Listening to modern-day rock music means listening to musical references from yesteryear. Rock music has a long history stretching back to 1950s rock and roll, which was in turn influenced by blues, country music, gospel, and African American culture. And as much as these early styles of music are still present in modern rock, it’s music from the late 1960s and the 1970s that has had a stronger, more palpable influence on current rock bands.

One of the most obvious similarities between current rock bands and rock bands from the 60s and 70s is the focus on guitar. The guitar has been a central element of rock music since it replaced the piano as the core instrument of 50s rock and roll, but it was in the 60s and 70s that guitar really experienced its Golden Age of innovation. In this period, the guitar became more than just the central element of the band; it became the heart and soul of rock. Virtuosity and guitar soloing reached new levels with the likes of Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, and Jeff Beck.

Guitar innovations by companies such as Gibson, Fender, and Marshall created a classic sound that has continued to define good guitar tone. If anything, the progress of electric guitar technology over the last few decades has often taken the guitar away from this classic sound to something more manufactured, digital, and artificial.

Something which blatantly demonstrates the importance and influence of 60s and 70s rock music on today’s artists is the many revival acts that currently fill the airwaves. The garage rock revival of the early 2000s brought us bands such as The Strokes and The White Stripes — bands which are heavily influenced by musical styles that have already come and gone. Post-punk revival bands such as The Killers and Franz Ferdinand also demonstrate how older genres have influenced the current state of rock. And while revival bands have built onto 60s and 70s rock in new ways, their reference to this Golden Age is so strong and obvious that there is no alternative but to call them “revival bands”.

Perhaps the greatest difference between modern rock bands and the bands of the 60s and 70s is that while there is still a strong focus on the guitar, these days there is much less focus on virtuosity and soloing. Besides hard rock and heavy metal bands, the focus of modern rock music has largely been on creating short, catchy, distorted, power-chord-based music. While it’s true that the current state of rock music is a varied thing, the guitar virtuosity of the 60s and 70s is not matched by many of today’s artists, and most artists and audiences don’t seem to be interested in this happening.

One last thing to remember is that many great bands from the 1960s and 70s are still active and in the charts today. Consider The Who, Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, Rush, Iggy Pop, and The Rolling Stones. The longevity of these bands isn’t surprising considering their classic sounds, which are highly relevant even today.

- Axel

And what a life he has lived so far. They say every woman wants him and every man wants to be him. I don’t know why he’s an ugly son of a bitch. Nevertheless, he has lived an extraordinary life and it was of great interest to me to get it all from the horse’s mouth as he so eloquently writes on the back cover of his book, “This is the life. Believe it or not I haven’t forgotten any of it…..”

I find it quite remarkable that Keith Richards had such a normal upbringing, in such a normal loving family, to whom he pays tribute many times throughout his autobiography. In fact he opens and closes the book writing about his family. Actually, I found the chapters about his family quite boring to read as I wanted to get to the good stuff but I think the reader has to understand that Keef was a normal boy raised by good normal people in a normal environment. So what happened to him?

Keef lets it all hang out in this  biographical work. There are no holds barred. I must say that his writing style leaves a lot to be desired albeit he had a ghost writer. Keef writes the way he talks; he rambles, he gets off track as if he was having a conversation. This makes the book slightly harder to read but there is so much juicy stuff in there and so many answers to so many questions that although I found myself getting bogged down on occasion, I read on with anticipation. One of the interesting quirks to his writing was using cameo authors; from his son Marlon to Ronnie Wood to Anita Pallenberg and even Mariane Faithfull recounting little stories that Keef says they could remember better than himself.

Keef does provide a lot of detail: From the drug taking to smuggling his stash between countries and also about being busted several times it’s all in there. The truth about Brian Jones, the problems between he and Mick Jagger and even what really happened when he fell out of the palm tree in Fiji last year, its all in the book.

What interested me the most were his thoughts on song writing: According to Keef, “Great songs write themselves. You’re just being led by the nose, or the ears. The skill is not to interfere with it too much. Ignore intelligence, ignore everything; just follow where it takes you. You really have no say in it, and suddenly there it is.” And this coming from one of the most prolific song writers in history.

