Steve Chapple & Reebee Garofalo's `Rock`N' Roll Is Here To Pay' Book Revisited: Part 4

 

In their 1977 book, Rock'N'Roll Is Here To Pay: The History and Politics of the Music, Steve Chapple & Reebee Garofalo recalled the pre-1977 history and politics of the U.S. corporate rock music industry in the following way:

"The critical effect of rock music was lost...The music became separated from the political ferment that had provided it with its critical edge...in the...sixties...

"...The potential for cooptation of rock music had always been present...Economically rock music has never posed a problem for the capitalist organization of the economy. Whether in the form of a record, a tape, a concert ticket, or a booking agency fee, rock music was a packaged commodity...

"Most political `censorship' of record artists is self-censorship...It has been estimated that at least 50 superstars make more than a million dollars [equal to around $4.9 million in 2023] each year [in late 1970s]. The money puts the musician in a qualitatively different position than most of his audience...

"Some of the highest paid musicians become sophisticated corporate investors. Bob Dylan owns oil stock, for instance, and Neil Young owns a string of shopping centers. His ventures are managed by Segal, Rubenstein & Gordon, Los Angeles financial counselors...Top stars, the Rolling Stones being a particularly spectacular example, have become part of the standard bourgeois jet set...

"At this point it should be evident that the vast majority of rock music does little to challenge...the basis of American society--production for private profit...For now, of course, rock'n'roll is here to pay. It is a packaged commodity which enriches a few monopoly corporations..."

Steve Chapple & Reebee Garofalo's `Rock'N'Roll Is Here To Pay' Book Revisited: Part 3

In their 1977 book, Rock'N'Roll Is Here To Pay: The History and Politics of the Music, Steve Chapple & Reebee Garofalo recalled the pre-1977 history and politics of the U.S. corporate rock music industry in the following way:

"Shortly after their introduction to America in 1964, the Beatles re-released such classics as `Roll Over Beethoven' by Chuck Berry, `Twist and Shout' by Isley Brothers, Barrett Strong's `Money', the Shirelles' `Boys', `Long Tall Sally' by Little Richard. Similarly, the Animals brought back Ray Charles's `Hit the Road Jack' (written by Mayfield) and Sam Cooke's `Shake'. The Rolling Stones did Rufus Thomas's `Walking the Dog,' `Hitchhike' by Marvin Gaye, a number of Chuck Berry tunes including `Carol', `Talking About You', and `Around and Around'...

"...The Beatles along with the dozens of other English groups that quickly followed them were...more marketable than the black artists they imitated....Black acts in general showed a sharp decline on the singles chart from an all-time high of 42 percent in 1962 to 22 percent in 1966...On the album charts, only 3 of the Top 50 LPs for the year 1964 and 1965 were by black artists...Virtually the only black music on white radio, during this period, was produced out of Motown...It is hard to imagine Eric Clapton being...criticized for playing blues guitar if he were not making millions off his music, while the bluesmen whose licks he copied are starving to death...

"In the early sixties women became a recognized trend in rock'n'roll for the first time. Female vocal groups...began to hit the top of the charts. In addition to the Orlons, the Crystals, the Sensations, the Chiffons, the Essex, the Ronnettes, and the Jaynettes, there were the Shangri-Las and the Dixie Cups, and the Motown groups--the Marvelettes, the Supremes, and Martha and the Vandellas...

"...The female vocal groups were pushed from the charts...when the Beatles crashed onto the scene in 1964-65...The...popularity of the Beatles was the single greatest force responsible for the decline of women on the charts in the mid-sixties...In 1969, one of the great years for hard rock, there were fewer women on the year-end single charts than at any time since World War II. The situation for both women album and singles artists was even worse than it had been at the end of 1966, during the height of the British invasion..."

 

Steve Chapple & Reebee Garofalo's `Rock'N'Roll Is Here To Pay' Book Revisited: Part 2

In their 1977 book, Rock'N'Roll Is Here To Pay: The History and Politics of the Music, Steve Chapple & Reebee Garofalo characterized and recalled the pre-1977 history and politics of Rolling Stone magazine and the U.S. corporate rock music industry in the following way:

"Rolling Stone...plays down or ignores any political movements outside of the two party system or not backed by some sector of American business...The magazine could not be as large...as it is without the large volume of music industry advertising it carries...The record companies are linked in with big business in the United States. There are no indications from the parent firms, the separate power of the record divisions within the parent firms, or `youth' businesses like Rolling Stone that any of them will be responsible for, or support, fundamental political change in the United States...

