![Richard Hell And The Voidoids - Blank Generation [1977] cover](http://www.jensunmack.dk/wordpress-3/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Richard-Hell-And-The-Voidoids-Blank-Generation-1977-cover.jpg)
Rock and roll is about natural grace, about style and instinct. Also the inherent physical beauty of youth, You don’t have to play guitar well or, by any conventional standard, sing well to make great rock and roll; you just have to have it, have to be able to recognize it, have to get it. And half of that is simply being young, meaning full of crazed sex drive and sensitivity to the object of romantic and sexual desire, and full of anger about all the lies you’re being fed, and all the control you’ve been subjected to, by those complacent adults. And a deep desire for some fun. And though rock and roll is about being cool, you don’t have to be cool to make real rock and roll – sometimes the most innocuos and pathetic fumblers only become graced by the way they shine in songs. And this is half of what makes the music the art of adolescence – that i doesn’t require any verifiable skill. It’s all essence, and it’s available to those who, to all appearances, have nothing.
Richard Hell i I Dreamed I Was A Very Clean Tramp, 2013.
Nej, rocknroll handler ikke ‘kun’ om vrede unge mænd, men vrede, eller måske snarere en skarp følelse af indignation, samt den af Hell omtalte rasende sult på livet efter sex og kærlighed, er brændstoffet i langt det meste sunde rocknroll.
Og Hell giver dig (synes jeg) 100% ret omkring Billy Idol, der på papiret måske gør det rigtige, men alligevel fejler så stort, fordi han bare ikke har forståelsen (= evnen!) og sikkert heller ikke de rigtige motiver for det han laver. Han forbliver MTV-karrikatur, en tegneserierockstar, og sikkert alt for selvforelsket i sit endimensionelle platinblonde udseende.
Nu handler rock og rul vel ikke *kun* om vrede unge mænd, selvom det nok er hovedingrediensen…
Omvendt kan den seje punk-attitude godt blive til noget, der ikke rocker særligt meget. (Eksempel: Billy Idol.)
Jeg kom også til at tænke på disse linier fra “Mr. Jones” med Counting Crows:
“I want to be Bob Dylan
Mr. Jones wishes he was someone just a little more funky
When everybody loves you, son, that’s just about as funky as you can be…”