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Over the next few days, three of our writers will offer lighter reflections on why they prefer a given genre of music -- Rock, Broadway, and Classical.
We begin today with Rock and Roll.
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My childhood was marinated in the thunder of Beethoven, the depth of Mozart, and the confidence of Johann Sebastian Bach. Because dad could not abide a steady diet of what he called "the long-hair stuff," he added musical forays through those parts of the show-tune landscape claimed by Rogers and Hammerstein. His once-formidable collection of vinyl records also allowed us to spin ourselves dizzy listening to Irish reels, laugh at Harry Belafonte's "Mama Look a Boo-Boo," and smile when Petula Clark sang about a downtown utterly unlike the one later populated by doo-wopping urbanites in "Little Shop of Horrors." We made several trips to Disneyland, and every one of them found me loitering around the Main Street soda shop where you could hear Red, the best of the ragtime pianists then collecting a check from Mickey Mouse.
In spite of all that, I now prefer rock music to any other kind. Although my formative years were bookended by the Beatles "Help!" and Pat Benatar's "Hit Me with Your Best Shot," no explanation that stops with the calendar would be complete.
Jazz great Louis Armstrong once declared that "all music is folk music," but that was more a playful tautology than a working definition. Satchmo was kidding; rock is more accessible than any other musical form, including folk music. Consider the tool sets involved: I'll listen to an accessibility argument from folk-music partisans when banjos, accordions, and nose flutes enjoy the popularity of such rock standbys as the Fender Stratocaster and the Hammond B3 organ.
Mark Humphreys, a record mogul and troubadour of fond acquaintance, explains accessibility better than I can: "The enjoyment of jazz and classical music [is] greatly enhanced by an understanding of the technical aspects of music," he writes, "whereas just about everybody understands -- and has lived -- 'she was just seventeen and you know what I mean.' AND you can dance to it." Amen to that. In Bruce Springsteen's frightening paraphrase of the same thought, "We learned more from a three-minute record, baby, than we ever learned in school."
The democratic impulse can of course be a double-edged sword, because rock welcomes even mediocre players. But on the whole, accessibility is a good thing. When a success story like Bryan Adams sings about buying his first real six-string at the five-and-dime, even musicians who toil in well-deserved obscurity know he's telling the truth.
Some fault rock lyrics for poor grammar, with the Steve Miller Band's song about a detective down in Texas who "knows exactly just what the facts is" often winning dishonorable mention. Let's not forget that scansion beats syntax for the very good reason that, while it's safe to think of poetry as frozen music, you can't think of music as frozen anything without throwing rhythm over the side. And although Steve Miller never found a sensible rhyme for "Texas," it's hard to hold a grudge against a man who also gave us the knowing whimsy of "I'm a joker; I'm a smoker; I'm a midnight toker."
That self-description will never be mistaken for the Confessions of Saint Augustine, but together with Tom Petty's "you take it on faith, you take it to the heart, yeah the waiting is the hardest part," it's as close to the fifth-century Bishop of Hippo as pop culture ever comes.
Another reason to prefer rock to other musical styles is that rock revels in humor. With the exception of one effort by violinist Lara St. John, who posed for the cover of an acclaimed 1996 recording of Bach solo pieces with nothing but her instrument to hide her apparent nakedness, classical album covers are drearily predictable. But rock offers the skeletons of the Grateful Dead, the UFOs of Boston albums, and the famous photo of John, Paul, George, and Ringo crossing Abbey Road in studied nonchalance.
The small canvas afforded by CD jackets and the advent of digital downloading technology have combined to make illustrators grumpy, but there is still fun to be had and heard in rock. You can find it in band names, in lyrics, and in performances. Mark Knopfler named Dire Straits for his financial position at the time, and the Marshall Tucker Band was named for a blind piano tuner who had previously occupied the warehouse they used for rehearsals.
