Will classic rock last for all eternity?

Oak Lawn (IL) Reporter ^ | 4/17/03 | Michael M. Bates

[mikeb704]

Eva Narcissus Boyd was buried in North Carolina earlier this week. The name may not be familiar, but her music certainly is.

Under the name "Little Eva," she recorded "The Locomotion." The song was a giant hit in 1962.

Forty years is a very long time, even if Baby Boomers recall the era as though it were last week. I thought of Little Eva a few of months ago while driving. Her hit was playing on the radio and I wondered how many times I’d heard it over the decades. Surely hundreds of times. Maybe even thousands.

I began conjecturing if "The Locomotion" will still be listened to in yet another 40 years. Given how pervasive 60s music is today, I think there’s a possibility of that happening.

It’s not just on oldies stations. Turn on the TV and chances are you’ll hear 60s music in commercials.

Donovan, the Sunshine Superman, sings "Colours" in a Kohl’s commercial. A Gap ad uses his "Mellow Yellow." The same company features another commercial with The Troggs’ "Love Is All Around." What, you thought "Wild Thing" was their only groovy ditty?

Admittedly, some of the music in TV ads emanated from one hit wonders. Flowers.com runs a spot with "Concrete and Clay," a 1965 hit for the legendary Unit Four + Two. GMC’s Yukon included "Our Day Will Come." The first song released by Ruby and the Romantics, it was also the only one for which the group is remembered. Old Navy used "California Sun," a hit by the Rivieras. The band made the Golden State sound like heaven, which was quite an accomplishment for some Indiana boys who’d never personally been out there a’havin’ fun in that warm California sun.

It’s surprising to me that, given their sheer number and popularity, more Beatles tunes aren’t incorporated in advertising. Possibly it’s because of legal impediments. Michael Jackson has owned the rights to over 200 Beatles songs. Of course, Michael is always busy with either not getting plastic surgery or being named in multimillion-dollar lawsuits, so perhaps he just hasn’t had the time necessary to exploit his ownership.

Another consideration is that some Boomers consider Beatles music sacrosanct. These folks feel disgust with what’s perceived as tawdry commercialization of their heroes’ works. They must have not paid much attention when the group cranked out barkers like "Dig A Pony" just to fill up an album.

The mid-80s marked the first use of a Beatles song in an ad. Lincoln-Mercury had a sound-alike group singing "Help." A couple of years later, Nike featured "Revolution" performed by the Beatles and the company credited it with increased sales. Apple Records sued Nike, but until the case was settled kept employing it.

In the late 90s, Nortel Networks licensed "Come Together" for a new marketing campaign. H&R Block latched on to "Taxman" for commercials last year. Around the same time, an Allstate Insurance ad included "When I’m 64." Julian Lennon performed the tune, which added a nice touch of irony I thought.

Car companies especially look back to the golden age of rock. Steppenwolf does a heavily mixed version of "Magic Carpet Ride" for Dodge Viper. "Unchained Melody" was a 60s hit for the Righteous Brothers and Mercedes Benz incorporated it in a commercial last year. The Kinks’ "You Really Got Me" has been used in other ads for Mercedes Benz.

A song I’ve heard in several commercials is the great "Time Has Come Today" by the Chambers Brothers. It’s pitched beer, cars, and even an investment company.

One advertisement highlights "It’s A Beautiful Morning," a hit for the Young Rascals. The product being sold is Vioxx, an arthritis pill purchased by many Boomers, possibly even the not so young anymore Rascals.

When most of my generation finally leave this vale of tears – if they ever do – maybe then the 60s music will fade away. But what will take its place? The Insane Clown Posse, Eminem, Twisted Sister?

You know, The Locomotion keeps getting better with age.

[Chemist_Geek]

I was thinking about something like this the other day. The sixties music is now forty years old. I was in my twenties in the sixties and there is no way forty-year-old music from that time, ie the 1920s, was anywhere near as popular then as sixties music is now. Maybe some Gershwin, and that was it. 'Old' popular music didn't go back much further than the music of the forties, such as early Sinatra and big band sound.

Part of this may be the recent rapid development of compact, long-lived and robust data storage media. I mean, what media did they have for recordings in the 20s? Nowdays, the people who wish to listen to 60s music keep transferring that music onto newer media, "keeping it up" with technology as it were.

[Chemist_Geek]

The recent cover version of The Smiths tune How Soon Is Now by Russian pop vocalists t.a.T.y would be a contender

No way. No. My God, what have they done?

All right, I've gotta listen to that once.

[IonInsights]

more classic rock on the way...

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Oh, I love "Don't Take Me Alive" - my husband and I always sing "Got a case of Diet Rite, I could hold out here all night". (We changed the whole thing to a parody about a guy hiding from the law in a grocery store.)

: )

Cool tune. (I've got too many favorites to list mine!)

By the way, they have a new album coming out, called "Everything Must Go", and they're touring this summer. (I love the Dan!)

