A Spatial History of Arena Rock, 1964–79
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A Spatial History of Arena Rock, 1964–79 Michael Ethen Schulich School of Music McGill University, Montreal August 2011 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy © Michael Ethen, 2011 Table of Contents List of Musical Examples / iv List of Illustrations / v List of Tables / vi Abstract / vii Abrégé / ix Acknowledgements / xi Introduction / 1 Genealogy of Arena Rock / 13 “Arena Rock”: Ambiguity Before 1977 / 26 1977 and “Arena Rock” / 30 Literature / 35 The Spatial Turn / 37 Space and Music / 41 Chapter Outlines / 46 Chapter One: In the Beginning Was the Beatles: Security and Intimacy of Live Performance, 1964–66 Introduction / 50 Security / 53 Expansion and Extension / 56 Expansion, Extension, and Intimacy / 60 Intimacy and the Washington Coliseum / 63 Security and Carnegie Hall / 70 Security and Empire Stadium / 74 Intimacy and Spectacular Transportation / 79 Shea Stadium, 1965 / 82 Shea Stadium, post-1965 / 86 Conclusion / 89 ii Chapter Two: Sounding Live: Led Zeppelin and the Echo-poetics of Arena Rock Introduction / 91 Context / 92 Live Performance as Self-promotion / 100 Studio Recordings as Concert Recreations / 115 Manufactured Audience Participation / 122 Compensating for Intimacy Lost / 127 Conclusion / 135 Chapter Three: An American Beauty: Grateful Dead, “Truckin',” and a Question of Routine Introduction / 137 Context / 141 Commercialism and Routine / 145 Forging a Routine / 156 Formal properties of the Routine / 157 The Crescendo-climax / 164 Extra-musical Technologies / 173 “Wall of Sound” as Prop / 174 Conclusion / 180 Chapter Four: The Festival is Dead, Long Live the “Festival” Introduction / 182 Context: 1969 Festivals and Security / 184 “Free Music” / 193 “Woodstock Laws” / 198 Innovation after Altamont / 203 Goose Lake / 208 Erie Canal: A Case Study / 211 Long Live the “Festival” / 220 Conclusion / 224 iii Chapter Five: “Spend a Week in St. Louis”: Arena Rock and the Unities of Discourse Introduction / 226 Authenticity / 229 The Unities of Discourse and Arena Rock / 237 The Discourse on Arena Rock / 239 Technical-Formal Rules of the Genre / 243 Styx, “Fooling Yourself” (1977) / 249 Boston, “Foreplay / Long Time” (1976) / 250 Kiss Army and Romantic Authenticity / 257 The Discourse of In-between / 262 Evaluative Judgments / 267 Arena Rock, Authenticity, and Space / 273 Conclusion / 279 Epilogue: Conclusion, Summary, Final Thoughts / 281 Appendix A / 287 Appendix B / 290 Bibliography / 295 iv Musical Examples 1.1 “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” the Beatles (1963) / 69 2.1 “Black Dog,” Led Zeppelin, studio recording (1971) / 126 2.2 “Black Dog,” live performance (1973) / 127 3.1 “Truckin’,” Grateful Dead, generic formal design / 158 3.2a “Truckin’” form, concert debut (August 1970) / 161 3.2b “Truckin’” form, studio recording (November 1970) / 161 3.2c “Truckin’” form, studio recording (Europe ‘72) / 162 3.3 “Crescendo-climax,” first part / 166 3.4 Fragments of the routine, October 30, 1972 / 168 3.5 Uncoordinated routine, February 21, 1973 / 170–71 5.1a–c “Fooling Yourself,” Styx (1977) / 249–50 5.2 “Foreplay / Long Time,” Boston (1976) / 254 5.3a–b “Foreplay / Long Time,” Boston (1976) / 255 v List of Illustrations 1.1 Washington (D.C.) Coliseum, 1964 / 65 2.1 Len Zefflin [sic]: Concert advertisement, 1968 / 101 2.2 Led Zeppelin concert advertisement (post-May 1973) / 123 3.1 Joint advertisement, Led Zeppelin and Grateful Dead / 139 3.2 “Giga Exponentia” (1973) / 153 3.3 Wall of Sound, schematic design (1973) / 176 5.1a Fabbri’s first frontier problem / 245 5.1b Fabbri’s second frontier problem / 246 5.1c Fabbri’s third frontier problem / 247 vi List of Tables 2.1 Rock festivals of 1969 with Led Zeppelin / 106 4.1 Rock festivals of 1970 / 208 5.1 Tendencies of authenticity (Keightley) / 231 vii Abstract This dissertation traces a history of popular music and explores problems in social space theory from the perspective of the genre called Arena Rock. Many of the popular music practices between 1964 and 1979 have been the work of performers who attracted enormous live audiences, and the 1970s has been called “the age of the arena.” Yet problems of live performance are neither confronted by the prevailing theories of social space nor adequately foregrounded in popular music historiography. The case of Arena Rock presents a unique opportunity to address these urgent historical and theoretical issues, because it marks the moment at which chroniclers of popular music recognized the importance of performance venues to the definition of a genre. An indispensable but neglected area in popular music history, Arena Rock constitutes a fundamentally nodal genre that encompassed performers of diverse aesthetic priorities, from the reputed British originators the Beatles and Led Zeppelin to the American bands Styx, Kiss, and Boston, and spanned a range of geographic locations and venue types, from rural farmland to urban and suburban stadiums and arenas. Through close interpretations of the developmental contexts of Arena Rock, this study