The best rock lyricists stamp their work with a disciplined mischievousness. Double entendres don't get any better than, "Well I'm not the world's most masculine man, but I know what I am and I'm glad I'm a man and so is Lola." Whether the line refers to one man or two is open to question, because Ray Davies put it in a song about a transvestite. And how do you not smile when Joe Walsh sings, "I go to parties sometimes until four; It's hard to leave when you can't find the door"?
More than the lyrics, rock offers countless examples of enthusiastic playing. I especially like the way Max Crook turned Dell Shannon's "Runaway" into a showcase for his own keyboard skills, as Roy Bittan would do in Bruce Springsteen's "Thunder Road" a generation later.
On the vocal side of things, Freddie Mercury's greetings for Galileo in "Bohemian Rhapsody," Bob Dylan's sneering through "Like a Rolling Stone," and Roy Orbison's growl in "Pretty Woman" are the stuff of legends. Among B-list groups, the band mates in Twisted Sister really enjoy the cadence of "We're right! We're free! We'll fight! You'll see!"
Together rockers comprise a debauched court striving to overcome weaknesses in a manner reminiscent of the anonymous "whiskey priest" whose moral growth anchors Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory. Meanwhile, rock beats other musical forms because "accessible" and "fun" make as devastating a one-two punch as you could want.
And, of course, you can dance to it.
Patrick O'Hannigan is a husband, father, writer, lector, and sometime harmonica player in North Carolina. Thanks to the confidence he learned from a voice coach named Joni, he almost always sings along with Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky," even though he finds the theology in that song rather short of the mark set by the Catechism.
Readers have left 6 comments. Quote(1) The Power of RockAugust 28th, 2008 | 5:38pm Enjoyed that-thanks.
For me the power of rock music I listened to in the 70's was in stark contrast to Church music I heard growing up. Led Zeppelin's Kashmir for example revealed an epic majesty that I was not finding in Church music. Some of the newer church music done well with violin and other instruments can be nice. When you play or sing that stuff poorly...it's really bad. No offense to those that do their best to praise the Lord this way. But it cannot compete with Zeppelin, The Who, Genesis, Yes, CSNY, the Beatles etc. The best of this music had a power to communicate powerful feelings, spiritual yearning, and messages both good and bad to its listener's.
I appreciate the affirmation of the power and reach of rock music and not just dismissing it as simplistic, or the music of the devil.
I am aware of the occult and darker influences in the lyrics in some music. But often it was good fun, and at it's best it could soar to touch a deeper hunger in the young for power, epic battle, and spiritual quest.
With that said, I love when the microphones and instruments are turned off at a Mass and we chant the Lamb of God, or Our Father. There is a special beauty and power in that unity of voice worshiping the Lord. People always seem to sing louder when the mikes are off and instruments silent.
I think the Church should not try and compete with secular music, but affirm what is good in it. When I come to Church I want to transcend the everyday and be lifted up. I time for silence, or chant and adoration would be powerful as a contrast to the constant noise and technology we are immersed in.
Thanks
Quote(2) Ain't the clothes you're wearin'... Can't be too sentimentalAugust 29th, 2008 | 10:31am Love your style of writing! You write so well, you include so many references, and bring the article to a close pulling in an introductory thought. Thanks for making me smile on the memories of some "good ol' rock 'n roll.!" Quote(3) Rock is universalAugust 29th, 2008 | 7:40pm Thanks for a great article on my biggest passion.
Ever since I began listening to rock on the radio in junior high and discovered the joys of playing guitar in high school and playing in a garage band, I've been hooked. I often think about how my Catholicism colors my view of rock, and vice versa. I think you've raised great points about how rock is arguably the most accessible form of music. What I've come to appreciate is the seemingly infinite variations of rock- I love everything from Cat Stevens and Dylan to Metallica and the Smashing Pumpkins, and dozens of "indie rock" bands in between. They all have a slightly (or drastically) different shade of paint to color the canvas of life with, never ceasing to inspire and teach me about the seemingly infinite depth of the human spirit. And for every mood I'm in, there is a rock band to match that mood and provide instant therapy.