[discostu]

Interesting that you give out the song list because in many cases I think it will be the song that's remembered even more than the band. For instance as long as sports are played "We Will Rock You" and "We are the Champions" will be a part of human culture (actually Queen as a whole seems to have a lot of staying power, brilliant band way ahead of their time in so many ways). "Freebird", "Do You Feel Like I do". Bands as a whole will be remembered because they made so many "permanent" songs.

[gcruse]

. I mean, what media did they have for recordings in the 20s?

  They had phonographs.  Aside from that, sheet music was available
for anyone who wanted to recreate the music.  Look at how many
bands there are today who play sixties music.  AMOF there is one
group called the Fab Four whose concerts are being advertised on
local radio right now.  You can guress which group they incarnate.
Rudy Vallee and the Klikko Klub Eskimos were not being reprised
in the sixties.
Now, Winchester Cathedral....

[Dick Bachert]

IF I make it to some assisted living facility, I want Mozart's "Mass in C Minor," his "Requiem," or Brahms or ANYTHING by Beethoven ringing in my ears on my deathbed.

THAT'S the music they'll STILL be playing 300 years from now.

"The Locomotion?" As catchy as it is, I don't think so.

[activationproducts]

And for fellow guitarists, here are some who will NEVER be remembered, but ought to be appreciated now:

Joe Satriani
Tony MacAlpine
Vinnie Moore
Yngwie Malmsteen
John Petrucci

And of course few know of the most groundbreaking guitarist from the last 25 years. The one and only.
Allan Holdsworth. He is a giant amongst guitarists.

[discostu]

I don't know, music with staying power will inspire multiple purchases. I remember a discussion I got into towards the end of the vinyl days where we started counting the number of copies of Dark Side of the Moon we'd all purchased to replace worn out copies (a cycle that apparently was universal enough to keep it in the top 100 for almost 20 years, until CDs finally meant not wearing out your copy any more).

I think a lot of it has to do with how the more recent generations don't feel the need to "move on" and change. I still listen to the same music I listened to when I was a teenager, while I listen to other stuff it's been an addition not a replacement (OK there's a few bands I've walked away from, but I'm confident I'll walk back to them later that's just how I am). In earlier times we associated certain music with a certain age of the listener (kids listen to this, teenagers to that, adults to this other thing), now we associate it with a generation and a time period. Now I have the freedom to say that Powerslave didn't stop being a kick ass heavy metal album just because I turned 30 something and if I want to still listen to metal by God I will and to hell with anybody that doesn't like it.

[discostu]

But bands from the 60s did do versions of classic songs from the 20s 30s and 40s. There was a stretch of time there where unless your band had a rendition of Hootchie Kootchie Man or Stormy Monday you simply weren't a blues/ rock band (I've got about a dozen different versions of each in my collection). Nobody had invented the tribute band yet, but covers were around and fairly prevalent.

[majordivit]

Bursting Out, best live album EVER (... well OK maybe One More From the Road by Skynyrd is better). Don't forget Roots to Branches, Ian's re-learned flute work blows me away every time I listen to it.

One more from the Road from Skynyrd is one heck of a live album. I think i angered an entire rival fraternity late one night when I opened my window and cranked 'Gimme Three Steps' on my sterio at almost full 80 watts per channel power (my speakers were very efficient). Needless to say, it got their attention. Members of both frats ended up wrastling around in the courtyard..

Strange as it may seem but I have not yet purchased Roots to Branches. Tull released that album shortly before i became a reborn Jethro Tull fanatic. The only songs i've heard from the album are the title track (Ian's lyrics have a strange relevance to 9 11) and 'Rare and Precious Chain'. I know it's just a matter of time until i purchase the CD. What i'll probably do is buy Roots to branches at the same time i purchase the next three Tull remastered CD's which are due in American stores sometime this month.

For me, Bursting Out remains the best live album from the best live progressive rock act in history. Tull rocked out like The Who, were as funny as the Kinks and were serious as Yes...

And what a setlist!!! I can't argue with any song on that setlist. They draw heavily on the classics - 'Minstrel In The Gallery', 'Too Old To Rock'n'Roll', 'Songs From The Wood', 'Skating Away', to name a few - trimming them down mercilessly to fit into the long program (that's not bad at all) and decorating them with tasteful gimmicks, like all those swooping keyboard noises in 'Skating Away' or bits of boogie-woogie on 'Too Old To Rock'n'Roll'. They even go as far as to resuscitate 'A New Day Yesterday', and deliver a fiery, crunchy version that suddenly comes to an abrupt stop halfway through and goes into Anderson's 'Flute Solo Improvisation'. It's worth owning the whole double CD for this piece of music alone. It really showcased Ian as the lord G-d of the instrument. Nobody can play like he does - those fast, pulsating puffs and whuffs are enough to thrill a stone. And when he occasionally descends into 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen' and 'Bouree' on the way, wow... these are moments of Medieval Folk Catharsis. Beautiful, stupendous, exciting... what else? Nothing.

