Music to My Ears: Why I Get Lost in Rock and Roll
Ohh give me the beat boys and free my soul I wanna get lost in your rock n' roll And drift away . . .
Dobie Gray - Drift Away (1974) - Rock and Roll
“Drift Away” was written by Mentor Williams and originally recorded by John Henry Kurtz in 1972—back when singles still had a silver-dollar sized hole in the middle. In 1973 it became Dobie Gray’s biggest hit, climbing to number 5 on the charts and later certified gold. It was the final pop hit for Decca Records in the United States. Drift Away has been covered by all the greats from Ray Orbison, Ike & Tina Turner, Waylon Jennings, Ray Charles, Ringo Starr, Bruce Springsteen, and many others including an unreleased 1974 version by the Rolling Stones. There is something about this song that never fails to get me moving and calls to all for whom a guitar and a strong beat signal freedom, sex, and adventure. Listen to it here.
I like to think our lives evolve like a classical painting. At first we are an idea in our parents’ minds, then a sketch with possibilities—basic shapes blocked in—and, as we grow, values are set in place. The feature of paintings by the old masters that is perhaps most responsible for their glow, depth, and luster is the process of glazing—very thin almost transparent layers of paint applied across the canvas, each subtly shaping and shading the composition. Everything that comes our way does this for our lives, subtly or emphatically deepening our complexity as human beings. In addition to the environment we grow up in, the education we do or do not accomplish, the people we love or lose, music, art, film, and books may play a huge role in shaping who we become. They certainly have for me.
What’s the soundtrack of your life? The music that evokes an emotional response, never fails to touch your heart, gets you on your feet, or reminds you of a special love? Every generation has its musical touchstones, but nothing has lasted like rock and roll birthed by the blues and nurtured by country music. even though it has shape-shifted throughout the decades from light and happy to sexy, destructive, untamed, and to clamor that hardly should be labelled music.
For me it all began in 1955 with Bill Haley and the Comets and “Rock Around the Clock.” When I heard that beat blasted out over the radio for the first time, my head exploded. This was no folk dance, waltz, or square-dance dos-si-do. It was a full blooded call to jump and jive—or at least so it seemed to me at the time.
One, two, three o'clock, four o'clock rock, Five, six, seven o'clock, eight o'clock rock Nine, ten, eleven o'clock, twelve o'clock rock, We're gonna rock around the clock tonight . . .
Elvis Presley - Rock and Roll
Of course that tune and the sport-jacketed Comets were mild and conservative compared to what would happen to rock and roll in later decades. Then came Elvis Presley, upping the appeal as he shocked our parents and turned up the heat with such tunes as Jailhouse Rock (1957).
I wasn’t a fan girl idolizing the curled-lip, swivel-hipped star, but his music excited me and set the hook for a lifetime of searching for that feeling in love, music, and all sorts of adventures. It called a very small-town country girl to the world at large.
It was a time, too, of slow dancing in the dark to songs like The Platters’ “Only You” (1955); “In the Still of the Night” (1956) by Fred Parris and the Five Satins; or Marty Robbins’ “White Sport Coat & A Pink Carnation” (1957). There was a sweet innocence behind those songs and for most of us back then love was about finding your true mate, your one-and-only. Love and longing were in the air and it would be another decade before the drugs, grit, and high jinks behind the scenes of celebrity bands would become apparent.
Beatles backstage at the Cow Palace in 1964.
Almost a decade later on December 17, 1963, when Carroll James of WWDC in Washington, first played “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (which had not even been issued in the US yet), the phones lit up like rockets in a Fourth of July fireworks display. The “long-haired” Brits were coming and they seemed incredibly fresh and exciting. As Bob Dylan would sing the following year, “the times they [were] a changin’.”
Recently I was looking at a wonderful large (16 x 20”) photograph I have of the Beatles taken by Frank Mangio, a PR guy and music reviewer for Capitol Records back in the day. It was taken backstage at a private party at the Cow Palace in San Francisco when they played Candlestick Park on their first US tour. It makes me smile every time I look at it—we thought they were so radical at the time, but they looked like choir boys compared to what was to come. There was a joy about their music that called for community, for peace and love. They didn’t set fire to anything, fornicate with their musical instruments, or throw themselves into the crowds. We knew all the words and could sing along.
A few years ago I found a used copy of Rolling Stone’s The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time ((2005), with an introduction by Steven Van Zandt. I miss the creative and imaginative art on early album covers and this book covers the full range. I love it. Each cover illustrates anywhere from a page to a quarter page of information about the group or the artist. It is an education on mainstream rock, blues, and soul and I never tire of roaming through its pages. As a result, I have wanted for quite a while to write a series of blog posts covering some of the music that has inspired me over decades. And so Music to My Ears begins with this post and I look forward to sharing more.
I hope you’ll share some of your favorite listening experiences, concerts, album cover art, stories of times when a song meant so much you played it again and again—GO!