(Personal reflections inspired by Who songs)
Song: “Sister Disco”
Album: Who Are You
Release Date: August
25, 1978 (hey, that was my 16th birthday)
My freshman orientation at North Adams State College (now the
Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts) in the summer of 1980 included a concert
night in the school gymnasium. The bands
sharing the bill that evening were The Fools and The Blushing Brides. The Fools were a local Boston party band who,
truth be known, were hard to take seriously (the band name alone was enough to
lower that bar, although I have to say I have always been impressed with their
song “Life Sucks…..Then You Die”, because of a reverse-course from the song title
in the final take home message of the lyrics).
The Blushing Brides were a newly-formed Rolling Stones tribute band from
Canada (a very good one I might add) who went on to write music of their own.
The Fools performed first. Included
in their set was their hit of the day, “Psycho Chicken”, a parody of the
Talking Heads “Psycho Killer”. When the
Blushing Brides hit the stage afterward, the first thing out of lead singer
Maurice Raymond’s mouth before launching into song was “Psycho Chicken? What the fuck?” It was clear the Blushing Brides were not
impressed with the band that preceded them.
These Canadians obviously took Rock and Roll very seriously and found it
sacrilegious that The Fools appeared to be goofing on that spirit.
I agreed with the sentiment, but disagreed with such a public
pronouncement of it. Even at the age of
17 I knew this; that rock bands shouldn’t shit on each other, particularly when
they are performing together. It’s an
unwritten rule or something isn’t it?
And so, the Blushing Brides were honoring one of Rock’s creeds, that
being the underlying seriousness of its message, but at the same time they were
breaking another; that being the homage one act should pay to a fellow
Rock-music performer. These guys were young though, so perhaps should be given
some slack for being just out of the gate in 1980. They were still learning the ropes and it’s the
type of slip that I believe the Blushing Brides would not make if the two bands
were to perform together today (both are still active). * Side Note: In hindsight, the cat was
already out of the bag with the Fools goofing on the Talking Heads with their
parody. The Blushing Brides were
compounding the problem by disparaging The Fools, but from this perspective it
seems as if they were somewhat justified.
I lead off with this story to set the ground rules for this entry;
that being the mentality that goes into being a Rock and Roll purist. There was a reason why Rock music was
considered a threat to the establishment when it was first rolled out in the
1950s by the likes of Ray Charles, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, and Buddy
Holly. These performers and their
audience came out of left field but were insisting that they be taken
seriously. This was a different ballgame
from many of music’s popular genera’s of the then-recent past, which evolved
out of the main stream, such as Big Band, Swing and Jazz. Rock music evolved out of black southern Blues
and the ‘subversive’ beatnik Folk scene.
The big difference between Rock and where it came from was that Rock was
popular with youth culture and so could be marketed (although that part took a
while for the big guns to figure out). This
made the new genre a bit more formidable (and scarier to the powers that be).
The seriousness of how much the Rock purist believed in the art
form cannot be understated. Rock was Astral Weeks and What’s Going On. It was Blood on the Tracks, The River, London
Calling, All Things Must Pass, Exile on Main Street, My Aim Is True and Who Are
You. It was an endless parade of
truth in musical form. Pete Townshend,
who pontificated early and often on the subject of the seriousness of Rock, once
made an attempt to define the genera in an article he wrote for the British
magazine NME in 1977: "If it screams for truth rather than help, if
it commits itself with a courage it can't be sure it really has, if it stands
up and admits that something is wrong but doesn't insist on blood, then its
rock and roll." He would soon after
put this sentiment to music and lyrics in the Who Are You classic “Sister Disco”.
