Personal Perspective
“Echoes of reggae comin’ through my bedroom wall
havin’ party up next door but I’m sitting here all alone
two lovers in the bedroom and the other starts to shout
all I got is this blank stare and that don’t carry no clout at all”
The house shakes. Jonathan, up in his bedroom with the door closed, pounds his 36” Easton metal-bat electric guitar as he growls the lyrics with just the right inflections.
“Destination unknown, Ruby ruby ruby ruby soho!!!!!!!”
I’ve heard it a hundred times before. He loves Rancid. They have cred. Green Day sold out. The Ramones were the first punks, Jonathan says. No wait, he says in his animated I’ll-TELL you-the-way-it-IS manner, it was the Velvet Underground. Yeah, they were THE ones; raw, edgy, way cool. Dad says look at the Who. That they were Mod rocker tough-guys who followed the Beatles, but weren’t so nice and cute; smashed guitars, sang about being fucked-up kids- “hope I die ‘fore I get old. Talkin’ ‘bout my generation.”
That is a common scene in the Kennedy household – my brother upstairs listening to Rancid, pretending a baseball bat is a guitar. My dad downstairs, creating websites and blogs for the rest of the FAM while listening to Joni Mitchell, or maybe he’s in the mood for the softer, yet just as soulful, Miles Davis. I took a Jazz History course in college. Liked it, more so because it was easy, rather than because of my appreciation for jazz – that’s for old people – or sorry dad, older people. Or that’s what I used to think, but now I feel all genres are for everyone to enjoy. At the moment, I don’t enjoy jazz, but I’m coming around, expanding my horizons beyond the music I use to listen to. I thought college would expose me to more music – didn’t quite happen. I learned I must expose myself to the music. I’ve spent much of my free hours, not in class, listening to music and listening to music. That is my excuse for not getting a 4.0, and I have my father and brother to thank for that as they have turned me onto more and more music. I spent too much of my teenage years listening to pop-music, music all over MTV (in which today I found out stands for Music Television). During those years, I listened to music all the time, but wouldn’t say I had a love for it. But now I do, and would like to share with you how my musical interests have evolved. But first I’m going to listen to some music to get me in the mood, an excuse I have used often in order to postpone writing this thesis. I’ll be back to the keyboard after a couple tracks.
Before my teenage years, which were during the 1990s, I listened to the Beach Boys, Beastie Boys, Michael Jackson, MC Hammer, Vanilla Ice and the Fresh Prince. But like the colored three striped socks, jacked up to the knees, that my mom (Rockin’ Rita) dressed my brother and I in, some things go out of style. So I stopped listening to all of the above. I became thirteen, leaving Michael Jackson upset. I don’t listen to any of these artists anymore, except an occasional nostalgic listening of “Watcha Want,” a classic by the Beastie Boys. However, all of these artists played a major role in the evolution of their music genres. Let’s take a closer look.
If everybody had an ocean
Across the U. S. A.
Then everybody'd be surfin'
Like Californi-a
You'd see 'em wearing their baggies
Huarachi sandals too
A bushy bushy blonde hairdo
Surfin' U. S. A.
Michael J. Fox, in the mid-1980s hit movie “Teen Wolf”, surfed atop his van to the tune “Surfin USA”, the Beach Boys first hit (1961). During the 80s, I found myself listening to this song over and over until the tape broke (What are tapes, asks Garrett Junior? I am getting old). Growing up in Southington, CT, I never became a surfer-dude, but surfed through my dad’s collection of music to find a Beach Boys tape.
The main members grew up in Hawthorne, CA. They included the Wilson brothers, Brian, Dennis and Carl, cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Dennis was the only real surfer, but in the 1960s they became the nation’s surfer band (All Music Guide). The Wilsons' father fancied himself a musician/songwriter and in their youth the brothers would harmonize for their father to songs by the Four Freshmen and Kingston Trio. The Beach Boys' pure harmony would become their signature as they ventured into 'surf music' and beyond. When the British Invasion hit the United States in late 1963, it hit the American music scene hard. Suddenly you had to be from the UK to be cool, a frightening realization for the somewhat stagnated stateside rockers. Music had been sliding away from its R&B/country roots to a more 'pop' sound and the Brits were using their love of American musicians Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley and the old black blues legends as a basis for some very new-sounding rock music. The Beach Boys (Brian Wilson in particular) was fascinated by the turn of events, especially the Beatles' 'Rubber Soul' concept album, and began to experiment with their own style to challenge the Beatles. In 1966 they released the album “Pet Sounds” to spectacular critical acclaim. It remains one of the best and most influential rock albums ever. However, it was only modestly successful commercially and Brian Wilson set out to create his masterpiece, to be called "Smile". What happened then is the stuff of myth and legend. But for whatever reason (Brian Wilson became heavily involved with drugs, had a nervous breakdown, stayed in his bed for over two years, eventually weighing over 300 pounds and generally crumbled into a creative vegetable), the album was never completed and only a couple songs ever made it out of the studio. The group then lapsed into kind of a traveling oldies band, occasionally having a hit like the novelty "Kokomo" from the Tom Cruise movie 'Cocktail'. Wilson brothers Dennis and Carl died in the 1990s, leaving the band to lead singer Michael Love, while Brian Wilson continued his estrangement from the band due to health/emotional problems and creative differences.
