Some day you'll remember me
And picture my face
Some day you may smile at me
And I'll walk away
~"Picture My Face", Teenage Head
Anyone who has read anything I've written for any length of time knows that I am a big fan of Rock n' Roll music. It's no secret, and I make no apologies. The genre itself is wide encompassing, a sped up version of the Blues tied with the heart of Country music makes it, in my clearly expert opinion, the greatest of the "genres" in regards to music. While you might pick and parse after that as to which subgenre of the genre you prefer (hey, it happens with writing all the time!), if you are a male you probably like at least some Rock music. It is, after all, the music meant for guys.
However, much like everything else over the course of the 20th century, it was torn apart by hedonists and subversives until all that remained of it were local covers bands and quietly monitored pages on Bandcamp and YouTube. After half a century in the sun, Rock has more or less died and been left in music purgatory aside Jazz and Classical. That's probably where it will stay for a long time before some distant generation attempts a revival divorced from our modern concerns of trends and empty gimmicks.
All that is to say that part of the reason the genre died is because it detached from its roots. Let's be honest, by the end of the '00s, what was actually left to listen to? No new bands were coming up and the old ones were either quietly quitting or running out of steam. Meanwhile subgenre specific ones basically left to their own scenes and kept to themselves, shrinking their own appeal in the process. No more would Rock dare to darken the door or the mainstream or attempt to reach people. It was time for retirement and then the grave.
But where did it truly all go wrong? That's a loaded question and not really one I can go into here. Suffice to say, it took decades of bad decisions to lead it to this place. But I would posit that it didn't just make a bad turn. It deliberately fractured itself long ago and now we are finally seeing the results of the choice to do just that.
You can argue all you want about where Rock went after the 1950s, it's still a controversial subject all these years later, after all, but one thing that can't be denied is as soon as the 1960s hit there was a division set down that split the genre. Much of this was caused by advertising campaigns that stretched all the way until the 1990s, determined to divide the genre up and create fanatics that would forever buy the Good Genre's products. This ridiculous red vs blue team war went on as far as the '00s internet on old message boards. Your band sucks, your genre sucks, buy Geffen's new Nirvana best of and rub it in the face of those hair metal losers!
All of that first began in the 1960s. The record companies learned much from Elvis and all wanted their own cash cow artist. What better way to do that then create entire ecosystems around them? You can even name a movement after these groups and label anything outside of it uncool and unworthy to be listened to. And you want to be cool don't you? Being rebellious is cool, just ask our spokesman before he tells you to give us your money. Just ask the Beach Boys how tough such a climate was to navigate in back then. Many garage bands that would have hit in the 1950s, as a result, never had a chance. Many never left the garage.
Regardless, that is where much of the division in the industry originated.
Not long after that era, all these manmade subgenre icebergs would slowly drift away from each other on their own paths, never to reunite again. What this meant was that these newly formed subgenres could only iterate on themselves to diminishing returns until . . . well, until we have the dead genre we have today. There isn't much else to see if you only want to look at yourself in the mirror. And that's what Rock became. That's what just about all the genres became.
I maintain that the only way Rock will ever return is when the subgenres are finally destroyed and bands are free to meld their sound with whatever they want and bring back the freedom that defined the sound to begin with. These small exclusive clubs of hipsters with outdated dress are not what music was made for. This won't happen as long as stodgy scene kids (adults now) sneer at the wrong song structures and fashion choices. It really shows how weird and outdated this is when modern kids will listen to anything regardless of lame scene kid crap from the past, but I digress. Nothing will change until they are in charge of this and impose their own rules.
All that is to say that Rock music started as party music, first and foremost. You might think that odd if you look at the likes of Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly at the start versus Kurt Cobain and Jack White and where the genre ended, but it's not as odd as you think. This is still the same genre, and that is because all four of them are writing about the same things from different perspectives in different ways. This is how wide and versatile the genre once was. In order to explain what that means, we have to define just what Rock is and isn't.
Despite the record company astroturfing, Rock n' Roll is not about rebellion, trends, saving the world, Satan, nihilism, politics, or hedonism. As I've said before, if your lyrics can be changed to being about bananas and the song remains the same otherwise then the lyrical content is meaningless. A lyric as a weapon is bad art, because Rock music is not about demonizing enemies--deliberately making enemies implies the opposite of connection and, therefore, art. It is about the opposite of what advertising conglomerates of have sold you for decades. Rock n' Roll is about suffering, and suffering starts with the self and moves outward both for release and connection.
So what does all this nonsense have to do with party music? I am glad you asked that, because this is the key to understanding Rock n' Roll that many missed back in the day when trying to ban it. The entire purpose of Rock music as a man's genre is to mock your problems as nothing and dance the night away like they don't matter, because you will get beyond them. Not only can you get beyond them, but so can your listeners.
It is an extension on both Country and Blues, genres focusing on expelling the inner turmoil and pain by transforming it into a passionate piece of art, showing just how strong the human spirit can be even under the crushing inner pain of suffering. Rock music instead translates that into active energy, like going for a run at the end of a long and stressful day. Dancing is meant to be the social release, and how better to do that then among a community? There is nothing evil here.
