Tag Archives: rock’n’roll

Pockets of Pop Rock

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I’ve read the description and gone back over my experiences of pop rock as it emanated from radio but still haven’t grasped what it is. Or what pop is. So in the time-tested tradition for this blog, let’s wing it

I Want To Make It Happen

Each word that occurred 
absurd as the bird who can't sing or fly
yet you're asking me why
is it reason or treason that still makes us try
I want to make it happen baby

I want to make it happen dearest one 
So I've tried and applied on every side
to coin a phrase this coincides
with down at heel or a done deal
[CHORUS]

I've shredded and shedded past proclivities
axed exactly  those other activities
I've still stilts to stall guilt  
 billed as built
 
Each voicing of choice in the matter
exempt from attempts to be flattered
I shoulder this responsibility
selling a solar powered soliloquy 
[CHORUS]

Genreveal later

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I believe songwriting is less about authenticity than it is fidelity to the song. While you can play games that you know beforehand are not going to come off, the preponderance of time spent in serious purpose, as it were,  is on working up a song rather than working out a song or shoehorning a song.

That said, you have to know what you’re treading lightly around before you can do so successfully. The folk musics of Macedonia or Malta or Madagascar or Mali or Mexico are bound to have exerted their influence at some point in history and we have learnt from our own traditions as much as we have ignored, say, ritual music or rural music found nowhere else. It’s true that the blues and other regional music forms do make their presence felt in far off approximations. Regardless of what you think of the Bluesbreakers or Blues Influence or other variously identified by the music they play, bands. No matter what opinion you hold on the Yardbirds or any white group that did a blues cover ever.

One can readily say the same for jazz and rock’n’roll. Not to mention disco, funk, rhythm’n’blues, soul, gospel, rap,

Two things to bear in mind:

  • in the early pre-recording days of field music, songs were passed on from one musician to the next, often with embellisments or swapped lines;
  • nobody preaches authenticity to the makers of Moog sythesizer recordings nor trouble to argue the origin or adherence of someone with an emulator under their arm

I’m going to do something foolhardy and argue with the viewpoint of a black female singer and touring band leader, and say that I don’t think it’s as cut and dried as saying that it’s rock music when some white band plays it and then R & B when the black guy does it. Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley are in all likelihood the premier rock’n’roll singer-songwriters. What Buddy Holly wrote and Bill Haley didn’t write are essential part of the canon but they don’t have either the number of classics nor the resonance. There are enough covers of Who Do You Love? out there to sink a rockin’ battleship.

 

Rockin’ Role

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Does this draft conform to rock’n’roll? Or does it have the spirit of rock’n’roll? I’m going to say no to both: yes, it’s got a car and a girl, it deals directly with a relationship that’s taking place right now in the narrative. But it’s not simple; it tries to sneak too many things in and once you start getting layers you’ve moved on from old time rock’n’roll.

With both sexes behind the wheel as evinced by the Beatles’ Baby You Can Drive My Car and Big Black Cadillac with its memorable “she said Balls to you big daddy I ai’n’t never coming back”

There is quirk aplenty in rock’n’roll but you’ll find every novelty number stays assiduously with its premise, be it Monster Mash or Pommy Jackaroo. It’s more of a New Wave (i.e. the stuff that was around at the same time as punk rock) tactic to draw the listener down two different paths, never mind retain a radical indeterminacy. We’re used to these appearing in several of the rock genres but, if the thought had crossed those songwriters’ minds, they would have dismissed this as a distraction, a needless complication.

I’m passing a whole significant history here but it’s because I think the esoteric flights of fancy that rock took in the early seventies were short on the kind of things that occur to The Cars or occur in cars. By the time there were groups called Eddie and the Hot Rods and Racing Cars, the idea of returning to short sharp bursts of song had returned with a vengeance and fast things – like motor vehicles – were good easy topics to write on to fit the frenetic pace.

 

The Rock’n’Roll Ethos

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We all know that rock’n’roll has its roots in a slang word for sexual congress and originates with so-called race records. What became interesting is the way that this began to be hinted at in a more demure time. The music of rebellion was toe-ing the line.

So Susie’s frantic date tells her to wake up; they’ve fallen asleep at the movies and now their ‘reputation is shot’

Rock’n’roll is simple and lends itself to formula. Neil Sedaka with Calendar Girl springs to mind. Run through the months of the year finding nice things to say about the woman of your affection and you have your song.

The use of proper nouns provides for considerable leeway as you can say what you like about Margaret or Donna or Peggy Sue as long as you keep your story straight.

Rock’n’roll is self-referential; good time music that wants to draw your attention to the fact that you’re dancing, enjoying the performance and the music; you’re getting off on it. For the same reason, there’s numerous references to the dances and dance halls, the clothes everyone was wearing. There’s a fair percentage of songs about cars and girls.

To this day, major rock bands like AC/DC base a part of their large catalogue on rock’n’roll mythologising. But they now span forty years themselves.

Rock’n’roll is a music conceived as youthful differentiation, a celebration of teens from sixty years ago.

There’s little in the way of subterfuge. the Big Bopper tells us he likes Chantilly Lace and explains why. It’s her physical attributes and her movement.

There’s early sledging, like Bo Diddley’s Say Man  and speed is celebrated as is action.

She Drove Me

She planted her foot on the accelerator

She said as she led so I’ll see you later

She drove me she drove me drove me

round the bend Where will it end?

                                                                                                                                                  She drove me up the wall

Waiting for a way to recall

If I’d ever been this way before

A map of the traps to explore

She drove me she drove me

to distraction gaining traction

From the perspective of the directive

we rode that road so well

that’s the cursive kiss’n’tell