ROCK Sex asks "who's that writing/ John the Revelator"?
Any creative act inspires another. That's the nature of creativity and the mantra of this column. Everything anyone creates tracks back to what has been handed to us from before. Many of the songs we take for granted, such as "House of the Rising Sun", have been around since previous centuries.
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Blind Willie Johnson ignites today's baton swap with the song "John The Revelator". He recorded this country Blues take on an old Gospel song with his wife, Willie B. Harris.
[Blind Willie is also responsible for "In My time of Dying" (Dylan, Zeppelin), "Nobody's Fault But Mine" (Zeppelin), and "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground" (Fairport Convention).]
BLIND WILLIE JOHNSON -"John The Revelator" (1930)
SON HOUSE did a startling a capella version that became a signature tune in his repertoire:
SON HOUSE -"John The Revelator" (1965)
The standard has since been covered by Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Thee Headcoats, Beck, R.E.M., Frank Black, A. A. Bondy, Nick Cave, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Cameo, and Tom Waits.
Larkin Poe, the duo of Rebecca and Megan Lovell, proselytize the moody blues in their contemporary cover of Son House's classic.
LARKIN POE -"John The Revelator" (2018)
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"Go tell my disciples..."
Revelation is open to endless interpretation.
Meg and Jack White revealed the classic within their own Garage stomp.
THE WHITE STRIPES -"Cannon" (1999)
Gillian Welch and running partner David Rawlings did an epic, confessional sequel to it as the title piece of her classic album:
GILLIAN WELCH -"Time (The Revelator)" (2001)
Depeche Mode also made a sequel as a sociopolitical protest against perpetually myopic dictatorships.
ROCK Sex thinks "It's such a sight to see/ somebody steal the show".
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Chuck Berry kicks this relay race into gear with this homage to the original Rock'n'Roll grrrls, the teens that made it all explode, with "Sweet Little Sixteen":
CHUCK BERRY -"Sweet Little Sixteen" (1958)
The song was immediately covered by many greats like Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and soon the young Beatles. But here's a live version by GENE VINCENT which nicely proves how live Rock'n'Roll was the original Punk rock:
GENE VINCENT -"Sweet Little Sixteen" (live, 1960)
Brian Wilson expanded the iconography and the sonic palette with this revamp for the Beach Boys' worldwide hit, "Surfin' USA":
THE BEACH BOYS -"Surfin' USA" (1963)
Perhaps inspired by The New York Dolls' "Jet Boy", Elton Motello did his Glam-Punk variation on Chuck's riff, "Jet Boy, Jet Girl". Its forward depiction of teen gay sexualilty was too much for radio, and it was declared "obscene" by the FCC as late as 1989:
ELTON MOTELLO -"Jet Boy, Jet Girl" (1977)
French pop star Plastic Bertrand quickly used the same backing band and arrangement of that song with less controversial lyrics to achieve far more success. He also turned the 'hoo-hoos' into falsetto 'woo hoos' that emulated Brian Wilson's early surfing hits, showing how intertwined Chuck and the Beach Boys had become.
PLASTIC BERTRAND -"Ca Plane Pour Moi" (1978)
"Jet Boy, Jet Boy" got its most high-profile infamy in a cover by the Punk band, THE DAMNED:
THE DAMNED -"Jet Boy, Jet Girl" (1982)
"All the cats wanna dance with
Sweet Little Sixteen!"
ROCK Sex wants to stick around awhile and get its kicks!
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Elvis Presley swaggered one of the best rock anthems and dance sequences in pop history with the title theme for his film JAILHOUSE ROCK. It was written by the legendary duo of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, and Mike can be seen tinkling the keys in the film scene:
ELVIS PRESLEY -"Jailhouse Rock" (1957)
Dean Carter is one of those criminally overlooked greats who deserved far more success than he got.
Throughout the '60s he recorded mayhem in his home studio that perfectly bridged Rockabilly into Garage rock. His frenzied take on "Jailhouse Rock" features the most manic psychedelic dobro solo of all time and a 13-year-old girl playing the clarinet like Morse code!:
DEAN CARTER -"Jailhouse Rock" (1967)
✭ Rockabilly and Garage Rock fans owe it to themselves to check out the Dean Carter retrospective CD, Call of the Wild". And also the compilation of his crazed bandmates and studio productions, "The Midnite Sound of the Milky Way".
