"I Want Rock 'N' Roll"
SUBJECT: Frank digs that classic Rock 'N' Roll. In this song he gives some props to some old-school rockers.
LYRICS:
i want to go back to fifty-five ten before i was burned alive there ain't no
use in a stupid dream my head is tired from this enthymeme / i want to hear
the holy ramage i don't mind a little ear damage Henry Sloane in my soca soul
i'm not ashamed to say i want rock & roll / i'd like to hear some Chubby Checker
crush my heart with Desmond Dekker little itty bitty of Freddy Fender start
me up return to sender / in want rock & roll in want rock & roll in want rock
& roll in want rock & roll in want rock & roll in want rock & roll / i want
to go back to fifty-five ten before i was burned alive the world can be so very
cold nothing to say except in want rock & roll / if you're going to San Francisco
just remember it is all disco
REFERENCES:
...back to fifty-five...
1955 - rock n roll first started to get popular. Rise of Elvis Presley, Little
Richard, Chuck Berry.
...ten before i was burned alive...
1965 - ??
This might be a reference to 1966 when tons of Beatles records and pictures
were burned worldwide by people furious over an out-of-context quote by John
Lennon about the Beatles being bigger than Jesus.
1965 was the year soul music and folk music started to get real popular.
Maybe I'm misinterpreting the line and Frank is talking about 1945.
Frank fan, bRIAN offers his take on the line...
Frank was simply referring to his birth year. Nothing more. He was born in
1965, but real American Rock N Roll was just starting to see the light of day
in 1955 with such monumental beginnings as Sun Records studios...the likes of
Elvis and Orbison, etc. This is what I think he meant. He, like so many of us,
is drawn to an 'othertime' where we feel we belong instead of a present state.
As a rock-n-roller, he's missed the golden era of his creative world..."I want
to go back to fifty five, ten before I was burned alive"...burned meaning born,
and how great a description of coming to life for a rocker? Angry, against his
will, painful...burned!
Henry Sloane
It is thought that one of the main originators of Blues is a man named Henry
Sloan. There is really no information on him. He was blues artist Charlie Patton's
teacher and he is the only recognizable artist that can be traced to the 1890's
and the early Blues years. [source]
soca
A style of music descended from calypso. Had its beginnings in the 50's. In
the early 1970s, electric guitar and bass were added to the traditional calypso
ensemble, and by the 1980s most groups were using synthesizers as well. Around
1970, the term "soca," meaning "soul-calypso," was coined to refer to the new,
energetic, and disco-influenced party music.
Chubby Checker
Superstar of the early 60's thanks to "The Twist" and other Top Ten
dance craze hits.
Desmond Dekker
"I Want Rock 'N' Reggae"? Though it's hard to overlook Bob Marley,
some call Dekker the king of reggae, as he's been at it since the early 60's,
scoring several big hits on the Jamacian and Brittish charts in the late 60's
and into the 70's. He's still at it: Halfway to Paradise was released
in 2000.
Freddy Fender
Singer/songwritter who had a hit song in 1959 ("Wasted Days and Wasted Nights"),
then dropped out of view thanks in part to a marijuana possession bust, until
finally finding some success again in the mid/late 70's. One of the few Hispanic
performers to become a country music star.
start me up return to sender
"Start Me Up" - hit song for the Rolling Stones in 1981
"Return To Sender" - hit song for Elvis Presley in 1962 (written by
Otis Blackwell, another of Frank's favorites.)
if you're going to San Francisco...
"San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" - hippy anthem
hit for Scott McKenzie in 1967.
DEFINITIONS:
en·thy·meme
n. (Logic) A syllogism in which one of the premises or the conclusion
is not stated explicitly.
An argument consisting of only two propositions, an antecedent and consequent
deduced from it; a syllogism with one premise omitted; as, We are dependent;
therefore we should be humble. Here the major proposition is suppressed. The
complete syllogism would be, Dependent creatures should be humble; we are dependent
creatures; therefore we should be humble.
To put it simply: something like an illogical conclusion drawn from incomplete
hypotheses.
HISTORY:
"I Want Rock N Roll" was available as a free mp3 download on Frank's
record label's website (in conjunction with goodnoise.com ) for a few months
before Pistolero came out.
LIVE: yes, a few times in '99. And then a bit more frequently circa BLD/DW era.
ACOUSTIC: no, don't think so