demonstrates how the genre came to represent a contentious field of popular culture riven by divergent views on the construction of social space. In doing so, this study charts a history of musicians, critics, and fan communities that grappled with questions of commercial music and live performance, with chapters that focus on the relationship between rock concerts and characteristic uses of urban space; Led Zeppelin's practice of designing compositions suitable for and redolent viii of reverberant stadiums; the politics of improvisation and routine in the music of Grateful Dead; the complex interconnectedness in the early 1970s of the faltering rock festival industry and the burgeoning urban field of arena rock; and the hoary question of authenticity around 1977, when rock critics began using, in a fairly consistent manner, the genre term Arena Rock. ix Abrégé Cette thèse retrace l’histoire de la musique populaire et examine les problèmes de théorie en terme d’espace social — dans la perspective du genre musical appelé «Rock d’aréna». Plusieurs formules de musique populaire se retrouvent dans les œuvres de performeurs sur scène qui, entre 1964 et 1979 attiraient des publics énormes. Les années 1970 sont ainsi devenues «l’âge de l’aréna». Mais les problèmes de performance en direct ne sont pas confrontés aux théories qui prévalent dans l’espace social, ou encore mis en valeur dans l’historiographie de la musique populaire. Le cas du Rock d’aréna présente une opportunité urgente et unique de confronter ces problèmes historiques et théoriques, parce que cette époque marque le moment auquel les chroniqueurs de musique populaire ont reconnu l’importance des lieux de performances dans la définition d’un genre musical. Un genre incontournable mais négligée par l’histoire de la musique populaire, le Rock d’aréna constitue un catégorie fondamentalement nodale qui comprenait des performeurs aux priorités esthétiques diverses, en commençant par les Beatles et Led Zeppelin – présumés créateurs anglais du Rock d’aréna – en passant par les groupes américains comme Styx, Kiss, et Boston et tout cela dans une variété d’endroits géographiques et de types de scène – à partir des fermes rurales jusqu’aux stades et aux arènes des villes et de leurs banlieues. À travers l’interprétation méticuleuse des contextes développementaux du Rock d’aréna, cette étude démontre comment le genre a évolué pour représenter un domaine controversé d’une culture populaire tourmentée par des points de vue divergents dans la construction de l’espace x social. Pour ce faire, cette étude trace l’histoire des musiciens, des critiques, et des communautés d’amateurs confrontés à des questions de musique commerciale et de performance en direct, dans des chapitres qui font le point : sur les relations entre les concerts rock et les usages caractéristiques d’espace urbain; sur la pratique du groupe Led Zeppelin de développer des compositions qui évoquent les stades réverbérant; sur les pratiques routinières d’improvisation dans la musique des Grateful Dead; sur l’inter-connectivité complexe au début des années 70s d’une industrie des festivals rock en déclin malgré la demande urbaine croissante du Rock d’aréna; et sur la question déformée de l’authenticité quand les critiques de rock ont commencé à utiliser, autour de 1977, le terme générique «Rock d’aréna» de manière plus ou moins consistante. xi Acknowledgements Every author is both a writer and an editor of prose. As I authored this project, David Brackett emboldened the former and tutored the latter with all the grace and skill that a dissertator could hope for. My first thanks are to him, for years of lessons intended and otherwise, scholarly and otherwise. At the Schulich School of Music, I also learned a great deal from Steven Huebner and Chip Whitesell, who supported this project in its infancy, and from Lisa Barg, who helped see it through to completion. My parents and brothers also provided constant support and the occasional secondary source. Next, I thank my student colleagues past and present at the Schulich School of Music. Thanks to stimulating conversations with the following scholars, this document is surely much richer than if I had acted alone: Andrew Deruchie helped sharpen the focus of my questioning; Melvin Backstrom graciously critiqued large portions of this work from genesis to completion; and Erin Helyard – though himself probing musical culture of the eighteenth century – discovered and shared stimulating resonances between our projects. I am grateful to have had the support and encouragement of Remi Chiu, Dana Gorzelany-Mostak, Mimi Haddon, Catherine Schwartz, Colette Simonot, Eric Smialek, Keith Wace, Peter Waldkirch, and Cedar Wingate. Merci, mille fois, tout le monde! Third, my heartfelt thanks go to numerous library staffs. Early contact with Janice Simpkins and the McGill University inter-library loan staff allowed me to examine far-off documents and rare secondary sources. Cynthia Leive and the Marvin Duchow Music Library staff answered my questions, gave sound xii advice, and ordered the crucial materials I needed to complete this project.