SNEAK PREVIEW For more information on adopting this title for your course, please contact us at: [email protected] or 800-200-3908 Rock on the Roll Serving Up Popular Culture Rock on the Roll Serving Up Popular Culture FIRST EDITION Steve Markuson Bassim Hamadeh, CEO and Publisher John Remington, Executive Editor Gem Rabanera, Project Editor Emely Villavicencio, Senior Graphic Designer Trey Soto, Licensing Coordinator Natalie Piccotti, Director of Marketing Kassie Graves, Vice President of Editorial Jamie Giganti, Director of Academic Publishing Copyright © 2019 by Cognella, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted, reproduced, trans- mitted, or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, includ- ing photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information retrieval system without the written permission of Cognella, Inc. For inquiries regarding permissions, translations, foreign rights, audio rights, and any other forms of repro- duction, please contact the Cognella Licensing Department at [email protected]. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identi- fication and explanation without intent to infringe. Interior image copyright © 2015 Depositphotos/mocoo2003. Printed in the United States of America. All author proceeds are donated to Catskill Area Hospice, Oneonta, New York 13820. ISBN: 978-1-5165-4792-0 (pbk) / 978-1-5165-2068-8 (br) / 978-1-5165-4512-4 (al) BRIEF CONTENTS Dedication xiii Preface xv Chapter 1 Needle Down 1 Chapter 2 Disclaimer 11 Chapter 3 Black and Bluesy 31 Chapter 4 Bells and Whistles 43 Chapter 5 Spoon and Croon 55 Chapter 6 Where the Boys Are 65 Chapter 7 Sophisticated Boom Boom 77 Chapter 8 Copper-tunes 95 Chapter 9 Country and Western 113 Chapter 10 Woodshock 125 Chapter 11 Power Cords and Jackets 137 Chapter 12 19th Nervous Breakdown 145 v DETAILED CONTENTS Dedication xiii Preface xv CHAPTER 1 Needle Down 1 Needle Down 3 Listen Up! 5 Playing the Hits From Yesterday and Today 7 Radio Head 8 Food for Thought 9 Get Cooking 9 Suggested Further Reading 10 References 10 CHAPTER 2 Disclaimer 11 Rocket Mann 12 That’s My Anthem 12 One Nation Under Construction 13 One Giant Step 14 Soak It Up 15 Jurisprudence 15 Mash Up 16 Bleach Blanket Bingo 17 A Slap in the Race 19 A Cotton-picking Mess 20 Foster Parent 21 Animal Magnetism 22 Castles in the Sky 23 It Do Mean a Thing (If it Ain’t Got That Swing) 24 Our Scat-illogical Society 24 Scat-tastic 26 Richard the First 26 The Sweet Buy and Buy 27 vii Clowning Around 28 Food for Thought 28 Get Cooking 29 Suggested Further Reading 29 References 30 CHAPTER 3 Black and Bluesy 31 You Don’t Need Booze to Sing the Blues 31 One Notion Under … 32 Mrs. and Mrs. Smith 32 Ethel Octane 33 Highbrow Blues 34 Big Bland 36 Not Really Kosher 37 Do the Leitmotif 39 Food for Thought 40 Get Cooking 40 Suggested Further Reading 41 References 41 CHAPTER 4 Bells and Whistles 43 The Sidewalks of New York 45 Atsa’ Too Loud! 45 Igor the Barbarian 46 Avant-Garde George 46 Time Waits for No One 47 You Say You Want a Revolution? 48 Dark Shadows 48 Life in the Canyon 49 Working 9 to 5 50 Peas and Carrots … Oh My! 51 Where Credit is Due 52 Food for Thought 53 Get Cooking 53 Suggested Further Reading 54 References 54 CHAPTER 5 Spoon and Croon 55 Sing for Your Suffer 55 The Sweetest Sound I Ever Heard 56 viii All’s Fair in Love and Flushing Meadows 59 I’ll Be Looking at the Moon 59 Buddy, Can You Spare a Tune? 59 A Living Arrangement 60 Dream Along 61 The Clash 61 My Time is Your Time … 62 Round and Round 62 Boxed Sets 63 Food for Thought 64 Get Cooking 64 Suggested Further Reading 64 CHAPTER 6 Where the Boys Are 65 Cult of Big Band Balladeers 65 Classical Chops 66 A Band by Any Other Name 67 So Much Salad 69 Band-Aid 69 Altered States 70 Decades of Devotion 71 Girl Talk 73 Silly Love Songs 74 Food for Thought 74 Get Cooking 74 Suggested Further Reading 75 References 75 CHAPTER 7 Sophisticated Boom Boom 77 Moon-faced and Starry-eyed 79 Cool Jazz 80 Feel the Rhythm 80 Good Morning 81 Take My Radio, Please 82 King David vs. Gotham City 83 Same Chords ... Different Day 83 Doo-What? 84 Exchanging Pleasantries 85 Sugar-Sugar 86 ix Saturated Fats 88 Bananarama 89 Folk University 90 No Pain, No Grin 90 The “A-peel” of the Banana 91 Moe-town 91 Old Folks at Home 92 Food for Thought 93 Get Cooking 93 Suggested Further Reading 93 References 94 CHAPTER 8 Copper-tunes 95 Smooth Moves 95 Low Tide 96 Wall of Surf 97 A Shred of Eminence 99 Designer