The chronology of the autobiography once the Stones start recording is based on the albums. A lot of time is spent writing about “Exile on Main Street” where the stones were recording in the basement of Keith’s house in France. This is where he developed many of his ideas on recording which is a holistic approach. Keith likes to record the whole band together as if they were performing live rather than one instrument at a time. He likes to record the sound of the room and the vibe that the musicians generate together. According to Keef “…. This idea of separation is the total antithesis of rock and roll….. It’s the sound they make together not seperated. This mythical bullshit about stereo and high tech and Dolby, it’s just totally against the whole grain of what music should be…… You can’t get these indefinable things by stripping it apart. The enthusiasm, the spirit, the soul, whatever you want to call it, where’s the microphone for that.”

Keef also goes into great detail about the writing of several songs off each of the albums. He discusses the inspiration for the song and how Mick and he collaborated to put it down. And the tunings. Known for his alternate tunings, Keef discusses these different tunings and the songs that were written and played with such tunings in great depth. He even writes that in some tunings he removes the lower ‘E’ string and just uses five strings on the guitar.

It’s all in there, pretty much everything you wanted to know about the Stones but were too afraid to ask. If you are a fan of the Rolling Stones or a rock ‘n roll history buff this book is a must read. Along with all the information listed above plus tons more there are heaps of photos, song lyrics and even Keef’s recipe for bangers and mash!

So if you haven’t read it yet, do yourself a favor. It’s just been released in paperback so you can pick yourself up a cheap copy.

Axel.

The history of rock music is a rich and complex thing. Even the origins of the rock genre are not entirely clear-cut, and the number of sub-genres (and sub-genres of sub-genres) that have developed since the 1950s “Rock and Roll” era deserve a whole series of encyclopedias.

One uncontested fact is that rock and roll evolved in the late 1940s in America, and that it has roots in blues, gospel music, country music, and African American culture. The genre seems to have developed as a result of white and black communities living in closer proximity to each other, which meant they were hearing each others music. This sparked the fermentation period of rock and roll, as it drew influences from older American genres of music to form a new, original, and immediate musical expression for the America of the 1950s.

Some of the first rock and roll records include Bill Haley’s “Rock Around The Clock” in 1954, and Elvis’ “That’s All Right (Mama)” the same year. And while the piano was the central and most important instrument in early rock songs, with the invention of the electric guitar and amplifier, the guitar soon became the most essential instrument for rock bands. Guitarists such as Chuck Berry, Link Wray, and Scotty Moore were especially important early rock and roll guitarists who developed the rock guitar style.

The rock and roll genre hit Britain hard in the late 50s and early 60s, which resulted in the formation of important British bands such as The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, who both broke into the American mainstream soon afterwards.

The arrival of Beatlemania in turn influenced what is often called the “Golden Age of Rock Music”, as important pop, folk, psychedelic, and glam rock bands emerged during the mid-60s to mid-70s.  Led Zeppelin, Neil Young, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, and David Bowie all changed the face of rock music forever. During this period, rock music was becoming more and more varied, and rock genres continued to develop into more complex and intense forms of music. Most importantly, there was a continued focus on playing the electric guitar in innovative and exciting ways.

During the 1970s, bands like Aerosmith, AC/DC, and Led Zeppelin continued to create increasingly aggressive and guitar-focused music with the development of hard rock and heavy metal. These types of rock bands started to sell out the largest venues, which lead to the coining of the term “Arena Rock”.

Punk rock hit in the mid- to late-70s with bands such as the Sex Pistols and The Clash, while the 80s brought us more heavy metal bands (such as Iron Maiden and Motorhead), glam metal acts (Motley Crue, Queen), and alternative rock (REM, The Smiths, The Cure).

Grunge was perhaps the most significant development of 90s rock, with bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden topping the charts. Later in the decade genre-mixing bands such as Green Day and The Offspring (pop-punk), Silverchair and Bush (post-grunge), and Rage Against the Machine and Korn (nu-metal/rap-rock) developed the rock genre in their own unique ways.

The 2000s have seen the revival of rock genres such as garage rock (The White Stripes, The Vines), post-punk (The Killers, Franz Ferdinand), and the development of metal genres with bands such as Trivium and Wolfmother.

The future of rock music will likely see many more genre revivals and genre-mixing, but we can only hope that rock bands of the future can equal the creative genius of earlier rock acts such as Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and other original groups which changed the course of rock music forever.

- Axel