purple haze

No bones about it: I dislike rock music. Notice I didn't say "hate". I reserve that word for the Liberal Government and their criminal mismanagement of what used to be the most marvelous country in the world. But I certainly do not like, listen to or seek out rock music. Haven't since my late twenties. The last piece of rock music I liked was Elvis Costello's "Allison". That was back in the late 70's and it's not really rock anyway, is it? The 80's were a complete wasteland (Duran Duran, anyone?), the 90's began with the totally oversold Nirvana - nihilistic trash with puerile lyrics that you can neither dance to nor hum. The 21. century? I don't know because I don't listen to any radio station that plays rock.

I use the term "rock", not "rock'n'roll" , which is great music. Rock'nroll is Little Richard and Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis and Roy Orbison. Music that is organic and pure. Music that has a pedigree. You can either dance to it and let your hair down (Little Richard) or quote it (Chuck Berry) or cry to it (Roy Orbison) Also, this was music that still had the rebel spirit. From what I could discern there was zero rebel spirit in the 80's and the 90's substituted angst and self-pity.

Most other forms of music build on tradition and history. You cannot play or study Hindemith without studying Mozart. You can't play or understand Miles Davis without listening to, and digging Louis Armstrong. Even country musicians have traditionally undergone long periods of practice and apprenticeship: especially bluegrass musicians some of whom are incredible virtuosos.

That is not to say that I dislike rock only because so many of its practitioners are dilettantes (though it IS one of the reasons) Elvis Costello did not to have to play guitar like Pat Metheny in order to write "Allison" or "Watching the Detectives". But he did build his songwriting upon a tradition - the tradition of the Beatles, of the music hall, of folk music and though his early lyrics are full of bile, they do manage to convey something very real.

Later rock music - and this is my main reason for disliking it - lost its feel for what is real. I never liked Led Zeppelin, for example: a multi million selling band who took simple, heart-felt blues, pumped it up with volume, bombast and self-admiring posturing, then resold it. I find it empty, stupidly loud and completely removed from its original meaning - always did, even in my early twenties, so this is NOT just a function of age. Instead of listening to "Dazed and Confused", I always prefered to look up the old masters: Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee or Muddy Waters. Those cats had style AND substance. Rock "artists" thought they had style (looking at old Led Zep vids one seriously doubts it) but there was zero substance.

For all the above reasons (and more), one of my all time favourite movies is "This Is Spinal Tap". See it and you'll never again be able to take a rock star interview seriously. Not that you should have in the first place!