Rock & Roll's Vaudeville Connection, Love Machine, PiL review, Hot & Happening
6
1$E REPOR Box 22LL NOFTEN IN ERROR - NEVER IN DOT]BT' CA 94L22 February 1986 Happy Valentine's Day ROOTS' ROCK' BROADWAY: ROCK AND ROLLTS VAUDEVfLLE CONNECTION First came black-tie music awards, then came therrHall of Famerr. Whatrs next for rock and ro11 - profit-sharing plans and rnajor medical? The anachronistic legitination of rock and ro11 is particularly distasteful if only for one detail the ponpous rrRootsrr styled farnily-tree which purposely overLooks rockrs major derivative source - the Broadway-Vaudeville connection. Rock academicians would have us believe that R&R was sired by a soul-country hybridization from which one can chart every evolutionary form of rock/pop. This carbon-I4 analysis, at best,, reflects only the sound of rock and ro11 not the spirit. Rockrs purely American essence lies much deeper than the grooves of a 45 rpm single it is rooted in the medicine show nentality that originally spawned Vaudeville and eventually gave us Broadway If you donrt believe us look at the career of Elvis Presley whose development and exploitation paralleled perfectly the growth and decadence of Arnerican musical theater. Itrs no accident that Elvisr success hinged on the promotional abilities of Colonel Tom, an ex-Carny hawker who knew what Continued on Page 4 FF,OM th6 Editor Do You Like Scratchin? Compact disc fans who mi€s the rfvintage soundrr of oId rock and. lazz material can now fill the gap with Scratch e ffiss a reverse Dolby process that adds noise to any CD performance. Availab1e now as a stand-alone component coming soon scratch & Hiss for cD portaTlEEi\ You nay have thought Rik1is was getting recklels vrhen fre !u:-fea off the li" & Phil (Pia zadora with the Fhilhairnonic) Lp, but =""i"""-ieport that her next outing is even more drastic a teaminf with John r,ydo'n tentatively titled Pia & PiL. AIso upconing for the multi-taiented Ms. p. country-rock LP with Nils Lofgren and Steve Stills (pia & Nils & stills) If you enjoyed our feature article [Roots, Rock, Broadway: R&Rrs vaudeville Heritagel, you-night be interested in the soon-to-be-released mini-text, Therers No Business Like No Business a chronology of the business problems of many great music stars including essayl on Chuck Berryrs tax problems, Springsteenrs Laurel Canyon dispuie and the battle over the Buffalo Springfield title. Expect an early faI1 release followino rhr: A&Rrs re-publication of The New privacy: part Two. @ A&Rreso
Transcript
1$EREPORT
Box 22LL NOFTEN IN ERROR - NEVER IN DOT]BT' CA 94L22February 1986 Happy Valent ine 's Day
ROOTS' ROCK' BROADWAY: ROCK AND ROLLTS VAUDEVfLLE CONNECTION
F i rs t came b lack - t i e mus ic awards , t hen came the r rHa l l o f Famer r . Wha t rsnext for rock and ro11 - prof i t -shar ing p lans and rnajor medica l? Theanachronis t ic leg i t inat ion of rock and ro11 is par t icu lar ly d is tastefu l i fonly for one detai l the ponpous rrRootsrr styled farni ly-tree which purposelyoverLooks rockrs major der ivat ive source - the Broadway-Vaudevi l leconnect ion.Rock academicians would have us believe that R&R was sired by a soul-countryhybridization from which one can chart every evolutionary form of rock/pop.This carbon- I4 analys is , a t best , , re f lects only the sound of rock and ro11not the sp i r i t . Rockrs pure ly Amer ican essence l ies much deeper than thegrooves of a 45 rpm s ing le i t is rooted in the medic ine show nenta l i tythat originally spawned Vaudevil le and eventually gave us BroadwayI f you don r t be l i eve us l ook a t t he ca ree r o f E l v i s P res ley whosedevelopment and explo i ta t ion para l le led per fect ly the growth and decadenceo f A rne r i can mus ica l t hea te r . I t r s no acc iden t t ha t E l v i s r success h inged onthe promot ional ab i l i t ies of Colonel Tom, an ex-Carny hawker who knew what
Cont inued on Page 4
FF,OM th6 EditorDo You Like Scratchin? Compact disc fans who mi€sthe r fv in tage soundrr o f o Id rock and. lazz mater ia lcan now f i l l the gap wi th Scratch e f f iss areverse Dolby process that adds noise to any CDperformance. Avai lab1e now as a s tand-a lonecomponent coming soon scratch & Hiss for cD portaTlEEi\You nay have thought Rik1is was getting recklels vrhen fre !u:-fea off thel i " & Phi l (P ia zadora wi th the Fhi lha i rnonic) Lp, but ="" i " " " - iepor t thather next outing is even more drastic a teaminf with John r,ydo'ntentat ive ly t i t led Pia & PiL. AIso upconing for the mul t i - ta iented Ms. p.country- rock LP wi th Ni ls Lofgren and Steve St i l ls (p ia & Ni ls & s t i l ls )I f you enjoyed our feature ar t ic le [Roots, Rock, Broadway: R&Rrs vaudevi l leHer i tagel , you-n ight be in terested in the soon- to-be-re leased min i - text ,Therers No Business L ike No Business a chronology of the businessproblems of many great music s tars inc lud ing essayl on Chuck Berryrs taxproblems, Spr ingsteenrs Laure l Canyon d ispuie and the bat t le over theBuf fa lo Spr ingf ie ld t i t le . Expect an ear ly fa I1 re lease fo l lowino rhr :A&Rrs re-publ icat ion of The New pr ivacy: par t Two.
@ A&R reso
lette,rz...+l - 0ea0 A+R. , Tn^ ̂ w ' r U
clrffi.d Friedfun ftunasro
l l i
child, LDrne on lous rhe, f wdnt\ou.-Ay hearl's 'rn rxile, J nr.dYDP , +o lOuc\ me cuz f wOntwhot \tlu do. I N4nt yoo. 't o'f t)
DIA dorNn'
{*^
Dar NC, You can{rind s nop liKe. \fSCelnetent/. thanVs' 4-ttru. '
+?- kar' **$, Nhat do VDVqet- when f,la/onna w\eqqqes u'i+lMc Don atl's ! il. do'ril l!l,aue Yf *5, Dr whqtsG 'it-'s.
Le PnssonFrrhf lUrrch ign
a I/fr{ Deon f,lr. ke., lvl.lhonks !.
v \c\
*au] A-RJ.;. r€ " r,,^.; -
I
aluraysln aruluriillnJ
/ - a
t.r I{ \Du aret . l ''. hander *hon, bond, d*p( '
i eost Cra*\ _
w o rkin( I-l4,re I
the band, ";
['ec efQC, lJ
ad/vice...
t-1!:'*
-
\_l _._ ooooA
i'-d.n.ffi.ffe "bS o *i".-|I brain r body transplant, but yon cen't :I $ve your body a brain trrupleot be :l*:Y v:"j"tv ":",'1ry ry_;
t of tbrhtoivettrr, ht4tI, D r r o G r | d e c l i l ! o l t t l n r ,
rs - ! Iy - r r � eG; ruI cts r lq rs it teta me to feil. fmt € _ - -
DuS- butfon phur€, u qn pl^{ "S*ruryers Iir 'l+€ [ighl-'
the Amer ican publ ic reaI Iy wanted a new Midway d isp lay a man, ha l f -b lackand hal f -whi te who could s ing and dance. And just as musica l theaterprogressed f rom t ravel ing-show to vaudevi l te , so d id Elv is t career , movingfrorn the Carny-style R&R tours into the babes and back-beat musicals of thes ix t ies. From th is form of mot ion p ic ture vaudevi l le ( la ter rev ived byDavid Lee Roth) , E lv is evolved to an emulat ion of the Broadway stage in h iscomeback TV specia ls , us ing synchronized dance rout ines and f ixed sets . Inthe f ina l s tages of h is career , E lv is moved in to the h i -end tack of Amer icantheaterrs most excessive and decadent form of musica l product ion - Vegassyndrome.American Musical Theater not only created the format for rock and ro11, i ten larged rockrs potent ia l v is tas by prov id ing a market ing s t rategy thatbrought rock f rom a s ing les-or iented business to an LP-or iented business andeventual ly to a v ideo-nusica l bus iness.The f irst step - rnoving rock from singles to LPs was accomplished by twosix t ies rnus ica l gurus Cl ive Davis and the Beat les. Pr ior to Davis 'market j -ng s t rategies and the Beat lesr Sergeant Pepper , rock LPs wereinconsis tent se l lers . At best , a buyer could expect one h i t and 11 losers.The doninat ing forces on the LP sales char ts were Broadway cast a lbums orpop sj-ngers who drew from the Broadway stage- LPs which sustained thernselvesover two s ides because of a themat ic and drarnat ic consis tency of therna te r i a l .Cl ive Davisr approach at CBS bel ied an understanding of th is phenomenon. Byencouraging uni f ied cover ar t tB ig Brother and the Hold ing Conpanyl ,d rama-s ty led l y r i c w r i t e rs Ipau1 s imon , Bob Dy lan , Ne i l D iamond ] ,p i t -orchestra rock arrangements fBtood, Sweat & Tears, Chicago] , as wel l asproper LP use and p lacement of mater ia l , Davis brought a themat icv isual izat ion to rock and ro11 that was in i t ia l ly n isconstrued as s imply av isual /audio backdrop for the f i rs t wave of ha l luc inat ing teenagers.The Beat les, through Sergeant Pepper , expanded on th is 'un i f ied- f ie ld tapproach to rock by adding a less-subt le Br i t ish music haI l approach - inwhichrr the wholerr [ the co l lect ion of LP tunes] became greater than the par tsIany pa r t i cu la r h i t s i ng le ] .The impact of Davis and the Beatles is evident, not only in the aberrantrock-opera mental i ty, but more properly in the thernatic/dramaticprerequisite for signing any new art ist and creating any new work. Can sheseIl a song? Can he dance? Wil l they look good on the stage and screen? Theemergence of video is proving the prophecy - rock is sirnply another form ofmusica l theater . L ike Broadway and Vaudevi l le i t seI ls best when the dancersare sexy, the dance numbers are wel l choreographed, the songs te l l a s tory ,and the s inger has credib i l i ty .Every dev iat ion of rock music fo l lows th is path Pop/Rock a1a Madonna is ad i rect der ivat ive of Broadway (and i f you donr t be l ieve us, compareMadonnars L ive Vi rg in Tour wi th any one-woman Broadway showpiece) . HeavyMeta l is s t ra ight theater ( i t ts no wonder Twisted Sis ter covered Leader ofthe Pack the legendary Shadow Morton conceived of the tune as a straightp iece of rock drama). Even v ideo rockabi l ly rev iva l is t ,s l ike the Straycatsresemble the Broadway tack of Grease more than the Menphis grit of CarlPerk ins.This cu l tura l rev is ion ism and academic pre-occupat ion wi th soc io log ica l rockroots is symptomatic of the mega-rock j-ndustryts deep seated insecurity andunwi l l ingness to acknowledge the crass loveableness of rock and ro11. r t isnot a cross-pol l inat ion of musica l forms that gave us rock. The sound ismerely symptomat ic of the d isease. Teens in the mid- f i f t ies s imply wanted anew form of musica l theater . From these shamanist rnedic ine-show or ig ins,rock and ro11 was born.
Have arr loverr problen that rs re la ted tothe Spring release of WHERE DO I PLUGWORLD, a specia l Valent iners Day bonus
consumer electronics? Get ready forIN - UNDERSTANDING LOVE IN A HI-TECH
for A&R Readers. Coming Soon.
HOT & HAPPENINGi s
: _
thw
lastwk
-+-
T Ang*l Grgu: Chib+i - tQ Nf Gin,iqlM^ry
i 4 ! [rnf Polter- AJd, dC h bu*- rslanl
! o 4 l iruX- 9C lx'tjferl,al t-Dtef - (rtt)
4 i 4 i 45 ! O ;u iny lr - Plusrr. i !a;n - chryso/a
Love 'boV- this G B il, NUI',t-6*liq
i 5rJ
6 6 i 6 frorn f4aid.n bu€, M+er $€dtt- c.rtl
Jarryrel Brown- Lorirrrq rn hw[rtcq Q;u
II89
r t
i\lttonq Chun0 -TD l+u* ( [lo l,'t L4 o'6,
!,r*bo; Flrst laue |.uf [- - 7h,'nft'*,
rt krnod;m- v,lh"t Is A Kos'(tt*)
(ruo): shoptg $r a loful
REPORTNOFTEN TAI ERROR - NEVER IN DOUBT,
T+ ur {a.ro;,{* Snare d.r* oound is f14tt af ^ Aunsh;f{,.rJ qt 4we fQrt,€, ',( qn {avoi,L fieadphone v-olurnz
lcAve: yr ea".s r inf, ig, +'{ u UI!- z dance 5o hand+ 5o long Loo oooh)-+he+ Uf AecL .'tS sore lhe ry{f da+1( headban4nq bo'-+ o{ ir"}> vu'hen qo c"re- o ld)) *fieh U
iri "i P l"L,"r.* (ron ebklr^ R"'r,"d1 (fln nr' - 4 *5f"intt
