Will classic rock last for all eternity?

Oak Lawn (IL) Reporter ^ | 4/17/03 | Michael M. Bates

[mikeb704]

Eva Narcissus Boyd was buried in North Carolina earlier this week. The name may not be familiar, but her music certainly is.

Under the name "Little Eva," she recorded "The Locomotion." The song was a giant hit in 1962.

Forty years is a very long time, even if Baby Boomers recall the era as though it were last week. I thought of Little Eva a few of months ago while driving. Her hit was playing on the radio and I wondered how many times I’d heard it over the decades. Surely hundreds of times. Maybe even thousands.

I began conjecturing if "The Locomotion" will still be listened to in yet another 40 years. Given how pervasive 60s music is today, I think there’s a possibility of that happening.

It’s not just on oldies stations. Turn on the TV and chances are you’ll hear 60s music in commercials.

Donovan, the Sunshine Superman, sings "Colours" in a Kohl’s commercial. A Gap ad uses his "Mellow Yellow." The same company features another commercial with The Troggs’ "Love Is All Around." What, you thought "Wild Thing" was their only groovy ditty?

Admittedly, some of the music in TV ads emanated from one hit wonders. Flowers.com runs a spot with "Concrete and Clay," a 1965 hit for the legendary Unit Four + Two. GMC’s Yukon included "Our Day Will Come." The first song released by Ruby and the Romantics, it was also the only one for which the group is remembered. Old Navy used "California Sun," a hit by the Rivieras. The band made the Golden State sound like heaven, which was quite an accomplishment for some Indiana boys who’d never personally been out there a’havin’ fun in that warm California sun.

It’s surprising to me that, given their sheer number and popularity, more Beatles tunes aren’t incorporated in advertising. Possibly it’s because of legal impediments. Michael Jackson has owned the rights to over 200 Beatles songs. Of course, Michael is always busy with either not getting plastic surgery or being named in multimillion-dollar lawsuits, so perhaps he just hasn’t had the time necessary to exploit his ownership.

Another consideration is that some Boomers consider Beatles music sacrosanct. These folks feel disgust with what’s perceived as tawdry commercialization of their heroes’ works. They must have not paid much attention when the group cranked out barkers like "Dig A Pony" just to fill up an album.

The mid-80s marked the first use of a Beatles song in an ad. Lincoln-Mercury had a sound-alike group singing "Help." A couple of years later, Nike featured "Revolution" performed by the Beatles and the company credited it with increased sales. Apple Records sued Nike, but until the case was settled kept employing it.

In the late 90s, Nortel Networks licensed "Come Together" for a new marketing campaign. H&R Block latched on to "Taxman" for commercials last year. Around the same time, an Allstate Insurance ad included "When I’m 64." Julian Lennon performed the tune, which added a nice touch of irony I thought.

Car companies especially look back to the golden age of rock. Steppenwolf does a heavily mixed version of "Magic Carpet Ride" for Dodge Viper. "Unchained Melody" was a 60s hit for the Righteous Brothers and Mercedes Benz incorporated it in a commercial last year. The Kinks’ "You Really Got Me" has been used in other ads for Mercedes Benz.

A song I’ve heard in several commercials is the great "Time Has Come Today" by the Chambers Brothers. It’s pitched beer, cars, and even an investment company.

One advertisement highlights "It’s A Beautiful Morning," a hit for the Young Rascals. The product being sold is Vioxx, an arthritis pill purchased by many Boomers, possibly even the not so young anymore Rascals.

When most of my generation finally leave this vale of tears – if they ever do – maybe then the 60s music will fade away. But what will take its place? The Insane Clown Posse, Eminem, Twisted Sister?

You know, The Locomotion keeps getting better with age.

[Pagey]

If you like hard rock, jazz fusion is the next step up. The best musicians in the world are into fusion because you can't fake it, if you don't have real talent you cannot play fusion.

