"The early promise of jazz rock -- that electronics, ethnic influences and rock rhythms could expand the sonic and textural matrix of jazz-- degenerated into the vapidity of fusion." [Joel Lewis, The Wire #130]
... Only by killing disco could rock affirm its threatened masculinity and restore the holy dyad of cold brew and undemanding sex partners. Disco bashing ...
-- Peter Braunstein
Oh yeah of course, Rock’n’Roll comes out of a tradition of black American music, the blues and soul music. I mean in a way as much as I disliked most disco, one thing I do find distressing in the new wave scene is the racism that just absolutely refuses to recognise any black music besides (ha ha) Reggae, you know cause that’s hip. I mean I’ve had parties in this very apartment where I’ve put on an Otis Redding or Aretha Franklin record cut in 1967, and the people from the CBGB scene would say “Oh Lester! why are you playing that nigger disco stuff for? Why don’t you just get it off. ”They’re just totally ignorant, don’t wanna be any other way and really are not open to other forms of music. Of course Rock’n’Roll is part of a whole tradition of American music that goes back. Really what I think it is the tradition of miscegenation. It’s that tradition of black and white, getting together to create this thing that reached it’s ultimate fruition with beginning with Elvis. Well it carried on when Mick Jagger came out and sang all these Muddy Waters blues songs. And I guess it even carries on today when The Clash do ‘Police and Thieves’ a Reggae song originally done by Junior Marvin I think? And it’s a conditional tradition of miscegenation of black and white music coming together to form something new. . That is really vital and healthy and I think when that element goes out of it. When it just becomes all white, then it loses something for me. I mean I really think that, cause it’s funny cause it doesn’t work the other round. Music can be all black, and I still enjoy listening to it but when it’s all white if there’s none of the blues influence I think it really loses something it loses the thing that fused it, that made it vital in the first place.
Lester Bangs
SHOPPING:
Steve Hillage - Green [Amazon US] Wild Palms (Love Guitar) is THE track, with a very balearic feel. Steve Hillage collaborated with Derrick May early nineties on the Seven series.
Babe Ruth - First Base[1CD, Amazon US] 1972 progressive rock classic, which features The Mexican, a track made popular in countless nightclubs around the world, has been sampled numerous times. You can buy the 'the Mexican'- track on the Afrika Bambaata comp on strut records.