The Rock History Reader
Theo Cateforis
Language: English
Pages: 416
ISBN: 0415892139
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
The Rock History Reader is an eclectic compilation of readings that tells the history of rock as it has been received and explained as a social and musical practice throughout its six decade history. The readings range from the vivid autobiographical accounts of such rock icons as Ronnie Spector and David Lee Roth to the writings of noted rock critics like Lester Bangs and Chuck Klosterman. It also includes a variety of selections from media critics, musicologists, fanzine writers, legal experts, sociologists and prominent political figures. Many entries also deal specifically with distinctive styles such as Motown, punk, disco, grunge, rap and indie rock. Each entry includes headnotes, which place it in its historical context.
This second edition includes new readings on the early years of rhythm & blues and rock ‘n’ roll, as well as entries on payola, mods, the rise of FM rock, progressive rock and the PMRC congressional hearings. In addition, there is a wealth of new material on the 2000s that explores such relatively recent developments as emo, mash ups, the explosion of internet culture and new media, and iconic figures like Radiohead and Lady Gaga.
With numerous readings that delve into the often explosive issues surrounding censorship, copyright, race relations, feminism, youth subcultures, and the meaning of musical value, The Rock History Reader continues to appeal to scholars and students from a variety of disciplines.
Material, one begins to understand the present day attitude of our youth. We in the classroom can do very little to offset the force and impact of these displays in our efforts to stem the tide toward a cultural debacle.” About the only guy who ever summed up Elvis “The Pelvis” any better than that was the California policeman who, after watching him writhe around a stage, commented: “If he did that on the street, we’d arrest him.” Source: John Crosby, “The Craze,” New York Herald Tribune, June.
The early days, I’d stalk around Mike’s room. There’d be an upright piano against one of the walls. I’d just walk around and smoke and mumble, and he would jam until I would just get struck by some notion. Then I’d start yelling some kind of line. If Mike dug it, he would pick it up somewhere. Sometimes Mike would yell out some lines, too. It was like spontaneous combustion, like Jackson Pollock. You threw a lot of paint at the canvas. I would just play riffs and Jerry would shout lines, almost.
Accent the 2 and 4 beats of a bar. Thus, the back beat of rock was born. By the end of the war it was being heard across the country as the Kansas City refugee reached national prominence with his 1945 hit “R. M. Blues,” on Specialty Records. Zoot Music, Zoot Riots Although thousands of Mexican families had called the City of Angels home for four generations, East L.A. remained separate and most unequal from the dominant mainstream Anglo parts of the city. This was due to social and economic.
Still, like me, most of the guys must have had ulterior motives for staying on the gig; it was clear that none of the James Brown sidemen would ever get rich. I’m sure that some of the old-timers felt that they were lucky to have a gig on this level and weren’t about to take a chance on trying to get another gig even this good somewhere else. Others saw the James Brown show as a stepping-stone to bigger and better things. I’m sure that was the case with guys like Pee Wee and Waymon. And some were.
There—all flacking and fragmenting into images as in an old flicker movie—a man in slices!—all of history pinned up on a butterfly board; the experience, of course. The strobe, the projectors, the mikes, the tapes, the amplifiers, the variable lag Ampex—it was all set up in a coiling gleaming clump in the Lincoln Log lodge, the communal clump, Babbs working over the dials, talking into the microphones to test them. Heads beginning to pour in. Marshall Efron and Norman, Norman already fairly.