That's a perfectly pithy statement.You should hear a 3-Piece called OHM,(Robertino Pagliari plays 6 string fretless bass exclusively and Chris was the lead Guitar player in Megadeth) go to http://www.chrispoland.com and take a listen to that. They're really something else. I'm going to see them live again, here in L.A. tonight. After a 2 year hiatus to record the newly released CD,this will be my 3rd live show in 4 weeks. Yes,they're that good.

[umbagi]

... and jazz might destroy itself by eating its young. Witness the purist attacks on Norah Jones. Intolerance, anyone?

Of course, not to knock Miss Jones, but the track on her CD that got the greatest attention -- her "unique" arrangement of Hank Williams's classic "Cold, Cold, Heart" (from 1951!) -- was a shameless ripoff of The Noel Freidline Quartet, who did it long before anyone had heard of Norah Jones. My wife can't tell the difference between Freidline's and Jones's versions.

[Space Wrangler]

It's already happening. Levi's used 'Tainted Love' by Soft Cell, Hyundai used Depeche Mode's 'Just Can't get Enough' and the Tom Tom Club's 'Genius of Love'. I even saw a Pantene commercial the other day that had Eddie Grant's 'Electric Avenue' as it's song. 'Mr Roboto' by Styx is in a Volkswagon commercial as well. Yes the 80's are well represented in ad-land. I saw a Moulson commercial that had the Proclaimers 'I would Walk 500 Miles'. Remember that one?!?

[discostu]

Jazz does that because it's music for musicians. Same thing happened with the more guitar rock oriented jazz, until Miles came out of retirement and embraced the new style with Bitches Brew (good album, slightly overrated, I prefer Kind of Blue, but historically very significant). Something new is always coming up, then insulted, then some wisened oldster sees the value in it, then it becomes the standard.

[John Lenin]

I will have to check them out, I'm down in Long Beach, it'll give me a good reason to go up to L.A. one night.

[eddie willers]

I saw the Yardbirds play at the Pinnacle in Los Angeles circa 1967. But I was so whacked, I really don't remember much of it. Bummer... LOL

I saw the Jefferson Airplane in 1969 and they were so whacked I wish I didn't remember it.

[sorroworechoes]

Hi,
sounds like you have a nice system.
Somehow I missed Pink Floyd in my youth.
I was a YES fan(atic). I didn't find Floyd until late in life; my daughter about 4 years back gave me a cd of Delicate Sound of Thunder,
and I was hooked. It took me two years to get through that two cd set, because the songs were that incredible, that it took that long to 'digest' them, or to get them totally integrated into my being.
It was the best gift I've ever been given. I think now is probably the best time in my life for them, anyway, as I can truly appreciate the music.
Since then I have SERIOUSLY added to my PF collection, working to get the studio versions of the songs on DSoT, and of course found other gems on the studio versions. Like, for instance, I got Meddle to have the studio version of "One of These Days" and was lucky enough to get "Echoes" along with it. Plus I wanted some of their earlier works. Like Embryo, and Several Species of Small Furry Animals.
Can't even imagine growing tired of Floyd.

[x]

Better yet, we'll see how it goes in 40 years, when all the people who fondly remember Zeppelin concerts are dead and gone - will their great-grandchildren still be listening to and enjoying Zeppelin? By way of analogy, how many of you boomers are big fans of Bix Biederbecke and Benny Goodman?

Great question. Bix's and Benny's albums are still on the CD racks and still sell. Past music leaves behind coteries who live and die for past masters. So there will be traces of Rock and Roll in the music market for a long time.

But it's doubtful that most of the music will have mass appeal after the the original audience dies off. Some of the music will have permanent appeal, though, in the same way that "Oklahoma" still finds an audience, long after most of the plays and shows of its day have been forgotten.

Future generations look at the music differently though. Most of it will be consigned to the rubbish heap, some will survive as middlebrow standards, and critics will heavily promote some albums that were scarcely known at the time. They will convince the next century that boomers were all listening to Captain Beefheart, or whoever their aesthetic idol is, rather than Captain and Tennille. And periods will tend to bleed into each other. Future generations may think that Elvis and Britney Spears were contemporaries.

