POP-A-LOOZA! THE EVERLASTING FIRST: The Easybeats

 

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post is my Everlasting First look back at my introduction to Australian pop gods the Easybeats.

That's the EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEasybeats.

As the piece reveals, Bomp! magazine played a huge part in bringing the Easybeats to my attention. That's an illustration of the important role the rock press can play in educating us about stuff that might turn out to be important to us. In 2018, I started writing a history of my own experiences reading rock 'n' roll magazines as a fledgling young rock 'n' roller. The series, He Buys Every Rock 'n' Roll Book On The Magazine Stands, made its way through three initial entries, covering Circus and Rolling Stone, Phonograph Record Magazine, and--of course!--Bomp! I still intend to go back and continue the series, picking up with the next entry about CREEM magazine. Here's the introductory passage from the CREEM piece:

"Rock 'n' roll was supposed to be about rebellion!

"The above quote has always bugged me. It is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard anyone say about this music I love. Rock 'n' roll was never supposed to be 'about' rebellion. It was a de facto act of rebellion, sure, a loud 'n' proud celebration of dancing, partying, and having sex--and having it often--combined with an inherent disregard for racial boundaries and polite, stuffy decorum. If you wanna say that makes it about rebellion, then we just disagree on our terms. But c'mon, man; 'Johnny B. Goode' is not Das Kapital, 'Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On' for damned sure ain't Steal This Book, and 'Rumble' is a freakin' instrumental. It doesn't even have any words! How can it be about rebellion? How can it be about anything...?!"

I really need to get back and finish that one. One of these days! In the mean time, since we're doing sneak peeks anyway, here's a glimpse at the opening paragraphs of the Easybreats chapter in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):

"Rock 'n' roll has always been working class music. The landed and the privileged may also enjoy it, and many/most of its practitioners share a fever dream of breaking into the exclusive ranks of the upper crust, enjoying all the glittery, golden things money can buy, with an endless resource of the cold, hard cash one needs to buy them all. The same could be said of country, R & B, soul...any popular music. Rich folks aren't the target audience; the rest of us are.

"It's no accident that so many pop songs have reflected that viewpoint, nor that so many have specifically embraced the treasure of the weekend. Work's done! Time for play! From Little Richard's 'Ready Teddy' through any random recognition of the Monday-to-Friday death march ceding way for the wall-to-wall fun of Friday and Saturday night, we dig our weekend party anthems. The Easybeats' 'Friday On My Mind' is the definitive example."

But before that, well, the story had to start someplace. My discovery of the Easybeats is the subject for the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.

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This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

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