Rock and Roll – An Xperience Column

Rock and Roll – An Xperience Column – by Rob Skane.

Rock n’ roll is a vicious game – if you know, you know. But we love it. Playing it, listening to it, arguing about it and even dreaming of it. No lie, not too long ago I had a dream that I was onstage just about to play guitar with Bruce Springsteen. This was 1978 Bruce. 3 hours and 35 minutes Bruce. All duded up for Saturday night Bruce. Of course, I asked if we could play the ‘Detroit Medley’ – I mean, who wouldn’t want to play that one with the Boss? I was even hoping he was going to include me in one of his stage raps too, you know – ‘… and it was me and Rob, on the boardwalk – and I said, hey Rob!! You wanna… you wanna go get a cheese sandwich?’ Anyway, my dream was destroyed when I woke up. But isn’t that always the case?

Rock n’ roll flows from instinct, not intellect. The crazy rhythms tear your soul.  Lyrics somehow drip into your subconscious, and you don’t even know if they’re the right ones or not. It doesn’t matter – they’re there. One of my favorite misheard lyrics came from a friend of mine. He heard KISS sing ‘…I wanna rock and roll all night, and probably every day…’  – I mean, it kinda makes sense when you think about it, right? ‘Look, we’ll rock all night, but, dudes, I work in the morning… so, I can’t do every day – I mean I probably can. I gotta find out though, I’ll let you know.’ And while the wrong lyrics are often much cooler than the right ones, that typically doesn’t work with guitar chords, and I speak from experience…

Rock n’ roll will make you stand in line in the dead of a Northeastern winter hoping to get concert tickets. Sometimes you got them, other times it was ‘that’s it, go home,’ the show just sold out. Stop shivering and get the hell out of here. That happened to a lot of us back in the dark ages of paper tickets, cash money and 8-track tapes. But we were committed, man – we kept on truckin’. We lived it and breathed it. The music hit something inside us that we didn’t even know we had. So, we stood in line for the only bands that mattered – to us. And that was about all we stood in line for when we were young, loud and snotty.

Rock n’ roll and the love thereof, can make you do some crazy things. Like start a band. Write songs. Fall in love with the fantasy of making a difference. So you play gigs in one toilet bowl rock n’ roll club after another. Here we are, where are we? And if the natives were restless enough, you might have had a place to lay your weary head after some extracurricular activity. Otherwise, you slept in the van – if you had one. Motel?! We’re driving it!

Rock n’ roll has dictated fashion. We have all dressed like our heroes and we know it. Did I track down a white denim jacket because I saw how cool Paul Westerberg looked in his? I did. Did I look cool in mine? I did not – not even close. I looked like I should have been working the counter at Baskin-Robbins. Black Jeans, skinny ties, Doc Martens and so it goes. They looked cool onstage and we thought we looked cool in the crowd. Win-win? Not always, kids. But it was all part of our rock n’ roll fantasy.

Rock n’ roll ain’t noise pollution, it never forgets and we like it, like it – yes, we do.

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