Rock history is something of a hobby of mine, so I have a few suggestions to hit some vitally important moments in the history or Rock and Roll. Not necessarily the most popular, but certainly vital musical moments. Here they are, influential artists, albums and songs throughout history, trying to keep it to one or two bands per genre.
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Chuck Berry “Maybeline”-- Some Chuck Berry should be included, as much for his guitar work as anything else. You may want to cover even earlier work (Jelly Roll Morton, Robert Johnson) but you may not have enough time given constraints)
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Little Richard Penniman “Tutti-Frutti”-- Ok, it’s a veiled homage to sex (the original lyrics were "Tutti-Frutti good bootie) but it’s still a great song, and vital to history of Rock and Roll. Old enough and innocuous enough to be useful to a young class.
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Elvis Presley “Jail House Rock”-- Elvis reprents “rockabilly” as opposed to “rock and roll.” Sort of an evolutionary dead-end, IMHO, but still a VERY important performer. Some of his stuff should be included.
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Buddy Holly “That’ll Be The Day”-- Buddy Holly WAS the original punk artist: simple melodies, basic instrumentation (the Crickets were an oddity as a 1950’s three piece), simple lyrics. He, like Elvis, brought rock and roll to a white audience (unlike Elvis, Buddy Holly played the Apollo), but he was more influential musically to later artists than Elvis.
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Beach Boys “Surfin’ USA”-- Between 1958 and 1964, rock and roll went largely dormant (this was the time period of teen hearthrob acts liek Ricky Nelson, Fabio, etc.) but the Beach Boys started making surf music. Jan and Dean might be appropriate for this time period as well.
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The Beatles “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”, “Yesterday”, Rubber Soul, Abbey Road You could make the Beatles a whole class, and this picks some highlights of the stages of their career. Seargent Peppers bears highlighting as the first major concept album (though the Beach Boys album Pet Sounds was earlier, and Lennon himself admits largely influenced Sgt. Peppers). If you only pick one song, pick Yesterday.
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The Rolling Stones “Satisfaction”, “Sympathy for the Devil”-- The 60’s was largely about the Stones vs. The Beatles. The Beatles got better press, but people who found them alternatingly “bubblegum” or later “pretentious” helped also make the Stones huge. The Beatles fans were white collar; the Stones were decidedly working class.
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The Kinks “You Really Got Me”-- Cited by many as the start of Heavy Metal. The Kinks were a decidedly “Stones” type of band.
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The Who “Baba O’Reilly”-- The Who cannot be discounted (first real Stadium Rock band) and this is quintessential Who.
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The Byrds “Eight Miles High”-- The start of psychedelia. A key band.
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Buffalo Springfield “For What It’s Worth”-- Everyone knows this song. It MUST be included, especially as a great intro to protest rock. Band featured both Neil Young and Steven Stills.
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Bob Dylan Highway 61 Revisited– This is Dylan’s transition from acoustic folky to electric rocker. Also include “Tangled Up In Blue” from * Blonde on Blonde * You may want to do several Bob Dylan songs from other bands to emphasize his HUGE influence as a songwriter. If you do this, include Hendrix’s “All Along The Watchtower,” The Animals “House of the Rising Sun,” Joan Baez “The Times Are a Changin’”
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Cream “Strange Brew” – Fusion at it’s finest. Plus, turned Clapton into a Superstar.
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Creedence Clearwater Revival “Looking Out My Back Door” Country Rock. Just good tunes.
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Greatful Dead * Working Man’s Dead , * American Beauty– The Dead, for all of their great live history, made only two really great studio albums, but they WERE amazing. These two are them, and feature nearly ALL of the great Dead songs, like “Truckin’”, “Uncle John’s Band” and “Casey Jones.”
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Jefferson Airplane “White Rabbit”-- Influence of women in rock. Grace Slick wrote and sung this song, which was as gritty and biting as anything done by men at the time. If you’ve got the time, * Surrealistic Pillow * would be the prototypical acid rock album.