| Epilogue: Cut forward to 2004, Brian Wilson, after years of therapy and detox, finally releases "Smile" to amazing critical and commercial acclaim and tours the US and UK to adoring crowds. Who would have thought! Here is a quite interesting discussion of the whole 'Smile'adventure as told in the liner notes of 'Smiley Smile', an album released from scraps of the 'Smile' project. - here... |
Beach Boys- Rock and Roll Hall of Fame website profile - here...
All Beach Boys' song lyrics by album! - here...
My father would wake my brother and I for school screaming “cock-a-doodle-doo” up the stairs. At the kitchen counter, we’d sit at our stools, waiting for mom to fix the most important meal of the day. Dad played Van Morrison morning after morning. Although Van sounded better than the doodle-doo, at eight I wasn’t feeling Mr. Morrison. Or maybe we were still pissed off from being awakened from the rooster again. Nevertheless, “Moodance” played regularly on the mourning rotation. I was like Woodie Harrelson in the movie “White Men Can’t Jump”. I was listening to Van, but not hearing him. I wouldn’t appreciate his music until my college years. I did give Stevie Winwood’s “Roll With It” (1988) a chance, and played it on my first CD-player that I got as a present for my first, and last! Communion. I was eight years old, in 2nd grade, and this was also the time I got my first CDs, which included “Raps Greatest Hits” and Mariah Carey. Mariah didn’t receive much airplay, or attention, except for looking at her picture on the front of the CD. But rap became the dominant genre played by the Kennedy brothas during the late 1980s into the mid-1990s. This was a period when rap music became pop-music, and many suburban white kids started listening to gangsta rap while being afraid of white guys singing folk songs. So I passed on listening to Van (who I now think is “the man”). But before rap dominated my music collection, Michael Jackson was a “Thriller” to listen to.
She told me her name was Billie Jean, as she caused a scene
Then every head turned with eyes that dreamed of being the one
Who will dance on the floor in the round
People always told me be careful of what you do
And don't go around breaking young girls' hearts
And mother always told me be careful of who you love
And be careful of what you do 'cause the lie becomes the truth
Billie Jean is not my lover
She's just a girl who claims that I am the one
But the kid is not my son
She says I am the one, but the kid is not my son
Michael Jackson first burst on the music scene in the 1969, when his family group, the Jackson 5, released their first album “Diana Ross Presents The Jackson Five”. They immediately found success with their singles “I Want You Back”, “ABC”, “The Love You Have” and “I’ll Be There”. The Jackson 5 became a phenomenon during the 1970s. Michael stood out as he amazed people with his singing and unique dancing. In 1982, he released his 6th solo album “Thriller”, which became the biggest selling album ever. This is possibly his greatest accomplishment, and in the 1980s he became the King of Pop. In 2005, he is more known for his private life, first being accused of child molestation in 1993, and again in 2003. He denies both allegations. What is also a question is the change in the color of his skin. When with the Jackson 5, he had a dark black and babyish face, and now has a light feminine face, which has made the lives of comedians easier – as he has been referred to as the “Queen of Pop”. Despite these troubles, Michael Jackson revolutionized music videos on MTV, especially with his video for the single “Thriller”, a video favorite of many still today. And everyone has tried imitating his trademark “moon walk”.
During the late-1980s, I decided to ignore my father’s music suggestions, except for the Beach Boys and Stevie Winwood. Rap music burst into Suburban living rooms through MTV and this is when I became interested in the Beastie Boys, L.L. Cool J., MC Hammer, Vanilla Ice and the Fresh Prince. This is when my brother and I put the high socks away, and put our Hammer pants on. The first rap music I listened to was the Beastie Boys, which was the first significant white rap group. The Brooklyn trio, Mike D, MCA and Ad-Rock, released their first rap album “Licensed to Ill” in 1987. In the earlier-1980s, they were a hardcore punk band. This album combined rock and rap to produced rap’s first number one album ever (AMG). I soon became a fan of L.L Cool J. My first listen of him was of his single and album “Mama Said Knock Your Out”, which released in 1990. L.L. Cool J released his first album “Radio” in 1985; however, I was only three at the time, and rap music hadn’t burst into the mainstream yet. Because of the Beastie Boys many suburban white boys like myself became interested in L.L. Cool J, and other rap like D.J. Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince (Will Smith) who came out with their first album in 1987. The single “Parents Just Don’t Understand”, from their 2nd album “He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper”, won rap’s first Grammy in 1988. This exposed rap to an even wider audience and Will Smith was one of the first rappers to crossover into acting, first starting his acting career starring in the sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”.
