Listen 2 Classic Rock

Ah, the good old days ~ whether you’re a confirmed rock and roll-aholic, a classical music aficionado or anywhere in between, our favourite tunes can transport us instantly to the memory of a first kiss, the after-grad party, the first time you saw a tequila sunrise. If you’re going to buy music, here are three good reasons to stick with the original non-compact disc…

Right here is where you get to enter the analogue versus digital quality of sound debate. This is not the place to get into the technical reasons but there’s definitely a belief that all digital music conversion involves “some loss of information.” You can do the test yourself just like they did in the “Is it live or is it Memorex?” commercials. Blindfold a handful of your friends, play a tune on vinyl and then the same tune on CD, and see if they can tell the difference. Be warned: this test runs the risk that they may be delighted just to be blindfolded and therefore unable to hear anything after that.

Even if the record album itself is more scratched than the plexiglass windows on an old travel trailer, there’s still the value of album art. All the vinyl album addicts that I know belong to the Baby Boomer generation. If you don’t immediately understand the value in perusing the detail of a 12″ x 12″ print over a 5″ x 5 ½” one, you’re probably not old enough to appreciate my sense of humour. And I challenge any musical artist today to do Andy Warhol justice in a space the size of a CD case the way that the Rolling Stones did with the Sticky Fingers album cover.

Last but not least, there’s some exceptionally good music out there on vinyl record albums that isn’t even available on CD unless you can handle the whole conversion process at home. From the Beatles to Julie Andrews, someone’s all-time favourite tunes are languishing in a box in the garage behind the Commodore 64.

Vinyl records are coming back and some believe that it is the CD that will go the way of the 8-track cartridge. Music stores are making more room to take advantage of the burgeoning new music fans that are buying vinyl record albums. They love the sound, the art, and the bands that are recording only on vinyl. They’re actually a step ahead of my memories ~ they even appreciate the smell of vinyl!

If you have a vinyl fetish and you’re into classic rock and roll, check out http://www.RaceRocksRecords.com for the favourite vinyl records that your ex made you toss out years ago!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=June_Lazenby

Alternative Music embodies a different musical approach and an “anything but” philosophy to the status quo of rock and roll. This movement in music has existed in other forms through the years. Punk, for example, was arguably a precursor to what later developed as Alternative Music. The basic idea of Punk Rock was to be antiestablishment. Punk deliberately made a different sound than Rock at that time by using different chords, more distortion, more feedback, and a real irreverent in your face attitude that at once was prevalent in Rock and Roll, but has long since subsided as Rock became mainstream. Once the subsidence into mainstream and complacency ensues, a movement inevitably arises that says “I’m tired of this…we need something new, anything but what we have now”. And just like that, the new music begins.

Yes, the term “Alternative Music” means pretty much what it sounds like: a different sound to what you hear in mainstream rock and roll. Now, trying to define mainstream rock and roll is a little like trying to lick the bottom inside of a beer bottle. Just think of the music you hear on your local classic rock type radio station and that is basically mainstream rock and roll music. Bands like REM certainly came on the music scene as Alternative, as their sound and attitude was a break from the classic rock “behemoths” of bands like Boston, Kansas, and other bands of that era that aren’t named after cities or states. The early 90’s also brought a glut of alternative bands like the Seattle biggies Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains.

College radio has proven to be a fertile ground for discovering new music. Professional radio music stations are saddled by the burden of playing popular music to remain popular among listeners and advertisers so they can continue to make bazillions of dollars in advertising revenues. College radio doesn’t have that burden, so the music choices can come from a more liberal selection, and not just the latest Maroon 5 hit. Bands like REM have expressed their appreciation for College radio as it gave them and Alternative Music a considerable boost.

The idea of Alternative Music is music and bands that are not in the mainstream. Wellllll what happens when a band becomes so popular that it IS THE MAINSTREAM? Ahh, the classic dilemma. The debates rage on amongst fan boys everywhere: “I liked X band when before they were popular” and so on. REM, as great and original as they are, gradually became a mainstream band from their sheer longevity. This isn’t to say every single band that becomes mainstream suffers a decline. I’m merely pointing out that Alternative Music in its essence is different than music that is widely accepted, aka POP.

The genre of Alternative Music currently is hard to define. The wave that started in the early 90s has subsided and has left a lot of carbon copies in its aftermath. The only thing to do now is to wait for the next big wave in music to come along and once again offer us what can only be known as “Alternative Music”.