This speculation on the far future is a lot like the depressing planetarium shows we saw as kids that got us all worrying about the end of the solar system, though.

[x]

The sixties music is now forty years old. I was in my twenties in the sixties and there is no way forty-year-old music from that time, ie the 1920s, was anywhere near as popular then as sixties music is now.

Very true. Technology had a lot to do with that, though. Both actual music technology, like electric guitars and amplifiers, and other technologies like television and transistor radios, that reshape society. A transformation of technology or society could make us look on sixties music as the sixties looked on the twenties.

[gcruse]

"Technology had a lot to do with that, though"

That is obvious. However the music of Mozart had no recording technology at all except sheet music and it is very much alive. It's more than just the medium. Winchester Cathedral was notable for its quaintness, not as a general reintroduction of banjoes and megaphones. The music was static to its time. Early-to-middle R&R seems to be much more durable.

[weegee]

Meanwhile the Paul Burlison,, the original guy to fuzz out the guitar on Train Kept A Rollin' (the cover that Johnny Burnette Trio released in the 1950s), will be playing in New Orleans at that Ponderosa Stomp show in 2 weeks.

http://www.theyardbirds.com/

"Birdland, the first studio record by the Yardbirds in 35 years, will be released in one week! On April 22nd, experience seven new tracks in the style of the classics, as well as eight originals re-recorded with guest artists such as Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, Steve Lukather, Brian May, Joe Satriani, Slash, Steve Vai, and more!"

Founding Members Chris Dreja & Jim McCarty Enlist Three New Members
Plus Appearances from Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, Steve Lukather, Brian May,
Joe Satriani, Slash, Steve Vai and more!

ENCINO, Calif. -- The Yardbirds, one of the most influential bands to emerge from the glorious British pop scene of the '60s, is putting the finishing touches on its first new studio recording since 1968's Little Games. The new Yardbirds album, titled Birdland, will be released on April 22, 2003 by Favored Nations Recordings (marketed and distributed by RED Distribution's Red Ink Division.)

In addition to founding members Chris Dreja (rhythm guitar and backing vocals) and Jim McCarty (drums and backing vocals), the Yardbirds now contain Gypie Mayo (lead guitar and backing vocals, formerly of Dr. Feelgood), John Idan (bass and lead vocals) and Alan Glen (harmonica and backing vocals, ex- of Nine Below Zero, Little Axe and more.) Excitingly, too, they are joined on this recording by a guitar heroes Brian May (Queen), Steve Vai, Slash, Joe Satriani, Steve Lukather, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and more!

Producer was Ken Allardyce (Weezer, Fleetwood Mac, Green Day, Goo Goo Dolls), and the bulk of the album was recorded at Steve Vai's Mothership studio in Hollywood, Calif., with parts recorded at two London studios. Producer Allardyce actually saw the Yardbirds open for the Beatles at Hammersmith Odeon in 1964 and has been a fan ever since.

The album contains newly recorded versions of eight of the Yardbirds' best known hits ("I'm Not Talking," "The Nazz Are Blue," "For Your Love," "Train Kept A Rolling," "Shapes of Things," "Over, Under, Sideways, Down," "Mr. You're A Better Man Than I" and "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago") plus seven new songs that faithfully carry on the Yardbirds' musical tradition ("Crying Out For Love," "Please Don't Tell Me 'Bout the News, "Mr. Saboteur," "My Blind Life," "The Mystery of Being," "Dream Within A Dream" and "An Original Man [A Song For Keith]")

According to founding Yardbirds member Chris Dreja, "To make our first album in so many years has been a lasting ambition of ours. We wanted to do our original songs and our new ones with modern production while preserving the essence of our sound. It was a labor of love, and we're grateful to everyone who helped - our guest musicians and especially to Steve Vai. To me, it doesn't sound like we've been away for 35 years. The Yardbirds are still a kick-ass, high-energy band - and that comes across on this album."