Other highlights include a severely abridged 'Thick As A Brick'. They didn't have the time (nor the wish, I think) to perform the suite in its entirety, so they just took a small bunch of segments, but they took most of the best ones, right? I don't think Martin Barre is as hot on this version as on the Madison Square Garden version from the same year (which is in the 20 Years Of Jethro Tull video), but he's hot. Hot enough. And, of course, the audience goes mad on the obligatory Aqualung crowd faves: 'Cross-Eyed Mary' is especially good, with Ian drowning the venue in his sea of flute sound, but 'Locomotive Breath' comes close (I like the version on A Little Light Music a little more, but then again, that one's a little more metallic, so guess it's a tie), and the title track is no slouch, either. Funniest moment: at the end of the show, Anderson reprises 'Aqualung', and changes the lyrics to sing 'goodbye, my friends, don't you start away uneasy', and then quickly realizes he has to mumble the next line, because he's got to sing 'you poor old sods, you see it's only me'; so he sings something like 'you poor old sons, you see it's only... could be anybody?' Heh heh. You poor old sod, you just made a spectacular live album!

[gcruse]

I'm sure there were some. But the stars of the day, such as Ruth Etting (Take Good Care of Yourself), Rudy Vallee as mentioned, Al Jolson, and most others were getting no radio play on popular stations in the sixties, not in Texas, anyway.

[gcruse]

Just to add, BTW, I played in a band from 1962 until 1966. The oldies we did were mostly C&W, like Hank Williams. The blues that was requested was redone versions by Chuck Berry and early rock and roll. No one ever requested, to my memory, anything earlier than the 1950s, with the exception of C&W.

[mikeb704]

Bleah - I'm sick of boomers, and sick of boomer rock.

Getting tiresome, are we?

[majordivit]

"We Will Rock You" and "We are the Champions" will be a part of human culture (actually Queen as a whole seems to have a lot of staying power, brilliant band way ahead of their time in so many ways). "Freebird", "Do You Feel Like I do". Bands as a whole will be remembered because they made so many "permanent" songs.

Good point. Jethro Tull's 'Too Old to Rock'n Roll, Too Young to Die! was one of the songs that the CIA used to draw Manuel Noriega out of hiding..

Queen is a very important band, a band with quite a unique and unparalleled style of their own that's among the most significant styles of the Seventies. In fact, to a certain extent Queen embody the Seventies like no other band does: not ABBA with their poppy limitations, not AC/DC or Kiss, certainly not Led Zeppelin who had too much of a Sixties' aura around them to begin with. Queen were the epitome of glam: they took that POMP element in rock as far as it would go, blowing their bubble to enormous dimensions and taking enough care so as not to burst it - rather than bursting, it just kinda fizzled out throughout the Eighties. Careful, crafty, talented and slick, what's not to like about them?

[discostu]

RtB needs to be high on your list, Ian completely relearned the flute (turned out his self taught fingering was all wrong, which his daughter pointed out while she was helping him assemble the 20 Year Video, so he went to her teacher and also found out his mouth positioning was wrong, end result is that both his playing and his compositioning are dramatically improved and large chunks of RtB are showing off his new range).

Bursting Out is one of those time and place albums. It caught the band when they were at peak popularity, also the membership had been very stable so they were working together well, phenomenal set list (really pretty much all the songs you would want the 1979 Tull to play). I listen to it so much I remember that version of Brick better than the real thing. Problem is the CD version cut out a great Martin Barre instrumental and one other great track, my solution was to burn my LP version as a two CD set (fair use), hopefully the re-masters will include a two CD version (bonus tracks, me want bonus tracks). Though I'm kind of annoyed with these re-masters as I'd just about completed my Tull CD set when these started coming out, so I'll get the ones with good bonus tracks first then the others (I'll get them all eventually Tull is my favorite band, when it comes to them nothing is excessive).

[VANHALEN2002]

I like YES but I really got into them in the Trevor Rabin phase.

[discostu]

A lot of it probably depended on where you were, in Chicago the old blues stuff was still pretty popular, but Phil Chess owned a lot of that music and owned a radio station so it could have been manufactured popularity. Also there's the mentality, I remember an interview with Keith Richards (The Stones actually did a lot of Chuck Berry covers in the early years) where he said they were really scared to be putting that stuff on an album because they didn't think it sounded half as good as Chuck and they didn't want to piss him off. So I kind of wonder who was doing these numbers for fun but never gave them to the fans.

[VANHALEN2002]

36 year old that plays the real thing. In through the Out Door is a great record. Carouselambra and In the Evening shred!

[Wednesday's Child]

Not only did I buy those rock albums in the 50's and 60's, I still have them AND play them! I also have 8-tracks and 45's! I will never tire of the "oldies".
I also like classical music.