RockRoast

Every now and then, usually when listening to the radio, I worry that rock music is fading from popularity.

It’s a silly thing to worry about, really. I’m not sure there are many types of music that really ever fade away completely. And even if rock were to wither away, modern resources will doubtlessly permit the few remaining acts to continue to produce music for their few remaining fans. But that kind of hypothetical situation really doesn’t matter. Rock isn’t dying out, because David Cook is the new American Idol.

According to Ryan Seacrest’s approximation, there were twelve million more votes for the rocker than there were for the balladeer. Twelve million. The pulse of rock and roll is still strong in America.

I really look forward to David Cook’s studio work. The man has such versatility with his voice and his emotions. It’s something refreshing that a lot of mainstream rock has been lacking in recently. I don’t know much about Cook’s guitar skills or songwriting skills, but as long as he sings his heart out, his stuff should be pretty good.

I suppose I’m acting like some idiotic fanboy, but I seriously can’t wait for him to get recording.

Anyway, I’m glad that David Cook won. He certainly deserved it, and it’s nice to see some nationwide appreciation for a truly great rock vocalist.

“Undertow” by Pain of Salvation has long been one of my favorite songs. I love it for its intensity of emotion and the way it conveys these deep, dark feelings with sincerity and beauty. Pretty much awesome stuff all around.

But another reason why I love “Undertow” is because the whole song seems to serve as a frame for the vocals. Every note played on every instrument is wonderful, but it never upstages the singer and only enhances what the he’s doing. Some of the guitar parts are simply unisons with the vocal melody.

And as the music becomes a backdrop for the singing, the focus shifts to the singer. The song is now defined by the vocal performance, the lyrics being sung, and the emotions with which the lyrics are delivered. And all that maximizes the song’s effect.

There are lots of good songs that suffer from poor vocal performances. Every time I hear Chad Kroeger grunt through “Far Away,” I think of how much better that song could have been with a better voice from a singer who at least acted like he felt some kind of connection with the words he was singing. “Undertow” is driven by the top-notch vocals of Daniel Gildenlow, and his emotional (not to mention eclectic) singing is what made me fall in love with Pain of Salvation.

A few days ago, I was browsing YouTube and came across a live performance of “Undertow.” At first, I was disappointed that the arrangement had been modified from the beloved studio version. But as the song progressed and Gildenlow sang his heart out, I began to realize that, though the arrangement had changed, the song had not—it was simply a different but equally effective backdrop for an unbelievably emotional vocal.

This is how you do music, folks.

Love songs have long been a staple of rock music and many of its various subgenres. That is perhaps why it is so amusing to come across a rock song that seems to give the concept of love the proverbial middle finger. So after a bit of thought and a lot of lyric-reading, I’ve drawn up a list of what I consider to be the least romantic rock songs of all time.

10. Queensryche – Fear City Slide
The main character in the song is sitting there with a gun, contemplating suicide, when the ghost of his dead lover whispers, “Trigger…pull the trigger!” I’m sure the lyrics were meant to lead into a heartwarming reunion in the afterlife. But something about your lover trying to convince you to kill yourself seems a bit wrong.

9. Simon & Garfunkel – I Am a Rock
Somebody’s a little jaded. The narrator of the song hates laughter and loving and has apparently suppressed every kind of positive emotion for fear of being hurt. It’s a pretty bleak song, and not one you often hear a young lad using to serenade a young lass.

8. Muse – Time is Running Out
Don’t play this one during a candlelight dinner. It contains several potentially awkward lines like “I want to break this spell that you’ve created” and “I tried to give you up, but I’m addicted.” But wait for when it all culminates with “you will suck the life out of me.” I really hope that this song is about alcoholism or something, but the amount of personification of the unnamed thing the narrator is talking to worries me that this song really is about a relationship.

7. The Rolling Stones – Under My Thumb
From what I’m told, if you tell a woman you’ll suppress her personality, control her life and generally treat her like an object, she won’t melt like butter. Who knew?

6. The Guess Who – American Woman
So, he’s trying to get rid of this woman that he worries he’s irrationally attracted to. It’s not exactly romantic to begin with, but the icing on the cake is “I got more important things to do/Than spend my time growin’ old with you.” If that’s not a burn, I don’t know what is.

5. Nickelback – Someday
You know the guy’s committed when he promises to fix the relationship “someday…but not right now.” The beginning of the second verse cracks me up, too: “Well I hoped that since we’re here anyway/We could end up saying/Things we’ve always needed to say.” It’s like he’s hoping to patch things up whenever it’s convenient. And the use of “end up” instead of a more voluntary, motivated phrase is also amusing.

4. The Cars – You’re All I’ve Got Tonight
Under the guise of being an “I love you no matter what” song, the lyrics tell a completely different story. I felt like an idiot when I finally realized that the song was really saying, “You’re the best I can get right now, so…I guess I’ll take it.”

3. Porcupine Tree – The Start of Something Beautiful
It’s not exactly a love song to begin with, but when the chorus kicks in things go sour pretty quickly. The chorus contains one of the most casual, dispassionate let-downs of all time: “Innocent, the time we spent, forgot to mention we’re good friends.” That, followed by the cruel, “You thought it was the start of something beautiful? Well, think again” makes this song deliciously unromantic. Whoever the narrator was talking to just got emotionally destroyed.

2. Meat Loaf – Paradise by the Dashboard Light
After spending well over five minutes telling the story of two teenagers making love in a car, this song takes an ironic twist. The female character convinces the male character to promise to love her until the end of time. Immediately following that, the male character claims that he is “praying for the end of time to hurry up and arrive,” because he can’t stand the woman anymore and he’s anxious to be free of her. That’s such a horrible thing to say that, quite honestly, it makes me laugh every time I hear it.

1. Violent Femmes – Ugly
It’s song about a guy who doesn’t like some ugly person. And to add insult to insult, singer Gordon Gano begins chanting and screaming “Ugly!” at the end of the song, just to make sure he got his message across properly.

How’s that for pillow talk?