This course, part 2 of a 2-course sequence, examines the history of rock, primarily as it unfolded in the United States, from the early 1970s to the early 1990s. This course covers the music of Led Zeppelin, the Allman Brothers, Carole King, Bob Marley, the Sex Pistols, Donna Summer, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince, Metallica, Run-DMC, and Nirvana, and many more artists, with an emphasis both on cultural context and on the music itself. We will also explore how developments in the music business and in technology helped shape the ways in which styles developed. Emerging out of the experimental and ambitious years of late-60s psychedelia, rock splintered into a variety of styles in the 1970s as the music business continued to expand. By the end of the decade, punk and disco had challenged the excesses of the hippie aesthetic, as rock became more commercially streamlined and radio friendly. The emergence and rise of MTV transformed pop music and propelled the careers of Michael jackson and Madonna, while heavy metal and hip hop dominated the late 1980s. Nirvana leads alt-rock's return to simplicity in the early 1990s.
Singer-Songwriters
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En provenance du cours de University of Rochester
History of Rock, Part Two
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À partir de la leçon
The Growing Rock Monster (1970-77)
A series of styles continue to develop the combinations of late-1960s psychedelia: blues-rock, southern rock, progressive rock, jazz-rock, theatrical rock, country rock, and singer-songwriters. Rock becomes increasingly ambitious. [Read Chapter 8 and work through listening guides for that chapter, viewing dedicated video.]
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John CovachProfessor of Music and Director
Institute for Popular Music
In the History of Rock, Part One, we talked about the development of the
singer-songwriter model. Or the idea that somebody, I guess, we
talked about it under the idea of authenticity in rock music.
And we talked about it with regard to mid period Beatles with Bob Dylan, and the
idea that when you write a song. The lyrics should be about something
important and, and serious minded. And they shouldn't just be about I
want to hold your hand or she loves you, yeah, yeah, or that kind of thing.
that, that Dylan and many ways kind of led the charge in that direction.
He came out of the folk tradition, so the lyrics had always been important in folk
tradition. Remember, one of the critiques against
Dylan was that he took the we of folk music and turned it into the me of the
singer-songwriters style. Sort of navel gazing thing by his own
thoughts, as opposed to the, you know, the kind of problems of people in society
and socioeconomic political injustices. And this kind of thing.
Anyway that's the bases for the singer-songwriters style that we talk
about in the early 1970s. People like Dylan the Beatles, especially
by the time the Beatles get to the very end of their careers, the White Album
Abby Road. They're acting a lot more like
singer-songwriters. Each one, John, Paul, and George.
The thing about the singer-songwriter tradition is what I call the importance
of being earnest. That is, you have to create the
impression of sincerity and personal expression.
It's very important that what you're saying be understood by the listener as
something that, you know, you really think, or you've really experienced.
Or that you really resonate with there's a, there's, it's, it's kind of a very
earnest and serious minded kind of style. But the also important thing about it is
that nothing should get in the way of the link between the singer and the listener.
So, no fancy arrangements that sort of take the listener's attention away.
No extended guitar solos, no cool new sort of synthesizer sounds or things like
that that come into the picture, none of that.
What it should be instead is just the illusion that the singer is connecting
directly with the audience, connecting directly with the listener.
And the instruments that are soft of mixed, you know, sort of forward in the
production are the acoustic guitar. Because that acoustic guitar is a
simplicity, it's wood, or the acoustic piano, right?
Not so much the kind of synthetic sounds of, as we had in progressive rock, like
the moog synthesizer or the mellotron, some of those other kinds.
And certainly not bombastic arrangements. So it really starts to, it's really very
much about the song, the sincerity and the performance of it, but the lyrics and
the vocal are very much upfront. So let's go through a couple of the
singer-songwriters from the 70s, both the Americans and the British.
I, I, again, as I've said before in these videos, I know I may leave out some of
your favorites here, but think of these really as representative examples.
And if you've got favorites that you want to talk about, bring them to the
discussion forum. We'd love to hear what you have to say
and what you think about those things. Let's start with James Taylor, who starts
out in Chapel Hill, North Carolina but is signed to Apple Records.
And, and brings out one album with Apple in 1969, simply called James Taylor.
James Taylor supporting, because he gives us a direct connection.
A new artist with a direct connection back to the late 1960s, the Beatles.
Apple, as you recall from the first part of the class, things with the Beatles and
Apple were kind of crazy at the end of the 60s.
And they couldn't do very much for them, but then an album, that first album James
Taylor has two tracks that are interesting for us.
Carolina on my Mind, because that became a sort of classic track for James Taylor.
And a song called Something in the Way She Moves, which George Harrison liked
enough. [LAUGH] At least, liked the title enough
to use it in his song from Abbey Road, Something, right?
but after he left, after James Taylor left Apple, he went to Warner Brothers
and had fantastic success with a number three hit in 1970, Fire and Rain.
and a number one hit, You've Got a Friend, 1971, a song written by Carole
King, and it's to Carole King that we'll turn next.
