the Rock Report

MY GENERATION (part I)

Recently, I joined a discussion group (one of those Yahoo! things) from the great UK site, My Generation. If there’s ever a Xanadu for rockers like me (steeped in the Sixties, lost in the millenium), it’s that one.
Some of the people I’m sharing with (when I have time) are from the groups themselves; others, tremendous fans of the legends. A few are into guitars (especially my favorite, the legendary Rickenbacker. The smoothest instrument on the planet …), but it’s a tight-knit group that shares, cares and dares to buck (yesss, I said buck!) the computerized, pre-programmed of today!
It’s one worth checking into. If you like the music of the Invasion groups, still carry the 4/4 in your pocket, and want to share thoughts with some great folks, check your Yahoo! group page and look for My-Generation. Or go to their website … they’ll have a link there, I’m sure …
Incidentally, a few notes:

• This coming year, look for the new (I am not making this up!) John Lennon action figure! It’s supposedly gonna have over 20 of John’s sayings pre-recorded for play.
• The Searchers are gonna tour America in July of 2006. Now, before you think “old cronies”, you’d better listen to their recent music! You’ll change that label, and fast …
• The best place for British group rarities: <a href=”http://Rockinbeat.de. All ya gotta do is figure the conversion from dollars to pounds …
• You’d be surprised at how many of the groups that made it big in America are still performing (and many more that didn’t, though they were big in UK)! Swinging Blue Jeans, Troggs, Gerry and Pacemakers, Peter Noone, Searchers, Chad and Jeremy and quite a few others … they’re all still pulling in the fans!

Shows, once and for all, that rock-n-roll will never die … especially those of the “quality” years!

CUSSED-AT CASSETTE GIVES IN TO SEEDY CD

Been doing a bit of CHRISTMAS shopping (take THAT, naysayers!) at the local Saks/Proffitt’s/Belk here in town (pity the poor identity crisis that store has!), and couldn’t help noticing that everything’s “CD” now … no “cassette” players in sight! They have small disc players, portables — even a large one that also has (get this!) a record player that works (now, why, when the vinyl’s been long-gone, do they have that and nothing to accommodate my three-hundred-plus clear-shelled, Dolby-recorded wonders?)
Then I hear from the trades that the cassettes are being totally phased out for the little shiny discs!
Personally, I think they’re makin’ a few big mistakes here:

• A cassette is compact. You can carry it in your coat/shirt pocket. The only one who coulda carried a CD like that woulda been Captain Kangaroo (remembering the size of his pockets).
• When a tape breaks on a cassette, ya just fix it … pull a little of the tape outta both reels, snip off a tiny bit if necessary, glue or strand-tape it together, and you’re good to go! Get a healthy scratch on a CD, and it’ll cost ya upwards of twenty bucks to fix it (it’s called “buying a new CD”).
• Leave a tape out in the car, in heat, and most likely it’ll be okay — even after watching the Game over at Uncle JW’s. A CD? Well, you couldn’t even use it as a frisbee anymore!!
• Most CDs can’t be recorded over, and there are only a few players that’ll allow you to return to any sweet spots on them. You’ve either gotta go back to the beginning, or to a pre-programmed spot on it …
• Cassettes are nearly indestructible; if your cat knocks one off the desk, it’ll still be all right to play. Knock a CD off, and, unless you catch it before it hits ground, it’ll end up with a few scratches (see item 2)
• Your dog isn’t as tempted with a cassette as it is with a shiny, new frisbee (well, to him, anyway!)
• I could get a good cassette of Morrison for about seven bucks and change. The same on CD runs around twice as much! The cost-factor matters to most young people … and they’ve got the greatest buying power when it comes to music. Make it expensive, and their “Doors” will be shut …

So the bottom line is: We need the cassette players! Otherwise, we’re gonna get disgruntled as we take all our tapes and donate them to “Goodwill” (which already is overstocked on ‘em!).

Joe Tex once sang “Hold On To What You Got”. We might as well, if the Audio powers-that-be have their way …

But, not to worry; like all those LPs that have gathered dust in my bookcase, they’ll come back in about twenty to thirty years.

