Battle of the Bands?

There is a good conversation going on over at Kevin Tracy's blog. The original post is about whether or not Christian Rock should be called that. The comments section is full of opinions. I could add more to the conversation, but I would just go off track. I want to talk about the roots of rock and the modern "puppy mill" of rock. It seems that anything is considered rock as long as it has some young cute face singing. These pretty young thangs and pretty boys get signed on because they look good and use words that might make parents uncomfortable. Forgive me that this is not written in chronological order. I am just speaking through my heart.
Rock music should be about more than just words. It should have a feeling of raw emotion, no matter what the words are. I favor the old old school rock and early R & B. There are just too many artists to mention that go back to 1954-1963.
Y'all know how I feel about Elvis. My utmost fave is "Love me." This is not the same as "Love Me Tender", although a good song. "Love Me" is full of innuendos, but no nasty words. This is what rock creativity was all about. That creativity got lost somewhere along the line. Sure, Elvis' music was covering music of other artists, usually black music, but he sang it with such feeling and soul that it didn't matter.
Most covers of songs are so cheap and saccharin. The other day I was channel surfing and came across "EmptyV" or VH1. I don't recall the actual name of the song, but it was some dude singing what I think was the Supremes classic "Keep Me Hangin On." The words were there, but the music was royally messed up. When the vid was done and the song name was on the screen it had a dif name. I think this was because the remaining Supremes would sue. If ya ask me they still have a case.
I was blessed when I lived in Corpus Christi, Texas for two years. Every Saturday on the oldies station, from 7pm to midnight they would play the really old stuff, including the R & B. I recorded every one of those songs that I really liked. I have at least twenty tapes of vintage rock. I don't even know all the names of all the artists that sang them, let alone the names of all the songs. There are still some songs I never got to record, but would love to hear them again.
There is just something about that music that goes directly to your gut. One time I bought a CD of fifties music that had a song I had never heard "My True Love." The rhythm and the singer's voice took me back to a time that I never even lived in. The experience I had the first time I heard it can not even be explained. I can't remember who sang it. I will have to get that CD out and look.
In a time of "Jim Crow" laws of the South, there seemed to be less of a distinction of who was black and who was white. It was about the sound. Call me crazy, but I think the old stuff did have an indirect effect on the Civil Rights movements of the 50's and 60's.
White kids were listening to black music, and white music that took from the black music. I truly believe that this brought the issue to the forefront of the minds of high school and college kids in the North who never even payed much attention to what was going on in the South. It also made white kids in the South stop and think.
Don't laugh but I always thought Jerry Butler was white and Bill Haley was black. That was until I saw "Mr. C" from Happy Days on one of those Time-Life Music ads on late-nite TV. As the music was playing and the screen showed the pics of the artists and what songs they sung I realized I was backwards on that.
When I had a job at an antique store I was talking to a dude who is a record producer in Detroit, he told me not to feel bad. It happened alot even back then. He collects old records, 78's, 45's and 33's. He said one time he went to a building in Detroit that was going to be torn down. It used to be a black night club and the old juke-box was still there. He said this night club only played black music, but there was a couple of old Elvis records in the juke-box. So...either they didn't know he was white or they did but didn't care.
For classic rock and Southern rock of the seventies I love Led Zepplin and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Being born and raised in Flint, I better include Grand Funk in there too. Zepplin's music was original, but they still stayed true to the rock roots. Same with Skynyrd and Grand Funk. But it still doesn't do for me what the music of the fifties and early sixties does.
Everytime I hear "Sleepwalk" by Santo and Johnny I recall the last scene in LaBamba. The one where Ritchie's brother is working on the car and the announcement of the plane crash comes on the radio. His brother screams "Ritchie" and goes running to a hillside to cry. This song is completely instrumental, but it evokes such emotion. Like one of those dreams where you're trying to run from something, ya don't know who or what, and your feet and legs won't move then ya wake up in sweaty daze.
Back to what I said up top about needing nothing more than a pretty face. Buddy Holly was a damn good musician. He wasn't cute or nothing. He never could make it in this "looks only" world. Back in the day, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Jessica Simpson and Nick Leche (sp?) would not have made it.
Well that's enough for right now. I may think of other stuff to say.
"See ya Later Alligator", time to "Shake Rattle and Roll!"