Performance

PERFORMANCE

DETROIT ROCK 'N ROLL SHOW

Showcase

The 60's was a tremendously

creative period for white rock 'n

roll as countless musicians on

both sides of the Atlantic drank

from the wellspring of Afro-Amer-

ican music--the blues, soul, rhy-

thm & blues, jazz, and the origi-

nal rock and roll of Chuck Berry,

Bo Diddley, the Coasters, the

Moonglows, et al. All of these

elements went into the music

that sparked the big rock 'n roll

boom, and it has taken about 10

years of persistent, thorough

economic exploitation of musi-

cians by the music industry to

nearly kill that creative impulse.

Very tightly-controlled record

firms, booking agencies, and con-

cert promotion companies simply

made survival impossible for most

young, developing rock 'n roll

musicians. As the number of mu-

sicians decreased, so did the quan-

tity and quality of the music.

Now those big companies real-

ly have to work at finding

some thing to sell

the  rock 'n roll fans,

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which explains why the Beatles

and the Beachboys were re-cycled

earlier this year.

In a hucksterish attempt to

re-process and re-sell the basic,

hard, high-energy,

"heavy metal"

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sound that drove fans wild a de-

cade ago, groups that can barely

hammer at their instruments (the

Ramones, the Runaways, etc.)

are signed to recording

contracts

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and given glamorous,

unworthy hypes.

But people who play

the real, original,

high energy rock 'n roll

still exist, despite poverty

and everything else.

The Motor City

Rock n' Roll

show at the

Showcase

(continued

on page

25) 

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