Rock reminiscences of an 80-year-old in 2036 (Ch 1)

 

Chapter 1

 The A-Z of the Cream of the Rock Revolution



‘Hey Grandad, won’t you tell us about your life.’

The year is 2036. I am 80 years old and Tim, Jane and Tony, aged 16, 14 and just gone 13 are at an age where my vintage seems to impress them.

They cannot understand how a wrinkled, almost totally bald old codger still enjoys listening to weird music on CDs, audio tapes and even old vinyl “records”, or “LPs”.

I have to think carefully about this question. Answering it could take me a long, long time.

‘The digital revolution made even the first digitalised music, compact discs, redundant as the internet engulfed society,’ I explain.

‘Smart phones and instant streaming of anything you want to hear took hold soon after the advent of the 21st century. The current technology, in which you kids and your gadgets are almost symbiotic, has left me totally behind.

‘It is easier to live in the past, and since Tim has made this inquiry about “my life” I need to impress upon you a salient fact: music drove our lives from the 1960s. It was an unstoppable force. Humankind had never seen or heard anything quite like what emerged during what I like to call the “rock revolution”.

‘It started with jazz and blues, mainly performed by African Americans in the early 20th century,’ I say from my comfortable couch, with the rays of a weak winter sun warming my weary bones on a winter’s day in a deep and not quite dark December. We are living in Dorset, England, having fled the collapse of South Africa in the mid-2020s. It is in Britain, home of my forebears most of whom emigrated to the Cape Colony in the 19th century, that the true fruits of the rock revolution emerged. Britain, and its former colony, the USA.

‘The likes of Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley and a host of other Americans invented rock ‘n’ roll in the 1950s. At the time, a decade after the end of the Second World War, this was a liberating sound which excited the younger generation. But little did their parents know it would be the 1960s which really turned music on its head.’

‘How do you mean, Grandad?’ asks Jane, her sweet innocent face a delight for sore old eyes.

Our grandchildren came late, but the wait was well worth it. Bright, good-looking and incredibly well behaved, now I would have to tell them how their old grandpa was not such a goody two shoes in his distant youth as they might have imagined. Yep, I’ll have to spill some beans about my past, which was always inextricably linked to the music. I decide to hit them first with a barrage of names, just to give them a hint of what it was like. One or two of them they may have heard of – perhaps when they visited me and I had an old vinyl disc spinning on the turntable, its sound waves miraculously transferred from the spiralling groove on the album surface via a diamond-tipped needle and electronic amplifier to two large speakers in corners of the room.

‘It was all about the music, Jane. So then, let me tell you about my life,’ I say, echoing the lyrics of a song by a group, Fleetwood Mac, they will learn about during the course of this narration.

‘But first I am going to throw some words at you, in alphabetical order. These are names I have plucked out of my memory as probably the stand-out musicians and bands of the 1960s and 1970s, with perhaps a few from the 1980s and 1990s.

‘If you really want to know about my life I would urge you to explore on the internet the music of the following, which I consider the A to Z of the greatest bands, musicians (and the odd comedian) ever.

‘Let me add that this is by no means a definitive list, but these are some of the key bands and musicians from the golden age of modern music that spring to mind.

‘So here we go, young people, the sounds that made your old granddad the quirky creature he is today, and probably always has been.’

Audience, Joan Armatrading, AC/DC, the Allman Brothers, the Animals (including Eric Burdon and Alan Price), the Amazing Rhythm Aces, the Amazing Adventures of the Liverpool Scene.

The Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Bee Gees, David Bowie, the Byrds, the Band, the Boomtown Rats, Blind Faith, Eric Burdon and the Animals, Blodwyn Pig, Blood Sweat & Tears, Chuck Berry, Joan Baez, Black Sabbath, David Bromberg, Jeff Beck, Buffalo Springfield (including Stephen Stills), Captain Beefheart, the B-52s, Jackson Browne.

Cream, Leonard Cohen, The Clash, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Elvis Costello, Canned Heat, Credence Clearwater Revival, Ry Cooder, The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, the Chieftains, the Cherry-faced Lurchers (including James Phillips), JJ Cale, Tracy Chapman, Joe Cocker, Chicago, Elvis Costello, Alice Cooper, comedy duo Cheech ‘n Chong, Johnny Cash.

Bob Dylan, Donovan, the Doors, Dire Straits (led by Mark Knopfler), Deep Purple, Dexys Midnight Runners, the Dubliners, Chris de Burgh, Bo Diddley.

Emerson Lake and Palmer, the Eagles, Electric Flag.

Fairport Convention, Fotheringay, Fleetwood Mac, Freedom’s Children, Finch and Henson, the Flames, the Faces (including Rod Stewart), Jose Feliciano, Fairfield Parlour.

Grand Funk Railroad, Golden Earring, Arlo Guthrie, the Grateful Dead, Genesis (including Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel), Tim Curry (lead singer on the Rocky Horror Picture Show and maker of several superb solo albums), the Goon Show (Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Harry Seecombe).

Jimi Hendrix, Hawk, Merle Haggard, George Harrison, Richie Havens, Buddy Holly.

Iron Butterfly, Iron Maiden, the Incredible String Band.

Jethro Tull, Joe Jackson, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Elton John, Bert Jansch, Juluka (including Johnny Clegg), Billy Joel, Joe Jackson.

The Kinks, Kris Kristofferson, King Crimson, Keef Hartley Band, Carole King.

Lindisfarne, Led Zeppelin, John Lennon, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Little Feat, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Roger Lucey.

John Mayall, the Moody Blues, Magna Carta, the Move, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Van Morrison, Ian Matthews, Don McLean, Bob Marley, Meatloaf, Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell, Freddie Mercury, John McLaughlin, the Marshall Tucker Band, Moby Grape, Mott the Hoople.

The Nice, Gary Numan, Randy Newman, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

Roy Orbison, Richard O’Brien (writer of the Rocky Horror Picture Show), the Otis Waygood Blues Band.

Pink Floyd, Pentangle, the Pogues, Planxty, Shawn Phillips, Elvis Presley, the Police, Tom Petty.

Queen, Quintessence.

The Rolling Stones, Rodriques, Little Richard, Lou Reed, Tom Rush, the Ramones, Otis Redding, Roxy Music

Bruce Springsteen, Strawbs, Cat Stevens, Steeleye Span, Simon & Garfunkel, Buffy Saint-Marie, Bob Seger, the Silver Creek Mountain Band, Steely Dan, Carly Simon, Stephen Stills, Santana, the Sex Pistols, Spyro Gyra, Super Session (Stephen Stills, Al Kooper, Mike Bloomfield), Patti Smith, Sly and the Family Stone, Boz Scaggs.

Traffic, Ten Years After, Talking Heads, the Travelling Wilburys, T-Rex, James Taylor, Third Eye.

Uriah Heap, Ultravox, U2, UB40.

The Velvet Underground (including Lou Reed).

 The Who, Wishbone Ash, Johnny Winter, Stevie Wonder, Muddy Waters.

 X – I can’t think of one from my era, though there was a single called The Legend of Xanadu from 1968 by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich.

 Yes, Neil Young, the Yardbirds.

 Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, ZZ-Top.

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