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Reason To Rock-It's All About The Music

© Marianne Moro

Most of the current books and articles about rock music focus on personality and scandal more than the songs that brought the artists to our attention in the first place. Although thoughtful, no-frills treatises on rock'n'roll are harder to find than fluff, they are well worth the search. One such text is Herb Bowie's web book Reason To Rock. Examining and deconstructing songs such as Sympathy For The Devil and Rain (by the Beatles, not Madonna), Bowie proves that there is more to many rock songs than initially meets the ear. I recently conducted an interview with Herb via e-mail. Here is the first half of the interview; the second half will be posted next week.

1. First off, I must say I enjoyed Reason To Rock very much-it was a breath of fresh air, as most analysis of rock music tends to be too academic or too critical and dismissive. I enjoyed the way you concentrated on the songs themselves and not the controversy or personalities surrounding them. How did you decide what songs to use in Reason to Rock?

I really chose the songs that have had the deepest impact on me. These are songs I have listened to repeatedly over a period of thirty or forty years, and that still touch me in some deep way when I listen to them. I tried to choose songs that hadn't been commercially over-exposed, although there are a few of these on the list, like "Rosalita" and "Sympathy for the Devil", just because they are such great recordings. To some extent, looking back on my selections, I would have to say I chose songs that have some hidden depths, that don't immediately reveal all they have to offer.

What I found interesting was that, when I first chose each song, I generally had very little idea what I might say about it. It was through the process of repeated listening, of letting each song impact me, and noticing very detailed effects each piece of the song had on me, that I found what I wanted to say about them.

2. Why do you think that, even today, after over 40 years of rock 'n' roll, most critics don't view it as a legitimate art form?

I think there are a number of reasons. Let me mention three.

First, the music has been so omnipresent in our lives -- we hear it on the radio, on CDs, in movie soundtracks, as background to commercials

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