The "Rock 'N' Roll Will Never Die" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Humming the song "Sincerely" to myself as I begin my second story about Rock "N" Roll.  Today's story tell the trials and tribulations that my mom and dad had when Rock "N" Roll first hit the airways in the late 1950s.  How many of you were around when that happened.  I was in high school at the time and just loved Rock "N" Roll.  But, my parents weren't very happy with the "new" music that was being played on both radio and television.  One radio station in Rocky Ford, Colorado, actually announced that from now on it would play only "good family music."  To emphasize the switch from Rock to family music, the announcers smashed a Rock 'N' Roll record every 10 minutes during broadcasting hours until every one of their records were destroyed.  The station manager also said that "Henceforth, any announcer on my staff who plays a Rock 'N' Roll record will be fired on the spot.  There comes a time when human endurance reaches a limit."  Then along comes Dick Clark in 1959, who was known as the Elder Statesman of Young People and called the elderly, who didn't appreciate rock music, "fuddy-duddies".  He continued with..."Unfortunately as we grow older our minds close in certain areas, music among them.  The real truth is that you adults are more preoccupied with Rock 'N' Roll than the teenagers.  Youngsters today have a widely varied musical background.  Someday they'll sift some things and be more discriminating.  In the meantime, they're having a little bit of everything.  I think it's a very healthy situation."  A record company executive tried to explain why teens enjoyed rock music by saying, "A record is the last launching pad a kid has left if he wants to shoot for the stars.  Vaudeville died, and nobody can even find the grave.  Burlesque went the way of all flesh which was break-insville for more names than you can shake a marquee at and now is only interested in big potatoes, name acts, stars.  And even in TV the screen's becoming too small for the new kid who wants to just be an all-around entertainer.  When you want to get on a television show the very first question he asks a new kid is "what records you got going for you?"  We all know that Rock music annoyed just about every parent in the USA which is probably why most kids liked it.  Elvis certainly didn't attract the older crowd and when the Beatles finally arrived, they really stressed out the adults.  In 1967 Alfred G. Aronowitz said, "It's been 15 years now since Rock 'N' Roll was laughed off as just another fad.  Frank Sinatra called it "The martial music of every side-burned delinquent on the face of the earth."  The police in Atlanta ruled that teenagers needed a written permission slip from their parents before they could dance to it legally.  Roman Catholic leaders in Boston called for a boycott of it.  And, the music that all parents thought would go in one ear and out the other had become the major form of communication among the young.  Rock 'N' Roll was here to stay...and as the song goes:  

Rock 'n roll is here to stay,
It will never die
It was meant to be that way,
Though I don't know why
I don't care what people say,
Rock 'n roll is here to stay

Rock 'n roll will always be
Our ticket to the end
It'll go down in history,
Just you watch, my friend
Rock 'n roll will always be,
It'll go down in history

If you don't like rock 'n roll,
Think what you've been missin'
But if you like to bop and strawl,
Come on down and listen
Let's all start to have a ball,
Everybody rock 'n roll

Just got to love it!  And...this crazy stuff they play today and call music...well it really sucks.  Guess I'm beginning to sound more and more like my Mom and Dad when I was a teenager!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.