Me'Shell Ndegeocello is a monster bassist, underrated singer, and passionate activist. She injected some serious organic Funk into the '90s with her gutsy debut hit:
ME'SHELL NDEGEOCELLO -"If That's Your Boyfriend (He Wasn't Last Night) (1994)
Her sound and politics hearkens back to the original early '70s Funk. Here's one of her inspirations, the evergreen BILL WITHERS:
BILL WITHERS -"Who Is He and What Is He To You?" (1972)
Me'shell paid tribute to this by covering it with back-up from Billy Preston and Wendy And Lisa:
ME'SHELL NDEGEOCELLO -"Who Is He and What Is He To You?" (1996)
Me'shell's take on that song clearly opened up the possibilities of the sexual playing field. Soon after, the rapper Queen Pen extended that in this clever rethink of "If That Was Your Boyfriend", with able assist from Me'shell herself, challenging phobic attitudes about love and lust:
QUEEN PEN, with ME'SHELL NDEGEOCELLO -"GIRLFRIEND" (1997)
The taunting chorus is based on the nyah-nyah singsong of children. That same rhythm was used by Sly And The Family Stone in "Everyday People":
"...and so on and so on and scooby-dooby-doo-bee!"
The Yardbirds did this hard-hitting classic, "Evil Hearted You", with its echoes of Italian Western themes in the jarring chords, anthemic chorals, and the almost flamenco blues of Jeff Beck's solo:
THE YARDBIRDS -"Evil Hearted You" (1965)
Pixies extended that cinematic connection by singing it in Spanish. Black Francis had to hustle extra hard to come up with a translation that pleased the song's original composer, Graham Gouldman (of 10CC), who spoke it fluently:
The Carter Family are universally known as 'The First Family of Country Music'. Led by guitarist Mother Maybelle, they had an incalculable impact on Country, Bluegrass, and Blues artists for decades.
In their famous standard, "Worried Man Blues" (1930) you hear these lines:
"The train arrived sixteen coaches long/
The train arrived sixteen coaches long/
The girl I love is on that train and gone."
Here's son-in-law Johnny Cash having a family rave-up on his TV show (1969-1971):
THE CARTER FAMILY -"Worried Man Blues" (live)
These lines inspired Memphis Blues artist Junior Parker and his producer, Sam Phillips, to co-write this classic:
JUNIOR PARKER -"Mystery Train" (1953)
Shortly afterward Sam Phillips asked another label mate to try his hand on the throttle. Here's Elvis Presley with one of his signature songs:
ELVIS PRESLEY -"Mystery Train" (1955)
John Fogerty used the train as a metaphor for the impact of Elvis in this tribute.
JOHN FOGERTY -"Big Train From Memphis" (1985)
Indie auteur Jim Jarmusch box-carred Memphis, its deep musical history, and the ghost of Elvis into his great film, MYSTERY TRAIN (1989). The cast included Screaming Jay Hawkins, Joe Strummer (The Clash), Rufus Thomas, Steve Buscemi, Elizabeth Bracco (The Sopranos), Nicoletta Braschi, Masatoshi Nagase, and the voice of Tom Waits. Essential viewing for Rock'n'Roll film fans:
ROCK Sex takes you to the river and washes you down.
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Al Green had previously covered the song "Driving Wheel" by that fellow Memphis great, Junior Parker. When Parker passed away, Al dedicated his original composition "Take Me To the River" to his memory:
AL GREEN -"Take Me To the River" (1974)
Bryan Ferry, of Roxy Music, often covered soul songs he loved on his solo albums. In late '77 he recorded this homage to Green:
BRYAN FERRY -"Take Me To the River" (1978)
Meanwhile, by odd coincidence, his former partner in Roxy Music, Brian Eno, was producing Talking Heads' second album as they too covered Green's song. Though their version was recorded a few months after Ferry's it reached the market before his. To this day many people believe this to be their song.
Wanna change the world? Play through a busted amp! Here's a pervasive problem that became a brilliant revolution.
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In 1951 Ike Turner and his band made what is arguably the first Rock'n'Roll song, releasing it under singer JACKIE BRENSTON's name. It is a retooling of Jimmie Liggens' "Cadillac Boogie" (1947) but rowdier and revved up. The extra edge came from a fuzzed-out amp that had been broken in transit. Voila, Rock'n'Roll!