The other two rappers I listened to when I first started listening to rap were MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice. According to All Music Guide, MC Hammer’s 2nd album “Hammer Please Don’t Hurt Them” (1990) is still the biggest-selling rap album of all time. This album, mostly known for its single “U Can’t Touch This”, brought rap popularity beyond anyone’s expectations. Hammer is the reason every elementary school kid, in my hometown Southington, CT, wore baggy pants, which became known as Hammer pants. Vanilla Ice came onto the scene during the same time. He had only one successful album, “To the Extreme”, with his single “Ice Ice Baby” (a rip-off of David Bowie and Queen’s “Under Pressure”). Both are considered jokes now, but did have an impact on the genre.
Backstroke lover always hidin’ ’neath the cover | So I took a big chance at the high school dance |
The next stage of my musical interests is confined to my middle school years and high school years (ages 12-18; 1994-2003). This is a long period of my life, but rap wraps up the music I listened to. The early 1990s saw new styles of music in many genres (gangsta rap, grunge punk, etc), but I ignored all guitars and was entertained by beats and MCs. Like I said, I was afraid to listen to white guys, like Kurt Cobain, because that wasn’t considered cool. Now I feel, if you use to listen to rap, and now you don’t, then that is cool (because rap sucks now). Run-D.M.C., possibly most responsible for rap’s sound and style, was rap’s first hardcore rap group, and opened the door for Public Enemy, Boogie Down Productions and N.W.A. Run-D.M.C. remade Aerosmith’s “Walk this Way” with the band’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry. This was the first rock/rap collaboration that appealed to fans from both genres, and is arguably the song that brought rap into the mainstream. Without Run-D.M.C. I wouldn’t have screamed, “You Gotta Fight for Your Right to Party”, the Beastie Boys first hit from their debut album “Licensed to Ill”. Public Enemy, in the late 1980s, became the most influential and controversial rap group ever. Lead rapper, Chuck D, brought politics and black consciousness to hardcore rap and paved the way for N.W.A. and eventually Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G. N.W.A. brought rap to the west coast, which had been primarily New York City music, and are considered the first gangsta rap group. Rap music had been seen as a fad, but in the early-1990s, the music was nationwide, critics of the music were silenced, and the music was here to stay.
During the mid-1990s, my brother strayed away from rap music. Green Day burst into the mainstream with their third album “Dookie” in 1994. “This is when real music started for me,” he said. At house parties, he’d turn off the rap hit of the day, put on “When I Come Around”, and say, “I sound like Green Day, don’t I?” Many tried emulating Green Day after their breakthrough album “Dookie”, paving the way for many pop-punk bands of the 1990s. My brother played Green Day so much to the point I couldn’t stand them, and didn’t become a fan. Now I do like them as long as they don’t “come around” every hour of the day – remember, I live with a Billie Joe Armstrong sound alike (the lead sing of Green Day). This was my brother’s introduction to punk music, and later learned, Green Day isn’t “real punk”.
As for me, during the mid-1990s to the late-1990s, I remained primarily a rap music fan. You couldn’t walk outside without hearing a car stereo system blasting the latest rap song. This was when my friends and I got our licenses, rap in the CD player, not one of us considered changing the dial. At school lunch, I would buy a slice of pizza and save the rest of the money my parents gave me to buy a rap CD almost every Tuesday, the day of the new releases. However, during my junior year of high school, a best friend, Nate Ouellette, picked me up for school, playing tunes of Sublime, a ska-punk band that I immediately loved. The lead singer, Bradley Nowell, had a unique singing style, that sounded somewhere in-between Bob Marley and The Red Hot Chili Peppers, both of which Sublime was influenced by. I’ll take my brother’s saying – “this is when real music started for me”. I didn’t immediately put away rap music. I’d still buy it, but became tired of how repetitive the music got. Rap music had always been somewhat materialistic, but by the end of the 1990s, it seemed that’s all the music was about. And if you are still alive, rap music keeps getting worse and worse. But hey, there is other music out there to listen to Garrett! So back to my dad’s collection of music I went.
