Primal

Primal/ Primitive/ Primordial
Scream/ Shout/ Superauditory

Since it came out, there are times when I think that the Keiser Chief’s “I predict a riot” is the best rock and roll song to come out in a while. There are however, far more times when I think that the song is overproduced and incomplete. It is however the former impulse that is tending to win out in my current debate, simply for the final chorus and the bridge that precedes it. It is not that this is new, almost every thing about the song, save the fantastic delivery of the chorus, seems rehashed.


Perhaps the greatest compliment and equal criticism of the song is that it doesn’t sound like it is a new song. It is good enough that I have confused it with something of the era of Sanidinista but seeing as it also is a new creation, I am not sure whether I like it because of feelings of familiarity or appreciation.
I do know, however, that the build is the highlight of the song. It’s not that I haven’t heard it before, Jethro Tull, Tool, Kansas, and I suppose most of prog rock has created their career out of massive musical builds. It is likely though, that I have not heard this trick in a while. From 3:05 of the song to 3:20 where the screams and guitars are going, I feel like Rock and Roll will once again rule.
It is in the rise and the build that rock and roll defines it’s role. The new age of pop is one of screaming familiarity and misplaced emotion (clearly I am biased), opposed to former artists like Cat Stevens (come back Yusuf!). And hip-hop is one of similar basic music but as with the pop, the point is ultimately reformulated to cater to the performance and swagger persona of the genre. On a beauty level, pop is the most awful perpetrator of streamlining the experience. Hip hop, in it’s actual live performance mode is the same, as both pop and hip hop have moved away from the performance of the music and more into the dreaded performance- as a persona -of the musician. One need to look no further than the crossover ratio of hip hop stars to movies like DMX or Ja Rule or pop singers from soaps (Jesse McCartney, Lindsay Lohan), to know that 99% of these artists are about music above all.
Can you blame them though? In terms of live intensity, I can think of only two bands outside of rock and roll that have a presence, OutKast and The Roots. Why are these two groups great live.
Simple answer: They play instruments. For some, getting the vibe of 50 cent or Nelly come out with a bunch of guys from the entourage to boost the vocals of the live show (and by boost I mean scream lyrics in the song at random moments) is a great experience. In person, this may can be an experience. From the sheer loudness to the crowd, sometimes the whole atmosphere can be a great experience. But there is a reason why no hip hop artist has released a live album of any stature. Even giving exception to battle records, these performances suck musically. And I do not mince words. The musical skill with the rapper at the forefront, is terrible. Biggie could barely speak his great prose on stage because of his girth and his terrific delivery became forced to keep up with the beat and the magic of the lyrics became drowned.
Even people like Pac, Nelly, or Ja, each of varying talent but all in fantastic shape, still couldn’t recreate their velvety delivery on stage. While my memory isn’t the best, the only live performance I truly enjoyed was LL on unplugged.
But the atmosphere of rap/ hip hop is something in itself, something that is reminiscent of the a quality of the best live albums of all time. My favorite live album is a complete aberrance to this (Bob Dylan’s Bootleg series 4), where the crowd is clearly antagonistic to the performer, and while this puts the album over the top (read the history or listen to it to find out why, I will only ruin the experience), for most live albums the crowd is key. When the audience is fully immersed and enjoying the music, it almost always makes the musicians play and sound better.
It may the artist wanting to reciprocate the love, or the fact that they know they aren’t playing to a bunch of D-bags who are only there because of free tickets, they may want to try harder. I mean, don’t we all work better when we feel appreciated? The great thing about live shows and about the best of live albums is that “vibe.” It is a slang word that I cannot come up with a decent synonym for due to the fact that there is something that happens when a band of adequate to great talent and the audience all seem to be collaborating in one similar emotion about the music. These are the experiences that we cherish as music fans. Sometimes it is that “I was there” feeling that can make a lesser band’s concert more memorable. I went to a Oasis/ Black Crowes doubleheader and while Oasis had far better material, it was clear they really were not digging the Indiana music vibe. The Crowes, however, played the hell out of their set. While I cherish the memory of seeing Champagne Supernova live, Remedy was a much better experience.
When you can feel the drum’s back beat, when you can understand the lyrics better than you could before simply based on the delivery, when you can wrap arms with a stranger next to you and join in a mass belting of one of your favorite songs, that’s rock and roll. It’s immediate, it’s personal and to a mass, it’s a loving familiarity you and all those in attendance can share for the rest of your life. It’s something we all can understand. It’s primal.
My current favorite Beatles song is Twist and Shout. It is a cover, which means it is not really a true Beatles song, so to say. The story behind the song is that it was the first and only take they did. The great thing about the song is the rawness of it combined with the perfect execution. Ringo, while constantly lambasted as a weak link, delivers on this track. It’s not that he does a bravura drum solo, it’s that every time he hits the drums, it’s a prefect strike. From the builds to the chorus to the final three hits that close the song, nothing about the performance feels synthetic.
It’s a live song. Nevermind the lack of an audience. And it may be the best single take of a song ever recorded. In this terrain of vocal overlays and redubs where there are not one, but 15 different Mariah vocal tracks going at once. It is the antithesis of everything modern in the sense that it is real.
Which now brings us to: “I want you to want me” by Cheap Trick as a conclusive statement. It is one of the simplest songs ever to become a huge single success; the whole songwriting process is replacing pronouns. It is the definition of sum of the parts overcoming. Each of the parts seems simple enough in it’s own right but when combined the song doesn’t just play from a stereo as much as it blasts out.
The scream of the crowd in both mass yelling and repeated chants of the chorus refrains (crying, crying, crying) is near explosive in a prepubescent girls gone wild frame of outburst. And then there is the banshee (ghost not the backers of Soiux) outburst of the guitar, which wails in a cheeky, over-the-top but not quite sort of way, punching up the song.
And when the song has all of it’s elements up and running at full speed, the critical mass reaches overload, and the climactic build, launches the song to classic. That’s live music done right. It’s not just the experience and the mass output of communal energy, it’s the music being played so well it elevates the great songs from good to great. It’s rock and roll, and from Twist and Shout, to I want you to want me to modern songs that are riding purely on the power of a collective wait for release, that’s rock and roll, and why my faith in it keeps me coming back.
I no longer hope that rock and roll will return, I’m in the stadium waiting for the band to show up. I hope to see you there.