Fever (28 page)

A long parade of Hollywood couples have yet to break down the stereotypes rockers already have: from Taylor and Burton, Fonda and Hayden, Fonda and Turner, Cruise and Kidman, Cruise and Cruz, Russell and Hawn, Willis and Moore, Burt and Loni, Paltrow and Pitt, Roberts and Lovett, Angelina and Billy Bob, Pitt and Aniston—movie couples pale in comparison to rock's variety, verve, and daring. And yet, rock is still waiting for the next John and Yoko to emerge to make good on the progressive promise the former Beatle and his avantgarde wife only began to act out as icons, parents, and aging hipsters. Today's Presley and Monroe would have to be Bruce Springsteen and Tina Turner, even though Turner reigns from a (retired) state of grace. These two lead rock's aging process with a vigor previously reserved for spry blues or country singers, on a scale few could have imagined even ten years ago. There's no telling how many more songs Springsteen still has to write about how it feels for a resentment-ridden son to become a father himself; and given Dylan's resurgence with
Love and Theft
in 2001, his writing chops are apparently ready for more as well—and in Jakob Dylan of the Wallflowers, he has the more famous son to duet with. (One of the great moments of rock big-brotherhood came during the 1996 MTV Video Awards, when Jakob Dylan performed his Wallflowers hit “One Headlight” with Bruce Springsteen. If Julian and Sean Lennon were burdened by a martyred father, Jakob is probably the most burdened of rock progeny whose dad is still an active performer. Springsteen's support seemed to make it all but irrelevant).

If Tina Turner remains retired from the stage, it will only be after touring the world at least three more times than once seemed humanly possible at her pace and performance standards. Mick Jagger's decline into self-parody with the Rolling Stones only makes Turner's retirement seem all the more dignified. Where Turner never did anything so crass as to try and act younger than her six decades (while defying precepts of age beyond description), Jagger persisted in trying to act young (both onstage and off-) and came off looking all the more ravaged for it even while physically taut. As John Leland put it while Jagger marketed his slick yet heartless solo album
Goddess in the Doorway
(2001) to MTV's younger demographic, “We've grown too old for him.”

Hollywood's attempts to catch up were mostly embarrassing.
Thelma and Louise,
Ridley Scott's hit road movie from 1991, set off more than the usual feminist debates, with endorsements from essayists like Ellen Willis, who seemed enamored more of their own idea of the film than of the text itself. Thelma and Louise were feminists posing as dumb cowboys, imitating the worst macho tirades and acting as if that were a step forward. The film wanted you to believe that Geena Davis had never gotten properly laid until seduced by Brad Pitt
twenty-four hours after almost being brutally raped in a parking lot,
and that watching Susan Sarandon parade around in loose T-shirts for a couple hours qualified you as a thoughtful man. Elvis Presley (played by Michael Madsen) even shows up to help bail the women out, and Sarandon treats his softness with derision.

The musical cues gave away the cynicism underneath it all: the theme song was thrown to careerist he-men like Glenn Frey (of the Eagles), who sang “Part of You, Part of Me.” When it should have launched Kelly Willis, this soundtrack erred on the side of received ideas—did anybody really think characters like these wouldn't prefer to listen to Joni Mitchell, Chrissie Hynde, or Bonnie Raitt?

A far better example of the give-and-take that went beyond romance came from an insider with a knack for tweaking macho assumptions. Nick Hornby, one of rock's most popular novelists to emerge in the 1990s, wrote about the male id and all manner of obsessions, sports, fandom, especially in
Fever Pitch, High Fidelity,
and
About a Boy. Fever Pitch
made the most uneven screenplay, but the movie earns a big payoff in its closing moments, as Arsenal upsets Liverpool in the final seconds of a devastating championship soccer match, and the team's lifelong fan Paul Ashworth (Colin Firth) reunites with Sarah Hughes (Ruth Gemmell) in the street party afterwards. The music that wells up beneath their embrace is Carole King and Gerry Goffin's “Goin' Back,” sung by Chrissie Hynde. The song choice is perhaps overly literal for the story, but it finds redemptive strength in this guy's wrenching obsessions, and how the unlikeliest romance can help transcend them. “Goin' Back” was a hit as far back as 1966 for Dusty Springfield, who sang it as a swelling ballad about lost innocence. With fierce quiet, Springfield gave a lusty performance that had ten times the resolve of “I Only Want to Be with You” or “Wishin' and Hopin.'”