How many roads must a man walk down |
I had virtually stopped listening to rap music. But then I became aware of Talib Kweli and he is the only reason I still listen to rap today. When you first hear a new musician their lyrics don't jump out at you. It is music. If it does not sound good then I do not care what the person is saying. I had never heard rap music like his - it had a jazz feel to it and the more I listened, I began hearing what he was saying. This is when I started caring about what musicians had to say. And this is why I am attracted to the music of Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Ben Harper, The White Stripes and Bob Dylan. These are my favorite musicians today, all of whom write lyrics with the best of them. First, let us take a look at Dylan, probably the best lyricist. Dylan is a latecomer to my music family, but I have become intrigued with him. If someone were to say Bob Dylan is the greatest rock artist ever, I am certainly not going to argue. He is another my dad played that I ignored, but I chose to give him a shot in college (probably after taking a shot; not in basketball because I don't shoot) and I am sure Bobby will stay in my musical collection for the remaining years I have left on this planet. At first listen, I did not hear him asking the "Blowing in the Wind" questions, but it did sound like he was passionate about what he was saying.
Bob Dylan described, in his recent book Bob Dylan Chronicles Volume One, that one day he saw Mike Seeger and realized the type of songs he wanted to write. He knew then that he had to open up his mind more - "I had been closing my creativity down to a very narrow, controllable scale" (Dylan 69-71). He decided he wanted to write folk songs - "Folk songs are evasive - the truth about life.The thought occurred to me that maybe I'd have to write my own folk songs, ones that Mike [Seeger] didn't know" (Dylan 71). Besides his mind, he decided to change his whole persona. He needed a name change. He had grown up in Duluth, Minnesota as Robert Allen Zimmerman, and in 1961, traveled to New York City to pursue a musical career. He tried the names Elston Gunn and Robert Allen. Then he had heard of a saxophone player named David Allyn and liked the spelling so he called himself Robert Allyn. Then he read poems written by Dylan Thomas so he became Robert Dylan. He had always been referred to as Bobby, but there was already a number of other Bobby's, such as, Bobby Darin. "The first time I was asked my name in the Twin Cities, I instinctively and automatically without thinking simply said, 'Bob Dylan'". He struggled at first to respond to the name, but people caught on fast and Bob Dylan became a household name across America (Dylan 79).
Bob Dylan became well known for writing protest songs. However, he did not see it this way, nor did he consider himself the voice of a generation as many referred to him as this. He though of his writing as topical songs - "songs about real events" and this did not necessarily mean they were protest songs (Dylan 82-83). He was pinpointed as a protest singer and the voice of his generation - ".the press kept promoting me as the mouthpiece, spokesman, or even conscience of a generation. That was funny. All I'd ever done was sing songs that were dead straight and expressed powerful new realities. I had very little in common with and knew even less about a generation that I was supposed to be the voice of. I'd left my hometown only ten years earlier, wasn't vociferating the opinions of anybody. My destiny lay down the road with whatever life invited, had nothing to do with representing any kind of civilization. Being true to yourself, that was the thing.I really was never any more than what I was - a folk musician" (Dylan 115-6).
Well I was dancing at a night club one Friday night |
I arrived at Manhattanville College with an optimistic mind, free to learn and meet new people - possibly become interested in more music. The first person I met was my freshman roommate Scotty G. We had similarities, both 5'10 white dudes that listened to mostly rap. We shared a couple brewskies one night at the beginning of our first college semester, exchanging autobiographies. I had just started listening to Jonathan Richman so decided to put him on. Scott had never heard of him, but I soon realized he was the subject of one of Richman's songs. There was a knock at our door. We hid our alcoholic beverages quickly and turned down "Dancing at the Lesbian Bar", a Jonathan Richman classic. It was our Residence Director telling us there were complaints about loud music. He searched our room to find beer cans. We got written up and were put on probation for underage drinking. We can thank Richman for that. Our IDs said we were 21, but Manhattanville campus safety did not buy the 21-year-old freshmen idea. After that night, the conversation between Scott and me stagnated and soon vanished. Communication between us roommates was limited to a head nod, an occasional hello or what's up. This called for some Jonathan Richman again, track number 3, You Can't Talk to the Dude, from his album I, Jonathan. The 'dude' refers to Scott and Richman is telling me that I can't talk to him - yeah, no kidding, Jonathan!
