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Let us now honour great men...Feb 02 '01 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Why? Because I sez so!
Well, it seems like this category isn’t very popular over here at Epinions. It has encited the Wrath Of Bickel (TM), who along with Bainland has instead nominated the greatest moments in Rock history, and jodhisatta, too, has decided that it’s worth no more than a dissertation of Hearts’ ”Magic Man” (wtf?). I feel I must play devils’ advocate here. I think that, although few of us like to admit it, image is an essential part of popular music. I’d still love Bob Dylan if he hadn’t worn those sunglasses and bizarre afro, but he’d be alot less cool. Maybe it’s just that my early childhood infatuations (greek mythology, super-heroes) have given me a sense of pizzaz, but I like to talk about my personal heroes of Rock history. Teenybopperesque? If you will. But it’s only Rock N Roll, right? Yeah, but I like it, like it, yes I do! Here, then, are the 10 biggest names in Daniel_Rfs’ version of Rock valhalla. 10-Lou Reed I’ve never been that keen on The Velvet Underground. Nicos’ gotterdamerung voice makes me ashamed of my Germanic heritage; Sterling Morrisons’ guitar dexterity is annoyingly cerebral; and John Cale, well...he’s handy with a viola, but that’s about it as far as I’m concerned. But Lou Reed I like. Do I ever! His voice has a wise-cracking, sneering quality...not unlike Bob Dylan, but with a character all its’ own. My fav VU tunes- “Heroin”, “Candy Says”, “Pale Blue Eyes”- were usually his work. And ”The Velvet Underground”, their mostly Lou Reed dominated third album, is the only album of theirs that I’ll ever adknowedlege as truly great. After the demise of VU, too, Lou Reed was the only one whose solo career has appealed to me. We all know about “Walk On The Wild Side” and “Perfect Day”, but what about “I Believe In Love”, “Magician” or (most recently) “Tatters”? Fave quote: “Rock N Roll is what has kept us from going insane...you should have two radios in case one gets broken” 9-The Kinks I’ll admit it: I’m a hardcore Anglophile. No country has, to me, exerted such a measure of fascination as the good ol’ UK has: Oscar Wilde, King Arthur, The Beatles, The Clash, Lewis Carrol, E.M. Forster, tea, Madness, The Stone Roses, ”The Avengers”, ”Red Dwarf”, Monty Python.... It is no wonder, then, that I am biased in favour of The Kinks’ ultra-brit songs. They evoke afternoon tea, autumn almanacs, the death of Margaret Thatcher, village greens and Waterloo sunsets. With this and their deep connection to Vaudeville tradition, some “rootsy” critics have complained that The Kinks’ work has strayed too far away from “real” Rock N Roll. To which I say: since when is Rock N Roll about rules? And since when is art about denying your own cultural heritage? Fave quote: “Preserving the old ways, from being abused/protecting the new ways, for me & for you/what more can we do?”. 8-Blur The most recent group on here, but they definitively deserve to get mentioned. Blur are, quite simply, the best band in the world today. One of the signs of their greatness, for instance, is that each member is very much a public figure. I mean, can anyone tell me the names of any Oasis members that aren’t Noel or Liam Galhager (remember, Bonehead is no longer a member)? Does anyone know who the guys backing Mark McGarth in Sugar Ray are? Exactly. But Blur- Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James, Dave Rowentree. It comes to mind as quickly as John, Paul, George & Ringo. Also a sign of Blurs’ greatness is that they’re constantly evolving- from humble beginnings as a sub-baggy group (“There’s No Other Way”), through the Britpop period (they, along with The Auteurs, invented it, y’ know) and the Indie Rock stylings of their 1996 self-titled album, Blur are one of the very few groups who do evolve, instead of merely stating that they do in press statements. And let’s not forget that their 1999 ”13” album was everything that ”Kid A” wanted to be, only better. Fave quote: Drunken eggheads, that’s us”-Damon Albarn 7-David Bowie It is a testament to the radical differences between the USA and the UK that, in the USA, Glam stands for Whitesnake, Winger