Who wrote The Book of Rock?

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/05/2012 (5215 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

AS with so many lists, this one originated over pints, consumed with fellow rock ‘n’ roll obsessives Bill Saunders and Craig Toomey. These articles, which spring from the list of names the three of us came up with, will run weekly as we make our way to the top position.

In this series, I pay tribute to 10 rock ‘n’ roll-era visionaries who came up with the musical vocabulary we’re still hearing today, the ones without whom the language of rock ‘n’ roll would not sound the same. One of my criteria is how often I jot down their name or think of them when I cover a concert or play a new disc, whether the artist I’m listening to is 25 or 65.

The series does not purport to define the absolute originators of anything. In popular music, everything can be traced back somewhere, so arguing about firsts is a loser’s game. Accordingly, the pre-rock pioneers who made it all possible will have to be saved for other lists.

Nor are the choices about factors such as longevity, sales, glamour, image, cultural influence or similar elements. This is strictly music — although it’s not a list of the best singers, writers or players, either.

And finally, since there are only 10 spots, the focus had to be narrowed to rock ‘n’ roll, so rap, blues and jazz, for example, will have their day at another time.

Inevitably, many will disagree with the selections. Some will be outraged performers they consider obvious nominees have been left out. Others will wonder how in heaven’s name some of ours ever made it in.

With respect to all the giants who could have easily filled a Top 100, here’s the first entry in my list of artists who wrote the book of rock ‘n’ roll.

 

Mythology would have it the Rolling Stones came to North America as the unkempt, scary-looking bad boys your teenage daughter might run away with, never to be heard from again. An alternative to the clean, polite Beatles who just wanted to hold your hand and have tea with your mom, some say.

Even today, “I was always more of a Stones person than a Beatles person” has become shorthand for how much cooler or rebellious one was or is.

That’s a revisionist con job, of course. Still, I never forgot what my cousin Mel told me when I was 11 and he was 13. I got it only on an intuitive level, but it still kind of makes sense: “The Beatles are life. The Stones are action,” he said.

And they were.

The Stones got their inspiration from black blues artists such as Muddy Waters and Slim Harpo, rather than more gentrified acts like the Everly Brothers and Buddy Holly, who were the deities of many of the group’s British Invasion brethren. The Stones were grittier than most of the English pop groups. And… OK, maybe they did seem a little nastier.

But what ultimately sets the Stones apart from groups such as the Animals and Manfred Mann, who were equally blues-savvy and arguably better musicians, was their ability to take it to the next level.

That was down to the formidable writing partnership of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Bullied into easing up on the covers and coming up with their own material by their manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, they responded, legend tells us, with the pop ballad As Tears Go By.

But it wasn’t long before some of the rock era’s most unforgettable tracks came rushing out of these two kids from the London suburbs. The Last Time, (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, Get Off of My Cloud, 19th Nervous Breakdown, Ruby Tuesday and Jumpin’ Jack Flash, to name only a few, followed in a burst of Technicolor.

And those were only the chapter headings. A new Stones single in an outrageous picture sleeve or an album with an appropriately dark-lit cover was always a major event.

They had it all: showmanship, songs and satanic majesty.

With the albums Beggar’s Banquet (1968) and Let It Bleed (1969), their musical vision reached a self-confident peak, with a swagger few could approach. It was one of the greatest one-two punches in rock history.

From that point on, the oeuvre is more debatable, although there have been some undeniable highs.

The Rolling Stones still roam the Earth as the self-proclaimed world’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll band, a title even they must realize is undeserved. But in fairness, that title belongs to 1,000 different groups on 1,000 different nights. It is owned by no one.

What the Stones do own is an attitude that made a couple of generations want to get behind an instrument and climb onstage, a raunchiness that redefined the rock in rock ‘n’ roll, a guitar sound — Richards’ five-string “open-G” tuning — that bands still copy and a deadly combination of hood-like menace and incongruous effeminacy that altered the look of rock forever. Most of all, they gave us those powerhouse songs that still stop us dead in our tracks within a note or two.

May a pint be raised in their honour tonight and every night.

 

— Postmedia News

 

 

KEY TRACKS

 

1. The Last Time

 

2. Get Off of My Cloud

 

3. Street

Fighting Man

 

4. Gimme Shelter

 

5. Tumbling Dice