Rock Out of the Norm

Like most people with half a brain stem, I love me some old time Rock and Roll. Born out of Jazz and all its deviants, it is one of the most beloved forms of music in the world. The seeds were sown by the African American community in the early 1920s, but didn’t make it big until the Whites got their hands on it in 1954 with Billy Haley’s Rock Around the Clock. Ever since, Rock and Roll and its deviants spent upwards of 4 decades as the Kings of the Mainstream Charts, and though the charts have since been taken over by Pop music (sad, I know.), it continues to be in the forefront of American Popular Culture.

The way I see it, there are four kinds of songs that usually top the Radio Charts:

1. The Schmaltzy Love Song (the most prevalent, especially in Country Music)

2. The Break-up Song

3. The Female-Empowerment Song

4. Any combination of the above

Not surprising, since many of the song listeners continue to be young Teenage Girls. It’s been that way since the days of the Bobby Soxers.

Incidentally, rumor had it that some of them were paid.

But I digress.

Of course, there are songs who break from the above mold. Those songs are considered to be some of the greatest songs ever written into the American Songbook.

Stairway to Heaven. Bohemian Rhapsody. Imagine. All these songs have lyrics that feel more like poetry and natural conversation, tunes that won’t leave your head until your deathbed, and deep messages that go beyond the surface of their multi-layered instrumentals. It’s not to say that songs that fit the mold can’t be considered masterpieces, but most of the songs that stand out in their own right do. It those tunes that go above and beyond their colleagues that usually enjoy a longer lasting legacy.

Some of these pieces fade into obscurity, like Rhys Chapman’s An Angel Moves Too Fast to See.

What makes this stand out so much is that it was written for Electric Bass, Drum Set, and about one hundred Electric Guitars. The ensemble is divided up into six sections, each one with their own tuning. Now, when one thinks 100 Electric Guitars, they’d imagine Chapman, the usual conductor of the ensemble, to look somewhat like this:

However, in unison, 100 Guitars sound...transcending. Almost otherworldly in a way. Sort of...angelic. There is a direct correlation between the divine and this piece. Bells ring, choirs sing, and the heavens themselves seem to be rocking out in this composition. In fact, it reminds me of Polyphony found in many Renaissance works, maybe not in actual music, but in timbre and tone. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:

The best Rock and Roll songs are also the smartest: they know what sound they want to project, they know what they want their story to be about, and they know how to pay tribute to the music styles before them. This piece is one of those songs. But it’s not the only one.

There are some pieces who get their deserved 15 minutes of fame. One of those pieces is Laurie Anderson’s O Superman.

Since this piece was already discussed in great detail, I won’t dive too deeply into it. However, it’s still something worth talking about again.

If there’s anything Rock and Roll loves to do, it’s protest against the Status Quo. There are songs written against any topic. This is one of those piece. O Superman plays out like a telephone conversation between the Protagonist and an unidentified source, assumed to be his mother. What follows is an allegory to an attack by American Tanks and Planes (confirmed by Anderson to be the Iran Hostage Crisis).

Part of a larger America, the satire here is woven so finely and so subtly that many listeners (especially the target demographic of MTV, where its video played adnauseum during its first years) never caught on to it. Again, I won’t go into too much detail here because it was so thoroughly discussed in class already, but here is a piece worth looking in to.

And then, there are those works that are timeless. Works that need no introduction but deserve one anyway. Works that transcend the fabrics of their genres and becomes a work of art in and of itself. Works that you know just by their album cover:

You know what I’m talking about.

Pink Floyd’s The Dark of the Moon was released in 1973 to immediate acclaim that has not ceased to this day. The first album released since the leaving of founding member Syd Barrett in 1968 due to mental illness, the album has clear subtext from that incident. Themes of insanity, which present themselves throughout the album and which manifests in the track Brain Damage, greed, time, and conflict in general. Though the album is presented as an uninterrupted suite, two tracks really stand out: Time and Money.

Time begins with a series of ringing clocks, all recorded in various antique shops. After that, there is a solo by drummer Nick Mason on a set of unusual instruments: Roto-Toms.

Roto-Toms are Tom-Toms that can be tuned by rotating the head. The solo itself is rather hypnotic.

The lyrics themselves have a deep provocative message: Live your life to the fullest! Because you’re never gonna get that time back (And you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it’s sinking/Racing around to come up behind you again/The Sun is the same in a relative way but you’re older/Shorter of breath and one day closer to death). It’s a message all people can relate to because they’re so worried about the future, that they forget to slow down and enjoy the gift of today.

And He said to His disciples, “For this reason I say to you, do not worry about your life, as to what you will eat; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing…” Luke 12:22-23

Also worth sharing is the Music Video made by Ian Emes.

And just as it is a sin to have anxiety, ‘tis also a sin to have greed.

Just as Time began with the ringing of clocks, Money begins with another ringing. This time of Cash Registers. Over that is arguably one of the most iconic bass riffs in all of rock:

Then the lyrics kick in. This song’s subtext is obvious from the offset. It is a clear jab and satire on Greed and Consumerism.(Money it’s a crime/Share it fairly but don’t take a slice of my pie) But maybe there is some hidden subtext here. For all accounts, this part has elements of American 50s rock, not the least of which is Dick Parry’s Saxophone solo. Additionally, at the 3:48 mark, the piece goes into a slow standard 12-bar ABA blues section.

Add to that the echo-distortion throughout the piece, and all this leads me to believe that the piece isn’t about Greed, but American greed.

Perhaps there is a connection between these two pieces. After all, they’re both included in the phrase “Time is Money”. Both songs point out the most inherent flaws in man. Maybe both these pieces are a call to change. A call of penance. A call to act for your sake and for that of your soul.

Or maybe I’m looking too deeply into this. Either way, The Dark Side of the Moon is a spectacular accomplishment in music. In a sea of hopeless Romantics, throbbing pessimists, and other cliches, it’s nice to see gems like this rise out of that ocean.

And that’s what sets these pieces and others like it apart from their peers: they’re timeless. They can be experienced and embraced by anyone who sit down and let the music take them over. Even if the tunes are dated, the messages within them are not.