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Box 22LL NOFTEN IN ERROR - NEVER IN DOT]BT' CA 94L22February 1986 Happy Valent ine 's Day

ROOTS' ROCK' BROADWAY: ROCK AND ROLLTS VAUDEVfLLE CONNECTION

F i rs t came b lack - t i e mus ic awards , t hen came the r rHa l l o f Famer r . Wha t rsnext for rock and ro11 - prof i t -shar ing p lans and rnajor medica l? Theanachronis t ic leg i t inat ion of rock and ro11 is par t icu lar ly d is tastefu l i fonly for one detai l the ponpous rrRootsrr styled farni ly-tree which purposelyoverLooks rockrs major der ivat ive source - the Broadway-Vaudevi l leconnect ion.Rock academicians would have us believe that R&R was sired by a soul-countryhybridization from which one can chart every evolutionary form of rock/pop.This carbon- I4 analys is , a t best , , re f lects only the sound of rock and ro11not the sp i r i t . Rockrs pure ly Amer ican essence l ies much deeper than thegrooves of a 45 rpm s ing le i t is rooted in the medic ine show nenta l i tythat originally spawned Vaudevil le and eventually gave us BroadwayI f you don r t be l i eve us l ook a t t he ca ree r o f E l v i s P res ley whosedevelopment and explo i ta t ion para l le led per fect ly the growth and decadenceo f A rne r i can mus ica l t hea te r . I t r s no acc iden t t ha t E l v i s r success h inged onthe promot ional ab i l i t ies of Colonel Tom, an ex-Carny hawker who knew what

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FF,OM th6 EditorDo You Like Scratchin? Compact disc fans who mi€sthe r fv in tage soundrr o f o Id rock and. lazz mater ia lcan now f i l l the gap wi th Scratch e f f iss areverse Dolby process that adds noise to any CDperformance. Avai lab1e now as a s tand-a lonecomponent coming soon scratch & Hiss for cD portaTlEEi\You nay have thought Rik1is was getting recklels vrhen fre !u:-fea off thel i " & Phi l (P ia zadora wi th the Fhi lha i rnonic) Lp, but ="" i " " " - iepor t thather next outing is even more drastic a teaminf with John r,ydo'ntentat ive ly t i t led Pia & PiL. AIso upconing for the mul t i - ta iented Ms. p.country- rock LP wi th Ni ls Lofgren and Steve St i l ls (p ia & Ni ls & s t i l ls )I f you enjoyed our feature ar t ic le [Roots, Rock, Broadway: R&Rrs vaudevi l leHer i tagel , you-n ight be in terested in the soon- to-be-re leased min i - text ,Therers No Business L ike No Business a chronology of the businessproblems of many great music s tars inc lud ing essayl on Chuck Berryrs taxproblems, Spr ingsteenrs Laure l Canyon d ispuie and the bat t le over theBuf fa lo Spr ingf ie ld t i t le . Expect an ear ly fa I1 re lease fo l lowino rhr :A&Rrs re-publ icat ion of The New pr ivacy: par t Two.

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[Broadway-Vaudevil le] Continued from page 1

the Amer ican publ ic reaI Iy wanted a new Midway d isp lay a man, ha l f -b lackand hal f -whi te who could s ing and dance. And just as musica l theaterprogressed f rom t ravel ing-show to vaudevi l te , so d id Elv is t career , movingfrorn the Carny-style R&R tours into the babes and back-beat musicals of thes ix t ies. From th is form of mot ion p ic ture vaudevi l le ( la ter rev ived byDavid Lee Roth) , E lv is evolved to an emulat ion of the Broadway stage in h iscomeback TV specia ls , us ing synchronized dance rout ines and f ixed sets . Inthe f ina l s tages of h is career , E lv is moved in to the h i -end tack of Amer icantheaterrs most excessive and decadent form of musica l product ion - Vegassyndrome.American Musical Theater not only created the format for rock and ro11, i ten larged rockrs potent ia l v is tas by prov id ing a market ing s t rategy thatbrought rock f rom a s ing les-or iented business to an LP-or iented business andeventual ly to a v ideo-nusica l bus iness.The f irst step - rnoving rock from singles to LPs was accomplished by twosix t ies rnus ica l gurus Cl ive Davis and the Beat les. Pr ior to Davis 'market j -ng s t rategies and the Beat lesr Sergeant Pepper , rock LPs wereinconsis tent se l lers . At best , a buyer could expect one h i t and 11 losers.The doninat ing forces on the LP sales char ts were Broadway cast a lbums orpop sj-ngers who drew from the Broadway stage- LPs which sustained thernselvesover two s ides because of a themat ic and drarnat ic consis tency of therna te r i a l .Cl ive Davisr approach at CBS bel ied an understanding of th is phenomenon. Byencouraging uni f ied cover ar t tB ig Brother and the Hold ing Conpanyl ,d rama-s ty led l y r i c w r i t e rs Ipau1 s imon , Bob Dy lan , Ne i l D iamond ] ,p i t -orchestra rock arrangements fBtood, Sweat & Tears, Chicago] , as wel l asproper LP use and p lacement of mater ia l , Davis brought a themat icv isual izat ion to rock and ro11 that was in i t ia l ly n isconstrued as s imply av isual /audio backdrop for the f i rs t wave of ha l luc inat ing teenagers.The Beat les, through Sergeant Pepper , expanded on th is 'un i f ied- f ie ld tapproach to rock by adding a less-subt le Br i t ish music haI l approach - inwhichrr the wholerr [ the co l lect ion of LP tunes] became greater than the par tsIany pa r t i cu la r h i t s i ng le ] .The impact of Davis and the Beatles is evident, not only in the aberrantrock-opera mental i ty, but more properly in the thernatic/dramaticprerequisite for signing any new art ist and creating any new work. Can sheseIl a song? Can he dance? Wil l they look good on the stage and screen? Theemergence of video is proving the prophecy - rock is sirnply another form ofmusica l theater . L ike Broadway and Vaudevi l le i t seI ls best when the dancersare sexy, the dance numbers are wel l choreographed, the songs te l l a s tory ,and the s inger has credib i l i ty .Every dev iat ion of rock music fo l lows th is path Pop/Rock a1a Madonna is ad i rect der ivat ive of Broadway (and i f you donr t be l ieve us, compareMadonnars L ive Vi rg in Tour wi th any one-woman Broadway showpiece) . HeavyMeta l is s t ra ight theater ( i t ts no wonder Twisted Sis ter covered Leader ofthe Pack the legendary Shadow Morton conceived of the tune as a straightp iece of rock drama). Even v ideo rockabi l ly rev iva l is t ,s l ike the Straycatsresemble the Broadway tack of Grease more than the Menphis grit of CarlPerk ins.This cu l tura l rev is ion ism and academic pre-occupat ion wi th soc io log ica l rockroots is symptomatic of the mega-rock j-ndustryts deep seated insecurity andunwi l l ingness to acknowledge the crass loveableness of rock and ro11. r t isnot a cross-pol l inat ion of musica l forms that gave us rock. The sound ismerely symptomat ic of the d isease. Teens in the mid- f i f t ies s imply wanted anew form of musica l theater . From these shamanist rnedic ine-show or ig ins,rock and ro11 was born.

Have arr loverr problen that rs re la ted tothe Spring release of WHERE DO I PLUGWORLD, a specia l Valent iners Day bonus

consumer electronics? Get ready forIN - UNDERSTANDING LOVE IN A HI-TECH

for A&R Readers. Coming Soon.

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