I can recall a time

When I wasn't ashamed to reach out to a friend

Now I think I've got

A lot more than just my toys to lend …

A little bit of courage is all we lack

So catch me if you can, I'm goin' back …

The Byrds took the same song to number 89 in the fall of 1967 (on
The Notorious Byrd Brothers
), right as they made the shift toward country-rock. With Roger McGuinn singing lead, they gave the song a wry twist, upending its certainties for a complicated male answer, an awful hope undone by nostalgia.

A key part of rock's story was how much blacks taught whites about freedom, and how the South taught the North about integration. By extension, the gender analogy applied to how much women taught men about power, resilience, and inner strength. Or, to put it another way, how much Chrissie Hynde owed to Dusty Springfield, the Byrds, and Carole King in this left-field song choice, and how much they all owed to each other. Hynde echoed these earlier recordings, and caught some new quivers of her own. She takes on pop's larger gender maze in “Goin' Back,” even more so than she does in any of her Hendrix covers, and glimpses how men can make women feel, how little yet how much it matters, how vexing and liberating the balance between dependence and independence, stubbornness and compromise can be. Only a Smokey Robinson track might have yielded more sublime contradictions.

The sexes remain far apart in rock mythology, but every time the gap narrows, the distance disappears, and the two suddenly seem closer than ever. Because of rock, “the Battle of the Sexes” became an antiquated term, in spite of TV, movies, and most other media. Hollywood has few figures comparable to Elvis, Tina, Smokey, Rosanne, Kurt and Courtney, Bonnie or Bruce. In no other medium could singers cross such boundaries as effortlessly, deciphering gender riddles that freed them to write and sing in the opposite sex's voice without compromising their strength or vulnerability (listen to the White Stripes do “I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself”). Rosanne Cash's delivery made “Man Smart, Woman Smarter” both a rallying cry and a simple observation. Rock men, who risked looking like fools by adopting feminine traits early on, and who remain more powerful, still have a lot to learn, it seems, from rock women.

DISCOGRAPHY

PREFACE

Beatles, The.
Past Masters
(Capitol/EMI, 1988) compiles all the band's Parlophone/Apple singles issued separately from album tracks.

Franklin, Aretha.
Queen of Soul: The Atlantic Recordings
(Rhino, 1992).

Lewis, Smiley.
Shame Shame Shame
(Bear Family, 1994).

Presley, Elvis.
The King of Rock'n'Roll: The Complete 50s Masters
(RCA/BMG, 1992).

Raitt, Bonnie.
Nick of Time
(Capitol/EMI, 1989).

Ronettes, The.
Back to Mono: The Phil Spector Box
(ABKCO, 1992). Also the Crystals, Darlene Love.

Shangri-Las, The.
The Best of the Girl Groups, Volume 1
(Rhino, 1990).

Stewart, Rod. “The Killing of Georgie,”
Night on the Town
(Warner Bros, 1976/2000).

Turner, Tina.
The Collected Recordings—Sixties to Nineties
(Capitol/EMI, 1994).

U2.
Joshua Tree
(Polygram, 1990).

Who, The.
Thirty Years of Maximum R&B
(MCA, 1994).

CHAPTER 1: Are You Lonesome Tonight?

Berry, Chuck.
The Chess Box
(MCA, 1990).

Domino, Fats.
Out of New Orleans
(Bear Family, 1993).

Holly, Buddy.
The Buddy Holly Collection
(MCA, 1993).

Lewis, Jerry Lee.
All Killer, No Filler
(Rhino, 1993).

Lewis, Smiley.
Shame Shame Shame
(Bear Family, 1994).

Lymon, Frankie and the Teenagers,
The Doo-Wop Box
(Rhino, 1994).

Presley, Elvis.
The King of Rock'n'Roll: The Complete 50s Masters
(RCA/BMG, 1992) and
From Nashville to Memphis: The Complete 60s Masters
(RCA/BMG, 1993).

Shangri-Las, The.
The Best of the Girl Groups, Volume 1
(Rhino, 1990). Also The Shirelles.

Nelson, Ricky.
Greatest Hits
(Capitol/EMI, 1992).

CHAPTER 2: Chains

Ballard, Hank and the Midnighters.
Sexy Ways: The Best of Hank Ballard and the Midnighters
(Rhino, 1990).

Beatles, The.
Rubber Soul
(EMI/Capitol, 1965/1987).

Charles, Ray.
The Birth of Soul: The Complete Atlantic Rhythm & Blues Recordings 1952–1959
(Atlantic, 1991).

