Best year ever for rock?

[lukpac]

I'm not that big on rankings/lists/etc, but I thought this was kind of interesting. If nothing else it confirms the fact that Dave Marsh is an idiot.

Rock's golden year

Experts lean toward '69 - the time of Woodstock, 'Abbey Road'

By DAVE TIANEN
dtianen@journalsentinel.com

Last Updated: March 19, 2005

With all due respect, rock was just starting to roll in its Glory that was grease, hot rod and malt shop days.

By many estimates, rock is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, a natural milestone from which to take stock and reflect on a half century of creative glory sprinkled with interludes of musical misadventure. It's a good moment to ponder the answer to the question implied in Milner's putdown. When was rock's pinnacle, its bright shining moment, its finest year?

Was it back at the beginning in 1955, when the music world was turned upside down by the propulsive blast of rock's first No. 1 single, "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and His Comets? In '55, Elvis Presley was still the Rockabilly Cat, the fastest-rising star in country music and poised to erupt, in Bono's apt phrase, as "the Big Bang of rock and roll." It was a year of emerging legends such as Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Ray Charles.

Or was it in 1964, when the Beatles launched the British Invasion, changing the face of popular music in so many ways, replacing the era of solo singers with the reign of the rock band, gradually moving the emphasis away from the hit single to the album, opening a new period of social and political consciousness and marking artists who didn't write their own material as permanently obsolete?

Or perhaps it was 1991, when Nirvana launched the grunge movement, blending elements of punk and metal to forge rock's last great creative upheaval and anointing Seattle as the center of the musical universe.

In an effort to get a fix on rock's greatest glory days, we asked a group of national and local critics, historians and music veterans for their pick on the greatest year in rock 'n' roll.

Interestingly, they tended not to pick the obvious years of historic upheaval, such as 1964 or 1955-'56. While nothing that approached a consensus materialized, two years did vie as leading contenders.

The big winner: 1969

This year is best remembered for Woodstock, rock's great communal moment. But Brad Tolinski, editor of Guitar World, argues that '69 actually marks the dawn of the modern world in rock.

"It's not just about Woodstock," Tolinski says. "It's super way beyond that. It's almost like what one would say about hip-hop now. I think after the first burst of creativity, rock actually matured and really came into its own as an art form."

Unlike Presley's national debut in 1956 with "Heartbreak Hotel" or the arrival of Beatlemania in 1964, when music changed in a clear direction defined by a single dominant act, in 1969 many new movements were starting to take root. Carlos Santana launched a revolution in Latin rock that continues today with Los Lonely Boys. The Allman Brothers arose as the first of the jam bands. The Velvet Underground was pioneering art rock and punk. The first rumbling of heavy metal was starting with Led Zeppelin. And Tolinski argues that a case could be made that Creedence Clearwater Revival marked the beginning of the roots rock phenomenon.

"You had the Stooges first record. You had 'Abbey Road' by The Beatles. You had The Band. OK. Maybe Creedence wasn't the first roots-rock record , but maybe you could argue The Band's record was. (You also had) Jefferson Airplane's 'Volunteers.' 'Let It Bleed' by the Stones, which could be argued as their best record. As a clincher for a guitar magazine, you have the greatest guitar performance ever captured, in my humble opinion, which is Jimi Hendrix's 'The Band of Gypsies at Fillmore East.'

"And then you had Zeppelin's second record. And I didn't mention one of the greatest records in prog rock, King Crimson's 'In the Court of the Crimson King.' "

Bram Teitelman, managing editor for rock for Billboard Magazine, agrees with Tolinski.

Said Teitelman, "'64 or '55, they were seminal years in terms of a certain type of sound or music being created, but it seems like the creative fruition of all those movements was in '69. . .It really sets the tone for a lot of the music that will come after and had reached a sort of critical mass. I happen to have the top 10 album charts book, and just looking at a random week in '69, you have 'Abbey Road,' 'Led Zeppelin II,' Tom Jones, CCR, 'Crosby, Stills & Nash,' 'Santana' and Johnny Cash.Most of those bands are still relevant today. . . There are just some classic albums that came out in that year."

The runner-up: 1958

By 1958, rock had solidified its hold on popular music. Elvis was the newly crowned king, but the kingdom was awash in talented contenders and classic tunes.

Bob Reitman, WKTI-FM's veteran Milwaukee deejay, cites 1958 as one of his three favorite years for one defining anthem: Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode."