To read more articles about music, check out http://www.musicandband.com

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It was the Saturday before Christmas and my wife and I were hosting an annual neighborhood get-together. Old friends and new acquaintances were dropping by with cookies and fruitcakes to share a bit of holiday cheer with us. The table in the hall was filling up with these small mementos of red and green confections and liquid yuletide remembrances. But my wife and I had already gotten the best gift any parent could have. All three kids were home. They’d come back for Christmas from all across America and the globe. From Australia (now happily Boston), Ohio and California.

I looked around at these three young adults; ages, 20, 24 and 27, conversing with some of their friends as well as our old friends and neighbors. Two generations in the same room; chatting, nibbling and laughing. And… all listening quite happily to the same music.

As an old rock & roller and musician, this intrigued me, so I began to listen a little more carefully.

I noticed that quite unconsciously both generations were tapping their feet or humming or even subconsciously murmuring a word or two of the lyrics here and there. All of these songs were familiar; the words, the music, the lyrics – to a room full of people ranging in age from about 10 years old to late 60’s. I stepped into the family room to catch the stations call letters to identify the format. It was what we used to call when I was working in the radio industry, an MOR station (middle of the road).

These are stations that specialize in playing music that will be familiar and enjoyed by the widest range of audience possible. So then what was this music that had spanned a half a century and is now familiar and loved by kids, parents and even grandparents alike? As Bob Seegar sang, it’s that ‘old time rock & roll’. It’s groups like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, Eric Clapton … even Sonny & Cher!

And mind you, this was not an ‘oldies’ station. This was ‘middle of the road’. Music for everyone.

I started to think. How did the music that typified the feelings of rebellion and unfettered love, evolve from the music that separated my generation from my parents’, and become the music that my kids still love today?

To be brutally honest, as my 20 year old son Chris tells me, “Dad everything your generation did becomes the standard like it or not – because there’s so damn many of you.” True enough. Remember that funny chart they showed us as kids? The one that they described as an ‘elephant moving through a python’ because every new phase that we, the Boomer children entered, would explode out of proportion in population and influence to all previous generations - or to any generation since!

Is that good or bad?

Well probably both. We certainly raised the collective consciousness about things such as racial injustice, war and poverty. But ironically enough, probably one of the most far reaching consequences the Baby Boomer (my/our generation) will have on the social fabric for generations to come, will be the twin revolution/evolution that we had on the two items that make the world of youth go ‘round. Music and sex.

Yeah, I know I left out the third part of the 1960’s triumvirate of ‘Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll’. But quite frankly I think if you asked anyone who lived through the liberated 60’s to choose the most important two out of that three, it would be no contest. It would be Rock & Roll and sex every time. And to any of my fellow ‘Boomers’ who are clucking their tongue (hummm is that a Freudian slip?) and/or shaking their head, I have but one question. What were you doing during the ‘Summer of Love’ in 1967?

I thought so.

So anyway… as I listened to the music and thought about the early Beatles or Stones or hey, the Loving Spoonful… it struck me that in addition to changing the ways we looked at the world during the time of JFK, LBJ, John, Paul, George & Ringo. Mick Jagger, Jim Morrison, Jefferson Airplane and Janis Joplin; the central theme running through the music was not necessarily the revolution and protest banners of social change that everyone has come to associate with that period. Uh-uh, the real message delivered in almost every song was … LOVE.

How many songs of the 60’s had the word Love in the title? Even more telling, how many songs didn’t at least have the word Love in the lyrics?!

All you need is love, Love me do, She loves you, Good Lovin’, You’ve lost that Lovin’ feeling, and so on. And that’s just a tiny sample of titles with the word love. Like I said, I challenge you to find a hit song from the ‘Love Generation’ where the word ‘Love’ doesn’t appear at least once in the title or lyrics. Try it – you’ll be surprised.

Quite different wasn’t it than many of today’s groups like Jet who sing about a ‘cold, hard bitch’. Great tune but not, well… terribly romantic. I mean could you picture that as a sentiment to snuggle to like, ‘all we need is love’?

Ah yes, come here and ‘put your head on my shoulder’ my sweet little… ‘cold, hard bitch’? Ummm – nope, I just don’t think that makes it.

Has the sexual part of love that 40 years ago was portrayed as running through a field of flowers bursting with psychedelic colors, faded and gone dull around the edges? Or has the wonderful world of sexual liberation that we pioneered, now become as mundane as a casual handshake?

