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Re: rock gods
I'll try to sponge some of the sarcasm out of my argument and do this again.
As I've bashed before, rock is not an island. It is part of a continuum of
pop culture that encompasses other media and sounds. The Who did not walk
down from a mountain with a holy tablet of the main tenents of rock.
(Whoops, a little sarcasm got in there.) We know that Roger loved Howlin'
Wolf and James Brown. It is not unreasonable to assert that their
presentation was incorporated into his.
From: "L. Bird" <pkeets@hotmail.com>
"One of the notable trends was what John called the "cock
rockers" that played hard rock aimed heavily at a male audience through the
seventies and eighties. This is the sub-genre of rock demi-gods that I
think may have been built from Roger's on-stage persona.
As Pete has said, The Beatles were packaged for a female audience, but Kit
Lambert found a way to market The Who to a male audience instead--so much so
that they wondered where the women were. The volume and syle of the music
were one part of it, but interestingly, a bare-chested Cockney was the other
part. As Lew has pointed out, Daltrey became the idol of a generation of
young men."
OK. I understand the model. Roger ala Tommy is definitely the largest
phallus of this group. I think that Roger needed Pete's Tommy character to
develop this presence. It brought out the actor and charismatic performer
that became his great gift to the audience.
Mark has added Ozzy to the list, where he belongs. He was known to take his
shirt off and did have big hair. Definitely aimed at a male audience.
Morrison is the precursor to Roger's 'Tommy' - IMHO. Jim had big hair
before Roger. While he didn't flash his chest much, he was known to shake
his ass and pretend to present his penis to his audience. He was marketed
more toward the teenyboppers, so that is a strike against him.
Iggy Pop was a Morrison follower who got into the act before Tommy. He had
a more violent side and was not popular enough to get very close to
godliness. He was a great practitioner of fully throwing himself into his
vocal performance. Projecting the performance through the body and
appearance is central to the demi-god model. Iggy gets points here for his
willingness to cut loose and express himself as a performer. His
'character' or persona was not godly, but it was vivid. So I guess he's no
god either. He's more the punk model.
Elvis was definitely godly, but by our definition of rock (all things
post-Who) he is not rock. Lots of charisma, beauty, big hair, posing and
capes. You don't get much more godly than that. Too bad he had a southern
accent, got his start in the 50s, came before The Who, toyed with many
musical styles, made bad movies, and faded sloppily into old age. Otherwise
he might have made the list :-)
Damn, I just couldn't keep the sarcasm all the way out.
Jeff