On the radio on the way to work, I heard the Who’s “Long Live Rock.” I am a huge Who fan. Huge. I survived high school by listening to “Slip Kid” over and over at top volume. And Long Live Rock, which contains the lyric, Rock is dead, they say. Long live rock! is a great song. Full of attitude, defiance, humor, and joy.
But I think rock is dead.
Certainly in 1972, when the song was released, it was WAY premature to write an obituary for rock & roll. But it’s 2008 and I think it’s time. Classic rock is a morgue. Some of the music is still vital, yes, but it came from a vital period, and to stick it in its own radio ghetto is a wax museum version of vitality.
There are excellent artists out there now, and some of them are working in a rock genre. Not most, and not the most interesting music being released. Not anything likely to be influential on future generations. I can’t think of a current rock group that I really believe will be remembered and sought after in five or ten years. Hip-hop, world music fusions, No Depression, Americana, and the resurgence of American popular standards are all more dynamic.
Meanwhile, the rock gods are mostly making other music. Robert Plant is doing country. Lots of rock and roll artists from the 60s and 70s are trying pop standards, some wonderfully, some badly. Some are doing Broadway or movies. Most are experimenting outside of the world of rock, or are doing self-conscious reunion shows without new material.
Rock is dead.
I’m not a musician, or a music critic, or an expert. I’m a person who has listened to rock & roll my whole life. I was a toddler when the Beatles had their first U.S. hits. I scream “BRUUUUUUUUUCE” as loud as any Jersey girl. The Who really did save my ass. Those beats, those lyrics, those attitudes are my blood and bones. But over is over. It’s a thing of the past.
Move along, nothing to see here.
It depresses me to say that I think you’re right. I keep waiting for some new rock group to sweep me away and convince me that rock is back, but that hasn’t happened for me since I first heard Pearl Jam. That was 15 years ago, and i was overjoyed that a fogey in his 30’s like me could still enjoy something new. But now, no matter how many rock critics acclaim whatever the hot new band is (most recently The Killers and The Arctic Monkeys), I don’t hear anything special. *sad*
[I’m hearing “Long Live Rock” in my head, and am I crazy or is the melody almost the same as “Johnny B. Goode”?]
The verse is really similar to Johnny B. Good, but the choruses are different. Good call.
I have to agree as well. I grew up listening to the Beatles too. I’ll hear one of their songs and find myself thinking, “they really were incredible”. Let it suffice to say that I can’t imagine there ever being another band like them.
I guess the last band I considered a true rock and roll band was Aerosmith. Now their music is classic rock! How can that be? Well, that’s because I was friggin’ 17 years old when they came out and I’m 40 something now! Dammit!
Ok…well, on that happy note, I think I’ll go listen to the “Oldies’ station. 🙂
Ya know, I didn’t think I could be more depressed than when I looked at my tickets for Siouxsie & the Banshees, Psychedelic Furs, and Echo & the Bunnymen, and noticed the phrase “VH1 Classics Presents.”
Ouch.
On the other hand, shit, great show!
It certainly took the sting out alternative/goth giants falling under the “retro” rubric.
When asked my age my common response is to quote Jethro Tull…. “Too old to rock and roll, too young to die”. It says something that most people who ask that question don’t get the quote…….
OhKen, that is one of my most favorite songs ever.