And yes, before you say it, I won’t deny that we were the generation that championed ‘Free Love’. Although to paraphrase Janis Joplin, “nothin’ honey it ain’t free.” But while we shattered every taboo against sex before marriage, there was still a feeling – or for the more cynical among us – at least the pretense - that the person with whom you shared that lumpy mattress or hard apartment floor, was someone who you loved. Even if it was just for that one night. Or as Stephen Stills so adroitly summed it up; “ if you can’t be with the one you love, then love the one you’re with.” And we did.

So I guess that brings me down to my final point. Will the ‘groovy kind of silly, sappy, intense love that the Love Generation created in books and films but especially in the music that came out of the psychedelic 60’s, fade away with those idealistic, wide-eyed innocent flower children that grew up with all of that spiritual, metaphysical and physical love? Will the naive but sweet trust of the ‘Love Generation’ fade away ‘ like the Rolling Stone’s ‘dead flowers’? Or will a generation of the ‘cold, hard bitch’ view sex as just as a casual handshake or just another competitive game - an extension of soccer or lacrosse?

Or will they eventually want something more, and perhaps come back around to that incense and flower strewn ‘groovy kind of love’?

Stay tuned.

Ric Wasley Author - Shadow of Innocence - Kunati - April 2007 You can pre-order a copy of Shadow of Innocence from: www.amazon.com or www.kunati.com.

Ric Wasley has spent almost forty years wandering through corporate board rooms and honky-tonk bars. He now divides his time between writing mystery novels – Shadow or Innocence – A McCarthy Family Mystery – Published by Kunati, www.kunati.com, and observing the really ‘juicy parts’ of the human condition

New from Kunati Publishing: SHADOW OF INNOCENCE - The Newport Folk Festival provides a groovy backdrop for this fun and exciting mystery set in the music and drug soaked sixties. The Baby Boomers and everyone else are sure to enjoy this appealing mystery featuring a pair of musician partners in love and danger. Don’t miss SHADOW OF INNOCENCE!

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When you set out to buy vinyl records, it’s nice to have an album review now and then to refresh our overwhelmed baby boomer memories. I still like to buy records even if some people think that turntables and vinyl records are a thing of the past, and this is one of my all-time favourites.

I Can’t Help But Dance could be the also known as title for Eliminator, the outstanding album by quintessential favourites ZZ Top. Beating odds akin to divorce statistics, this band has the unique distinction of being one of the few that have been together for 35 years complete with their original members. For only being three eccentric-looking guys, they pack a wallop of classic rock and roll sound from their trademark custom guitars.

Gimme All Your Lovin’, Got Me Under Pressure, Sharp Dressed Man, I Got the Six, Legs, Dirty Dog, If You Could Only Flag Her Down, and Bad Girl are all foot-stompin’, hip-wigglin’ tunes that command even the worst of really bad dancers to the floor to strut their stuff. I Need You Tonight is as rock and roll as a ballad can be and still maintain the required compassion. Thug features all the synthesized electronic machismo that 1983 had to offer sounding like a cross between Santana and a Jamaican reggae band. TV Dinners captures more of their original pre-electronic blues sound topped off with inanely humorous lyrics.

The title Eliminator on this album is a bit of an oxymoron since this particular recording did anything but eliminate them from the charts and catapulted the Little Ol’ Band from Texas into commercial success. By refining their original Southern blues rock sound to emanate the electronic resonance that was becoming so popular at the time, they went way over the “top” so to speak, and eventually into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame where they belong.

If you have a vinyl fetish and you’re into classic rock and roll, you can buy records at http://www.RaceRocksRecords.com - check it out for those favourite vinyl records that your ex made you toss out years ago!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=June_Lazenby

Though I’ve been telling people since I can remember that Rock And Roll was born in my own little humble hometown of Hattiesburg, Ms., not many believe me. I know it to be true. Even the honorable Rolling Stone Magazine agrees as mentioned in Wikipedia….

Birthplace of Rock and Roll

It is a little-known fact that music scholars consider Hattiesburg to be the historic birthplace of rock and roll. [weasel words] As noted in the Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll, Hattiesburg was a recording location of Blind Roosevelt Graves and his brother, Uaroy Graves, who, along with piano player Cooney Vaughn, recorded two songs in 1936 that “…featured fully formed rock & roll guitar riffs and a stomping rock & roll beat.” The Graves Brothers and Vaughn–performing as the Mississippi Jook Band–recorded the songs ‘Barbecue Bust’ and ‘Dangerous Woman’ for the American Record Company, reportedly at the Hattiesburg Train Station.

