Rock And Roll

I was thinking the other day about the future, and past, of Rock 'n' Roll (more specifically, Rock) and wondering whether it had finally run its course.

During the 60's and 70's, it was dismissed as a passing fad, likely to go the same way as most youth driven cults, when everyone grew up a bit. Amazing to think then, that it is still around today, 60 years after Bill Haley burst onto the scene.

Whilst I was born in 1965, at the height of the Beatle world gobbling phenomenon, I grew up in an house that actually had very little recorded music around. My Mum and Dad claim that they were far too busy bringing up two children and building up house and home to get caught up in the zeitgeist. It wasn't until I started to get interested in music that we had any records, worth speaking about that is, in the house.

My own musical journey started quite young and was spurred by, of all things, an LP by Marvin, Welch and Farrar. Those names might ring a bell, as Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch were members of the Shadows. In the late 60's/early 70's, they got together with John Farrar (an Australian I believe, once married to Olivia Newton-John) to form a more rocky version of the Shadows. Their debut album, featuring a Hignosis cover design, was a mixture of all out rock, sprinkled with some ace acoustic numbers.

Of course, I did have the music of childhood too, a Jungle Book score album, various sing-along things inc an ace Rolf Harris LP, but the mold was cast at an early stage, so it was not surprising that the first single I bought, at the age of 6 was a song called Fireball by Deep Purple. It was on the Harvest label  and coupled by a B-side called Demons Eye, which is still a favourite of mine some 40 years later.

At this point, I should perhaps mention my Aunt's influence. She was a child of the 50's and 60's and so was there when it all happened. I remember going to my Grandmothers, where she lived, and seeing the album sleeve to In the Court of the Crimson King, as well as other things like the very first Vertigo label I saw spinning round on a record player

Basically, my Aunt was beyond cool, a counter-culture revolutionary, a real-life hippy. She married another hippy and lived in a collective of like minded reactionaries in a massive tumble down house. I cannot underestimate the influence she has had over me, which while not obvious to the passing observer, will be clear to all those who know me well. She laid in me the seeds of non-conformity and a life sliightly to the left of the mainstream, and if I had the guts, it is a path I would have followed rather than the one I chose.

Right, the future of Rock and Roll. So, whilst I was young, I feel steeped in the history of this thing we call Rock. I know a lot about it. I don't wish to brag, but I can give Gambacinni a run for his money. Rock music means something, and I feel its cultural resonance. But, and it's difficult to say this without straying into boring old fart territory, I fear for its survival.

Actually, I think popular music is safe, but our touchstones in Rock's history are seriously dated. At the top of this piece I said I was thinking about the future or Rock. It was actually one album I had in mind, and that was The Dark Side of The Moon. An album, made in 1973 which has already passed its 30th birthday, and will shortly be coming up for 40. I am 45 now, so it is not beyond the reams of possibility that I will get to see its 60th birthday, even 70th.

Even today, this album regularly tops, or is near the top, of polls of "The Best Album of All Time". One cannot deny its enduring legacy, and its perfectly conceived and executed narrative and musical arc. It isn't the only album of that era either. I'm just looking at Rolling Stone's Top 500. You have to get to No17 (Nevermind by Nirvana) before you get to an album that was not made in the 60's or 70's (or 50's even). Notwithstanding the fact that RS is wrong wrong wrong about Nirvana (and so many other things, in fact), most similar polls, unless run by the popular media, will have a similar look to them.

Why is this ? Why is the apogee of this cultural movement albums that appeared 30 to 40 years ago ? Punk contributed some lasting legacy, but it's all RnR (I was never ashamed and never saw any problem with holding a Sex Pistols album in one hand, and a Floyd/Genesis/ELP album in the other). Where are the works to stand beside the mighty ?

The thing is, I want there to be something as good and as enduring to be created now. Something that speak across the decades.  I don't want to live in the past. It surely cannot be that it is only that small portion of children, born during the 2nd World War in most cases, who created the defining moments of the defining cultural genre of the second half of the 20th Century and all, so far, of the 21st. It makes no sense.

Unless, of course, it is inherently self-limiting. Perhaps all the good ideas have been used up, leaving us now to witness the eternal retreads and re-tellings of those past masters. In which case, Rock is dead.

Not in a any way relevant to the above, but this years big project, apart from Chickens (I have finally researched them enough), is a new band. It has been some 20 years since I last tread the boards, or at least sticky floors, of the pubs and clubs hereabouts. I still have a decent singing voice, with a decent range, so I figure, why not ? I have no equipment, but that just gives me an opportunity to delve into an area of gadgetry that has hitherto been closed to me.

So, negotiations have started with an ace drummer friend of mine. I think we have a bass player (I know he has Trace Elliot Amps and a Fender, so he must be decent), and I have dusted off my Roland EM20 and have started to try to learn "rhythm" keyboard.  I consider my input to be merely filling in, vox and "musical direction", so I need a good guitarist and keyboard player to fill in the remaining spots. Naturally the music to be covered will be Progressive in nature. I am planning to try to make it a good presentation too, with computer controlled projections and lights. I think it'll be fun, and I'm looking forward to discovering what's possible in an amateur way nowadays. It'll probably mean getting an Apple Macbook too, thus opening up yet another world to me.

Frankly, on the gadget side, it's a win-win.

So if anyone can think of a good name, and/or knows anyone who might be interested on hanging out, listening and learning songs and putting together a reasonably polished performance for fun, laughs, beer and tabs, please put your recommendations on a postcard.

That is all