I recently picked up Beleza Tropical -- Brazilian Classics 1, the disc where David Byrne openly acknowledges some of his musical influences and sources. He is saying by this that he did not necessarily invent the rhythms we hear in recent works. In the liner notes Byrne writes that many of the artists on the disc are seventies artists who were heavily influenced by groups on the Top 40 radio they heard growing up in the sixties. He uses this to back up his analysis of the music: Beatle-esque harmonies on top of traditional Brazilian rhythms. And he's right. Without reading the notes I said to myself the same thing. It led me to these thoughts: everywhere you look around the record store you see people copying the styles of others. Only rarely do you see them crediting their sources. Check these out.
Peter Gabriel has recently released an album compiling the artists he "borrowed" from in composing the soundtrack to "The Last Temptation of Christ." Called Passion Sources, its sound neatly draws the line dividing what Gabriel borrowed and what he originated.
Paul Simon went to South Africa and used oppressed Soweto musicians on his Graceland album. He shared the credits and borrowed the styles of the classic Soweto street beat. Nobody payed any attention when Paul tried to credit other people. But check your stores cut-out bin, Gumboots is still in print thanks to Paul Simon.
I've spent years tracking down the pure blues sources of Led Zeppelin. It gives me an appreciation of the kind of research Jimmy Page must have done to present the styles of so many obscure blues acts. It's sad and sick that Page refused to let us in on the wonderful blues acts he stole from. He often took full writing credit for songs by Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, and many others. Willie Dixon successfully sued him for the money he made with Whole Lotta Love, a song originally written by Dixon as You Need Love. There are many further examples.
Eric Clapton is a bluesman with all the integrity lacking in Jimmy Page. He freely credits Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker, Howlin' Wolf, Otis Rush, etc., in his classic interpretations of their styles. His best known song, Crossroads, a song forever identified with him, was written by Robert Johnson. But Eric is not only responsible for bringing blues to the forefront, he also made strides in bringing reggae here as well. His renditions of Peter Tosh and Bob Marley classics led to people's interest in hearing the originals by the original artists.
Why have I dredged all this up? Who cares? You say, "it's only Rock 'n Roll and I like it," right? You say, "it doesn't matter how it got that way." But it does. It makes a difference.
Every once in a while a true original comes along and he gets mercilessly copied and used. ELO and Todd Rundgren were "Beatle-esque." The Byrds and Springsteen were "Dylan-esque." Brian Wilson tried his hardest to make The Beach Boys sound like The Four Freshmen. "-esque" is sometimes not all bad. I'd even like to think my writing is "Lester Bangs-esque." The new rip-off Heavy Metal clones like Guns 'n Roses or Whitesnake could be called "Zeppelin-esque" if they were good enough (they're not). But I still digress from the point. What is the point?
The point is that a true originator is coming back into print and the general public is not taking notice. This man's material was the basis for most of the music we heard in the last decade. Some people even pray to this man's albums, I know I still do. He's never acknowledged and it's time we pay some homage to him. That man is David Bowie.
Before a legal entangle took him out of print in 1983, David Bowie shamelessly re-invented Rock 'n Roll in the seventies. As soon as people caught on to one of his styles he slapped those followers in the face by changing to something new. In his wake were left a billion and a half "Pseudo-Bowie" groups. I'll even go as far as to call them "Bowie-esque. David Bowie moved so quickly and changed so often that the general public has never caught up, until now. On RykoDisc, starting with the Sound+Vision compilation box set, David Bowie has started to come out on compact disc.
The public never caught on because of the nature of Bowie's career path. First he was a folkie, sitting on his behind, strumming a guitar and singing about spacemen. Then he was a hard rocking, gay, space alien who committed artistic suicide. He came back from the dead with a warning about 1984. Just when he was making his message clear, when people were begging to see his stage show, he became a black soul singer, discovering David Sanborn and Luther Vandross in the process. When he became a Disco sensation he decided to punish his record company and work on non-commercial avant-garde audio art with Brian Eno. Finally a classic in 1980, he kissed off the changes and dismissed his cult-like audience.
We have a plethora of groups stuck in styles David Bowie abandoned months after creating them. It's time to call them Bowie-esque. Love and Rockets didn't invent anything new. Depeeche Mode watch old David Bowie footage like research scientists. Even Michael Jackson looked a little "Bowie-esque" on stage in 1984 doing his version of Ziggy Stardust.
How many "new" groups will get away with this uncredited larceny? A good way to check is to look at the writers' credit. I started with The Beatles and it lead me through Motown to the blues. One credit leads to the next band. Pick up some Bowie of the past and see the future of Rock 'n Roll.
•Stratton Constantine Moraites is a sociopath with a passion for Rock & Roll. His slightly kinky writing style has delighted and disgusted readers within a full 20 miles of his native Cincinnati.
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