JACKIE BRENSTON AND HIS DELTA CATS -"Rocket '88" (1951)
Paul Burlison's amp was damaged before the recording of The JOHNNY BURNETTE TRIO's studio session, and more sonic revolution ensued:
THE JOHNNY BURNETTE TRIO -"The Train Kept A-Rollin'" (1956)
Dave Davies of The Kinks took a knife to his amp to get the distorted snarl he'd discovered. But he went too far and was thrown across the room by an electric shock!
(Legal Disclaimer: ROCK Sex says, "Don't try this, kids."):
THE KINKS -"You Really Got Me" (1964)
John Lennon used a busted amp to get the raw distortion for "Revolution", even singing on his back on the studio floor shouting at the mike to get the extra edge in the vocals:
The original "Tainted Love" was a Northern Soul song performed by Gloria Jones in 1964, responding to the Motown stomp of songs like The Supremes' "You Can't Hurry Love". Later, she became the partner and muse of T-Rex's Marc Bolan.
GLORIA JONES -"Tainted Love" (1964)
The song was remade in a pretty similar but more Disco fashion in 1975:
RUTH SWANN -"Tainted Love" (1975)
Shortly afterward Gloria Jones and Marc Bolan remade the song:
GLORIA JONES, w/ Marc Bolan -"Tainted Love" (1976)
Marc Almond of Soft Cell heard the original played in a dance club and made it into the Synthpop anthem of all time:
SOFT CELL -"Tainted Love" (1981)
The rhythm of the song (and the intro of James Brown's "I Feel Good") was refashioned into this song.
FINE YOUNG CANNIBALS -"Good Thing" (1988)
From there it has been covered/exhalted/ruined (depending on your bias) by Coil, Inspiral Carpets, My Ruin, Marilyn Manson, The Pussycat Dolls, Rihanna, Danny Noriega, and Imelda May.
Many bands from the early '80s New York scene had varied takes on using funky rhythms with punky guitar, such as Talking Heads, James White And The Contortions, Defunkt, The Bloods, ESG, Liquid Liquid, Material, and Lizzy Mercier Descloux.
BUSH TETRAS kicked out the jams with this rebuke on urban living, propelled by the jarring jang of the deeply undersung guitarist Pat Place and bounding pound of bassist Laura Kennedy:
BUSH TETRAS -"Too Many Creeps" (1980)
Pat's guitar style had a strong impact on San Francisco band ROMEO VOID, who hit the big time with this poison pill, featuring the barbed lyrics of singer Debora Iyall:
ROMEO VOID -"Never Say Never" (1981)
Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth was responding to the misogynistic imagery in LL Cool J's "Walk Like a Panther" video with this next classic (featuring a raised fist of support from guest Chuck D of Public Enemy). But SY got their start in that same CBGB's scene of New York, and the "I don't wanna's" and rhythmic dissonance in this song really recall the Bush Tetras' song:
The Ventures, mighty centurians of the guitarstrumental, did the classic theme song for the original version of the long-running series, Hawaii Five-O (1968-1980):
THE VENTURES -"Hawaii 5-O" (1968)
Radio Birdman, the Australian missing link between The Stooges and The Ramones, surfed their tsunami response through clubs for four years before it was finally recorded:
UK Rockabilly rebel Vince Taylor should have been his country's Elvis. Instead he ended up having two powerful impacts on the future.
Firstly he recorded this slamming classic:
VINCE TAYLOR & THE PLAYBOYS -"Brand New Cadillac" (1958)
This was propelled to international status with The Clash's stellar cover on the crucial London Calling album:
THE CLASH -"Brand New Cadillac" (1979)
This led to other great versions in the chain by Brian Setzer, The Kelpies, Os Catalepticos, and Joe Strummer himself.
Taylor was a volatile personality whose charisma onstage was matched by self-destructiveness backstage.
He was poised for another surge of fame in the mid-'60s, including opening for The Rolling Stones, when these both combined for the worst. Binging on acid, speed, and drink, he proclaimed himself a prophet onstage and sermonized the audience about UFOs and Jesus in white robes before abruptly tearing up the stage.