and Poison, while in the UK it stands for Roxy Music, T-Rex and Bowie. This is not to say that the UK is in any way superior (it isn’t), but merely proof that while Rocks’ roots lie in Memphis, London managed to bring something completely new to it, so new that it wasn’t understandable to the US at first (Bowie only managed to score a hit there after he had gone Disco) That “something” was the Glam Rock movement of the early 70’s. You see, while in the USA the end of the hippie dream meant introspective singer/songwriting, Blues boogie and Proto Metal, in the UK it was meant something else entirely. The Glam Rock movement was, in a word, gay. Very gay. While sexual ambiguity had existed in Rock from the get-go (“Jailhouse Rock”, anyone?), here it was made much more open and outrageous. And the biggest showman of that period was one Davvy Jones, AKA David Bowie. David had changed his name because there already was a Davvy Jones in showbiz (a member of The Monkees), and had started recording as far back as the Beat era. He tried everything- R&B, Blue Eyed Soul, Ray Davies-like tunes- but nothing seemed to work...until he decided to reveal his bisexuality (he’s heterosexual now) and sing about crazed Science Fiction themes. Much of the Glam boom was digitalised bubblegum- cr*p like Gary Glitter and Mud. But Bowie combined his sense of glamour with great musical talent, giving us Classic Rock as inventive and bombastic as anything since The Beatles. And, when Glam was over, he always stayed on top of things- be it the White Disco of “Fame”, the Germanic Electronica of ”Low”, or the synthie pop of “China Girl”. Some find Bowies’ music too cold and distanced, but I don’t think so. Sure, this is the guy who wrote “Space Oddity” and “1984”...but there’s also a very sensitive, compassionate side to Bowie. One example of this would be “Rock N Roll Suicide”, in which Bowie shows compassion for the hippie burn-outs. Another one is “Survive”, the painful break-up song from Bowies’ latest, ”Hours”. And that’s without even touching on “Heroes”. You can laugh at him when he pronounces Rock dead (he’s done it twice- once in the 70’s, where he proclaimed it “a toothless old lady”, and once again in 2000, when he called it “a dying religion”), or when he takes a fancy for yet another useless modernism. But you can’t deny his charisma and musical ability. Fave quote: “There’s New Wave, there’s Old Wave, and then there’s me” 6-John Lennon What can I say that hasn’t been said before? The only Beatle with a solo career worth talking about. The man who wrote “Imagine”. A rebel. A failure. A human being.. An inspiration to us all. Fave quote: “Serve Yourself” 5-The Clash It was The Clash who opened my eyes to the glories of Punk Rock. Previously, I had-ahem-listened to the music my parents listened to. Oh sure, I rejected their Rolling Stones in favour of my Beatles, but any movement whose main intent seemed to have been to insult the godly performers that I so admire (Dylan, Lennon, Jagger, et al) seemed despicable. Plus, at that time, I didn’t know the difference between Heavy Metal and Punk (it’s tricky for the uninitiated), and so put The Sex Pistols in the same bag as Warrant. Big mistake. When I first listened to ”Sadinista!”, a whole new world was opened to me- just as fascinating and appealing as the old hippie shtick. All it took was for me to listen to “Washington Bullets” once, and instantly The Clash, The Jam and The Damned were given a place in my record collection next to Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane and Donovan (yes, I like Donovan. Deal with it). Maybe what made it so easy for me to succumb to the glory of The Clash was that they weren’t just Punk- they were beyond all genres. On ”Sadinista!” alone, I can spot Dub, Gospel, Rockabilly, Electronica, Rap, Caribbean rhytms, Punk, Waltzes...the list goes on. The Clash were the first to establish a connection between Punk and Reagae- providing the springing board for bands like Madness and The Specials. They were the ones who (unlike Johnny Rotten, who seemed too obsessed with himself to care about anything else) gave Punk its’ idealism- pessimistic, fatalistic and grim, sure, but also with a will to CHANGE THINGS! Fave quote: “Back in the garage with my bullsh*t detector!” 