Rock on

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Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Singles
Rock on
  DE 44 11/19/1973 (2 weeks)
  UK 3 08/18/1973 (11 weeks)
  US 5 11/10/1973 (25 weeks)

Rock On is a 1973 David Essex song , written by him and produced by Jeff Wayne . It appeared on the album of the same name.

history

The song contains a slow vocal performance in C sharp minor and a minimalist rhythmic instrumentation, with influences from reggae and dub . The lyrics are a tribute to former rock 'n' roll stars, 1950s youth culture and James Dean (although both he and the musician of the same name are performed under the name Jimmy Dean ).

Jeff Wayne was responsible for the strikingly reserved arrangement:

"Rock On" was shown to me in the studio after I finished the jingle sessions. And the way David played the song to me was that he went into the studio, our sound engineer gave him a microphone and he gave himself a microphone and drummed the rhythm because there were no instruments. Since there were no instruments, the sound engineer also tuned in the echo, ensured the atmosphere was acceptable and then work began. I went away and thought about the song and the attraction was in the depth and the mood in the singing. And that's how I came up with the idea that nobody plays a chord, therefore no keyboards and guitars. "

“When David wrote Rock On, it was a song that, from my perspective as an arranger and producer, gave me a lot more adventurous ideas and a concept of sound. A ballad is a ballad while we hit the wall with Rock On, it was a gamble and a bit of a struggle to wave it through. But David and I felt that Rock On was going to be a groundbreaking record. If it were a ballad, it would be a short-term success and there would be no musical difference. "

According to Wayne, only three studio musicians played on the song, the most prominent of them being the experienced musician Herbie Flowers , who uses his "slapback delay" effect with his two-pronged bass guitar and creates a complex polyrhythmic backbeat:

“I can remember the three studio musicians who worked with us, who looked around the mostly empty Advision Studios in Studio 1 to see if the rest of the musicians were coming. I explained: There are no others I can count on to understand my ideas. While the drum and percussion parts were being written, it was definitely Herbie who immediately understood that a bass guitar with a lead riff would be an option that could fill the song out great, he took my idea, made a few notes and constructed its amazing bass riff. Finally, he suggested playing it an octave higher. So this unusual bass sound was in the foreground. - That would never have been possible if we had had so little artistic freedom. "

Flower noted that he was being charged 24 pounds an hour instead of the usual 12 pounds for his work. Flowers also played a similar double-track bassline on Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side, and in an interview with BBC Radio 4 he stated that he did it just because he was going to be paid double.

The release was on August 1, 1973, in Canada the glam rock and blues rock song , which can be assigned to the music genres, became a number one hit.

In 1988 Shep Pettibone released a remix of the song, which appeared on Essex's compilation His Greatest Hits and reached number 93 in the British charts. This version is heard in the films I Love Dick , The Devil's Rejects, and in a few episodes of The Sopranos and Cold Case - No Victim Is Ever Forgotten .

Cover version by Michael Damian

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Singles
Rock on
  DE 45 07/03/1989 (9 weeks)
  US 1Template: Infobox chart placements / maintenance / NR1 link 03/18/1989 (21 weeks)

In 1989 Michael Damian covered Rock On, which appeared on the album Where Do We Go From Here and is the soundtrack of the film Dream a Little Dream . Compared to the original, the cover is much harder and does not have any "distortions" in the musical or vocals. A synthesizer was also used here. The cover corresponds to the music genres glam rock and synth pop . It was released on March 17, 1989, and it became a number one hit in the United States and Canada. In VH1s list 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 80s this cover was ranked 100th

Other covers

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chart placements: chartsurfer.de . Retrieved June 7, 2018.
  2. ↑ Steve Hoffman Music Forums - Your Thoughts on David Essex's Rock On
  3. ↑ Chart placements: chartsurfer.de . Retrieved June 7, 2018.