This theatrical meltdown, essentially a live Pop career suicide akin to performance art, had a huge impact on David Bowie, which inspired him to combine the incident with the feral implosion of Iggy Pop and The Stooges (and a sprinkle of Alvin Stardust) to create the breakthrough concept album, Ziggy Stardust.
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During the Punk days, Adam Ant came by a gold chain once owned by Vince Taylor and later wrote a song about it.
Here's another example of one artist who inspires another artist who re-inspires the first artist, using the classic song "Fame".
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James Brown upended the pop melody formula by perfecting purely rhythmic vamps into a new dance music called Funk. He emphasized driving beat, hypnotic length, and scratchy rhythm guitar:
JAMES BROWN -"The Payback (Part 1)" (1974)
David Bowie and John Lennon sparked the song "Fame" during an impromptu studio jam, built on a riff by guitarist Carlos Alomar. Carlos had toured with James Brown in '69 and the song is a sonic love letter, or payback, to James' style:
DAVID BOWIE -"Fame" (1975)
James must've felt turnabout was fair play because he used that very arrangement the following year:
JAMES BROWN -"Hot (I Need To Be Loved, Loved, Loved)" (1976)
"Fame, it's not your brain, it's just the flame
That burns your change to keep you insane"
ROCK Sex is an inclusive club where no one is denied.
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In life, there's not just one angle, and there's not just two in opposition.
That limitation is simply that... a limit of imagination. The big picture is only subjective and best seen from many angles. Every perspective is valuable because it opens up new possibility, which 'only' and 'either/or' are blind to.
Upshot: there is no Either/Or... there is only "And Also".
Here's a sterling example of each creator enriching creativity by bringing something more to the previous.
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Blues was response music. It responded to life with common feelings, and it was responded to by other folks bringing their own feel. Since culture is creativity and commonality, every voice is valid and every face is irrelevant. It doesn't matter how you look, it's in how you feel. If you feel it, you are it. Blues is simply human feeling felt by other humans.
Essentially, you vamp, others amp. You put it out there, another takes it farther.
Muddy Waters started this particular cultural relay with his recording of Willie Dixon's song.
MUDDY WATERS -"You Need Love" (1962)
The Small Faces, led by Blues wailer Steve Marriott, expanded it texturally in their cover:
SMALL FACES -"You Need Loving" (1966)
Jimmie Page in turn wedded a crucially memorable original riff with Robert Plant's loose interpolation of those previous recordings to create their band's breakthrough hit. Like a childbirth, the combination of two things creates a new third thing of its own.
LED ZEPPELIN -"Whole Lotta Love" (1969)
If someone's impulse is to separate people's validity by how they look instead of how they sound, well, that prejudgement names itself.
Funkadelic aimed to eliminate all barriers of outlook and sound, and guitarist Eddie Hazel re-amped Zeppelin's new chord vamp into further territories with the intro song for their debut:
FUNKADELIC -"Mommy, What's A Funkadelic?" (1970)
Going her own way from Ike, Tina Turner deepened her Rock'n'Soul repertoire with this sexy grind on Zeppelin's song:
TINA TURNER -"Whole Lotta Love" (1975) *
* (I made this video. YouTube hecklers censor it, not because of its PG-rated sensuality, but for its diversity of human love.
Censors always miss the point.)
Lawyers will sue, separatists will divide, but those limits aside what is always missed is the real point: culture is a creative hand-off without boundaries. Give credit to individual creators? Of course. But limit creators from responding to life and each other? Never.
That doesn't protect creators, it kills creativity itself. True culture is about live and let live. And a whole lotta love.
"Liberation for all. Everything must be rethought." ______________
Two great things hybrid a third great thing. ROCK SEX is a metaphor for the creative connections that link our shared culture together. This Pop Culture hub explores the roots and branches of Music, Film, Art, Comics, and more. _______________
Rock'n'Soul music is a baton relayed by everyone. Learn the holistic history with the most advanced Music Playlists online!:
BLUES, MAMBO, JAZZ, ROCKABILLY, SURF, BEAT, SOUL, GARAGE, PSYCHEDELIA, FUNK, GLAM, PUNK, NEW WAVE, HIPHOP, POSTPUNK, GRUNGE, RIOT GRRRL, ELECTRO, next! _______________
This is our party and everyone is invited!
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