Midwest BEAT Magazine

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SOAPBOX: One Guy's Opinion

by Tom Lounges/Editor

   As we prepare to leave this century, my mind reflects back to the many
rebel musicians who have fought complacency in popular music. For were it
not for the rebellious rock 'n' roll spirit, we all would still be listening
to barroom crooners that our grandparents thought were cool.
    Nothing personal against the likes of Perry Como or Vic Damone...but
frankly...I'd rather listen fingernails scraping on a blackboard.
   So with that said, I want to tip my hat to some of the heroes who helped
to shape rock 'n' roll into what it is today!
   A big salute to Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Fats Domino, three of the
key figures who created the raucous boogie-blues that inspired their white
counterparts to give birth to rock 'n' roll.
   Thanks to Elvis Presley for having the balls to defy his parents and sneak
across the tracks to the black part of town, where he'd sit in and jam with
the likes of B.B. King, Gatemouth Brown and T-Bone Walker. For it was those
early Memphis "jams" that lead him to be the first white musician to cross
the race lines in popular music, blending the rhythm 'n' blues of southern
black juke joints with white country music. Elvis saved the first wave of
baby boomers from Patti Page and such pop hits of the day as "How Much Is
That Doggie In The Window?"
   Thanks also to Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash and
the others who followed in Elvis' wake. Together they gave teenagers a
musical voice for the first time ever.
   The Beatles are owed many thanks. For kicking popular music in the butt
and saving American youth from cheesy balladeers like Pat Boone, Bobby Vee
and Connie Francis, who watered down the rock of the 1950s into pasteurized
pop fodder.
   The Beatles kick-started rock 'n' roll's rebirth with recycled Chuck Berry
riffs, while inspiring long hair, hip clothes and new ways to irritate their
parents.
    With recordings like Sgt. Pepper and The White Album, the Beatles forged
psychedelic rock which counted among its champions, Jimi Hendrix and Cream,
giving god-like status to rock guitarists for the first time.
    If the Beatles blazed the trail that would become progressive rock in the
hands of Genesis, Yes and the Moody Blues, than the Rolling Stones helped
usher in a new breed of electric blues with groups like Led Zeppelin, Black
Sabbath and Deep Purple. These bands chewed up the blues, amplified them and
spit them back out in a variety of styles.
   Old-school black jazz cats like Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock adapted the
new progressive rock approach to their own be-bop. Through them, a hybrid
style called jazz fusion developed. Davis' landmark album, Bitches Brew and
Hancock's pioneering ensemble, The Headhunters, introduced this new genre of
music to white artists like Steely Dan, Average White Band and Chase.
    Somewhere in all this, a former teen idol almost single-handedly invented
a new genre of music called "country rock". His name was Rick
Nelson...formerly Ricky...who
along with Gram Parsons was the first to rock up traditional country sounds.
His backing group, The Stone Canyon Band, paved the way for the Eagles, Pure
Prarie League and dozens of others.   Interesting to note...Randy Meisner was
an early member of the Stone Canyon Band and after breaking off with them,
co-founded the Eagles.
    That I dwell on Rick Nelson more than the others is because he was a
tremendous talent, but unlike the others in this reflective salute, Nelson
never got the respect he deserved.
    Nelson literally grew up in front of the nation's eyes, to become a
visionary and talented musician, but the public could never let him escape
his singing teen idol years that began on his parent's landmark television
program, "Ozzie & Harriett".   It is interesting to note, that even while his
career was in the teen idol mode, Nelson pioneered a futuristic art form
called Music Video.   More than two decades before John Sykes and Gail
Sparrow helped to launch the music video revolution with MTV, Ricky Nelson
created the world's first with his simplistic mini-film of his hit single,
"Travelin' Man".
     While his later years found him fallen from grace, Nelson, turned even
this disheartening situation into art, by writing of a painful experience
where his new sound and image was not accepted. That song was "Garden
Party".
     As the Eagles and others stole his sound and sadly his thunder, a few
years later the soft-edged country rock sound would mute even further as the
Allman Brothers infused it with the blues and Lynyrd Skynyrd infused it with
hard rock. Between the two disparate but yet similar styles, the sub-genre
of Southern Rock was born!
    How this quarter century of great music begat the droning dreck known as
Disco remains a mystery to me. Fortunately for rock 'n' roll, the Ramones
and the Sex Pistols came along to put an end to it. Punks bands took rock
music back to it's garage roots. Punk was raw and unapologetic, the
antithesis to technology run amuck.
   Loud, sloppy guitars were back. A layer of Beatlesque pop sheen was added
and New Wave was born. Suddenly, The Knack, The Romantics and dozens of other
"The..." bands assaulted the charts.
    British heavy metal thundered out in rebuttal to New Wave pop. Groups
like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Saxon bombarded our shores and our senses
in the early '80s. But before long, Los Angeles sugar-coated the sound. By
the late '80s, glam metal via Motley Crue, Ratt, Poison, Cinderella and other
spandex boys with big hair had taken hold of the charts.
Closet punks from the northern coast of Seattle in flannel shirts and Doc
Martens, plugged into distortion pedals, and put rawness back into rock 'n'
roll. Kurt Cobain, Chris Cornell and transplanted Chicagoan Eddie Vedder
pioneered a new "alternative" that pounded nails into the coffin of glam
metal. When "alternative" became mainstream, it was replaced by girls with
guitars. Can you say Jewel or Sheryl Crowe?
   As the century comes to a close, sugar-coated pop is once again dominating
the charts. Backstreet Boys, N-Sync, 98º and others have teens squealing with
delight.
   Music has recycled itself many times in the 40-plus years since Elvis
first unleashed rock 'n' roll on the American youth.
   Surely, another new rebel messiah brimming with angst and attitude awaits
just around the corner, destined to slap the warm fuzzy pop of Britney Spears
and Ricky Martin off the charts.
    Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit may fancy himself the saviour of the heavy
sound, but if anything, he is but the torch lighter for one yet to come.
There is one on the horizon, who is predestined to shake, rattle and roll us
into the next thousand years. I'm thinking more along the lines of Chicago
native Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine. But that all remains to be
seen.
    All I know for sure, is I will be here to cover it, as always!
    As a side note: Please be sure to share your views on the past year,
century and the new millennium with us by filling out our 1999 Reader's Poll
ballot, which you will find on page 28 of this issue.
   By sending in your ballot you help us in honoring your favorite locals at
our annual Midwest BEAT Music Awards show. After January 20th, readers will
also be able to cast your votes on our newly revamped Midwest BEAT Magazine
web site. Log on with us and help us take the Midwest to the world in 2000!
    Keep rockin' Chicagoland!