C’mon Baby...
“I like music my parents hate,” exclaimed a friend of mine. “That’s why rock’n’roll is great!” This kid prides himself on being a punk king, a true rock’n’roll chauvinist. The peak of punk occured, of course, in the later fifties. Since then, MOR standards have been playing the chart-busters of yester-year — Beatles, Elvis, Neil Diamond — as standards, not golden oldies.
C’mon Baby...
movies
LET.THE GOOD TIMES ROLL (Metromedia)
“I like music my parents hate,” exclaimed a friend of mine. “That’s why rock’n’roll is great!”
This kid prides himself on being a punk king, a true rock’n’roll chauvinist. The peak of punk occured, of course, in the later fifties. Since then, MOR standards have been playing the chart-busters of yester-year — Beatles, Elvis, Neil Diamond — as standards, not golden oldies. But there’s a glory in forbidden fruit, especially when listened to loudly. Everything alien to “grown up” behavior — recklessness, weirdness, fun - is embodied in the teenage. Sweet wild abandon, not freedom — J.D.s didn’t feel free. The excitement is in the illegal action.
Rock’n’roll was illegal then, evert immoral. Rock’n’roll was therefore exciting. And it still is: just as the mayor of Jersey City had banned rock from the municipality in 1957, governors and state legislatures now ban rock festivals each summer.
Rock was also visceral, or better, carnal. “It’s the beat, The Beat, THE BEAT! I know how it makes you feel — evil!” says Jimmy Snow, rock’n’roll sjar become preacher in an opening sequence of Let the Good Times Roll.