The other night I was listening to Pandora, and I popped on a Neil Young radio station. It had been a pretty stressful day, but as soon as “Heart of Gold” came on, I felt a chill state of mind descend over me. It literally felt as if my blood pressure had slowed, the racing thoughts in my head calmed down, my muscles relaxed, and my breathing became deeper and slower.
That is what good music does for me.
I grew up in the 80’s, and hip hop, arena rock, synth pop and metal were what I listened to. But I have two older brothers, and because of them I also enjoyed music from the 60’s and 70’s.
So Neil Young has always been right in my wheelhouse. I first heard him in 1988, when I was 14 and a freshman at Stuyvesant high school in New York City. My brother Ken brought home a tape of Neil Young and Crazy Horse, “Live Rust.” It was a live concert album. I had never heard Neil before, but I eagerly put the tape into my walkman.
I was instantly mesmerized. It was a concert album that felt like it took place at a county fair. Everyone in the audience was just absolutely chill and happy. There are so many great songs on the album I won’t mention them all, but a few of my favorites were “Sugar Mountain,” “My My Hey Hey,” and “When You Dance I Can Really Love.”
The biggest thing about Neil Young, apart from his obviously incredible talent, is that he keeps it simple. A guitar. A bass guitar. Drums. A keyboard. A piano. A Harmonica. And Neil’s haunting vocals. That’s it, that’s all she wrote.
If you compare that to today’s top pop stars, such as Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez and Miley Cyrus, the difference is shocking. Current pop is all about noise, busy sound production, computer engineering, auto-tune, and disembodied electronic noise.
Don’t get me wrong. I love Selena, she’s super hot, and I dig the Chainsmokers and Ed Sheeran. The Beebs I can do without, but then that’s probably the way most folks feel. And I like Taylor too. I mean, how can you not like a tall lanky beautiful blond American princess?
But it’s not music. Not in the way that Neil Young, Marvin Gaye, Fleetwood Mac, Madonna, Prince, Phil Collins, a Tribe Called Quest, and Bon Jovi were music. What I mean is that during each decade, from the 60’s to the 2010’s, pop music got busier, noisier, louder, more computer engineered and produced, and less about real people playing instruments and singing songs.
I mean who actually plays an instrument these days? There was a big hubub during the 2015 Grammy’s when Beck won the grammy for Best Album over Beyonce, and Kanye West crashed the stage and said Beck should have given the award to Beyonce. Twitter was abuzz with blazing cries that Beck was the more skilled performer, and that after all he played 12, count ‘em 12, instruments and Beyonce played none.
But Beck, skilled as he is, still plays a computer-heavy sound that is fully artificially engineered, not the casual guitar, bass and drums that you might hear at a local bar.
They say the 60’s really began in 1965, at least if you’re talking about the anti-war, activist, civil rights, free-love era. And it was during that the worlds of art, music, politics and the global affairs underwent seismic shifts, and you had major acts like Cream and Jimi Hendrix hit the scene.
When you listen to Hendrix’s “Hey Joe,” what you hear is a heavy bass guitar backing, languid drums, and sweet soulful female vocals.
And then there’s Jimmy. His voice attacks the air, cutting a swath of energy, passion, violence, and love, all at the same time. I mean, listen to these lyrics:
“Hey Joe, where you going with that gun in your hand? I’m going down to shoot my old lady, you know I caught her messin round with another man.”
Really? Like WTF! That is some crazy shit Jimi. I’ve had a few passionate affairs of my own, and I was even cheated on once. But I never planned homicide in response. And it’s so interesting to think of how a classic 60’s rock song like this would be received today, in the era of #MeToo, Louis CK, Charlie Rose and Matt Lauer. I don’t think it would be received well.
But the whole point I’m trying to make is that in “Hey Joe,” while Jimi’s lyrics are powerful and passionate, the song is a slow-moving, relaxed affair. And it just chills you out. Calms you right the hell down.
When we move to the 70’s, things get a little louder, and a little busier, but still remain relatively calm. Major hits of the decade included Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” The Eagles’ “Hotel California,” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Rhiannon.”
So if we listen to the classic, vastly overplayed but still powerful “Stairway,” we notice a few things. The first is that it clocks in at an incredibly long 8 minutes and two seconds. No way a modern pop song could get away with that. People’s attention spans are just too short.
The song opens with a quiet set of four recorders singing singing away and the gentle strums of a six-string guitar. The lyrics come on about 45 seconds in, and it’s Robert Plant’s soulful British angst-filled and passionate voice.
As the song progresses, the guitars glide mellowly along, the electric piano wails, and Robert Plant talks about “a feeling I get, when I look to the West, and my spirit is crying for leaving.” All in all, it’s a beautiful, peaceful, soulful, loving song.
However, towards the middle of the track, the guitar riffs get a little harder, Plant’s vocals get a little louder, and there is a feeling of change in the air.
And then the drums come in. Bang! Now we have rock and roll, and a more raw, visceral sound. It’s still mellow, but it’s definitely louder.
Now Plant is telling us that: “Your head is humming and it won’t go, in case you don’t know, the piper’s calling you to join him.” So there’s no more warm and fuzzy feelings about looking to the West, and an altogether more ominous tone has set in.
