[On March 21st, 1952, Cleveland Arena hosted the Moondog Coronation Ball, an event widely considered the first major rock and roll concert. So this week I’ve AmericanStudied that concert and other groundbreaking rock and roll figures and stories, leading up to this special weekend post on 21st century rockers carrying the legacies forward!]
On a handful of the
many contemporary rockers extending the genre’s legacies.
1)
Dave
Matthews Band: I wrote in that post about the ways in which Matthews and
his band reflect Cville’s cross-cultural and diverse story, and would say the
same, as I’ve argued throughout the week’s series, about rock and roll. But the
thing DMB are best known for is their epic
concerts & jam sessions, and it’s important to wrap up a series
inspired by the first prominent rock concert by coming back around to that idea—at
its heart, rock has always been about performance, the experience of live music
for all involved, and no contemporary artists have embodied that more than DMB.
2)
The
Counting Crows: It’s easy to say that early rock music wasn’t so much
interested in lyricism, and it’s true that many of those songs were quite minimal
and repetitive lyrically (although some, like Chuck Berry’s “School Days,”
were lyrically amazing nonetheless). But soon enough the genre expanded to
include folk-influenced voices like Bob Dylan, artists whose lyrics rival the
great 20th century literary works (as the Nobel
folks recognize). And in the 21st century, I don’t know any rock
artists who have extended that poetic lyricism more than Adam Duritz and the
Counting Crows (who echoed and name-checked Dylan in their early hit “Mr. Jones”). Listen to “Raining in Baltimore” if
ye doubt the claim!
3)
Lenny
Kravitz: Long before the Crows engaged with Dylan’s legacy, one of the
truly great American rock artists produced a searing cover
of his “All Along the Watchtower” that quite simply obliterated the original. That
artist was of course the towering talent that was Jimi
Hendrix, an artist to whom Lenny Kravitz has been consistently linked
and compared throughout his decades-long career. I’m not here to make the
case that Kravitz is as great nor as influential as Hendrix (and he doesn’t have
to be to be worth our listening of course)—but both of their careers reflect,
among other things, the central role of covers and echoes, of comparisons and
next generations, throughout rock history. And, for that matter, the still-too-often
under-remembered role of Black rock artists.
4)
The
Killers: What, you really thought I was gonna get through an entire
weeklong series on rock and roll without a Springsteen reference?! Even before they dueted with Bruce
last year, remaking one of my favorite of their songs in the process, Brandon
Flowers and The Killers had been in
conversation with Bruce throughout their long and evolving career. But to
my mind it’s their stunning newest album, 2021’s
Pressure Machine, that truly
echoes and yet challenges and extends the legacies of singer-songwriter
storytellers like Bruce (and many others, including another new collaborator
with Bruce, John
Mellencamp) and their portrayals of profoundly American settings,
communities, histories, and lives.
5)
The
Linda Lindas: All those artists have been around for decades, though—and ultimately,
as the Moondog Coronation Ball reflected clearly (even if they didn’t get to
crown their teenage king and queen), rock and roll has always been a young
person’s game. And it doesn’t get much younger, nor much more rock and roll, than
this group of badass California teenagers. Moreover, the presence of an artist
like Varetta Dillard on that 1952 bill reminds us that women—and women of color
in particular—have been part of rock from the jump, as artists just as much as
audiences. Here’s hoping that more and more multi-cultural young women like the
Linda Lindas keep extending that legacy into the 21st century as
well!
Next series
starts Monday,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Other contemporary (or historical) rock and rollers you’d highlight?
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