4-The Rolling Stones Ok, so this ones’ more admiration than fondness...my dad is a big Stones fan, so I never got that much into them. Meaning that I only like, oh, about 50 songs by them. But still: great riffs, terrific attitude, outrageous stories, touching/amusing/enciting lyrics, and ageing with alot more grace than Aerosmith. Fave quote: “I never had problems with drugs, only with policemen”- Keith Richards 3-Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band You might argue that, stuck between The Stones and Dylan, Bruce Springsteen seems out of place. After all, he’s considerably younger, and hasn’t influenced half as many artists as Jagger/Richards and Dylan have. All true, of course, but who cares! Bruce Springsteen personifies everything that’s great about Rock N Roll! No one, and I mean no one can lift your spirits like Bruce can. An accomplished songwriter, he always takes care to make music that everybody can relate to, using day-to-day life themes and making them seem heroic. In fact, it were songs like “The River” that made me look at some of my schoolmates in a diferent-and much more awe filled- way. You see, I live in S.Miguel (the insular version of your average Springsteen small town), a region full of homophobia, racism and general daftness, where “nazi!” is deemed an affectionate teasing nickname for anyone coming from Germany and where you’re considered homosexual if you have long hair (actually, you’re considered a f*ggot, but hey..). As you may have guessed, it’s easy to get disdainful of the “common people” (as Pulp so sardonically put it) here. There were always kids in my class who were considerably older than me- the kind who’d fail to get ahead for three years. I always noticed that these kids were smart-damn smart- but they simply didn’t want to bother. Back then, I didn’t understand them at all...now, with the help of Springsteen, I think I’m getting there. Fave quote: “There were two things that were unwelcome in my house when I was a kid-me and my guitar” 2-Bob Dylan How anyone could not worship at Dylans’ altar is a mystery to me. People say his voice is ugly- I happen to think it’s one of the most powerful and moving voices that I’ve ever heard. I’d rather hear an expressive, sneering voice like Dylans’ than a smoothy like Franck Sinatra or Tony Bennent any day. What Dylan did was he opened up the doors of consciousness- in ways that LSD could never hope to. There were great songwriters before him (Chuck, Leiber/Stoller), but he defined the songwriter as a star. He wore the coolest sunglasses. He made the coolest stage speeches ( “Play f*cking loud!”). He gave us “Like A Rolling Stone”, “Idiot Wind”, “If You See Her, Say Hello”, “Positively 4th Street”, “Sick Of Love”, and so many more. Without him, there would have been no Springsteen, no Patti Smith, no David Bowie, no “Norwegian Wood”, no Joni Mitchell, no Neil Young...and Garage Rock would never have evolved into Punk. He da man. He’s still going strong, on his nevernding tour...1997s’ ”Time Out Of Mind” was his best record in ages. Talk about ageing gracefully. Fave quote: “If I told you what my music was about, we’d all get in jail” 1-The Beatles I saw ”Yellow Submarine” when I was nine and it changed my life. It was a whole new world of sounds and images and surrealistic stories...I quickly set about buying all Beatles records, and then, slowly, I became a full-fledged Rock junkie... Most of the time nodaways, I can’t even remember what it was that I liked about them. The Psychedelic genius? The witty humour? But then I listen to “Helter Skelter”, or “Twist & Shout”, or “In My Life”, or “Strawberry Fields Forever”, and I remember exactly what it is that I so love about them. It’s nothing that I can describe, or even explain, which is why I usually don’t review Beatles albums. I dunno if I’ve ever felt something quite like it, and I dunno if you ever have...but I hope you have. Because, apart from love and friendship, it’s the most beautiful feeling on Earth. Art, I think it’s called. Fave quote: “That’s what The Beatles were about...just do what you want and don’t hurt anyone else”-John Lennon (RIP)  |
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