Why pray-tell did my naive community fail to capitalize on that and so many other cities and towns across America make it faux claims to such origins? Heaven knows. Maybe it didn’t know better, perhaps it was embarrassed. I did not even know until years after I moved away. They’ve never even built a museum commemorating it. (It was always hard for folks to agree down there on much as I remember it).

Less than a decade later, a young singer just out of the military from Tupelo, Ms also made a bit of a splash in the Rock N’ Roll hall of fame. People simply called him “Elvis”. It was journaled that Elvis was always a very polite young man who was reluctantly pushed into fame and fortune, but actually enjoyed “the creative process” much more than the hype (we would later discover that the stress and anxiety of the hype became his demise, unfortunately).

That same small plot of Mississippi land, within miles of Elvis, also gave us B.B. King, Morgan Freeman, John Grisham, William Faulkner, Willie Morris, and other legends too many to count. How could that be, being in the least educated state in the country at the time, and in that particular part of the state, the poorest?

Though I don’t put myself in any of those giant’s league, but am in a creative field, I can only surmise that they had no choice but to be creative. If I remember correctly, and I believe I do, anyone who was “outside the norm” or “creative” was generally pushed to the fringe in the rural south in those days. I have heard it has changed and I hope and pray so.

Of course then came the British invasion in 1963. The mop-styled young men (It is hard for me to believe that I am now old enough to be their fathers) swept the nation like a giant Hoover Vacuum. For many years, Elvis was almost invisible and forget B.B. King. The Beatles were talked about at any function as often as death and taxes.

And even though they kept their most unique presence after many followers entered the scene, such as The Rolling Stones, Dave Clark Five, Zombies, Chad and Jeremy, Peter And Gorden (anyone remember all these?), and so many more.

Finally in 1969, America showcased its own home-grown entities in a concert on a little farm in Woodstock, N.Y owned by a man named Max Yasgur.

It was simply called “Woodstock” (maybe because it was easier to remember than Yasgur). Bands and musicians such as Quicksilver Messenger Service, Richie Havens, Crosby, Stills & Nash (Neil Young was not there yet), Joan Baez, Jimi Hendrix, Santana, Joe Cocker, Country Joe And The Fish, Arlo Guthrie, Janis Joplin and many others showed their wares. But heavy rains and public sex in muddy areas often stole the show. It was to be a musical statement about U.S. Foreign policy in Viet Nam, and sent a very strong message (which was often diluted with abstract vague statements clouded from psychedelic highs.

The music was recorded and it became a legend.

My “better half”-s daughter, age seven, loves Elvis. I do Elvis impressions (fairly well). I call her on the phone and tell her “I love you, Priscilla, Thank you, Thank YOUUUU Ver’ Much!” She chuckles loudly and pretends to be Priscilla.

I am over fifty now but still enjoy classic rock (and earlier rock, blues, folk, etc.) music. A lot of people my age tell me they cannot bear to listen to the music today that kids do.

I beg to disagree. I don’t like it all, of course, but didn’t when I was their age either. Now I find it most useful for my daily walks (on the headphones) instructed by my cardiologist (deep sniff). Could it be possible? Did time fly by that fast?

One last funny story.

I was sitting in the doctor’s office waiting. I saw a magazine on the desk with Paul McCartney on the cover a few years ago. I picked it up thinking it was probably Rolling Stone or some similar popular music magazine. I opened it to the McCartney story without even looking what the magazine was.

Upon reading the story, I noticed Paul didn’t talk a lot about music but about his aging. Interesting article but I was confused. It was time for me to see the doctor so I put it down, looked back and it was AARP Magazine (Formerly Modern Maturity).

So much for “the good old days”. Yes, youth is wasted on the young.

Rick London is southern writer, cartoonist and E-entrpreneur. He has carved a heavy niche (according to Google and Alexa) with his Londons Times Cartoons and has had that presence since 1997. He recently opened Londons Times Tees http://www.londonstimestees.com . One of their featured products include “Classic Rock” tees, totes, mousepads, coasters, aprons, etc. featuring The Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead, Willie Nelson, Bon Jovi and many more. His main cartoon site is at http:www.londonstimes.us

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The music industry is not want it used to be. Headlines often despair over the erosion of revenue now that downloads are replacing CD sales, and online file sharing often eliminates the need to spend any money. Any media business is vulnerable to technology changes and consumers switching to competing forms of entertainment, but I have to wonder if music with mass appeal that could bring in big sales is even being produced. No more do super groups such as Led Zeppelin or the Who emerge to pack stadiums and create fans committed to buying every album. And these days, who can claim to be a part of the next generation of musical talent that can inherit the popularity and profits of such creative geniuses as John Lennon or Jimi Hendrix?

