ROCK Sex is an inclusive club where no one is denied.
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.
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.
© Tym Stevens
See Also:
• "I'm A Man" - Bo Diddley > Muddy Waters > Spencer Davis > Chicago > Devo
• "When the Levee Breaks!" - Memphis Minnie > Led Zeppelin
• "For What It's Worth": - Buffalo Springfield > Led Zeppelin > Public Enemy
• "PHYSICAL GRAFFITI" - Led Zeppelin > Branford Marsalis > Rolling Stones
• The Real History of Rock and Soul!: The Music Player Checklist
No comments:
Post a Comment