Gimme that Rock 'N Roll Music

Battle of the Bands, 1967.  Lightfoot on the Right

What has happened to rock 'n roll music these days? I'm talking about music that rocks.  Apart from the un-listenable drivel that passes for rap and hip-hop, there simply isn't any new, innovative rock music being brought out.  Is it the result of the doom, gloom and malaise that permeates the current culture that prohibits the recording of feel good rock 'n roll?  I think so, too.  When we have to resort to such unimaginably inappropriate combinations as Bob Dylan covering Frank Sinatra's hits, we are admitting that there's a serious dearth of any decent new rock music.  No wonder aging rockers such as the Rolling Stones, the Who, and Led Zepplin are still doing tours.  They're filling venues even with astronomical ticket prices because people want to hear rock music, and there's none being made.  I can applaud Sir Chritopher Lee's new Christmas album, however.  He's 92 years old, and can actually rock.

Even Nashville's thrown in the towel and produces very little real country anymore; it's all just homogenized popular music with a little twang, a fiddle and a slide guitar.  Some exceptions exist, of course, but mostly the current crop is pablum.  Outlaw country retired when Waylon, Willie, Merle, Bocephus, Johnny and others quit recording. I know this is just my opinion, but God, I sure miss 'em.