A long and loud guitar and drum crescendo follows, and then Plant’s voice become a raspy, violent, loud and raw lightning bolt. He cries out: “There walks a lady we all know, who shines white light and wants to show, how everything still turns to gold!”
It’s fast, it’s hardcore, and it’s heavy. The brain cells begin to flit, neurons begin to charge and neuropathways to activate, and and your mind is buzzing. At that point you’re totally lost in an electronic rock and roll orgasm of energy.
The finale of the song are those words enshrined in rock and roll’s origin story, specifically: “And she’s buying a stairway…. To heaven,” sung in a smooth, soft, velvety voice.
And then Plant is gone, so is the guitar, and we are left feeling tired and spent, but at the same time relaxed, happy and content.
So all in all, things pick up a little in the 70’s with “Stairway,” but the general vibe is still love, mellow days and chill reminiscence.
When we move to the 80’s, hip hop begins to exert its influence, but to a large extent bubble gum pop still reigns supreme. Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” is a classic example, and it’s also the first time we can hear a real, defined shift from the spare vocals, two guitars, and drums of the 60’s and 70’s to Madonna’s synthesizer and electric-infused jazzy, fast-moving tracks. The pounding drum machine, reverb guitar and synthesizer combine to produce a dizzying display of pop confusion and anarchy. Don’t get me wrong, “Like a Virgin” is a great song, and I really like it. I was 10 when it was released, and I was as mesmerized as the rest of America by Madonna’s sexy visage and powerful lyrics.
But it’s a very busy, and very loud, song. I mean there’s a lot going on, and you feel like your brain has been plugged into the Internet for the 3 minutes 38 seconds that the song runs for. So it’s a great song, but it’s also a stressful song, is what I’m trying to say. It’s a major shift away from “Hey Joe,” and “Stairway to Heaven.” It’s just louder, in every respect.
By the 90’s, we’re getting into what I call chaotic territory, with pop and hip hop getting more and more studio and computer engineered, noisier, and more disturbing, atonal and disruptive. The biggest band of the 90’s was undoubtedly Nirvana. Although they were short-lived due to the great Kurt Cobain’s death, they laid the foundation for a decade’s worth of grunge music.
And “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is not only their debut and breakthrough hit, but also their Magnum Opus. The song opens with a chorus of raging guitars violently blazing a path through the night. Then Kurt Cobain’s haunting and tortured vocals appear above the backing of hardcore guitar progressions. The drums wail, the guitars burn, and Curt screams his pain out.
It sounds like Kurt Cobain’s voice is on reverb, and his lyrics bore a laser through the soul. He’s singing about teen angst and alienation, and it’s one of the most powerful songs I’ve ever heard.
At the same time, it’s also one of the most disturbing, violent, self-loathing, and ADD-ridden songs ever recorded. It tears a hole through your cerebral cortex and makes a zigzag run through your amygdala.
So that’s music in the 90’s. It’s even crazier than the past decades.
Now we move to the 2000’s, and some of the decade’s biggest hits included Rihanna’s “Umbrella,” Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face,” and Snoop Dogg’s “Drop it Like It’s Hot.” “Drop it Like It’s Hot” is a mega-hit that features a young and up and coming Pharrell Williams, and it’s a great track. I mean, I really like it.
Snoop raps his tale of male success as an urban gangster playboy capitalist with a mean streak and a heart of gold. The sound is hectic, chaotic, synthesized, digitized, drum machine enhanced, and sample-heavy. It’s a great song, and I really dig it, but it’s also, like, really stressful. As in, my heart starts to race as I hear it, and not necessarily in a good way.
If “Hey Joe” was languid and soulful, Snoop’s “Drop It Like It’s Hot” is frenetic and contrived.
The last decade we’ll look at is the 2010’s, which obviously aren’t done yet. But big hits so far have included “Shape of You,” by Ed Sheeran, “All of Me,” by John Legend and “Wrecking Ball” by Miley Cyrus. “Wrecking Ball” opens with a synth-induced keyboard syncopation accompanied by Miley’s poignant and vulnerable voice.
But when the chorus hits, we’re collectively assaulted by Miley’s suddenly angry, wailing vocals, an electronic-laden back beat, and drums blaring like a cavalry charge. There’s also just a very heavy, thick, exhausting sound in the air.
Don’t get me wrong. I like Miley Cyrus. I think she’s an incredible performer. But the music is a frontal assault on the brain, and it stresses you out in a major way. When I compare it to Hendrix’s “Hey Joe” or Cream’s “White Room,” it’s like mainlining heroin versus having two Equals in your coffee instead of one.
So basically what I’m trying to say is that today’s music is still really awesome compared to the 60’s and 70’s, but it’s also a lot more stressful and draining. Just like our 2017 Internet-driven world is a lot more stressful, digitally and culturally, than when Led Zeppelin released “Stairway to Heaven” in 1971.
I’m not sure which I like better, but I do know that when I want to relax, I always turn to music from the 60’s and 70’s. Because whether or not I’m right, it seemed like a simpler time. And simple is good. Very good.
