THE LAST REQUIEM FOR ROCK N ROLL

A song I hope we never have to play for real – THE LAST REQUIEM FOR ROCK n ROLL studio recording by Folk In The Road

No we have not quite got to the point where Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber are leading a caisson carrying the dead heart and soul of Rock n Roll down Hollywood Blvd. followed by One Direction and a Korean Boy Band … but we mustn’t be complacent.

It seems the “music business” (sometimes related to music, sometimes not) is hard at work trying to reduce rock n roll to a couple of catchy hooks, repetitive mumbo jumbo and a nice set of legs … it’s about marketing not music or lyrics.

It’s been going this way since mirror balls, disco and MTV when it stopped being about listening to music and started being about watching it.

How much of today’s music will be remembered next year or even next month after the new “it tune”, as christened by the Music Industry, hits the air waves … very little if any. Stairway To Heaven, Proud Mary, White Rabbit, Heart Of Gold, Brown Sugar, Sultans Of Swing etc etc etc will be covered, played and sung in the shower ad nausea until the end of time, but where will the new anthems come from?

When will the songwriters and musicians wrest back control of the music from the marketing gurus on Madison Ave.? The music makers took control in the mid 60’s when people like Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and other artists and bands of the era demanded control of their music and more importantly their publishing rights … it took the Industry 20 years wrest back control.

The circle that connects everything back to the music has many spokes and the who, what and why it’s come to this point is far to big an issue to dissect here but let’s just hope that this song is never played as a funeral march for Rock n Roll Music.

THE LAST REQUIEM FOR ROCK N ROLL – LYRICS

We found ourselves in dire straits as the last requiem was played

The passion and expression would no longer be displayed

It was a cold drizzly night on a dark London stage

When a way of life was put to rest and the last requiem played

It was not so much a genre but a way to see the world

It kept us together showed us a way

As that light slowly dimmed and the drums faded away

The last note rang out in LA as the last requiem played

It was the saddest of songs – an ominous guitar solo played

The last requiem for rock and roll – and that Fender rang true as the curtain fell

The full rock orchestra left the stage as the last stanza was played

The lone guitarist Gibson in hand the last man on stage

Tears fell from all six strings as the last riff was laid

The outro was played and it all came to rest on that fateful day

It hurt prayers were sang the last requiem for rock and roll 

That Marshall Stack one last roar vibration we’d feel no more

The last verse that final refrain the last requiem was played

The curtain lowered slowly darkness silence an empty stage