And as you have alluded to, some of the best rock songs are the ones that are about universal themes that everyone can relate to. A Tom Petty song "I Won't Back Down" comes to mind:
Well I know what's right
I got just one life
In a world that keeps on pushin me around
Gonna stand my ground
and I won't back down
Worded differently, this could have been a verse in one of Paul's epistles, and yet it is a verse from one of a "secular" band's most popular songs.
In college a few years back (perhaps the foremost orthodox Catholic college in the country), I went to a seminar about the "evil influences present in rock music." A video was shown on how bands such as the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and the Beatles had dabbled in satanic influences during certain periods of their careers. The professor who led the seminar went on to suggest that the very nature of rock music itself (particularly the loud steady beat) was somehow a deficient and basically "bad" form of music, especially as compared to classical music. While I know that the professor's intentions were well-meaning, it struck me as a rather shallow, Puritanical, and un-Catholic way of viewing such an influential and storied form of music as rock 'n roll.
First, it's fine to know the history and influences of a particular band, and many have a long history of debauchery, depravity, and evil activities. Does this take anything away from such masterpieces as the Beatles' searingly catchy "I Saw Her Standing There" or Led Zeppelin's epic and gorgeous "Stairway to Heaven?" I should hope not, for the same reason that we don't discredit the writings of St. Augustine because he had a debaucherous period in his life. And to say that rock is ultimately a deficient and lesser form of music than classical is all fine and good, but I'll be darned if classical music isn't less accessible, danceable, and fun (thanks, Mr. O'Hannigan). Put differently, it's like saying that you should only drink the finest wine and should never crack open a can of beer.
Don't get me wrong, I love classical music. I just think there's a time and a place for every type of music. Rock n' Roll will always have a place in my heart. Quote(4) The majesty and humor of late-twentieth century popular musicAugust 29th, 2008 | 9:25pm Being a big fan of organs in general, I love rock organs. And, when it comes to "guitars at Mass," I wish more musicians would come to realize the majesty of the electric guitar: an instrument that can function very much like an organ if used the right way (I realized this when I first heard the original Heavy Metal demo single of "The Phantom of the Opera", whether the famous organ chords come in but gradually fade to an electric guitar; a conflict brought to fruition in some later records of the song, including the movie, where the two are almost indistinguishable).
As for the humor, I love it when a performer does a song meant to be tongue-in-cheek, then the critics pan it, and society at large uses it as a club to beat that "low brow" "artist"--all because they take the song seriously, when the performer did not. As a die-hard Manifan, one has to see "Copacabana" and "Can't Smile Without You" in that context (love the car ad that was on years ago where the guy got divorced papers and yelled, "SHE WANTS HALF???" And went around chain-sawing everything in the house to the tune of "Can't Smile Without You").
There is something authetnically Gothic in a genre that can shift so easily between granduer and comedy.
Quote(5) Bravo!August 31st, 2008 | 4:04pm Since I'm married to your brother, I love reading about your shared childhood experiences. I can SEE Dad O'H in his lava lava bashing the "long haired music" while extolling the virtues of the classics and you cutie pies listening intently. And Mark Humphreys quote is right on the money!
As an aside, we just went to Joey's football game and when the cheerleaders started chanting, "One! We are the Panthers...Two! A little bit louder... " and then I joined in with "Three! We still can't hear you...Four! More, more more more! Paul looked and me and said, "How do YOU know THIS cheer?" Classic music and cheering never go out of style =0) Quote(6) Lyrical, as alwaysSeptember 10th, 2008 | 1:01pm You are a phenomenal writer because your style is so evocative of your audience's own experiences. And you are right, therein lies the strength of rock 'n roll. You only omitted the bluesy side of the genre, because who hasn't had a rock 'n roll song to celebrate the loss of a great love? :)
Well done, as always.
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