Rock n roll

I remember my childhood like it was yesterday. I remember the music my older brother brought home. I would wonder what is rock n roll? Is this something important? Doesn't sound like neapolitan folk songs my parents played on the stereo record player? The singers sing songs that have words in english and they use electrical instruments.

There were three albums my brother brought home he had borrowed from his friends that I would listen to secretly when he was in school, my parents were off to work, and I was home alone. Those were Sticky Fingers, Blonde on Blonde, and Let it Be. 

I had favorites on these albums I would listen to repetitively. No doubt I must have listened to Dead Flowers, Just Like a Woman, and Two of Us a thousand times each. That's why I cringe sometimes when I hear them again.

Listening to Dylan led me to read about Dylan and his folk roots and his crossing over to the electric guitar etc etc. Led me to study folk music from Leadbelly to Woody Guthrie to Arlo Guthrie to Woodstock etc etc etc. It also led me to study the protest movement to civil rights to the anti war movement to the drug culture etc etc etc.

There was a time when rock n roll was the alternative music and not mainstream music. The Rolling Stones were the alternative to the Beatles, the Dark Vader to the Beatles. There was a time even the Beatles were the bad boys. Soon the Beatles devolved into good and bad internally with Lennon being the bad boy to McCartney's good boy.

I  don't remember discussing sports, or politics, or anything else in high school other than rock n roll and the controversy of who was better Clapton or Hendrix, the Rolling Stones or the Beatles, and who was smarter Lennon or Dylan. Would Dylan whup Lennon in a verbal duel or vice versa? 

Why am I discussing ancient Rock History? Well just to say there was a time when there was more to rock n roll music than reliving your childhood. I think Elvis started this nostalgia trend when he went to Vegas. The Stones and their eternal touring are fun for seeing aged bodies still trying to rock. However, the passion is gone, the songs are simply affirming something you felt decades ago they are not saying anything new.

The likes of Bob Dylan and David Bowie are still trying to be creative but what they bring to the medium is an unpassioned extension of their repertoire. There are no more anthems like Blowing in the Wind or Space Oddity that people will sing in the foreseeable future. When you attend a concert by any of these rock icons it is not to hear their new songs which receive polite applause, it is to travel back in time to hear the rock classics that were created over 40 years ago. I think Van Morrison and BB King got it right when they decided to play in settings more appropriate to their standing and age like Place Des Arts.  It is time that the Stones either stopped altogether or thought about playing to smaller audiences before they become an embarrassment.