’s final…. statement … “I got what I wanted….I couldn’t do it myself, so I made him do it.” ” http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/marvin-gaye-is-shot-and-killed-by-his-own-father
2. STEVIE WONDER, WHO DIDN’T LET DISABILITY STOP HIM: Stevie Wonder is an American musician and a former child prodigy who became one of the most creative musical figures of the late 20th century. His hit songs include “Living in the City,” “Boogie on a Reggae Woman” and “Isn’t She Lovely.” http://www.biography.com/people/stevie-wonder-9536078#synopsis
3. AND FINNALLY THE REVEREND: AL GREEN: Born on a farm in Dansby, Arkansas on April 13, 1946, Al Green became a popular soul singer whose hits include 1971’s “Let’s Stay Together.” While at the top of his career in the 1970s, Green became a reverend and chose to focus on gospel music. Years later, Green found a balance between his religious calling and secular music and went on to release several new albums.
I GUESS I’D CALL BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN THE EVERY NEW YORKER’S MAN’S MAN: Bruce Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and humanitarian. He is best known for his work with his E Street Band. Nicknamed “The Boss”, Springsteen is widely known for his brand of poetic lyrics, Americana, working-class and sometimes political sentiments centered on his native New Jersey, his distinctive voice and his lengthy and energetic stage performances, with concerts from the 1970s to the present decade running over three hours in length. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Springsteen
While I never got Springsteen I loved Simon and Garfunkle but I’m not including them here as I don’t consider them rock but rather Folk.
Most rock journalism is people who can’t write, interviewing people who can’t talk, for people who can’t read. Frank Zappa (c. 1970s)
THE 80’S
And it just kind went down FROM there
- Ultravox – Vienna
- Bon Jovi – Livin’ On A Prayer
- Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Relax
- A-Ha – Take On Me
- Guns N Roses – Sweet Child O’ Mine
- New Order – Blue Monday
- Dexys Midnight Runners – Come on Eileen
- Bryan Adams – Summer Of ’69
- Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart
- Human League – Don’t You Want Me
I’ll tell you about punk rock: punk rock is a word used by dilettantes and, uh… and, uh… heartless manipulators, about music… that takes up the energies, and the bodies, and the hearts and the souls and the time and the minds, of young men, who give what they have to it, and give everything they have to it. And it’s a… it’s a term that’s based on contempt; it’s a term that’s based on fashion, style, elitism, satanism, and, everything that’s rotten about rock ‘n’ roll. Iggy Pop
John Lennon.. “I’ll probably be popped off by some loony”. His reply when asked in the 1960’s how he expected he would die.
FETCO INTERNATIONAL EMBOSSED WOOD 3.5 X 5″ $8.00
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AND AFTER THAT I GRADUALLY LISTENED LESS AND LESS
1990s
- Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit
- Oasis – Wonderwall
- Oasis – Don’t Look Back In Anger
- Bryan Adams – Everything I Do, I Do It For You
- Aerosmith – I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing
- James – Sit Down
- Pulp – Common People
- The Verve – Bittersweet Symphony
- REM – Everybody Hurts
- Guns N Roses – November Rain
As I define it, rock and roll is dead. The attitude isn’t dead, but the music is no longer vital. It doesn’t have the same meaning. The attitude, though, is still very much alive — and it still informs other kinds of music. David Byrne
and my current favorite star isn’t rock any more:
Jamie : “Harmless as a setting dove,” he agreed. “I’m too hungry to be a threat to anything but breakfast. Let a stray bannock come within reach, though, and I’ll no answer for the consequences.”
Chapter 4: I Come to the Castle – Page 86
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“I dress to kill, but tastefully.”
— Freddie Mercury
