Wednesday, June 21, 2017

...In The USA. Damn Right.

From the How Far Have We Come? department:

I've often thought that my Precocious Daughter is an old soul in a young body. That may be because she is a 21st-century human but also is among the last people born in the 20th century. Or maybe because she has always seemed smarter and more perceptive than her years - I'll never forget the day she complained that she was bored because her teacher kept repeating the same things over and over...in kindergarten.

Or maybe I simply admire the grace and tolerance with which she puts up with me on a daily basis.

One more way Hillary Clinton let me down.

Yet for all her poise, strength, and general shit-having-togetherness, she is still just a teenager. She doesn't know everything. I don't care how many A's show up on her report card, she is the product of her environment, and her environment at this young age is (blissfully) limited in scope.

Case in point.

Tonight we were watching TV, and a commercial came on for...I don't know, some damn pickup truck. And the soundtrack to this commercial was John Mellencamp's "R-O-C-K in the U.S.A.," which was a big hit when I was just about PDaughter's age. Because apparently I'm now the target demographic for buying big ugly pickup trucks, even though I'd drive the old dilapidated 1984 Subaru hatchback I owned in the 90s for the rest of my life before I'd drive a goddamn pickup truck.

The story of how I came to drive this sweetheart
will totally be in the book, I promise.

Anyway, PDaughter asked me, in all seriousness, "Why is it called 'rock' music? Where did the 'rock' come from?"

She wasn't kidding. She really didn't know.

WHOOOOOOOO!
Now, PDaughter has, um, been deflowered. She's experimented with certain medicinal herbs. She regularly explains memes to be that I had no idea were scandalous and/or salacious. She's no wallflower.

Yet she lacked the slightest clue how rock and roll got its name and reputation.

So, being the mom I am (DON'T JUDGE), I explained that the prhase originated in the blues community, for example, with the Trixie Smith song "My Daddy Rocks Me (With One Steady Roll)."



Eventually, black R&B culture, and subsequently white America, adopted "rock and roll" as the pet name for the new, raw musical movement that engulfed the country circa 1955 and later the world in later years.

To this day, the greatest rock 'n roll songs are about sex. And sex. And also sex.

But we owe it all to R&B and blues of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s,

John Mellencamp, bless his heart, is both entirely relevant and woefully behind in his attempt to influence young (car-buying) culture.

One steady roll?

Your opinion is more than welcome, Drunkards.

2 comments:

  1. John Lennon, who I think we can all agree has some credibility regarding music, said "If rock and roll had a different name it would be Chuck Berry." Before that Ray Davies kicked a hole in an amp and his brother Dave strung two amps together and electrocuted himself. Then Mick Jagger felt he couldn't get what he wanted. Some time later Billy Crystal's daughter would ask, "Was Paul McCartney really in a band before Wings?" Then there was that Simpsons episode where Homer invents grunge.
    This brings us up to the present where any questions will be met with me telling you to get off my lawn.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'd no idea where "rock" came from either.

    ReplyDelete

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