I am not saying that musical geniuses no longer exist. I am certain that they are out there, but I don’t see them presented or marketed to mass audiences. Without great talent, how can the music industry hope to revitalize sales and nurture new icons? Back in 1967, when the Jimi Hendrix Experience had its first album Are You Experienced? on the British charts at number three, the Beatles at the same time had the number one spot. Can you possibly image such revolutionary albums being out today? And at the same time? Where is the music talent hiding - or languishing - and why does it not seem to be breaking out and catching on with mass audiences?

I know that times have changed because of the internet. Bands are going directly to music listeners with their own websites and pages on MySpace. This is absolutely fantastic because it allows anyone to throw his or her hat in the ring and get noticed. But how noticed do they get? Certainly some bands reach thousands of listeners this way and are able to cultivate a modest income, but are the bigger record labels scouring the internet for talent to produce for a mass audience? It does not seem like it to me. I suspect that many producers just want to coach some cookie-cutter talent, apply it to a formula, and expect people to pay $20 for a CD. I guess that no one wants to invest in recruiting genuine creative talent and pay for plenty of studio time to allow genius to flourish.

When I was growing up in the 1980s, I would listen to the radio or watch MTV. When I heard something I liked, then I would probably buy it at the store. As I recall, MTV pretty much stopped showing music videos in the early 1990s. As for radio, most stations these days play oldies, classic rock, and light mixes. This is a profitable formula, but how is new music going to be marketed to a mass audience unless it is presented to a mass audience? When the Beatles were exploding on to the American scene, they were on the radio. I rarely listen to music radio anymore because if I want to listen to classic rock, I’ll go to my CD collection. I’ve already purchased anything in which I was interested.

I just shake my head when I hear executives and lawyers for the music industry complain about illegal downloads and dropping CD sales. Maybe if they looked for some fresh talent and let creative minds do what they do best, they could attract new paying consumers who would surely appreciate something new and good to listen and dance to.

This commentary on popular music was written by Tracy Falbe, publisher of Amplified Genius - a tribute to Jimi Hendrix that includes videos, rock music headlines, and a biography of this beloved rock legend. http://jimihendrix.falbepublishing.com

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I would like everyone to think of the decades of the 1960s and 1970s as the Classic Rock Age. During the late 1960s a phenomenon referred to as the British Invasion hit the youth of the world like a rock! Bands coming from the UK brought a literal renaissance to the world of music and heavily changed and influenced the direction of rock and roll forever. Bands from the UK were, in turn, heavily influenced by blues and jazz bands from the U.S.

Have you noticed how so many things from the 1960s and 1970s seems to be coming back into style with today’s youth? I grew up during the ’60s and ’70s and now I often see teenagers wearing very similar styles of clothing and even using a lot of the same slang from when I was a teenager so many years ago.

Better than that the young people of today seem to have found that the music from the 1960s and 1970s is really cool too. It makes me feel good when I hear stuff like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin coming from a young person’s vehicle. Music is a matter of taste, but I find that most of the music of recent decades leave a lot to be desired. Sure, there has been some good music recorded in recent years and I like a lot of it, but nothing comes close to the classic rock bands.

A lot of teenagers express their opinions and tastes in music by wearing T-shirts and by putting bumper stickers on their vehicles. You will often see them wearing shirts with great rock bands on them like AC/DC, Pink Floyd, The Beatles and a lot of other rock groups and performers of the classic rock age. Of course this isn’t limited to teenagers, a lot of us older folk still dig the good stuff!

Some time ago I worked with a lot of high school age people. I was surprised to hear so many of them talk about rock bands like Black Sabbath, Jethro Tull, KISS and Frank Zappa. Not too long ago music had to be new to be cool among the younger generation, but today’s youth has gotten smarter and they are looking for music that is real.

You can see it on the new television shows, music videos, sitcoms and at the local mall and school - The Classic Rock Age is back.

Learn about some of the best classic rock and roll bands of the 1960s and 1970s at classicrockbands.info Classic Rock Bands is an extreme fan site dedicated to the memory and promotion of killer bands like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Steppenwolf and more.

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