A tribute to the 70s

Summer concert season is in full swing. It seems like every village, town and park is hosting a free outdoor concert. Sitting under the summer sky, usually around sunset, listening to music is a glorious thing. I find it just isn't summer until I've packed up my chair and cooler, fought for parking, lugged my stuff a half mile or so to the venue and plunked myself down in the summer swelter that soon turns to a cool summer night. It is a great way to commune with your neighbors - I always see someone I know - and even if I don't, we often strike up conversations with those plunked next to us.

Over the past few years, I have noted that the musical acts have shifted from predominantly local bands and specific music genres (jazz, country, etc.) to almost exclusively tribute bands. Tribute bands specialize in performing the music of a specific band or artist. They don't just cover songs, they "... aim to replicate the sound, stage presence, and image of the original act as closely as possible...they are paying homage to the original band by recreating their music and performance style." -Google AI. Oh, there is still the odd tribute to Broadway thrown in, but over the past couple of years, I have sat in the presence of the Allman Brothers (my favorite tribute band name: "The Almost Brothers"), Chicago, the Eagles, ABBA, John Denver and many more. There is the occasional Zach Brown or Taylor Swift, but the alert reader will note that the most tribute is directed towards performers from the late 60s to the mid 70s. And why wouldn't it be? With the benefit of 50 years behind us, we can see clearly now that this was the pinnacle of Rock and Roll. Both album-oriented rock, as it used to be called, and top 40.

When we were growing up during that time period, we had a sense from our parents that when it came to entertainment, nothing was quite as good as it had been. They were still making musicals, but for the most part, they paled in comparison to the heyday of Broadway with Rogers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Lowe cranking out classics. We had silly little TV shows like the Brady Bunch and Gilligan's Island, but we were still watching I Love Lucy and the Honeymooners. Movies? My parents were horrified at what was in the theaters compared to the Golden Age of Hollywood, especially for children. Willy Wonka was great, but most family fare was silly Disney movies and re-releases of old classics. It made me think that every genre went through a birth, maturation, peak and decline stage. My brother and I despaired that we seemed to catch the decline stage in most of everything.

But of course, we were only a few years away from Jaws, Star Wars, Indiana Jones and the new norm of summer blockbusters. TV would go through another golden age with more realistic shows and now classic comedies. We remember vividly when Saturday Night Live came on the air. We just didn't know at the time, we were just in a brief lull.

Music? Popular music continued to change and innovate, and new styles emerged through the early 2000s. I followed the new artists and liked many of them up until the early 2000s. That's when it more or less ceased to capture my attention. I found the music largely forgettable and the vocal styles annoying. And of course that coincided with the birth of streaming services, where you could all of a sudden listen to any song you wanted with ease. And what did I start listening to? All the songs off all the albums that sat languishing in my closet for want of a turntable. All the songs I remembered from the radio on WABC. Even some disco. And because I was mostly listening to them through headphones and not cheap speakers or the car radio, I started to appreciate how well-crafted these songs were. There was real talent there, in songwriting, vocals, musicianship and production that stood the test of time.

So was I just getting old and lamenting for the old days? No, I don't think so. Sometimes late at night, I turn to YouTube for fun and a few years ago came across the "Reaction" genre. Apparently, many young kids of all ethnicities have attracted considerable followings by listening to old songs and reacting to them. That's it. Most of the time, their commentary is what you would expect from teenagers, but it's fun to watch their genuine amazement at both the songs and the musicianship, especially at the live performances. One young man commented after watching Jimmy Page perform the Immigrant Song that he's a fan of rap music, and that's what he prefers. But he said that when he listens to a rap song, he feels like he could write and perform a rap song if he wanted to. But he couldn't even imagine playing the guitar like Jimmy Page. The same with reaction videos to 25 or 6 to 4, surely one of the greatest rock songs of all time. Most of the reactors watched the 1970 live performance at Tanglewood, where guitarist Terry Kath "...totally pummeled his Stratocaster into submission with his legendary solo..." (Strat-Forum). The reactors were blown away by the entire band - the horns, the singing, the drummer - but especially the guitar solo. One complained about the cameraman, saying that today, a guitar player would be filmed by 4 different camera angles with special effects, making it seem like you were watching something special. But here he actually was watching something truly special, and it was just a straight, no-frills film of the performance. He thought Terry Kath deserved better. Another noted that he loved watching bands performing in the 70s because it was all about the music - no special effects, no dancing, no costumes. Just music.

I went to a benefit a few weeks ago and two kids in their early 20s provided live music. They played the Allman Brothers, the Grateful Dead, Neil Young and many more. Not just their hits but their lesser-known songs. I went up to them on the break and said they seemed too young for this type of music. One said, "We grew up on this music. Our parents raised us right. There's nothing like it." So yes, I don't think they make 'em like that anymore.

Rock and Roll may be dying - according to Spotify, less than 5% of music released since 2020 was classified as Rock. But that's OK, because the classic songs are there to be rediscovered and enjoyed by generations to come. But this time, I got to experience it as it happened. Long live Rock!