This is where the genre begins, and what defines it from all the others:
All of this is to put into context the subject I wish to talk about today. In the mid-70s, there was a group of high school kids in Hamilton, Ontario, who loved music. One day they formed a band, not just any band, but one that wanted to go back to that energy and spirit of those early days of Rock before it became the mess it was by the early 1970s. So they decided to follow after their heroes the New York Dolls and formed a Rock n' Roll band, They called themselves Teenage Head, after the classic Flamin' Groovies song and album, and the rest is history.
Of course, "history" is relative. The chances you have heard of this obscure Canadian bands, never even mind heard their music, is probably thin. They never became world famous, and I'm fairly certain they never even toured overseas. Nonetheless, they were a very influential band for a lot of people despite the fact they never broke out big, even in their home country. They were just another garage band played by the record companies trying to set trends.
That said, the exemplify today's topic.
The above video at the top of this post, Picture My Face, is a documentary about the band, how they started, how they almost broke out, how misfortune knocked them aside, and how they struggled on for over forty years afterwards despite little more than their local community and nearby areas keeping them afloat. Despite it all, they survived.
As strange as it is to say, this is probably where most bands should stay to get themselves grounded and focused on the entertainer aspect of their job. On the other hand, the 1970s and 1980s were Rock music's commercial peak, so it was probably not on their minds at the time. Just think of how many bands you never heard because a stodgy record exec decided you shouldn't. I'm sure there are countless numbers of them.
I'm a monster
Got a revved-up teenage head
Teenage monster
California born and bred
Half a boy and half a man
I'm half at sea and half on land, oh my
Bye-bye
~ "Teenage Head", the Flamin' Groovies
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| The classic lineup from L to R: Nick, Gord, Stephen, and Frankie |
A large part of the documentary centers on guitarist Gord Lewis' long-lasting depression over the death of his best friend and their singer, Frankie "Venom" Kerr, back in 2008. This was filmed almost a decade after that, and the feeling of loss punctuates the entire affair. It is difficult to play party music when there is nothing to celebrate, isn't it? Well, that is the thesis statement of the documentary. What exactly do Rock bands exist to do?
Rock bands, believe it or not, rely on brotherhood bonds to get by. It is that undefinable chemistry between them that creates the art they make and it defines their relationship with the audience. There is a reason when I focus on bands that I focus on lineups first and foremost, because each member of the band is indispensable for it sounding as it does. It is that combination of personalities that come together as a whole that transcends themselves.
Perhaps this is how Rock music mistakenly became a religion for so many throughout the 1960s into the '80s before bottoming out in nihilism in the 1990s and irony in the '00s. So much of this chemistry and mastery over the form gave the wrong impression about how these were golden gods not to be trifled with ("Clapton is god" being a very famous example) instead of a group of normal guys making art because it is how they can connect with their audience to reach higher things. At some point, the genre became a false idol instead of what it was.
And that sort of mentality never ends well. In fact, it is what eventually ended up killing the genre, in the end. They all bought into the record company hype instead of the reality.
Regardless, fraternity and brotherhood is the main appeal of a band, not superstardom, drugs, or women. Teenage Head seems to have had to learn that themselves through experience, hardship, and, yes, suffering.
There is a very striking scene where Gord Lewis' brother is interviewed, him a Roman Catholic priest, and his insight is very keen on both the genre and his brother. Though they chose different paths, in many ways they are two sides of the same coin. Rock n' Roll is suffering, embracing it, overcoming it, and looking forward to what comes next. We're going to make it, bros. Always remember that you can get up again.
Rock is about showing how deep your darkness is and how trivial it still is in the end because there is always a way out. You might be infected, but there is a cure. You just have to keep striving for it.
It is no coincidence that the genre came out of Christianity, just like its parents Blues and Country did, because at the end of the day Rock is a celebration of life and joy over the inevitable defeat of darkness. We need levity and introspection to get by, but we need them both. This is what critics on each side of the old debate over the genre miss entirely. It's not about cliques or fashions, and it never really was. To quote a hoary old line, it actually is about the music, man.
Unfortunately, the story of Teenage Head contains more tragedy. Since the documentary was filmed, Gord Lewis was murdered in his home, leaving only one member of the original band left standing. They fought long and hard, and the band is still going on with friends that have been there for ages, which is a credit to their resilience even to this day. I would hope the name lives on as a message of triumph--the core point of the entire genre in the first place.
On the flip side, thanks to the internet and much easier visibility for music away from the payola practices of radio, the band has been slowly rediscovered over the years. Now that people can hear what they're missing, a lot of older groups have had a bit of second wind in this new climate. Rediscovery of the band's first two albums in particular show a group destined for great things and, though they never got there in this life, there is hope that they will in the one to come. It's hard to listen to them and not crack a smile that they can see something we hope to see ourselves. Regardless, their sound is timeless in a way it wasn't at the time because they strove to connect to a tradition older than they were before anything else. And they succeeded.
While I can recommend the band to any fans of the genre, the documentary too, the wider point today was to discuss just what the genre itself is capable of and why it exists in the first place. Without that levity, without that joy, without that reminder of lightheartedness, we would be left stranded in the dark with no bearings to even begin to look for a way out. There is more to strive for than just the next paycheck or a bit more fame. At the end of the day, that doesn't really matter much at all.
There is a lot more beyond all of this, and what makes humans great is that we implicitly know that there is. That is what keeps us going.
It is why we will always keep getting back up.
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