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Buddy Holly performing in a sub-genre that I've christened as "Kennedy Rock":I have an iTunes placeholder playlist that I intend to populate with Kennedy Rock, which to me is evocative of a period during the dawn of my pop musical consciousness that roughly corresponded in time to the Kennedy administration. To make my playlist, a song must showcase a strong melody performed by a distinctive, youthful pop voice, and is usually accompanied, at least, by a studio chamber orchestra. Additionally, they may display unusual studio production methods that, technologically, are uniquely of that period. An example of the former would be "The Night Has A Thousand Eyes," by Bobby Vee; examples of the latter would include "It Might As Well Rain Until September" by Carole King or "Our Day Will Come" by Ruby and the Romantics. What they all have in common is that most of them bounce and the sister formerly known as Oscar would think they were swell. I imagine these songs to have been marketed to girls graduating from high school during the Camelot era and launching their lives in the typing pool or as homemakers, listening to the radio while ironing their A-line skirts or their husband's monogrammed hankies.
While not a huge fan of Buddy Holly, I don't have anything against him, and do highly esteem a few of his performances, especially this one. It's a highlight, in my opinion, of "The Buddy Holly Story," and the recreation of it in the movie may even be better than his original. Of course it's hard to ignore that this cut is not rock and roll in any elemental sense --- it's adult middle-of-the-road pop performed by a rock idol (which is another way to describe Kennedy Rock, I guess). Nothing wrong with that it the sound is nice, but it makes me wonder what we'd think about Holly today if he'd flown out of Iowa alive in February 1959. Would he have totally fallen into this "pretty" style of music on his agent's advice? And what then, after that --- Vegas? Branson?
True Love Ways, Buddy Holly (1960, Coral 57326/757326), via YouTube, embedded for noncommercial critical discussion and educational purposes.
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ReplyDeleteThere used to be a video called "The Early years of Rock and Roll." I believe it was the inspiration behind the "History of Rock and Roll" series.
ReplyDeleteThe "early years" is fantastic and if you can find it I think you'll find your "Kennedy" will have a lot of Fabian and Pat Boone on it.
"Early" goes not only through the mid to late 50's of "rock," but also how it coincided with the new cultural development of the first post war teenager.
Sadly, as history would show us Ricky Nelson left Ozzie and Harriet, Buddy died, Little Richard became a minister, and Elvis went into the Army, and "commercial" rock became watered down in Pat Boone and Fabian.
That was until Kennedy died and the Beatles hit Ed Sullivan four months later.
Looking forward to seeing this "Kennedy List."
Anon: a criterion for Kennedy Rock that I may have implied but not specified is that it differs from the typical watered-down (as you say) offerings of manufactured teen idols targeted at high school girls. While there may be one Fabian qualifier for the list that I can't remember at the moment (but will investigate), people like him and Pat Boone don't rate. And my opinion counts, since the sub-genre is of my own devising. The distinctive characteristic to my ear is something ambitious in the arrangement, say, an orchestration that adds energy, verve, or emotion, instead of mere sweetness. Alternately, or in conjunction with the chart, there is often some studio experimentation or artistry involved in the production. Also, the lyrics have some detectable maturity or poetry, instead of mere appeals to suburban teenage vanity and insecurity.
ReplyDeleteI may have seen a snip of that video, which if I'm correct has a nifty performance by one of my favorite "race" acts of the 1940s and '50, The Treniers. Not Kennedy Rock, they will nevertheless end up at a Fish Fry one of these weeks.
ahem-- Rick Nelson, if you look at some of the not-top-40-cuts on albums qualifies here. And how do you handle Bobby Darin? Anka? Sedaka?
ReplyDeleteYou make some great points, and I do understand what you are saying concerning the "production" end of recordings, but isn't Sedaka, Anka, Fabian, Boone.....wasn't that what the "establishment" was trying to do late fifties, early sixties. Were they not trying to stamp out R&R? Make it more "white?" to cover it's black roots and protect American youth? C'mon Bro you were a kid then.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think they had Pat Boone doing "Tutti Fruiti?"(which he hated doing BTW). Sure they made money, but....I wish you could see that video. Even John Lennon said that about the Beatles...people had been trying to stamp out R&R long before the Beatles surfaced.
Not trying to slander your list. I'm sure it will be fun. I will enjoy it, but that Kennedy Camelot period in musical history was really known as the "Croooner" period, the "Teen Beat" heart throb guys like we have mentioned.
Beneath all that was still a roots rock jazz vibe scene. Surf guys used chrome flat jazz guitar strings for years. The genre's of musical styles that influenced the 50's rock didn't die with Buddy and the other, but it's face was severely distorted. It was still there. The Beatles saw and heard it.
Go listen to some Little Willie John and Bobby Parker (Watch Your Step), Sam Cooke, Booker T, Isley Brothers. The Beatles took all that and raised the bar.
Love the Blog dude! Peace!
BO: Rick Nelson? Maybe yes, maybe no. I'm the decider. Send me a title and I'll decide. Bobby Darin? "Across the Sea." Sedaka? Anka? Doubtful. However, there is one Anka treat I would like to dig up and post someday soon. Clue: it's as good as my Buddy Rich items.
ReplyDeleteAnon: hey, you sound like you might be a new voice here, unless you're the 59er playing ventriloquist. I think you and I don't have any basic disagreement about the music. The formula stuff from the era was and is crap to my ears. I don't think the establishment was trying to rub out rock, actually, but more to steal race music compositions and styles from black artists and turn it into something they could use to make money off white suburban kids. With Kennedy Rock I'm just pointing to some one-off examples of MOR pop as rock that distinguished themselves to my ear even at a very early age. Even a blind pig, as they say, might find an acorn in those days with the right song, the right chart, and the right producer. Maybe all my Kennedy Rock picks were just happy accidents to my ears. That's sort of what's impelled me to try identifying that certain something that distinguishes my Kennedy Rock from the teenage pap that dominated the charts after the first wave of rock. Didn't realize there would be much interest in this topic, but I'll follow up at the top level soon. If you're new here, you may want to browse the "Friday Evening Prayer Meeting" and "Saturday Night Fish Fry" keywords for some more primal stuff (and also some other questionable items).