Coasters, The.
50 Coastin' Classics
(Rhino, 1992).

Bobettes, The.
Remember! The Great Hits from the Girls Groups
(Charly, 1993).

Caravelles, The.
Hard to Find 45s on CD, Volume 2: 1961–64
(Eric Collection, 1996).

Chantels, The.
The Best of the Chantels
(Rhino, 1990).

Chiffons, The.
One Fine Day
(Import, 1994).

Chordettes, The.
Mainly Rock'n'Roll
(Ace, 1990).

Cookies, The.
The Colpix-Dimension Story
(Rhino, 1994).

Gunter, Shirley & the Queens.
The Okey Rhythm & Blues Story 1949–1957
(Sony, 1993).

Hearts, The.
The Very Best of Lee Andrew and the Hearts
(Collectables, 2002).

James, Etta.
Classic Masters
(Virgin, 2003).

Joplin, Janis.
I Got Them Ol' Kozmic Blues Again, Mama!
(Columbia, 1969/1999).

Marvelettes,
Hitsville USA: The Motown Singles Collection
(Motown, 1992).

Orioles, The.
The Doo-Wop Box
(Rhino, 1994).

Presley, Elvis.
The King of Rock'n'Roll: The Complete 50s Masters
(RCA/BMG, 1992).

Rolling Stones, The.
Forty Licks
(Virgin, 2002).

Ronettes, The.
Back to Mono
(ABKCO, 1992). Also The Crystals.

Saint, Cathy.
The Red Bird Story
(Charly, 1991).

Shirelles, The.
25 All Time Greatest Hits
[sic] (Varese Sarabande, 1999).

———.
The Best of the Girl Groups,
Volumes 1 & 2 (Rhino, 1990). Also Lesley Gore, Little Eva, the Dixie Cups, and the Teddy Bears.

Thompon, Hank,
Vintage Hank Thompson
(Capitol, 1996).

Wells, Kitty.
Country Music Hall of Fame Series: Kitty Wells
(MCA, 1991).

CHAPTER 3: Private Dancer

B.E.F. (aka Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh).
Music of Quality and Distinction
(out of print).

Beach Boys, The.
Pet Sounds
(Capitol, 1966).

Brown, James.
Star Time
(Polygram, 1991).

Ikettes, The.
Beg, Scream and Shout!: The Big Ol'Box of 60s Soul
(Rhino, 1997).

King, Ben. E.
Rockin' and Driftin': The Drifters' Box
(Rhino, 1996).

Lauper, Cyndi.
She's So Unusual
(Sony, 1984/2000).

Righteous Brothers, The.
Back to Mono
(ABKCO, 1992). Also the Crystals, Darlene Love, and The Teddy Bears.

Turner, Tina.
The Collected Recordings—Sixties to Nineties
(Capitol/EMI, 1994).

CHAPTER 4: I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself

Banks, Bessie.
The Red Bird Story
(Charly, 1991).

Berry, Chuck.
Chuck Berry: The Chess Box
(MCA, 1988)

Beach Boys, The.
Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of the Beach Boys
(Capitol, 1993).

Blood, Sweat and Tears.
Greatest Hits
(Sony, 1999).

Byrds, The.
The Byrds
(Sony, 1990).

Carter, Clarence.
Chess Soul: A Decade of Chicago's Finest
(Chess, 1997). Also Irma Thomas, Little Milton, Etta James, and Joe Tex.

Cookies, The. “Chains.”
The Best of the Girl Groups, Volumes 1 & 2
(Rhino, 1990). Also Evie Sands.

Dixie Cups, The.
The Very Best of the Dixie Cups
(Rhino, 1993).

Del-Rons, The.
Kiss'n'Tell
(Ace, 1993).

Dixon, Willie.
The Chess Box
(MCA, 1990).

Donays, The.
Kiss'n'Tell
(Ace, 1993).

Fabian.
The Best of Fabian
(Collectables, 1999).

Fontana, Wayne and the Mindbenders.
The Best of Wayne Fontana
(Polygram, 1994).

Gaye, Marvin.
The Master: 1962–84
(Motown/Polygram, 1995). Also contains Gaye's duets with Kim Weston and Tammi Terrell.

Holland, Eddie.
Hitsville USA:The Motown Singles Collection
(Motown, 1992).

Hollies, The.
Greatest Hits
(Capitol, 2003).

Herman's Hermits.
I'm into Something Good
(Point, 1998).