Little Richard
Little Richard
The purest prototype
of hard, mainstream
rock was Little Richard
Early
years
Specialty
Records
Tutti Frutti
Chorus
twelve-bar blues
Instrumentation
performers
Performance
Religion
and
style
Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry
Early
years
Muddy
Waters and
Chess Records
Musical
hits
Maybelline
Created
beat of rock and roll
from two blues sources
Backbeat
Boogie
Little
woogie
Richards
Listen
for boogie woogie
rhythm in electric guitar
(normally in pianist)
Maybelline
“Ida
Red”
heavy
back beat; prominent
guitar “voice”; honky-tonk
transformed
refrain-frame
one
form
chorus conventional blues
verses
are interpolated
Buddy Holly
That’ll be the Day
Chuck
Berry’s
“Maybellene”
Blues
chords
Unusual
sequence
Not Fade Away
Not
3
dance music
regular rhythms
unconventional
drumming
clave
rhythm
Not Fade Away
accents
play against the beat
backup
vocalists
strong
No
accent
bass or rhythm guitar
Not Fade Away
No
one marks time
Rhythmic
Rock
bearing
and roll can be more than
dance music
Elvis Presley
Mystery Train
Rockabilly
Two-beat
Imitation
of a locomotive
Perform twice as fast,
backbeat
Light instrumentation
Heartbreak Hotel
 First
RCA session
 Bob Ferris constructed an
echo chamber
 Label feared it was a
terrible mistake
 Elvis’ first #1 hit
Heartbreak Hotel
 Elvis
produced and directed
almost all his own music
 Never really interested in
trying to improve his
playing skills
 Unfailing ear
Revolver Eleanor Rigby
Revolver Eleanor Rigby
Unprecedented topic
 Broke sharply with pop song
conventions
 Detached delivery
 Time passes, without apparent purpose

Revolver Eleanor Rigby
Musical setting as bleak as the words
 String octet (four violins, two violas,
two cellos)
 String sound is sparse

Revolver Eleanor Rigby
Chord progressions emulate rock
accompaniment
 Static melody and harmony
 Repetitive rhythm of accompaniment

Revolver Eleanor Rigby
Pop becoming Art?
 Classical-style string accompaniment
 Comparable to Schubert’s art songs

The Rolling Stones
Sympathy for the Devil
Basic harmonic vocabulary
 Chorus consists six phrases
 Repetitions
 Five-bar phrase

Sympathy for the Devil
Intro on drums (add maracas on bar 4)
10 bars
 Lead vocal and full accompaniment
enter
 Chorus 1 (aaaa) 17 bars + (bb) 8 bars
(fourth statement of a is 5 bars long)
 Chorus 2 (aaaa) 17 bars + (bb) 8 bars

Sympathy for the Devil
Chorus 3 (aaaa) 17 bars + (bb) 8 bars
(add background vocals)
 Chorus 4 (aaaa) 17 bars + (bb) 8 bars
 (add guitar lead in a-section; lead vocal
re-enters in b-section)
 Chorus 5 (aaaa) 17 bars + (bb) 8 bars

Sympathy for the Devil

Closing Section (aa) 8 bars


Vocal interjections over guitar lead (with
piano)
Repeat and fade-out
Sympathy for the Devil
Samba beat
 Timbral changes
 Visceral
 Stone’s simplicity and repetiveness

Bob Dylan
Dyaln’s Significance
Lyrics
 Symbolism, internal ironies, sarcasm,
thought-provoking messages, dry wit,
surrealism, and graceful flow
Janis Joplin
Ball and Chain
Stutters, reiterations
 Melismas, interpolations
 Hommange to Smith?
 Hisses “sitting”
 Necessary embellishments

Ball and Chain
Joplin’s voice not as rich as Smith’s
 Tempo of the song slower
 Musical space must be filled
 Progressively less restrained

Frank Zappa
Help I’m a Rock
A "It can't happen here"—non-metric, non-tonal vocal
expanding this lyric
B "Who could imagine"—(1) "freak out in Kansas"
(followed by improvisation on "Kansas")
(2) "freak out in Minnesota" (followed by
improvisation on "Minnesota")
C: Instrumental section—piano and drums in a
fragmented, non-tonal, pointillistic style
Help I’m a Rock
B: "Who could imagine"—"freak out in
Washington, D.C." (followed by
improvisation on "D.C.")
A: "It can't happen here"—enters underneath
previous section, but begins to dominate
D: "I remember"—metric; three phrases
Help I’m a Rock
A: "It couldn't happen here"—brief return
E: Suzy Creamcheese—dialogue with
semi-fictional Zappa character
A: "It can't happen here"—brief return;
filtered voices
Help I’m a Rock
Combines two common classical forms:
the arch form and the rondo.
C
B B
A
A
 Improvisation
 Experimentation with textures