Carole King, as you may recall from the first History of Rock, Part One was one
of the most important songwriters in the Brill Building in the first half of the
1960s. Along with her husband, Gerry Goffin,
where a whole slew of hits, probably the most important one being Will you still
love me tomorrow? Chains, all kinds of tunes that Carole
King wrote hit, after hit, after hit. Then, went through a kind of dry spell
when things moved from the, the focused moved from New York to LA.
She wrote some songs actually for the Monkeys, I think, Pleasant Valley Sunday
was a Goffin-King tune. But then reemerges as a singer-songwriter
at the end of the 60s into the 1970s. Interestingly, with the encouragement of
James Taylor who's telling her, no you can sing your own songs.
Because remember, she had not been a singer or a performer before.
And so he's telling her, no you can sing your own songs.
He, of course, does You've Got a Friend. She does a debut album that is, that
second album, Tapestry, which is just a classic in album in, in, anyway that you
can think about. Not just for a woman, for a female
singer-songwriter, for any singer-songwriter.
The album is number one in 1971. It has a double A sided single, It's Too
Late, I Feel the Earth Move. Both of those songs went to number one.
It's a fantastic record from beginning to end.
There's just not a bad spot on it. And really establishes Carole King as one
of the most important singer-songwriters. And a very influential figure for young
female singer-songwriters who looked at Carole King as a woman who really can
succeed on her own terms in the music business.
So, her success will have a lot ramifications for the future of the
history of rock music. Somebody whose history also goes back
into the 1960s is Paul Simon. Who after leaving Art Garfunkel, the
break up of Simon and Garfunkel has his own solo career during the 1970s.
Of course, Paul Simon had a tremendous amount of success in the second half of
the 60s as one half of Simon and Garfunkel, so the roots in the 60s are
very clear. If you want to hear some representing
examples of what Paul Simon was doing in the first half of the 70s, I recommend
the song Kodachrome from 1972, which was a number two hit of his.
An interesting couple, a little interesting tidbits, tidbits about this.
When he used the term kodachrome as a kind of a metaphor for out memories and
reality and the differences between. The way we remember things and the way
they really were and all those kinds of things.
The Kodak Company insisted that, that, that a, a trade, it, it, it be
acknowledged that Kodachrome was a trademark of the Kodak Company.
And because it was a trademark of the Koda, Kodak Company, the BBC refused to
play the song on the air. Because they thought that they would be
promoting a trademark, that it was like a, an advertisement, right?
and so, despite all that, it was still a number two hit in this hit, in this
country in 1972. Another great one from 1973 is a track
called American Tune, which uses a Bach melody.
Actually, I think Bach reworked, was reworking the music of another baroque
era composer. But nevertheless, this tune american tune
is absolutely a fantastically beautiful piece of music.
And shows the tendency from a singer or songwriter to use bits of classical music
in their music. Which is something we usually think of
having more to do with progressive rock. And then, its another good representative
example is the tune, Still Crazy After All These Years.
It's the the title track to the album of the same name which went to number 1 in
1975. Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover was the
big hit off that album. Paul Simon got a Grammy for that album.
As I, as the story goes I think in his acceptance speech thanks Stevie Wonder
for not having released an album that year.
Which made it possible for him to win the Grammy the year.
Anyway, Paul Simon, a songwriter who in many ways in the American songbook sort
of rivals people like Carole King and Bob Dylan as one of the great American song
writers throughout the decades. Other American singer-songwriters that we
should mention, and I'm sure I'll leave a couple out here.
Carly Simon her track Anticipation from 1971 and You're So Vain from 1973.
A track that, it was, is, is about a boyfriend who is self-absorbed.
And the whole question arose during the time, who was it?
Who was the boyfriend that she was talking about?
You're So Vain. Was it Warren Beatty?
Was it Mick Jagger? Oh, if it was Mick Jagger, that was
especially delicious because she actually gets Mick Jagger to sing background
vocals on the tune. So, she can say I'll bet you thought this
song was about you, and he's actually singing.
Awesome, how much better does it get? She denied that it was about Mick Jagger,
but other people have said, you know, it really was.
People that knew that, knew those people during that time.
Harry Chapin, some great kind of introspective songs, Taxi from 1972.
About a guy who meets a person from his past while he's a taxi driver.
In Cat's in the Cradle, a song about fatherhood and all the things that kind
of bittersweet memories that go with that from 1974.
Don McLean, a couple of big tracks from 1971 that he was especailly acclaimed
for, Vincent, a kind of portrayal of artist Vincent Van Gogh.
And American Pie, which was sort of one of the most studied songs for awhile
there when it first came out. Because it has all these references to
the history of rock music. So as students of the history of rock
music, you ought to look up the lyrics of American Pie.
And see if you can find all the references to things that we talked about
in History of Rock, Part One in those lyrics.
I'm sure you'll find somebody on line who's given you all the answers to that,
so it shouldn't be too hard to look up. And then finally, we can say a word or
two about Jim Croce whose Bad, Bad Leroy Brown and Time in a Bottle both were,
both were number one singles in 1973, A and B side of the same record.
In the next video, let's take a look at the British singer-songwriters, and the
Canadian singer-songwriters as well.
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