You wonder why you're feeling blue, | Your sense of humor has gotten worse |
Talib Kweli is the only reason I listen to rap music today. His first album was Black Star, a collaboration with his friend Mos Def. It was released in 1998, but I was too busy watching music on that MTV channel. Like Lewis Black said, "MTV has ruined music like KFC has ruined chicken". They do not get much airplay on that station so I had no idea they existed. It was not until 2000, late in my junior year of high school, that I became aware of Talib. I was still buying rap CDs, but was getting very sick and tired of using my lunch money to buy albums that had like 2 good songs on them, and the only reason the 2 songs were good is because the rest of the songs were so horrible. I went to Strawberries, a local music store. I needed a music fix and looked in the new releases section. We're told to not judge a book (CD) by its cover, but I saw one that looked like it meant something. Meaning is hard to find in rap music so I picked the CD up to see that it was Talib Kweli and DJ Hi-Tek's album Reflection Eternal - The Train of Thought. I had not heard of them so I put the CD back and I do not recall what I chose to buy; obviously something not too spectacular if I cannot remember what it was. I still needed my music fix and I'll be honest (opposed to if I did not say that, I would be lying) I still wanted to like rap music. So I searched the Internet and found a list of 2000s best underground rap CDs. Talib's Reflection Eternal was number one on the list. Immediately I went to steal his music from Napster. I downloaded tracks 1-20. Napster was working wonders then. I had the whole CD downloaded within ten minutes. It became one of those CDs you could place in your CD player, press play and let it go until it ended and you had to press play again. I went to Strawberries and bought the real CD.
A month or so passed and I had not taken his CD out of my stereo, probably pissing my mother off because to her it was "just that rap music" again. But this rap music was different and that could not be conveyed any better than in his song For Women, the last song on the album. It was originally Nina Simone's song called Four Women, discussing the struggles of four black women - as Talib states in the introduction to the song, "Yeah, so we got this tune called "For Women" right. Originally, it was by Nina Simone. She said it was inspired by, you know, down south. In the south, they used to call her mother Antie. She said, no Mrs., just Antie. She said if anybody ever called her Antie, she'd burn the whole goddamn place down. But you know, we moving past that. Coming into the new millennium, we can't forget our elders". His music certainly comes from the hip-hop culture that he grew up in, but also comes from an understanding of his history. Here is an example of lyrics from the song "For Women".
I got off the 2 train in Brooklyn on my way to a session
Said let me help this woman up the stairs before I get to steppin'
We got in a conversation she said she a 107
Just her presence was a blessing and her essence was a lesson
She had her head wrapped
And long dreads that peeked out the back
Like antenna to help her get a sense of where she was at, imagine that
Livin' a century, the strength of her memories
Felt like an angel had been sent to me
She lived from nigger to colored to Negro to black
To Afro then African American and right back to nigger
You figure she'd be bitter in the twilight
But she alright, cuz she done seen the circle of life
This is a perspective that is absent in virtually all of rap music today - or at least the music that is played on television. At this point I had not heard much of Mos Def. I went surfing on the Internet again and found out Mos Def and Talib Kweli had an album called Black Star. Again, I proceeded to Napster and downloaded tracks 1-13. Rapper KRS-One had an album Ghetto Music: The Blueprint of Hip-Hop, and rapper Jay-Z had made an album entitled The Blueprint; however, Mos Def and Talib Kweli's Black Star should be considered the blueprint - it is simply the best rap album of all time and maybe one of the only rap albums that should be respected by other genres. They write lyrics as meaningful as Bob Dylan or Bob Marley, and in the December 2005 issue of JAZZIZ Magazine, Mos Def is proclaimed to be "the birth of the brand new cool". He is simply the most creative person that has come out of the hip-hop culture.
Besides Mos Def and Talib Kweli, the only other rap music I still listen to is Rage Against the Machine, the only truly successful rock/rap group. They were influenced by the rap groups Public Enemy and the Beastie Boys and the rock groups Living Colour and The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Rage Against the Machine combines hard rock music and political rap lyrics to create the most in-your-face music I have ever heard. The group includes Zack de la Rocha (vocalist), Tom Morello (guitarist), Brad Wilk (drummer) and Tim Bob (bassist). They formed as a group in 1991 in Los Angles, California and released the self-titled debut in 1992. They immediately gained recognition and became one of the most influential bands on the 1990s. Their second album Evil Empire was released in 1996. My brother played it constantly. I hated it. Their last group effort was in 1999 with The Battle of Los Angeles (All Music Guide). Supposedly they broke up because of Zack del la Rocha's big ego. Again, I was stuck watching music on television and was scarred of listening to music with guitars. Although Zack de la Rocha is as good as any rapper there has been, I did not started listening the Rage Against the Machine until my junior year of college.
posted by Garrett Kennedy at 2:04 AM
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