Rock n'Roll is here to stay!
Every few months a local theatre has a rock and roll band on from the 60s, usually once-famous groups who despite advancing years can still turn on the magic and have e old times up bopping in the aisles whilst our grandchildren look on with a mixture of surprise, mild disgust and envy. What started it all? Some say that R&R was a merging of American country music and R&B but for my money it all started with the black bands with their driving aggressive rhythm and blues in the 1950s with singers such as Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino and Bo Diddley in the driving seat. White singers like Bill Haley, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Eddie Cochrane expanded the new tradition and the style was hailed almost exclusively by teenagers to the horror of our parents, teachers and political 'leaders'. Films like Blackboard Jungle, Rebel without a Cause, and The Wild One had a whole generation rocking in the cinema aisles before the almost inevitable near-riot and to many of the then older generation rock and roll was the music of the devil. It took it's toll of the heroes; James Dean died in a car crash, Buddy Holiday departed this world via a plane crash, Little Richard flirted with insanity before turning to the gospel, Elvis Presley killed himself with drugs, the list goes on and on. Eventually we wild, motorbike-loving teenagers with leather jackets and slicked-back hair grew up into young adults with sensible cars and mortgages, we had children of our own, they gave us grandchildren. We are grey haired now, find it difficult to walk let alone dance, and most of us have retired from our lives of toil. We still remember the thrill of a burn-up down the bypass on the back of a mate's 650, an old juke box can bring back memories of flared skirted girls with ponytails, expresso coffee and the back rows of dark cinemas. We are still, and always will be, the rock and roll generation.
Copyright failedrockstar.co.uk