"He made great songs before and after 'Johnny B. Goode,' but that song is his masterpiece," Reitman says. "He created primal rock 'n' roll music and forged it with the poetry of teenage angst. He plugged it right into our hearts and minds."

Archivist and chart historian Joel Whitburn of Menomonee Falls picks 1958 as his favorite among many great years. "Duane Eddy, The Shirelles, Dion & the Belmonts, Bobby Darin, James Brown, Jimmy Clanton, Jack Scott and Jerry Butler were debuting," he notes. "Rock 'n' roll was 'pure,' and it was fun. It truly was a great year for some 'drivin' home' songs: 'At the Hop,' 'Tequila,' 'Get a Job,' 'Yakety Yak,' 'Great Balls of Fire,' 'Rockin' Robin,' 'Short Shorts,' 'Endless Sleep,' 'Susie Darlin',' 'Book of Love,' 'Rebel-'Rouser,' 'Chantilly Lace,' 'Summertime Blues,' 'Western Movies,'. . . 'Good Golly, Miss Molly' and so many more. I don't think anybody can argue that 1958 was the zenith for pure rock 'n' roll."

Some also-rans

Although 1969 and 1958 were the two most popular choices for the best years in rock, other years have their advocates as well. Critic and author Dave Marsh has written a book naming the thousand and one greatest singles in rock history, "The Heart of Rock & Soul" (Da Dapo Press, 1999), and he finds it hard to pick between 1965 and 1966 as his favorite year.

"Motown and the British Invasion are in full flower. Southern soul -- and blue-eyed soul, too -- come into their own; Chicano groups like Sam the Sham, ? and the Mysterians, Cannibal and the Headhunters all over the place; Dylan and folk-rock; and the psychedelic claptrap had no more than a foothold -- none of that airy-fairy, artsy-fartsy, I'm-too-high-to-bother-with-shaping-a-song (expletive). It was art, but it wasn't Art. You know?

"Twenty of the 100 singles I rank highest in my book . . . are from 1965 or '66. Fourteen are from '65, so I guess that's the answer. On the other hand, '66 had '96 Tears.' "

Marsh also puts in a good word for 1984.

"1984 was a stupendous year, really. It was a year of superstars -- Bruce, Prince, Madonna, Michael, Sting, U2 and Peter Gabriel -- if I remember right. And a year when hip-hop bared its fangs as the key to the highway. No exit signs this time, baby. And a lot of one-shot singles, silly little stuff like 'Jam On It' by Newcleus and the full blossoming of Cyndi Lauper, the greatest pop singer who could have been.

"Even if you subtract for Duran Duran and all that twaddle, for the fact that MTV was tightening its grip, it was still a brilliant last gasp of cohesiveness, when you could turn on top 40 radio or the TV or skim across the dial and find something within a few minutes that was new, worth sharing, performed like somebody's life depended on it.

"It was the last year I went to the car and turned on the radio with a sense of expectation, and not a sense of dread."

Like Marsh, Susan Masino, the Madison-based author of "Famous Wisconsin Musicians" and "Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy," has something of a divided heart:

"The best year in rock history, in my opinion, would have to be either 1964 when The Beatles came over and changed everything, . . . or 1977 when AC/DC came over and set rock 'n' roll on its ear. That was the year AC/DC, Van Halen, Cheap Trick, the Ramones, to name just a few, were all on their way to changing the sound of rock."

Like Masino, Steve Palec, host of "Rock 'n' Roll Roots," which airs Sunday mornings on WKLH-FM (96.5), has an emotional fondness for the magical rush of the first days of Beatlemania in '64, but his final pick comes a few years later . . .

"If I don't over-think it . . . just answer immediately, I say without hesitation 1967. Summer of Love. Hendrix. Stones. Cream. Doors. Byrds. Who. Procol Harum. Buffalo Springfield. Airplane, all with ground-breaking albums. And most importantly, 'Sgt. Pepper.'

"I recently read a quote in which a musician said that he thought 'Sgt. Pepper' was not that good and it was not a rock album, since it doesn't have any anarchy. Well, in my humble opinion, if it wasn't for that album, (the) aforementioned artist would still be wearing short, combed hair, a conservative shirt and trousers, drinking a malt and liking Ike. 'Sgt. Pepper' changed how albums and music are perceived, recorded, revered, packaged and heard."

[Ess Ay Cee Dee]

nt

[Patrick M]

I agree with 1969, but for different reasons than those cited in the article...

[Beatlesfan03]

but come on, fucking Cyndi Lauper?

And Captain Lou Albano.



