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
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