Long Live Rock 'n Roll!

So what is a post about rock 'n roll doing on a painter's blog dedicated to art theory and exhibit reviews? The answer is complicated, but let's start here. The art I create, and the art I'm interested in, shares a certain rebellious spirit with rock. It is the music I grew up with, and it's been the soundtrack of my life, from seeing the Beatles' first appearance on American television as a ten year old in 1964, to attending the first live Los Angeles concert by the Clash in 1979. As a teenager I marched against the Vietnam war with antiwar rock songs by The Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe & the Fish, Buffalo Springfield and the Doors ringing in my ears. Starting in 1977, I joined with legions of disaffected youth who took up the punk rock banner in the hopes of shattering complacency and maybe even changing the world. As an active participant in that scene I documented the punk rebellion in my city of LA with a series of paintings and drawings. And today as I work at my easel I continue to listen to rock (along with heavy doses of Jazz and Classical music).

Even before the Beatles, I was already listening to Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, and the other great African American Rhythm and Blues musicians from which rock would eventually spring. In 1951, two years before I was born, Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed was the first to use the term "rock 'n roll". He had lifted the phrase from an R&B song, My Baby Rocks Me with a Steady Roll. But it was during the fateful year of 1955 that rock would truly shake the world to its foundations. Fifty years ago, on March 20th, 1955, the movie Blackboard Jungle was screened in movie houses across America. It was a moralistic and controversial tale about juvenile delinquency that starred Sidney Poitier and Glenn Ford. However, the real star of the film turned out to be its theme song, Rock Around the Clock, by Bill Haley and The Comets. Teenagers turned out in droves to see the film, and when the theme music started to play, kids would leap up to choke the theater aisles with their frenetic dancing. In some instances, movie house seats were ripped out and police called in to quell riotous dancers. Rock 'n Roll was born! Afraid that the movie and its riot provoking theme song would damage America's image abroad, the cold war era US ambassador to Italy, Clare Booth Luce, succeeded in having the film withdrawn from the Venice Film Festival.

To mark the 50th anniversary of Blackboard Jungle and the explosive beginnings of the rock revolution, New York's Museum of Modern Art held a special screening of the film on Sunday, March 20th. The screening concluded with a Q & A with participants from the film, as well as the five surviving members of Bill Haley's Comets (Haley passed away in 1981). On Sunday March 27th., in Los Angeles, The American Cinematheque in Hollywood will offer a double feature of Blackboard Jungle and the 1956 film, Rock Around The Clock (starring Bill Haley & The Comets as well as The Platters). The five surviving members of The Comets will also be on hand for a Q & A. But wait, there's more! The Museum of Television & Radio (MT&R) in New York and Los Angeles will be screening early Rock Performances from The Ed Sullivan Show, 1955 - 1960. The not to be missed compilation of performances includes Bill Haley & The Comets, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, and Bo Diddley. In LA, the MT&R is also presenting a gallery exhibit, Rock Is Fifty! The exhibit will display posters, photos, and artifacts that detail the launch of the rock revolt. It should go without saying that many artists of my generation were heavily influenced by rock, whether it shows in our works or not. Art is an expression of the yearning for freedom and life without constraints, ideals embodied in rock ’n roll. As rock turns fifty and its natural rebelliousness is dampened by the corporate powers who’ve always wanted to control it -all I can think of are those kids who tore up the seats and danced in the aisles at the first screening of Blackboard Jungle. Long Live Rock 'n Roll!