Is it just me or does Captain Lou bear a strange resemblence (even in toy form) to Phil Margera from Jackass?

[krabapple]

1972-3

*Fuck* the Band, Creedence, etc, and the rest of that American hillbilly hippie shit. The most amazing stuff was coming out of England, again. (And anyone with a lick of taste knows that King Crimson's best work was coming out in these years, not '69. )


1984? Gimme a break. Prince's best album didn't comeout until 1987.

[Dob]

If nothing else it confirms the fact that Dave Marsh is an idiot.

Marsh does sound like a fast-talking hipster wannabe...but I remember liking his book on the Who (Before I Get Old). You didn't like that book?

[lukpac]

Didn't read it, but I've seen him in the Who's Next DVD, and he comes across as an idiot on there.

[Dob]

And anyone with a lick of taste knows that King Crimson's best work was coming out in these years, not '69.

The people who hate all the King Crimson albums agree with you that I have no taste for liking the debut.

[lukpac]

*Fuck* the Band, Creedence, etc, and the rest of that American hillbilly hippie shit. The most amazing stuff was coming out of England, again. (And anyone with a lick of taste knows that King Crimson's best work was coming out in these years, not '69. )

*Fuck* King Crimson, ELP and the rest of that UK prog art shit. Anyone with a lick of taste knows 1969 was a killer year for good straight ahead rock: 3 albums from CCR, Blind Faith, The Band, Let It Bleed, etc.

[Rspaight]

Marsh is right about the mid-eighties being a "brilliant last gasp of cohesiveness." Think about all the huge albums that sold across a wide swath of people. Whether you think they're crap or not, you could still turn on the radio and hear Prince, The Cars, Van Halen, Tina Turner, Bruce Springsteen, Marvin Gaye, Yes, and Eurythmics one after the other -- on the same fucking station. With the ridiculous Clear Channel ghettoization of radio, that'll never happen today. And *that*, not downloading, is why music sales suck. If anything, downloading is keeping the music industry afloat, because it's the only way you can get exposure to a wide variety of music, instead of cookie-cutter acts that all sound like everything else in their "genre."

Anyway, picking a "best year" is stupid, because you'll just pick whatever year floods your mind with bliss. I'll bet you can make a good case for *any* year.

Except 1996. That year was wretched.

(I liked Marsh's Who book, FWIW.)

Ryan

[krabapple]

*Fuck* the Band, Creedence, etc, and the rest of that American hillbilly hippie shit. The most amazing stuff was coming out of England, again. (And anyone with a lick of taste knows that King Crimson's best work was coming out in these years, not '69. )

*Fuck* King Crimson, ELP and the rest of that UK prog art shit. Anyone with a lick of taste knows 1969 was a killer year for good straight ahead rock: 3 albums from CCR, Blind Faith, The Band, Let It Bleed, etc.

Sorry, 'Creedence' will be forever righteously skewered as the band that The Dude loves above all. End of story.

The Who's best stuff didn't appear until the 70's either, btw. *Fuck* straight ahead rock.

[krabapple]

Marsh is right about the mid-eighties being a "brilliant last gasp of cohesiveness." Think about all the huge albums that sold across a wide swath of people. Whether you think they're crap or not, you could still turn on the radio and hear Prince, The Cars, Van Halen, Tina Turner, Bruce Springsteen, Marvin Gaye, Yes, and Eurythmics one after the other -- on the same fucking station.

Compared to what you could hear on that station in 1972, that's a really narrow range. It runs the gamut from A to maybe D -- and of the artists you name, you'd almost never hear any 'deep cuts' from their albums. That's because the focus-group-driven playlisting of FM was already well underway by 1984, having started about a decade earlier , thanks in large part to the work of Lee Abrams aka Satan...who is now doing penance behind the scenes at XM radio, whose selling point is its *diversity*.

The other interesting thing about Abrams is that he was a *huge* prog rock fan...yet his methods and success in helping radio stations identify the 'hits' and nothing but the hits, helped remove prog from the radio.

[Ess Ay Cee Dee]

nt

[krabapple]

Grease is the word!

[lukpac]

Sorry, 'Creedence' will be forever righteously skewered as the band that The Dude loves above all. End of story.

"The Dude"?

The Who's best stuff didn't appear until the 70's either, btw. *Fuck* straight ahead rock.

To each his own. Sell Out and Tommy are both great, IMO. *Different* from anything they did in the '70s, but still great.

And that's kind of the point. A Quick One is a world away from Who Are You, but I like both. Which one is "better"? Who cares?