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SR HANDS OFFA' KY
RECORD PLANER jfZJ
Rock
Yi' Roll
is here
to stay
by Bart Becker
"WE GOT JUS' ONE T'ING T' SAY
T' YOU F--N' HIPPIES. AN' DAT IS
DAT ROCK 'N ROLL IS HERE T
STAY!"
Yip yip yip yip
yip yip yip yip
mum um urn um um uh
get a job,
sha na na na
sha na na na na.
"Get a Job", T h Silhouettes
How can you d?ny the social import
of lyrics like that? The fact of the matter
is you can't. The ptophecy has come true
and in 1972 it appears that lock 'n toll is
here to stay.
The Rock 'n Roll Revival is the name
the press and public most often tag it
with. And it all started with those
heavy-lidded, curl lipped kids who might
have been the boy next door (but any self
respecting parent wished he wasn't).
They're visiting Pershing Auditorium
Saturday Night and they're the real
thing-Sha Na Na.
They began as students at Columbia
University doing what a lot of college
kids do. Learn a couple licks on the old
guitar, get together with a couple of the
guys in the dorm, learn a few Grand Funk
tunes lick for lick, and earn your way
through college. Probably impress a few
chicks and get laid a bit in the bargain.
But Sha Na Na didn't play it that way.
They played what they loved-rock 'n
roll-and parodied it at the same time.
And somehow things got knocked all out
of kilter and they jumped from playing
fraternity houses and garage parties to
become nationally recognized as the
standard bearers of rock 'n roll in the
Seventies.
And Sha Na Na has spawned all soits
of imitators and bastardizations of their
act and music. Most prominent of the
imitators is probably Flash Cadillac and
the Continental Kids. Last year they
made a lour that brought them to
Omaha. And they pushed Don Rickles
around on the Tonight Show to bring
them a little more national recognition.
In a similarly satiric manner Frank
Zappa has produced music similar to that
of the Fifties, complete with three-chord
piogiessions and sobster lyrics. But
people usually attributed that to Zappa's
general wendness. On one of the Mother's
albums Zappa comments that one of the
songs is "so greasy you should not listen
to it. You should wear it on your hair."
As the Sixties wore on and people,
ir eluding performers, began to tire of the
' ' rn e a n i n g f u I ' ' lyrics and
"improvisational" pieces the industry was
feeding them, they began to have a
yearning for some ass-shaking.
A few years ago Cat Mother and the
All Night Newsboys scored a mild hit
wilh a rock 'n roll medley. But the
onslaught was yet to come.
John Lennon threw together a
rocker-side of the first Plastic Ono Band
Album, Live Peace In Toronto. And
Lennon, usually the rocking force behind
the Beatles, has continued to include a
few of his own rock 'n roll compositions
in his subsequent albums.
Johnny Winter put out a live album
with a rock and roll medley that had
rooms full of listeners on their feet and
dancin'.
So, in addition to those groups doing
the songs of the Fifties, the Seventies also
boost the popularity of groups that have
bastardized the intent and kept the
sound; the rockers. The most popular
group in the world today is probably the
Rolling Stones, and they're a good
example.
There's no need to go into yieat detail
here, but the Stories are not particularly
advanced musically. Much of their
attraction is the mysterious aura of
impending violence that follows them