"Rock and Roll" by Lou Reed
The Velvet Underground: Loaded, 1970.
Jenny said when she was just five years old
"You know there's nothing happening at all."
Every time she puts on the radio
There was nothing goin' down at all
Then one fine mornin' she puts on a New York station
She couldn't believe what she heard at all
She started dancin' to that fine fine music
You know her life was saved by Rock 'n' Roll
Despite all the amputations
You could just dance to a rock 'n' roll station
Jenny said when she was just five years old
"My parents are gonna be the death of us all
Two TV sets and two Cadillac cars--
It ain't gonna help us at all."
Then one fine mornin' she puts on a New York station
She don't believe what she heard at all
She started dancin' to that fine fine music
You know her life was saved by Rock 'n' Roll
Despite all the computations
You could just dance to a rock 'n ' roll station
and baby, it was alright.
I got my first, personal radio when I was about five. My dad was crazy enough to trust me with that piece of electronica, and little did he know what was being unleashed.
Rock and Roll was my salvation. When I lost my dad, there was rock and roll. When I lost faith in God, there was rock and roll. When my boyfriend left me, there was rock and roll. On those lonely nights in high school, where everyone else was at parties or getting laid or getting stoned, I was listening to The Replacements, Husker Du, R.E.M., Nirvana, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Velvet Underground, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, The Pixies, Dead Kennedys, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash (who IS rock and roll), David Bowie, Janis Joplin, Pattie Smith, Joan Jett, the Clash, The Stooges... and the list goes on, growing, filled like the ocean.
So why? What is it about this one little genre of music? Is it the beat? The sound of an electric guitar? The power of a voice? The songs? The songs vary from incredible lyrical complexity to almost-ridiculous simplicity. What is it? The outlaw nature? The experimentation? The implications of sex? Drugs? Mind expansion? Revolution?
Fuck that.
Real rock and roll says "yes--you can do this too." Or at least, "yes--there are others like you." Rock and roll simply says "this is life--get off your ass and live it." Don't be boring. Don't settle. Be it. And if you fail, what the hell--turn on the radio, and there's someone saying we understand failure, too.
Rock and roll--a term once meaning sex--is life.
There are millions of us, lyin' in bed, with the headphones on, tuning the radio, searching the airwaves, hoping to hear transcendence. 'Cause you know what baby? It's alright.