A Continuing Story of Rock’n’Roll!
Hey Y’all, this is Duke Heavy, your friendly neighborhood music freak. I am here to fill your collection and playlist with some Rock’n’Roll, or at least what I consider it to be. That can mean anything from the quietest moments of a Joni Mitchell or Iron and Wine song to the ear shattering sounds of Motorhead, Mastodon, and beyond. I want to take you on a musical journey and hope you are ready for the ride.
I grew up in Munich, Germany in the 70ies and 80ies. The guideline to modern music was given to me at the time from American Forces Network (AFN), Rockpalast, and the posters of the Monsters of Rock festivals. I came of age during the British New Wave, the German NDW, the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, and all the American acts that were fearless and exotic enough to push their styles and sounds through this seemingly all conquering mix.
I started my collection with a cassette player huddled next to a speaker with the radio playing, waiting any free minute to press that red button to record that one special song I might have heard, thought I’d heard and hoped to hear again. A must hear source for this was Casey Kasems Top 40 Countdown. I would listen to him religiously every Sunday. His was the best broadcast to catch any new song that might be a hit.
Soon I moved on to a tape player, then record player, actually connected to a stereo system, and owning legitimate cassettes and LPs. Recording from the radio stayed a part of my life until I basically joined the U.S. Army, though.
As I refined my tastes there was many a song I would hear once and wait days, weeks, and sometimes months before I could capture it on tape. Some eluded me for years until I could afford to buy them on record and later on CD. It took me literally close to 35 years to own Big Log from Robert Plant, from hearing it as a child the first time to finally downloading it from Amazon a couple years ago.
I used to listen to it all, capturing the diversity of the 80ies on tape after tape, be it Madonna, Thompson Twins, Nena, Queen, Phil Collins, you name it. An always present influence was my older brother who, after having to leave his German School and being placed in the American High School at McGraw Kaserne, would bring home anything that caught his ear. That is how I got introduced to the Commodores, the Gap Band, Cool & the Gang, and Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five. I was the one who introduced my school to Rap and Hip Hop in form of The Message. That one about tripped everyone out.
Then Michael Jackson exploded along with Bruce Springsteen, Prince, Journey, and Huey Lewis all while Ozzy Osbourne was scaring me along with Iron Maiden and Judas Priest on Rockpalast and in my best friends bed room. Thought I was going to burn in hell every time they would bleed in to my ears. In the midst of this my brother brought home a record that would change my life, Led Zeppelin IV. I still remember the meal my mom made that night, spaghetti with meatballs, as if time stood still. It was the most amazing music I had ever heard and after that there was no more room for Pop, Soul, Rap, New Wave, or anything that did not have those pounding drums, thundering bass, swirling keys and heavy jamming guitar.
In the wake of Led Zeppelin came all the Classic Rock to follow along, Jethro Tull, Yes, Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy, and the heroes of the time, AC/DC, Van Halen, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Rainbow. We moved back to the States right when FM radio was rediscovering all the old bands, Classic Rock stations were popping out en masse and Ozzy Osbourne’s Shot in the Dark was playing on MTV. I discovered Marijuana and other hallucinogenics and started listening to the Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers Band, Jimi Hendrix and Jefferson Airplane. My collection moved from tapes to LPs, and while in the Army, to CDs.
Another constant in my life was a record store in Munich called WOM ( world of music ). This was hands down the best record store in the western Hemisphere, huge and corporate, but this affiliation run by music lovers for music lovers. I have been to all the large stores from L.A. to NYC, London, Milan, Paris, Berlin, but none could compare. They dominated in all sections be it Rock, Punk, Indie/Alternative, Electronic, Classical or Jazz, and possibly even in Country. I would spend hours in it bringing records to the listening counter and carefully picking the ones to buy. My money did not grow on trees and an investment needed to be well researched. A large part of my musical taste was shaped inside of their hallowed grounds.
I had moved back to Germany after my time in the Army and a short and unsuccessful stint in L.A. As time went by I got the feeling that Rock’n’Roll had kind of died and anything new was few and far between. I never really got in to Grunge or Indy or Alternative or Punk and everything I listened to had already been done, many of it before I was old enough to remember its inception. The scene seemed to have stood still. Living in Europe everything was Electronic and weird Pop, the only saving light being Heavy Metal, maybe. Or so I thought.
One day I was scouring the internet and noticed a festival called Bonnaroo with Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and the Dead in the line up. Loving Bob, Willie and the original Grateful Dead I bought a ticket, jumped on an airplane and made my way to Manchester, Tennessee, and in the process discovered a whole new younger world of music to complement the sounds I had been listening to since my youth. I realized Rock’n’Roll hadn’t died, it had just morphed into different spheres. I took these sounds back to Germany and started to DJ in different bars, mixing the young with old, the new with classics and made quite a few younger friends in the process. They helped me understand the importance of musical styles I had deflected prior to this such as Grunge and Punk. They also introduced me to musical acts I had not been aware of that had been lurking in the shadows all the time.
I think we go through ups and downs and times when music seems less inspiring. But one really just needs to keep an open mind. Listen to the difference between Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, the Eagles, Black Sabbath, Tom Petty, AC/DC, Bruce Springsteen, Prince, or Nirvana. No style of Rock’n’Roll is written in stone. Now there are plenty I don’t like, and a few inducted in to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that might not should have been, but Rock is pretty inclusive as long as it keeps the spirit. That is what I want to reflect here and hope to hear your feedback. Has it all been done before? Yeah, maybe, but if that were the guideline then we could have stopped with Robert Johnson at the crossroads.
Hope you all enjoy these hidden gems, lost classics, new interpretations of an old formula, and ideas that touch on them all. Welcome to Heavy Jamming Reviews!