In many ways “Sister Disco” is the quintessential Who song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsilznEYQHs), which is probably why it’s one of Roger Daltrey’s
favorites. Everyone steps to the plate
at one point or another. John
Entwistle’s bass lines are wonderfully melodic throughout the complex 3-part
bridge (starting with Pete Townshend’s lead singing contribution at 1:14 of the
attached, continuing with an instrumental portion – a rare opportunity to hear John
and Pete playing in identical note progression, and concluding with a Daltrey
lead stanza which begins at 2:10). Keith
Moon’s drumming belies the rock-media criticism at the time of his substandard contribution
to the overall sound of the band (he would die soon after the album’s release from
the cumulative effect of long-term self-abuse, and so I see the criticism as reaction
rather than original thought). Roger
Daltrey sounds passionate and supremely confident from start to finish. The synthesizer, absent in the band’s
previous effort Who By Numbers, is
intense. And Pete Townshend’s
acoustic-guitar playing is extremely soulful, particularly at the end of the
song (more on that later).
But the core drive-home messages to “Sister Disco” are in the
lyrics; a fictional narrative about a dying “Disco” in her hospital bed and the
loyal “Rock” coming to visit and comfort her.
After all, the year was 1978, and disco was fading fast. As “Sister Disco” unfolds, the Rock character
is banged up, but reinvigorated after a long period of battle with this
adversary, Disco. Rock steps out of the
hospital into the cold, snowy air; adhesive tape on a bruised nose. But Rock has survived. The imagery is fantastic, and it gets better
with that aforementioned Townshend-sung bridge:
“Bye, goodbye Sister Disco,
now I go
I go where the music fits my soul
And I, I will never let go, I’ll never
let go
‘Til the echo of the street fight
has dissolved”
That last line says it all.
Pete Townshend is stating that Rock serves a purpose: To be there for the lonely and afflicted
until the day that the world is at peace with itself. Heady stuff!
Yes, we can have fun in the process and marvel in the music when it’s
done right. But for the musicians and
their audience, the more important part of it all is the deeper insights into
the meaning of life (and our role in it) that can be conjured up as we listen, reflect,
and contemplate. The lyrics in “Sister
Disco” continue and point out that Rock will “choose nightmares and cold stormy seas” over serenity until all_of_us can be serene. The song concludes by pointing out that,
because Rock has chosen the just path forward, Disco has no choice but to jump
off its sinking ship and onto the Rock lifeboat to join the cause (“I’ve got you all looking out through my
eyes, my feet are a prayer”).
It was not easy to articulate in 1978 for a young 16 year old, but
Disco represented something somewhat sinister to me and my friends. Disco wasn’t a threat of quality; it was a
threat of non-quality. It was the
brain-as-mush, creativity-deprived purple dinosaur shitting in the tree-lined heart
of soulful Sesame Street. Disco was the
Orwellian threat of conformity. Here’s
another analogy: If Rock is personified in any character in a movie it is that
of the Jack Nicholson character “Mac” McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Disco was “Mac” at the end; an
electroshocked shell of himself. Disco
was where the candy-assed Barry Manilow compromised halfwit turned to for
entertainment. Disco Sucked! * Side Note: For anyone offended, I channeled my 16 year old self for that last sentence.
Things were taken a bit far in Chicago’s Comiskey Park in 1979 on “Disco
Demolition Night”, a riotous evening that centered on kids bringing their Disco
records to the Park and piling them up for one big explosion. It all got somewhat out of hand which gives
this event a small historical footnote of infamy. But the real story is the fact of why this
event even took place. For any future
generation to come upon this tidbit of a 70s event and try to understand will
be quite bizarre for them unless they put it all into a proper context. Rock and its serious message had been
threatened by this misguided interloper.
Disco was a distraction from the focus and momentum of a youth culture
heading in an empathetic and altruistic direction, guided at least in part by
Rock and Roll. It would take some time to
right the ship.
The end of “Sister Disco” is my favorite part of the song: A rare Pete Townshend guitar solo (for a Who
record), done in acoustic fashion over a 40 second span. This is the drive home point, no lyrics
needed. It’s a sprinkle of soul dust at
the end of a very well-crafted arrangement:
A gift to the rock purist who knows the deep recesses of the heart when
he hears it.
- Pete
No comments:
Post a Comment