--John Lennon
Forgive this indulgent post.
I realize in 2013, few people really care about rock music anymore. Or music, for that matter. So writing about the greatest rock stars of all time really channels some 16 year old boy sitting around with his friends in 1977. Wondering why the radio plays the Bee Gees and the Eagles, but not anyone cool like Rush. Or Jethro Tull.
It wasn't always like that. From about 1955 to 1973, rock music was among the main agents of social change in this country, and to a lesser extent, western Europe. The early rockers clearly took on the staid, conforming establishment and gave voice to a generation of teenagers who wanted something different than the stultifying status quo. Elvis Presley's appearance hit American culture like that meteor that hit the earth and killed all the dinosaurs. Then after Kennedy further inspired that same generation, only to be taken away by a sinister conspiracy of the CIA, the FBI, and Lyndon Johnson, err, Lee Harvey Oswald, rock bands sang about the generational conflict. They symbolized, and inspired, the youth challenge to Authority. Young people rallied around them, and rock stars, who previously were just a bunch of southern boys singing what had previously been called "race music," became gods, poets, and artists. Rock music's comings and goings affected the nation. The Beatles on Ed Sullivan was one of the seminal events of the Sixties. The bands played at protest rallies, showed up in independent movies, and inspired politicians, activists, and a generation of youth entering corporate America. Everyone of that generation listened to rock music: black and white, rich and poor, north and south. Interest in its heroes skyrocketed. Magazines like Crawdaddy and Rolling Stone sprung into existence "covering" their every move. Concert attendance boomed. Kids everywhere were linked by the latest Beatles or Rolling Stones or Jimi Hendrix or Jefferson Airplane album release . Rock music and musicians were at ground zero of the Woodstock Generation.
Then they all pissed it away in a sea of decadence. This Is Spinal Tap was no joke. All the drugs and booze and women and fame and money tore it apart. Rock groups that had been a part of the scene became the scene, worshipped and not merely included. Guys that were playing for tips five years earlier would go on stage, if at all, three hours late and only after the coke ran out. Rock stars started wearing caftans and buying Irish castles and adding synthesizers and hanging around with Andy Warhol. It all kind of fell apart. To be replaced with the music fracturing and splitting off into a dozen different directions: power pop, funk leading to disco then to hip hop and rap, mellow rock, and Commercial FM Album Rock, which still plagues us today under the heading Classic Rock. God save us. Hey, I liked Boston as much as the next guy, but no one ever played their records backward trying to hear secret messages.
What was the point of that little road trip down the radio dial? To remind you that all that music stuff actually did matter. Once. And the guys who reigned supreme...they mattered.
So on with the list.
How did I determine the Top 5 Rock and Roll Acts? They had to have made incredible music that had profound impact on everyone who followed them. They have to have changed music itself. They had to have attracted fans who normally wouldn't have listened to rock and roll. And they had to have been cool.
5. Chuck Berry. Every guitar slinger who ever played rock and roll follows in Berry's footsteps. He started out as a blues guitarist at Chess Records, but shifted over to R&B and then the new rock and roll. The guitar chops were legendary, as was the stagecraft. The duck walk and the scissor kick became rock staples for decades (though he was simply mirroring Delta earlier blues guitarists). People forget his strong songwriting talent, however. No Particular Place to Go, Roll Over Beethoven, Sweet Little Sixteen, Living In the USA...all incredibly powerful songs on their own, even without his solo breaks. Memphis, Tennessee is one of the most sophisticated and poignant songs of the era. There's a reason he was the very first artist inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
4. The Ramones. They saved rock and roll music from the likes of Starland Vocal Band, Supertramp, Fleetwood Mac, Jackson Browne and all that tripe. All the years and all the California cocaine had turned rock artists into businessmen cranking out product. 10 minute songs. Wearing body stockings. The Ramones sang three minute songs at breakneck pace, with simple lyrics about universal themes. They wore uniforms (black leather jackets, jeans, tennis shoes, and similar haircuts). All just like in the beginning of rock and roll. They had maybe one semi-hit record. MTV never played them. They bounced from record company to record company. They played clubs their entire career. And yet, they were responsible for punk rock exploding, pushing back against the likes of the Eagles. Their legendary London performance on July 4, 1976 singlehandedly spawned the punk movement in Britain. In the crowd that night were members of the Clash, the Sex Pistols, the Damned, and Chrissie Hynde. I've heard interviews with Joe Strummer, talking with reverence about that night and how it inspired the Clash. The whole grunge movement was just recycled punk rock. Any rock band that hadn't been influenced by the Ramones pretty much sucked.
