Books

Books

“Rock music was born of a revolt against the sham of Western culture: it was direct and gutsy and spoke to the senses. As such it was profoundly subversive. It still is” . . . Jonathan Eisen, from his book The Age of Rock: Sounds of the American Cultural Revolution.

Attempting to capture the essence of the current cultural revolution through analysis of its lifeblood, rock music, Eisen has collected and edited thirty-eight critical essays on the rock culture and business to produce a fine, serious comment on our music and its effect on our lives.

An all star cast of writers including Richard Farina (to the memory of whom the book is dedicated), Ralph Gleason, Tom Wolfe, Murray Kempton, Nat Heritoff, and Jon Landau among many, contribute to the book’s readability. Their subjects range from the music of the twenties, underground radio, teen tycoons, to the sex crazed groupies.

A sixteen page photographic essay adds anouther dimension to a great book. One feature is Detroit’s Rob Tyner of the MC-5 smoking dope in the old Artist’s. Workshop. Candid shots of Zappa, Dylan, Country Joe, and the Beatles in addition to other greats allow an interesting break in the reading.

The Age of Rock

There are two recurring themes which find their way into almost every essay throughout the book. The first of these is what Eisen refers to in his introduction as rock’s role of “liberating that which has been repressed,” or more simply, “kickin’ out the jams.” H.J. Mooney notes this sense of liberation in the form of rock songs as he writes (in his fascinating essay that traces the roots of rock back to 1890) that “by 1960 the old stiff-upper-lip Calvinist distrust of emotional expression had softened more than ever before. The grim lips relaxed and opened. Songs were shouted.”

The lyrics, too, often contain the message of liberation as Wilfred Mellers discovers in his analysis of Dylan’s “Tambourine Man”: “Release from the minds tension... is a necessary step toward rediscovering... we are encouraged to forget ‘consciousness’ today so that we may recharge our spiritual batteries for tomorrow.”

The liberation of one idea that has a tremendous effect on many of those writing in the book is what one writer terms the New Left’s acceptance of the chaos and irrationality of modern existence. This acceptance is vividly described by Paul McCartney, who is quoted in an essay as saying “I suddenly realized that anyone doing anything weird wasn’t weird at all and that it was the people saying they were weird that were weird.”

Apparently, many of these authors have difficult time accepting chaos. Dylan’s slashing satire of a man of logic caught in this insane world, “Ballad of a Thin Man” is the most quoted song in the book. *

The second recurring theme is the many historical precedents of today’s cultural revolution. Joan Peyser compares rock bands to the “small groups of uncultivated, bizarrely dressed, oddly named musicians who travelled from town to town singing and accompanying themselves”-a thousand years ago. These “itinerant poet-musicians”.were well loved by the people of that time, but were persecuted by a hostile establishment-The Church. Sounds familiar.

Ralph Gleason explains what he calls today’s “spiritual revolution” by quoting Nietzche who wrote of the “orgiastic movement” driven “by Dionysian stirrings which arise either through the influence of those narcotic potions of which all primitive races speak in their hymns or through the powerful approach of spring.”

Not all of these essays are so heavy. In “Groupies: A Story of Our Times,” Tom Nolan traces the career of one of the first and most successful groupies, who almost landed the Beatles. He vividly depicts the pathos of this freak outgrowth of the rock culture, its irony, its tragedy. He describes Sherry; her eyes “reveal the faintly predatory look ... a look that always sadly surprises when found in one so young-Sherry is nineteen.”

Jonathan Eisen

Several of the essays are concerned with the commercial aspects of rock, including one by the always delightful Tom Wolfe. Phil Spector, “First Tycoon of Teen,” is the subject of Wolfe’s piece, sketching the plight of the millionaire music corporation Qwner and song writer. It reveals Spector caught between “the universe of arteriosclerotic, hypocritical, cigar-chewing, hopeless, larded adults” and the sweet innocence of the teenybopper world.

Interviews of Paul McCartney and Frank Zappa prove very interesting. Alan Aldridge questions McCartney on his method or style of writing the lyrics of the Beatles’ songs. McCartney clears up some myths about their songs; “Yellow Submarine” was intended as a children’s song, for little kids to sing. The title evolved from an experience, “There’s some stuff in Greece like icing sugar—you eat it . . . It’s called submarine; we had it on holiday.”

The Zappa interview by Frank Kofsky reveals that Zappa chose the tar-out Mother’s image because he thought they were too old to have any appeal as sexy rock ‘n’ roll stars. He considers his fans to be “the cream of the weirdos of each town.”

Cont. on Page 27

Cont. from Page 19

Not all of the essays are completely relevant or enjoyable. There is a three piece debate on whethei or not the Stones are “arrogant and narcissistic” which seems to be a waste of time. One essay, entitled “The Aesthetics of Rock” is incomprehensible:

“In a world of such things as random value, metaphysical inconsistency, and the constant unavoidable interruption of pure aesthetic perception by random events from within and without, eclecticism is the only valid position; and other stances may be measured by virtue of their distance from the eclectic.” It must be a hype.

Eisen is correct when he says “Perhaps this book will help explain what’s happening, if you don’t know what it is . . . Rock is definitely a music of revolt, even if that revolt is frequently patternless and inchoate. This book is an attempt to explore some of the ramifications of the movement and its music.”