Following is a track listing including special guest appearances. Order is subject to change:

I'm Not Talking
Crying Out For Love
The Nazz Are Blue - (Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter, guitar)
For Your Love
Please Don't Tell Me 'Bout The News
Train Kept A Rolling - (Joe Satriani, guitar)
Mr. Saboteur
Shapes Of Things - (Steve Vai, guitar)
My Blind Life
Over, Under, Sideways, Down - (Slash, guitar)
Mr. You're A Better Man Than I - (Brian May, guitar)
Mystery Of Being
Dream Within A Dream
Happenings Ten Years Time Ago - (Steve Lukather, guitar)
An Original Man (A Song For Keith)

[weegee]

"I would also like to recomend another couple of additions to your list of great 70s/80s bands...The Ramones and Hoodoogurus. I'll still be listening to them when I'm sitting in my rocking chair on the porch."

If you dig those 2 bands, then you might be interested in hearing this 2 CD comp of Australian bands from the 1970s and 1980s (including some early Hoodoo Gurus cuts). There's elements of a number of bands' sounds in these songs but there is something uniquely rocking there too:

Some online vendors appear to be way too high priced on this (they want $30 whereas I've seen this 2 disc set in stores for $17). The cheapest online vendor had it for $15 postage paid. I couldn't find a site that offerred up sound samples but there must be one someplace. It's a good album...

Track Listings 1. (Im) Stranded - The Saints
2. New Race (Original Version) - Radio Birdman
3. Wild Weekend - The Psycho Surgeons
4. One Way Street - The Saints
5. Television Addict - The Victims
6. Aloha Steve And Danno - Radio Birdman
7. King Of The Surf - Johnny Kannis
8. Crying Sun - Radio Birdman
9. Sisnt Tell The Man - The Hitmen
10. Hindu Gods Of Love - The Lipstick Killers
11. Living World - The Visitors
12. Face With No Name - The Passengers
13. Simple Love (Original Version) - The Saints
14. Last Night - The Scientists
15. Savage - The Fun Things
16. Alone With You (Original Version) - The Sunnyboys
17. Face A New God - The New Christs
18. Alone In The Endzone - New Race
19. I Dont Mind - The Hitmen
20. 24 Hours (SOS) - The Celibate Rifles
21. Happy Man - The Sunnyboys
22. Driving The Special Dead - The Lipstick Killers
23. Lellani (Origial Version) - Le Hoodoo Gurus
24. Dwana Devil - The Hitmen
25. Voodoo Slaves - Minutmen
26. Swampland - The Scientists
27. 25th Hour - The Lime Spiders
28. Igloo - The Screaming Tribesmen
29. Be My Cure - The Hoodoo Gurus
30. Slave Girl - The Lime Spiders
31. Like A Curse - The New Christs
32. Mirror Blues Pt 1 - Died Pretty
33. Ice - The Screaming Tribesmen
34. Dont Look Down - Decline Of The Reptiles
35. Johnny And Dee Dee - The Eastern Dark
36. Burning Red - The Exploding White Mice
37. Bye Bye Girl - The Hard-Ons
38. Groove To The Eye - The Psychotic Turnbuckles
39. Out Of Control - The Lime Spiders
40. Atom Bomb Baby - The Scientists
41. Cant Resist - The Stems
42. Stoneage Cinderella - Died Pretty
43. Dont Talk About Us - The Some Loves
44. Girl In The Sweater - The Hard-Ons
45. Walking - The Eastern Dark
46. Back In The Red - The Celibate Rifles
47. Early Morning Memory - The Ohilistines
48. When Youre Down - The Headstones
49. At First Sight - The Stems
50. I Swear - The New Christs

[BOOTSTICK]

Whats really cool, is listening to D.S.O.T.M., while watching the "Wizard of Oz", begin the CD, on the third MGM lion roar.

[patriot5186]

"Won't Get Fooled Again" is the perfect rock song
Plus, if Hillary runs in 2004 that song would be totally appropriate.