Brands 100 Big Brass Brands 101 On the Beach 101 You Can’t Tell the Players Without a Program 104 She Sells Sea Shells 104 The Loco-motion 106 “Go Granny, Go Granny, Go!” 107 Let’s Go Parking 108 Hey Baby, Nice Kits 109 Food for Thought 110 Get Cooking 110 Suggested Further Reading 110 References 111 CHAPTER 9 Country and Western 113 Cowboys 114 Super Bachelor 116 Home on the Strange 116 Ragged Beginnings 117 The Final Frontier 117 x A Little Bit Country, a Little Bit Rock and Roll 117 Make Hay While the Sun Shines 118 The Sun Also Rises 120 The Untouchables 121 Food for Thought 122 Get Cooking 122 Suggested Further Reading 122 References 123 CHAPTER 10 Woodshock 125 A Twist on Ice 126 Positively Great 126 By the Time We Get to Woodstock 128 The Racket’s Red Glare 129 Star Spangled Banner 1969 129 Leading Lady 131 No Place Like Home 132 Not a Redeemable Coupon 133 Food for Thought 134 Get Cooking 134 Suggested Further Reading 135 References 135 CHAPTER 11 Power Cords and Jackets 137 Obtaining Clothes-ure 138 Not Dead Yet 139 On the Street Where You Leave 140 Form and Function 141 Suite Dreams 142 Food for Thought 143 Get Cooking 144 Suggested Further Reading 144 References 144 CHAPTER 12 19th Nervous Breakdown 145 The Recording as Historical Document 145 Tell Me, Telstar 146 Rock of Sages 146 This Magic Moment 149 Spastic Fantastic 149 xi A Minimalist Primer 149 Denizens of Darkness 151 Food for Thought 152 Get Cooking 152 Suggested Further Reading 153 References 153 xii “This is dedicated to … John Remington, Gem Rabanera (for her guidance and straightforward leadership), Miguel Macias (for “covering” my aspirations), Berenice Quirino, and the rest of the team at Cognella for a wonderful opportunity; Diane Paige at Hartwick College; Paul (“PJ”) Crissa and Jem LLC; Cira, “My Best Girl”; Frs. John Rosson and Andrew Cryans; “Mea Culpa”; Norma Rea; Temple “Beth M”; Muscles in Motion Gym (“They ain’t heavy”); The Green Earth “Tree Hugs”; The Markinsons; and “Mother Mary” comes to me speaking words of wisdom, some naughty, some nice. Special thanks to Monika Dziamka, whose cryptologist-like skills unearthed the true “spirit” of my work. And to all you tie-dyed-in-the-wool skeptics out there who still don’t believe we landed on the moon. … the One I Love.” xiii PREFACE To the Student elcome to Rock on the Roll: Serving Up Popular Culture. For the musical decades I present in this book, I try to use the speech and nomenclature of the period to illustrate Whow music incorporated popular language, especially slang, to represent social issues and even technology. I also try to share specific musical examples that represent my points. I feel that history can be best understood by using the language of the period, an area of study that in-and-of-itself is rich with material as any linguist or etymologist will tell you. Therefore, many of the chapter titles and section headers within them use puns, riffs on song titles, and slang of that time. Whenever you come across a phrase or word you’re unfamiliar with, I encourage you to find answers in the text, engage with your fellow classmates, listen to a song that uses these words, and allow yourself to have fun by peeling back the layers and doing more of your own research. This is a tactile text, requiring a scratch-and-sniff approach! I hope you’ll find that the language of music can be just as—or even more—expressive, creative, witty, soulful, emotional, and powerful as the music itself. Who Put the “Pop” in Pop Culture? The creator of Coca-Cola, John Pemberton, introduced the beverage to the United States in 1885. He described it as a French cola wine nerve tonic, likely taking an idea from a cola wine that had been very successful in Europe around that time, and promoted its medicinal benefits—which included the effects of cocaine1. Coca-Cola no longer has cocaine in it, and we now know that the effects of all that sugar alone can be quite bad for our health, but its fame has endured. The design of the bottle, the logo, the onomatopoeia nature of the name—now that is fame for you, to be so well-known that people can recognize your brand or product with just snippets of information. That kind of recognition (positive or not) is at the heart of pop culture. Every day, those who are in the business of propelling popular culture act as chefs, putting together different ingredi- ents for that next big flavor, enticing people who didn’t even realize they were thirsty or hungry.