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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