[weegee]

Not in the 1960s, but by the 1970s these guys were in full swing:

Although he is primarily known for his innovative and imaginative work in the field of underground comic books, R. Crumb is an avid collector of 78 rpm recordings of blues, jazz, country, string-band, and ethnic music. He has also provided illustrations for numerous album covers, primarily for labels specializing in early American music (Yazoo, Blue Goose, Barrelhouse). His love of roots music has also led him to perform it live with fellow music lovers and record collectors, playing banjo, mandolin, ukulele and sometimes singing.

In the early 1970s, Crumb hooked up with fellow cartoonist Robert Armstrong and his friend Allan Dodge and cut some 78s under the moniker, R. Crumb and His Keep On Truckin' Orchestra. When they were offered the chance to record an entire album, the trio became The Cheap Suit Serenaders and the lineup expanded to include occasional members Tom Marion, Bob Brozman, Tony Marcus, and Terry Zwigoff (who would direct such films as Crumb and Ghost World).

The band played songs from the golden age of recording as well as original numbers written in the earlier styles. For a '70s musical outfit, the instrumentation consisted of such atypical items as banjos, mandolins, Hawaiian guitar, accordion, cello, and the musical saw. The group toured around, performing in coffee houses and hunting for old 78s. After three albums, Crumb began to tire of the public exposure involved. He enjoyed playing the music, but his audience was often dominated by comic book fans and pestering journalists.

While seeking out rare sides in Paris during the 1980s, he met singer and guitarist Domenic Cravic. Crumb developed a kinship with Cravic and his circle of musicians, and in 1986 Les Primitifs du Futur (The Future Primitives) were formed. They managed to record Cocktail D'Amour before Crumb had to return home.

The American lifestyle became more and more loathsome for him, and by the onset of the '90s, Crumb had moved to France permanently. He continues to play with Les Primitifs du Futur and has drawn cover art for various French musicians. The rest of the Cheap Suit Serenaders continue to play occasional live sets, including an annual gig at a Berkley coffee house, Freight & Salvage. Crumb reunites with his former bandmates when the opportunity arises, and he joined them for a European tour in 1995.

Songs included things like "Singing In The Bathtub".

[Hank Rearden]

Nils Lofgren heads up the list of truly amazing musicians/ songwriters whom no one knows. You, me, Niel Young and Bruce Springsteen I think are the only people that have ever heard of him.

Well, hell. Now you've done it. You prompted me to go on a search and buy the Nils "Bootleg" album from '75. Just ordered it from cdstreet.com.

You wouldn't believe how hard I worked and how many butts I had to smooch to get a copy of that vinyl back in '75. And I helped break it in the Bay Area, doing indie radio!

[gcruse]

I love R. Crumb but I was out of the country for most of the seventies. Sorry I missed this band. They look like a hoot.

[Sloth]

I think 60s (and pre-disco 70s) music really is here to stay. I'm only 27 and it's my preferred genre.

[weegee]

I've got a 16rpm disc in my collection somewhere (about an hour of music, classical I think although 16rpm jazz recordings are rare and valuable). I don't even have a 16rpm capable player (although I did growing up, made it easy to hear Ross Bagdasarian's speaking for Alvin & Simon & Theodore, the Chipmunks).

The one I wanted to add to that list is 8RPM! I saw an old Library Of Congress player for sale for about $60 and it could play 8RPM. Too slow for me. I've got a belt drive turn table that I use for LPs and 45s that has been modified to play 6 speeds of 78 (from about 70-80RPM, the standards varied depending on the year and manufacturer).

I also have a 16" radio transcription disc (no way to play it though).

I won't be giving up my analog recordings anytime soon.

[Hank Rearden]

Bursting Out, best live album EVER (... well OK maybe One More From the Road by Skynyrd is better).

Sorry, nope. (But thanks for playing our game.)

Waiting for Columbus - Little Feat. That's the one.