THE LLOYD THAXTON SHOW. Man, when I knew that program was coming on (I believe) my hometown’s Channel 9, I’d sneak into the bedroom (where my folks had a second — much smaller — TV) about twenty minutes ahead-of-time just so I could “lay claim” to the set (we had a rule in the Hinson household: Whoever got to the TV set first got to choose the program! And, with two brothers, there was a constant battle.) Couldn’t've cared less about the dancing, as such … I had two left feet, anyway, and no dancing partner … but that little guy with the suit that ran the show was a total nut, and he made that show lively and fun to watch!
His interaction with the kids was amazing … and a great influence on my own desire to be behind a mike someday … but it was Lloyd’s banter with the acts that was the real kick! When he interviewed the Knickerbockers, danced with the Godfather (James Brown, who’ll be at BB King’s Blues Bar and Grill in NYC on New Years’ Eve), or chatted with Bill and Bobby (the Righteous Brothers), I got a sense of the true performer: artist, talent, serious, comic … but human. As for the stars, Lloyd could get past any shell that said “STAR” and brought out that part that said “…ALSO A HUMAN BEING LIKE ANYBODY ELSE!”
The most hilarious segment was when he grabbed a guitar and, with the stage darkened and just a spotlight on him, began to lip-synch to Dylan’s Desolation Row (the song, itself, is about eleven minutes and change). He had the plaintive, faraway look of a folk singer at Cafe Wha?, and was doing a good job.
Then they cut for commercials.
Coming back, there was Lloyd … still “singing,” but with the studio “empty”, the random newspaper blowing past him as though he’d been left, abandoned, to finish the ultra-long (at that time) tune. Having just listened to the whole “Highway 61 Revisited” LP, I laughed so hard that my sides hurt for a good 24 hours afterward …
Then, there were the Byrds … the live performance. It certainly made me “feel a whole lot better” about what my folks called the “frammin’ away” I did on the Sears Silvertone. Though they’d bucked the set’s system, the fivesome gave me the confidence to hit the stage myself …
It was a tragic day when I tuned in just to learn that Lloyd’s show was no longer on the schedule … but, somehow, I knew that, whatever The Man did, he’d be rockin’ while he was doin’ it!
Today — even after more radio/TV work, the latter landing him a handful of well-deserved Emmys, a book called STUFF HAPPENS — and then you fix it (co-written with John Alston), and a DVD that will be making its debut soon — I know Lloyd’s still got the music in him … the pure spirit of what it was all about … and that makes him “number-one-with-a-bullet” on this writer’s Top 40 List for years to come.
Rock on, my friend!!

Somebody in Virginia tuned in to this blog and wrote, asking me to make the font a bit bigger. Easier said than done, though … seems the powers-that-be at the big “B” won’t let me get it beyond what it is now! (Huh?? Yep, I tried the font-size window. No luck. So, just squint yer eyes and give it a shot, anyway …) And since the request-line is open, the dude from governmental watersports (ie, Navy) asked me to list the rockrelic’s fave tunes, and a bit about them.
No sweat … and, maybe, you’ll get an idea of what goes on behind the keyboard, where I have a few cats waiting for their evening meal as I write this (heyyyyyy … “a rocker in a room full of cats”! Imagine …).
My faves in the top-five countdown are:

• AMAZING by Aerosmith. If there was ever a song that told my story, it’s this one. Now, I’m not gonna go into the “moment” that arrived or the “blink of an eye” bit (unh - unh … you’re gonna haveta ask me about it!), and the “angel of mercy” was my dear mama. It’s right on the money, when it comes to the truth …
• YOU’VE GOT THE TOUCH by Van Halen. First heard this tune on the “Transformers” movie with my kids. It comes in #2, just behind Aerosmith on the charts … more of “companion” to it … where Amazing tells of the history, I like to think Touch is the here-and-now.
• DON’T STOP by Fleetwood Mac. Listen to it with an open mind … better yet, let your conscience in on the tune … and try to feel bad afterward! Can’t do it! It’s that inspiring. And I live the words …
• HUNGRY by Paul Revere and the Raiders. Though Paul’s had a new lead since Mark left, the song is still as potent … if you’re hungry for something better in life, listen to the song!! It’s drive-time personified (btw, the guys put out Kicks in ‘65; ’twas the first anti-drug song on the market. Just a FYI note. Now … back to the program:)
• and coming in at number five is … well, it’s a tie … and both by the same artist! First up, the John Lennon/Elton … ’scuse me … SIR Elton John collaboration on John’s Whatever Gets You Through The Night. Just a good, solid song … Now, the other came out over a decade after his death … but with the surviving Beatles backing his demo of Free As A Bird. Just shut your eyes, let your mind wander as you hear this extremely relaxing cut … the tempo is perfect!
• Awwwwwwww, couldn’t let Sedaka down: As a bonus, I’m throwing in the raucous Bad Blood, again, a collaboration with Sir Elton. It was one that my friend Bultmann sent me when I was married to Satan back in the 1980’s .. he said it was his message to me about the situation and her. I just dig the beat … how often does Neil let what’s-left-of-his-hair down and really rock??