3. The Rolling Stones. Leave aside all of Jagger hanging around at Studio 54 and Richards' heroin arrests and father snorting and Brian Jones drowning and playing concerts well into their 70s. Once, the Stones were the negative foil that made the Beatles sufficiently acceptable to mass American culture. The Stones, who started as another British blues band, became the World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band on the strength of writing some of the strongest rock songs, with some of the greatest riffs and chords, ever made. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction is often called the greatest rock song of all time. The band were the greatest channelers of Chuck Berry as well. Around and Around was the highlight of the legendary TAMI Show. Jagger, before he became a preening sprite, was the greatest rock and roll frontman ever. Not surprising...Tina Turner taught him how to dance. They're in the midst of celebrating their 50th anniversary. Though the last 20 years likely shouldn't have happened, its hard to dismiss such a feat. And perhaps most importantly, you have to admire a band whose lead guitarist simply cannot be killed and whose reflection likely does not appear in any mirror.
2. The Beatles. Along with the Kennedys and Martin Luther King, they were the 1960s. They led the revolution. Lennon and McCartney were among the three greatest songwriting partnerships of the 20th Century (at least in the West). Through George Harrison, they literally invented the World Music genre. None of them were incredible performers, though Lennon had an amazing rock singing voice (remember the hard version of Revolution and those tortured "ALRIGHT"s to end the song). With Brian Epstein's incredible management and despite idiotic American record executives (who, believe it or not, refused to release the Beatles' first five singles in the US and did so only after one small company began making a fortune pirating the UK releases in America), the Beatles hit at just the right time (right after America was getting past the JFK assassination) and had just the right look (different enough to separate themselves from the Fabians and Pat Boones, but not so threatening to middle class parents). Thousands of kids wanted to be in a rock band after they saw the Beatles. NBC even launched a show, The Monkees, trying to capitalize on Beatlemania. There was a cartoon show and a cartoon movie. Two real movies. A TV special. After wiping out all the pop charts, the Beatles then reformulated themselves into a studio band, and wrote the landmark Sgt. Pepper album, which singlehandedly launched the whole "rock as art" phenomenon. Millions followed their every move in detail: the Ed Sullivan appearances, the Shea Stadium concerts, John's "bigger than Jesus" comments, the trip to India, the two movies, Sgt. Pepper, Paul's "death," the White Album, Yoko, the Let It Be album and movie, leading into the John and Paul feud, and the Paul vs. everyone feud. Almost no one else ever had such impact on popular music and culture. Almost no one, but...
1. Elvis Presley. Millions of words have been written about the King of Rock and Roll, leaving me almost nothing to add. Let me just point out two astonishing facts: (1) 18 million people have visited his house, which makes it the third most visited private home in the United States; and (2) he had a #1 record 25 years after his death. Elvis Presley changed everything. He was a shotgun blast to the heart of the buttoned down, staid, conformism of the post-war years. Authority figures everywhere reviled him. He was exactly what Sam Phillips at Sun Records was looking for, a white guy who could sing black music. That was the key. Countless movies and books cover his life. The best was Peter Guralnick's expertly researched two volume biography. TV stations still frequently play his mostly awful movies. Current movies, commercials, TV shows, and performers still play his music. There's even a cottage industry of impersonating Elvis. In the end, Elvis wasn't just a rock singer. He was America. Enjoy!
NEXT-Top 5 Words or Phrases That Should Be Stricken From the English Language. Hope everyone has a groovy Memorial Day!
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