It's Only Rock and Roll (Anne Stuart)

So I like rock and roll. Always have, always will. It's in my blood and bone, heart and soul, and if I'm on my deathbed and hear Otis Redding singing Try a Little Tenderness I'll get up and dance around the room. (Rock and roll being, for me, soul, r & b, hip hop, rock, and just about anything with a beat).
I watched the Grammys last week, because I keep hearing good new music that I've somehow missed. No surprises, really. I'd already loved the Dixie Chicks and the Police, and while I admire Shakira's hips and Chris Brown (was that his name?) and his ability to jump, the musical highlight was Christina Aguilera singing "This is a man's world." Always despised that song, since it came out in the dawn of feminism, but hearing it from a woman, really wailing into it, was a revelation.
But the most interesting moment for me was the end, with The Red Hot Chili Peppers. My 19 year old son and my 56 year old husband were watching with me, all of us fairly bored, until the Chili Peppers came on stage. Now, the Chili Peppers are good -- not enough to get me to buy their music but I like it when I hear it. But I watched them for a while, and said "oooh, yum, Anthony Kiedis is hot." My husband and son rolled their eyes, used to me.

So I turned to them and said, "don't you think he's hot?" and of course they both said he wasn't their type, and, not having the brains to drop it, I said, "but don't you know rock and roll is about gorgeous men shaking their asses and sex?"

And my husband and son said, "no it's not."

Ha! Of course it is. Rock and roll is about hot women singing Work with me Henry, it's about Elvis's hips, it's about Marvin Gaye's silky voice, it's about hot men in blue satin, hot men in leather, hot men in grungy t-shirts and baggy jeans. It's about sex. For women it's lust for the object of their desires and all that sex permeating the air, for men it's identifying with all that sexual power and the phallic guitar (think Prince at the Superbowl).

That doesn't demean or belittle it. It celebrates it, for the life-giving force rock and roll is. Elemental, powerful, the survival of the species. Long live rock (be it dead or alive).

Now actually I love all music -- world music, even some hip hop (I like the rhythm, the anger, the political content -- DMX and Runaway Love), techno (Aria), opera (I'm a sucker for Puccini), bluegrass, jazz, hell, even polka music. As long as it's got soul.

In my well-spent youth I saw (numerous times), the Stones, the Who, the Beatles, CCR, the Band (who changed my life), Eric Clapton, the Doors, the Stooges, the Kinks, Jethro Tull, Ike and Tina Turner, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Moby Grape, Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, Bob Dylan (every time I could), Sam and Dave, Rod Stewart (with Jeff Beck and with the Faces), the Byrds, Crosby, Stills and Nash, the Flying Burrito Brothers (God bless Gram Parsons), Fairport Convention, Silly Wizard, Steeleye Span, Richard Thompson, TM Revolution, Lyle Lovett, Bonnie Raitt, L'arc-en-ciel and a million more. No one understands the heart of rock and roll better than I do. (Many people understand it as well -- just no one better). If you want to see some of my favorites hop on over to my website (www.anne-stuart.com).

And it's all right that my husband and son don't quite get it. I won't try to enlighten them -- maybe their vision is right for them. (But they're wrong!).

So, a poll. Two part. One, is rock and roll about sex? and two, what's the best new song you've heard in the last year (I'm making it easy on you). And you can list more than one.

You know my answer. Yes, rock and roll is about sex. Best new music? For me, maybe African music (I'm just discovering it). Or emo-ish pop rock, like Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol or Collide by Howie Day.

Have at it! (Oh, and a small plug for my favorite radio station, Disorder on Sirius satellite radio. Almost every song is a revelation).