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Re: [ARSCLIST] Szell on MAR Was:Bernstein info needed



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Roger and Allison Kulp" <thorenstd124@xxxxxxxxx>
> As someone who grew up with rock and roll,and still listens to a lot of it,I
take exception to this.What do you say about stuff like this ?
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wScJROXaAPM
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N41SMZ83YvA
> (God I love this record!)
>
> This is one of my all time favorites of any era or genre:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsnWwkYnEGA
>
> My first exposure to a string quartet was on "Elenore Rigby",at six years of
age.  Leonard Bernstein called Brian Wilson one of the greatest composers of the
twentieth century.
>
> This was why:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk3ii01Ghpo
> There is the famous 1966 TV special,where he is Deep Purple collaborated with
Sir Malcom Arnold.There is the landmark Procol Harum Live with The Edmonton
Symphony Orchestra Lp.
>
> And what of these guys?
>
> http://www.superseventies.com/moodyblues1.html
>
> Sorry that argument doesn't hold water.
>
First...I'm talking specifically about ROCK'N'ROLL...which came and
went well before the music you're citing. Agreed, that term has been
mistakenly applied to virtually all the young folks' music from 1954
to 2007...but, in fact, it applies to the music that first appeared
around 1953-54 and DISappeared starting around 1965...when psychedelia
and "progressive rock" started taking over (as well as cannabinoid
substances influencing popular music...I vuz dere, Sholly!...).

Your citations pretty well fall into the sub-genre which is now
called "progressive rock" (well, it WAS progress when it happened!)
and included the Beatles as well as a number of bands/musicians who
were classically trained! The music of Yes, Deep Purple, the Moody
Blues, et al actually relied extensively on classical music...I
first heard Bach's "Toccata and Fugue In D Minor" as the introductory
chords to "Chest Fever!"

However, there is much more difference between ROCK and its ancestor,
ROCK'N'ROLL...than there is between early rock'n'roll and the swing
music which preceded it. In fact, Chuck Berry "plundered" swing,
coming up with "Route 66" and "Down the Road a Piece," both set to
a rhythm which was part straight 4/4 and part swing, that young
white rhythm sections quickly simplified to the relentless
one-two-THREE-four that backed up pop music thereafter!

However, present-day music "experts" still call any and all teen-
oriented music...even hip-hop, rap and wothaveya..."rock and roll!"
IMHO, the "rock" has long since slipped downhill, and the "roll" has
become stale and mouldy...it is the same erroneous sort of thinking
that lumped all popular music of 1919-1929 under "jazz," and continues
to try to put it in the same camp as Ornette Coleman...

I wonder, though, whether it was "musical evolution" that replaced the
classics-based rock music of the late sixties with disco...or the
pressure coming from Nixon et al and the "War On Drugs"...

Steven C. Barr


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