Ask Not For Whom The Bell Bottoms Toll

Everyone has at least one favourite classic rock band. Some people even like The Doors. Though its hard to know exactly what qualifies as classic 21 years since Nevermind, let's be clear - end of 60s to late 70s is classic rock. And the vibe of this vintage has never really gone away. Sure in 1977, The Sex Pistols stuck a dagger in Emerson, Lake and Palmer (stay tuned), but that year was ripe for change - Zeppelin was burned out and struggling with family crises, the mid-70s Stones were hating each other, releasing lame solo albums and getting busted and The Who were two years since an album of I-drink-too-much-and-don’t-know-my-kids songs - the party was not exactly raging. As with all successful coups, the success or more accurately the impact of The Ramones, Pistols, Clash et al was in large part due to good timing. Punk rock/new wave flailed away at a lame beast and we are all enduringly thankful. But for all of the bluster and screech, that old time rock n' roll persevered. The Stones re-emerged in 1978 to reclaim their title of World's greatest with the killer Some Girls. Though the tragic losses of their irreplaceable drummers over the next couple of years pretty much vanquished The Who and Zeppelin, Queen and the emergence of AC/DC and Van Halen kept cocks rocking worldwide for years post-revolution rock. As it usually does, it makes more sense looking back. Punk rock grew from the same bastard roots as stadium rock: David Johansen was playing a drag queen Jerry Lee Jagger singing Bo Diddley songs. But it was a passionate fight at the time, ratcheted up by the evil presence of disco, of course...or was it? Did audiences really choose sides? 

Check out Rolling Stone magazine's critics top choices for "Album of The Year" in 1977:

• Never Mind The Bollocks - Sex Pistols
• Hotel California - Eagles
• Rumours - Fleetwood Mac
• My Aim Is True - Elvis Costello
• Hard Again - Muddy Waters



Sadly, since this shirt, fashion
rarely strikes a chord with me 

• JT - James Taylor

Some monster titles there, or what? Johnny Rotten vs Stevie Nicks. And what did RS readers choose for Top Album? You guessed it - FLEETWOOD MAC! Ugh. Now, as I learned from stealing rock mags from the library in Grade 6, Creem Magazine had eclipsed RS as a cutting edge tastemaker as punk rock, new wave and later hair metal hit. I remember first educating myself about Van Halen and Iggy Pop in the pages of Boy Howdy. So, let's check out Creem's "cool" reader list for this huge year in rock n' roll history when the kids broke bad:

CREEM MAGAZINE 1977 READER POLL RESULTS

Top Albums

1. Fleetwood Mac- Rumours

2. Rolling Stones- Love You Live

3. Ted Nugent- Cat Scratch Fever

4. Kiss- Love Gun

5. Yes- Going For The One

6. Kiss- Alive II

7. Heart- Little Queen

8. Foghat- Live

9. Emerson, Lake & Palmer- Works, Vol. 1

10. Foreigner

HA HA HA! I won't name all of the others on the list but I will add that the utterly-forgotten Styx and the reprehensible Steve Miller made the fans' top 20. Yup, still dazed and still confused in 1977 (for reals, two fucking Kiss albums?!).

Go ahead, try to hate Foxygen

All this is to say that classic rock has survived. And that it must survive because we hear it now with an educated (perhaps the loosest interpretation of education, but bear with me) ear; keenly aware
of not just punk rock and disco but also of the new waves, hip hop, dance, (gulp) electronica, rap metal, (chest ... seizes ...) The Spin Doctors, etc and suddenly the Allmans and Doobies sound pretty fucking alright.
Like James Bond movies and the missionary position, we keep coming back to classic rock seeking comfort in its familiarity and its predictable joys. Sam France and Jonathan Rado are Foxygen. They are 22 year olds. They aren't really old enough to be that familiar with anything. But by now, you likely have read about Foxygen's  We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic, as music writers have gone into giddy seizures trying to document the references, influencers and cut & paste jobs in this young duo's latest work. Let me get a little bit of that out of the way and just say its got the big guns - Beatles in the majestic, trumpeting opener "In The Darkness", right down to the Sgt Peppers' drum sound and "ahh-ahhhs". So cocky and so loveable. The stunning "No Destruction" sounds like Lou Reed fronting the Stones. And from there, amazingly, there is no let-up. This album's stoned grooves are loose but never lazy with the melodies. The hooks are relentless. There are no psych freak outs nor any droning noise filler shit to clutter things. These guys are like The Brian Jonestown Massacre with talent and songs. "San Francisco" is the highest highlight here. It's a nimbly executed and nakedly pretty Bell and Sebastian-style lament that will be difficult for any band to top this year. France's vocal performance is impeccable, the phrasing delicate and textured. Elsewhere, France sounds a lot like Jagger - especially on the Prince-infused "Oh Yeah" and the pulsating rave-up of a title track. The arrangements and instrumentation prove as dexterous throughout the 9 songs. The fact that Foxygen is a two-man act allows them the versatility to so winningly shapeshift from Sly and the Family Stone to The Sonics, sometimes within the same song. 

Countless bands have sucked on the sixties and seventies, but Foxygen's exceptional exhalation is free love rock n' roll - funk, garage rock, soul, psychedelics - all delivered with an earnest, un-ironic joy. I'll drink to that. Every damn time.