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Simon and Garfunkel “The Boxer”-- Their influence of the “singer/songwriter” movement is incalculable, and this song, or perhaps “America” are as good as any.
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Don McLean “American Pie”-- Rock and Roll history in a song. A great way to end an instructional unit on the 60’s. Fun to try to interpret all of the lyrics.
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Led Zeppelin “Good Times, Bad Times”, “Dyer Maker”, “Battle of Evermore”-- It is vital to include Zep, and these songs cover much of their different styles.
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Eric Clapton “Layla”-- Quintesstial 70’s Clapton. Interesting note: written about George Harrison’s wife, who later divorced Harrison to marry Clapton. The Patty Harrison story is one of rock’s great love stories (AFter she later left CLapton, He and Harrison used to call each other “Ex-Husbands-in-Law” and remained friends through it all)
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Neil Young “Southern Man”-- Follow this one up with the following:
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Lynyrd Skynyrd “Sweet Home Alabama”-- A protest to protest songs. Very post-modern. Quintessential SOuthern Rock.
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Allman Bros Band “Jessica”, “Ramblin’ Man” Jazz meets SOuthern Rock. Think cross between Miles Davis and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
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Marvin Gaye What’s Going On. 70’s R’n’B gets political. One of the top ten most inluential albums of all time, IMHO.
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Bruce Springsteen “Thunder Road”, “Born to Run”-- Dylan for the 70’s and 80’s. A must include.
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The Bee Gees “Night Fever”-- If you must include DIsco, this is as good as any.
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The Clash London Calling This was the Sgt Peppers of Punk. This album is about the best punk album in existance. The Sex Pistols might be good, but the class is prolly a little too young for the material in their songs.
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Bob Marley “No Woman, No Cry” Reggae, like Rockabilly, was largely an evolutionary dead end, but it’s influence cannot be discounted. A great song by a great songwriter and performer.
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Talking Heads Stop Making Sense– The best example I can think of for New Wave. A superb work of music.
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Parliament/Funkadelic “Give Up The Funk.”-- Considering it’s influence on later forms (especially Hip-hop and L.A. Funk-rock bands like Janes Addiction and RHCP) Funk cannot be discounted, and this song absolutely brings the house down. If you cover funk, you MUST use P-Funk.
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New Order “Bizzare Love Triangle”-- New Wave meets Electronica. Think The Cure crossed with Kraftwerk.
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Sugar Hill Gang “Rappers Delight”-- First major hip-hop tune. ALso include here Grandmaster Flash and possibly Afrikka Buumbataa.
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Guns and Roses “Paradise City”-- The late 80’s had very little revolutionary music, IMHO, but this song is a great song for 80’s hard rock.
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Nirvana Nevermind– Many poo-poo grunge, but Nirvana really changed the musical scene, and it WAS an exciting time musically, especially when compared to the late 80’s, or the late 90’s. Sure, lots of BAD grunge was out there, but this is a truly classic album. Its influence cannot be discounted.
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Public Enemy Fear of a Black Planet Hip-hop gets political. Well, it had always been political, but this brought major issues facing black america into the spotlight in a serious manner.
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Phish “Bouncing Around The Room”-- The heirs to the Greatful Dead, they bring Jazz into the psychedelic scene and breathe new life into it.
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Moby “Porcelain”-- The most interesting and influential stuff happening right now is in Electronica, and Moby is bringing a lot of that to a wider audience. His entire album Play is easily one of the best of the year, and might make a nice way to close the class, a sort of “where Rock is now” end to it.
There it is. If you asked me tomorrow, I could name 35 different songs and albums I’m sure, but all of these in some way had a HUGE influence on Rock music. I would probably decide which eras/genres you are going to emphasize, and then pick from the above list for examples of each.
I know the kids will really enjoy this, but it is turning out to be quite a project!