"Big Mama Thornton recorded `Hound Dog' three years before Elvis Presley, and according to her the song sold over 2 million copies. But as to her royalties she says, `I got one check for $500 and I never seen another.' Presley also recorded `That's All Right,' written by Arthur `Big Boy' Crudup. Though the song was a big hit for Presley, Crudup was reputed to have received nothing more than an appreciative plaque from Presley and his manager.

"Another tactic used against black music was `cover versions' of black hits...The Beatles' version of `Twist and Shout' and `Roll Over Beethoven'...cam several years after the originals, but reproduce them note for note with identical vocal style and arrangement...In the 1950s covers were used by major companies to recover the inroads r&b made into the white audience of the time...

"Several dozen songs were...covered by the majors in the early years of rock'n'roll. RCA began by covering `Kokomo' by Gene and Eunice with a version by Perry Como. Columbia covered the same song with a version by Tony Bennett...Mercury's Crew Cuts...did a cover of the Chords' `Sh'Boom' (originally on Atlantic's Cat label) that became the fifth best-selling pop song of 1954. They pillaged the r&b list after `Sh' Boom; covering hits like Nappy Brown's `Don't Be Angry' (Savoy), the Charms' `Gum Drop (Deluxe), and the Penguins' `Earth Angel.' Mercury's Georgia Gibbs covered Etta James's `Wallflower' with a cleaned up version called `Dance with Me Henry.'...Decca used the McGuire Sisters (on their Coral subsidiary) to cover the Moonglow's `Sincerely' (Chess) and made it the #7 best-selling pop song in 1955, along with their cover of Joe Turner's `Shake, Rattle, and Roll.'

"Pat Boone...built his reputation...by covering black rhythm and blues tunes. His label, Dot, was the most successful company at the practice. Boone recorded `Ain't That A Shame' (Fats Domino), `i Almost Lost My Mind' (The Harptones) and `Tutti-Frutti' (Little Richard), among others."

Steve Chapple & Reebee Garofalo's `Rock'N'Roll Is Here To Pay' Book Revisited: Part 1

 

In their 1977 book, Rock'N'Roll Is Here To Pay: The History and Politics of the Music, Steve Chapple & Reebee Garofalo characterized the pre-1977 history and politics of the U.S. corporate rock music industry in the following way:

"...The music industry is racist...and many of the political forces that are exerted on blacks outside the business are duplicated within it...It is important to look at the unfolding of that racism within the history of the industry...

"...The music business, the record companies and radio stations, are integrated into a much larger framework of other businesses, sources of finance capital, and the general network of the business system which has an interest--a real, material interest--in reproducing and reinforcing the status quo...

"...In many cases record companies are owned by some of the most obviously reactionary and militarist corporations in the United States...

"Three major record companies...are politically indistinguisable from their parent firms: RCA, CBS, and ABC. RCA and CBS have long been part of a business establishment that supports both major political parties on a regular basis...

"...Most directors at CBS and RCA supported the [Vietnam] war when it was backed by Republicans and Democrats under the Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson administrations...

"...During the Vietnam War buildup RCA had annual Defense Department contracts averaging $300 million, and still got some $243 million in DOD business in 1974.

"During the 1960s CBS president Frank Stanton...was chairman of the board of the Rand Corporation, the Air Force-funded think tank that has done extensive secret research for the military on subjects as diverse as counterinsurgency warfare techniques, effectiveness of prisoner interrogation methods, and police surveillance uses of cable television...Stanton was head of the committee that annually reviewed the activities of the U.S. Information Agency, a CIA-funded propaganda operation overseas, and he was chairman of Radio Free Europe, another propaganda outlets, financed through the CIA...

"Given their ties into big and bigger business, no progressive political initiative will be coming from the parent firms of the record companies..."