Now, there are a lot of others (those by England’s Merseys and Four Just Men are included), but these are definitives to me .. and those first four on the hit list (no, I didn’t leave a letter off that first word!) tells ya nearly everything ya need to know about the rockrelic’s inner workings.

What’s yours? Gimme a shout-out, and lemme know ….

25 years ago, we lost a legend who was, arguably, the greatest song-poet and activist this side of Dylan … a man who, with three other talented lads, was part of the group that changed rock-and-roll (if not music in general) forever. John Lennon didn’t die of drug overdose, alcohol ingestion, motor accident or even heart attack.
No … this beloved, energetic icon … one who, in truth, was just “Starting Over” … was murdered only a few hours after he’d (of all things!) pleased a would-be “fan” (who would become his assassin) by signing a copy of an album.
What was John all about, anyway?
Three basic words: Creativity, sensitivity and tenacity. He believed strongly in his projects, was open-minded enough to be creative (both in the formation of what was to become the Beatles, their songs and other works over the years [including “Apple”] and well into solo productions), and was sensitive to the needs and desires of the working class (note the words of many of his solo works). This was translated, in later years, to a special sensitivity for family as well.

MEMORIES

I remember the morning of Dec. 9, 1980. I’d taken the Green Hornet to a local eatery in Pineville (NC … hometown) to get a bite of breakfast before heading off for work. Turning on Big WAYS 61, I heard Beatle music … turning to WIST, the same … it was weird “coincidence,” I thought.
Of course, I fell asleep before the news came on the night before, and was too busy getting ready for the day to hear it the next AM.
I parked the car, and, as I entered the restaurant, I looked in the news rack beside the door … expecting to read something about the problem at a local nuclear waste facility. Instead, there was a pic of John, with the heading “JOHN LENNON SHOT DEAD.” I stood there for a second, totally … TOTALLY … stunned. Pulling out a quarter, I fumbled around for the slot, put the money in and got a paper.
After sitting down at the third table on the right, next to the window (it was a sunny day, 47 degrees), I put the paper down … almost afraid to open it … as Lambrini brought me a cup of coffee. She asked if I wanted to order, and I mumbled “yeah … two eggs over medium, grits and sausage. But give me a few minutes first, okay?” When she left, I slowly, hesitantly, unfolded the paper and began to read.
At the table across the aisle from me, Jimmy Satterfield asked if I was all right. No, I wasn’t … I had goosebumps, felt a clamminess … and had tears in my eyes. I mumbled something about the front page, without making a mention of the story. I just couldn’t bring myself to say it …

Looking through the pages of rock history, we can see John’s effect on it all … in today’s sounds, from Godsmack to Joe Diffie to Nickelback to Brad Paisley, we can hear John’s contributions …
BUT DO MOST OF THE NETWORKS HONOR HIM ON THIS SPECIAL DAY??? Naaaaaah ….

I dunno .. maybe he was just too radical … too controversial … too “ahead of his time” … for them …

Or maybe he was just a man who dared to make a difference …

Lemme kick this off by throwing one of my OWN on the turntable: While being heavily influenced by Gene Vincent and the Bluecaps (”Who Slapped John?” being the first actual R&R record I heard that clicked), Buddy Holly (”Not Fade Away” — who could deny that beat?), the Beatles, Raiders and strong coffee, I credit two acts with changing my attitude: First, the Knickerbockers, with their powerful “B” side to their hit, “Lies”, called “The Coming Generation.” These Beatle/Righteous Bros/Beach Boy soundalikes kicked a few gears into motion in my head, especially about the impact of young people (of which I was one, I think) and their effect on our future. Next up: The Barbarians, with drummer “Moulty” Moulton … who showed the music world (and me) that, if you’ve got the drive, determination and talent, not even a “disability” can hold you back from success. More later, if ya want … but this’ll give ya an idea how it works here.
Now … time to add your own: