Where has the excitement gone?
We used to be exited. Some of my all time favourites come form getting exited after hearing the songs on the radio. In the fifties these were Come on let’s go by Ritchie Valens, Teenager In Love by Dion & the Belmonths and Little Star by the Elegants. Rather mainstream isn’t it.
Yes, but those were the songs that circulated in the old radio programs in Holland at the time. From Radio Luxemburg we got the English charts and got to know Cliff Richard and Johnny Kidd. Writing about it still gives me the shivers.
Cliff Richard & the Shadows were the beginning and we sensed it. The Americans never were part of this secret, they had King Elvis. But Europe was far away for the King and he never gave a concert here, the Colonel (Parker) did not dare to leave the States being an illegal immigrant. But Cliff and his Shadows made up for it.
Everybody grabbed guitars and wanted to copy them and a lot of them also succeeded because their music was not that complicated. Pure Rock & Roll with titles like Dynamite and Move it and melancholy songs like Travlin’ Light and Voice In The Wilderness. But Cliff was not a rebel and when he sang his other songs with the Norrie Paramor Orchestra we were not so exited. Also when Elvis cam back from the military in Germany we were not exited at all when he started to sing O Solo Mio and although there were singers like Freddie Cannon we basically though we had seen all the excitement.
That was an error.
The first indication that there was change in the air was RADIO CAROLINE. Because the old BBC did not play the records that circulated in a kind of British underground some people started their own radio station, outside of the territorial waters, outside of legality, that’s why the station and later RADIO LONDON were called PIRATE STATIONS.
We were exited again, we heard groups from the British underground like The Beatles, The Stones and it seemed that England had an unlimited supply of groups like this. That was radio in its glory days. I still can remember turning up the volume when they played Hey Joe by Jimi Hendrix or A Whiter Shade Of Pale by Procol Harum, these acts really became stars on the force of their first hits.
The second part of the sixties was like a musical land of OZ with magicians around every corner and we devoured it. We knew them all, not only the front men like Mick Jagger or Keith Relf or Roger Daltrey. No they were part of the music and the music was made by the guys who played the instruments; we knew Keith Richards and Eric Clapton who was succeeded by Jeff Beck who was succeeded by Jimmy Page and Pete Townsend. They were the real heroes. We waited for their solos to build up the excitement. We knew Charlie (Watts) and Bill (Wyman) and we loved Brian Jones of the Stones, The Yardbirds members were not so universally known but Keith Moon as drummer of the Who was. We did not talk about the Beatles; oh no they were John, Paul, George and Ringo.
Nobody who was not there in the part of Europe where the PIRATE STASTIONS radio reception was possible can fathom the incredible power that music had on the young generation, not even the Americans who took their rightful place in that movement later on.
And isn’t it funny that this foundation under the empire that would become the music industry of the eighties and the nineties was basically built by using illegal ways.
But don’t think these foundations were only built on singles. At exactly that time the LP became the musical platform and with that the excitement became an endless dream. Forgive me when I name some of these timepieces. First of all I have to mention the only player from the States at that time: The Beach Boys with Pet Sounds and Smiley Smile (Although that was only a shadow of the original planned SMILE album). The Beatles reached absolute maturity with Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band, The Who released Tommy, The Rolling Stones with Their Satanic Majesties Request (Although not everybody will agree there), Days Of Future Passed of The Moodie Blues (Still one of the best synergies between rock group and symphony orchestra), and these were only the big sellers, some real ones were in the underground like John Mayall and The Bluesbreakers featuring Eric Clapton (Still one of his best, and shortly after that he came back with Cream), Eric Burdon with Winds Of Change including the unforgettable Black Plague and the Nice (Keith Emerson) with their first album and, and, and……
When the Americans came on the scene at last they brought their own musicians with people like the unforgotten Michel Bloomfield and Duane Allman and later on they seemed to have taken over on the guitar front with the likes of Robben Ford, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Eddie Van Halen.
WHERE ARE THE MUSICIANS TODAY.
When was the last time you really sat up at hearing a riff? When did you get goose-pimples at hearing the drums start of the bass guitar? When did you rush to the music because you wanted to hear more of a certain act? It is long ago isn’t it?
And that is exactly why today’s music has lost its momentum. The excitement is gone. The identification of the fan with an artist or a group has deteriorated. Music is something that belongs in the background.
But the possibilities are still there.
Don’t tell me that My Generation is not possible anymore or a With A Little Help Of My Friends, but somebody has to look for it and that somebody has to know what he wants. If that somebody is only interested in the movements on the stock exchange he will never find it.
If he only tries to duplicate something that is already there he also will not find it because songs like these are unique, they basically invent music again every time they surface.
Let’s hope that 2008 gives us back the excitement.
