The Rise and Fall of Whisky Rock (Eng Paper #2)

Justin Purvis
3/22/09
Eng 102-J016
M. Benton

The Rise and Fall of Whisky Rock

Music genres are created to stand for a number of reasons. Some genre’s intent is to get present a message to its listeners or maybe to bring a new type of sound to the table. In my mind different types of music are created to reflect different things to its audience. Some genres reflect a simple unique sound appealing to its listener but some genre’s represent much more. Southern rock has reflected a way of life for Southerners since the genre planted its roots in the late 1960’s. My intent in this essay is to explore all aspects of southern rock, from its formation in the deep south to the racist and “redneck” identity it assumed throughout its popularity. Also I will highlight many of the important artists that contributed to the genre’s proud history. Overall you will see how southern rock has evolved through the years but still appreciates and holds close to its roots.
First off what exactly is southern rock and where did it come from? Most people would obviously say southern rock started in the south. That idea is true to an extent. But actually the sound of southern rock was first heard from two bands, one from California and one from Canada. Creedence Clearwater Revival a band from northern California and “The Band” from Canada were the first two significantly popular bands to introduce the southern twang to the media. While both bands carried an ideal southern swagger in the sound of their music they are labeled more towards classic rock than southern by most music critics. So what artists from the south first started the notion of “southern” rock? In 1969 a band out of Macon Georgia, calling themselves The Allman Brothers debuted and quickly gained respect of southerners with their music that crossed genre’s such a blues, jazz, and classic rock into a specific sound that also had key elements from country and folk music in its structure. In 1971 the band released Fillmore East a commercially successful album that became a spearhead for what others termed southern rock (Szatmary). Time Magazine termed the pop music scene (referring to the Allman Bothers) at the time to be “a roaring pulsating paradox of sound-the white man singing the black man’s blues” (Szatmary). While the bands popularity continued to flourish over the next four years the band came to a complete stop in 1971 when the band lost their leader and main guitarist Duane Allman due to a motor cycle accident. But this unfortunate event did not hurt the bands ongoing popularity until the broke up in 1976 (White).
In the early seventies more bands from the south carrying sounds similar to the Allman Brothers started appearing and immediately gained respect from southern people. The distinct sound of southern rock at this time was rock and roll mixed with country but a lot of bands had elements of folk and blues showing in either its instrument make up or lyrics. Seventies southern rock bands like The Marshall Tucker Band and The Charlie Daniels band were unique to the genre because of their ways of incorporating southern instruments such as fiddles and harmonicas into their rock sound. While bands like ZZ Top from Texas and Lynyrd Skynyrd from Florida were gaining popularity due to their ability to put a southern spin into their hard rock style of music. These bands were entertaining, aggressive and in all fun to listen to. Lynyrd Skynyrd’s tone and stage presence was described by John Swenson author of Tales of Southern Rock Survival as “interlacing ropes of electric guitar lines crackling through the mix, a sound that created mayhem despite its carefully calculated precision” (Swenson). Their songs a lot of the times told stories and showed a lot about the bands past proving true to southern tradition. This powerful band from Florida went on to create many legendary songs such as “Free Bird” and “Sweet Home Alabama” that are held in most people’s common knowledge even today.
The southern pastimes of gun fights, cowboys, and whisky were often popular subjects in their music stating bands were proud of their southern heritage. Their music reflected a southern way of life in its lyrics as well as in their appearance. Long beards, rebel flags, sunglasses, and cowboy hats all belonged to southern rocks public image at this time. This new found sound was simply rock n’ roll, southern style.
As the popularity for this emerging genre grew so did its criticism. Southern rock began receiving stereotypes such as “redneck” or “rebel” rock. Ideas such as racism began to cling to the image of southern rock. These rugged characteristics were thought to be the personality of the southern male, were they correct, well maybe. This made the fan base of the genre mostly consist of white men and women a lot of the times from southern states. Popular southern songs such as “The South’s Gonna Do It Again” produced by the Charlie Daniels Band in 1975 didn’t help the bands rebel image. In all reality southern rock groups through the years have stayed true to their initial image, and not really cared about negative criticism. Throughout the seventies southern rock continued to grow more and more popular. Barefoot Jerry, .38 Special, The Outlaws and Molly Hatchet all were popular southern rock bands of the seventies that continued to expand the growing genre. None of these bands were exactly made up musically or instrumentally alike but all carried the same southern rock attitude.
The beginning of the eighties affected music society greatly by applying music in television and music videos to people’s everyday life. This only helped to continue southern rocks ongoing popularity with the American public. Also the southern rock sound started venturing overseas and influencing bands in countries besides the United States. Legendary bands like A/C D/C from Australia and Def Leopard from Britain both began showing appreciation and approval for the southern rock sound. The rebel flag logo began being famous in rock star fashion. The lead singer of A/C D/C Bon Scott began wearing a belt buckle of the rebel flag during stage performances (White).
Now in the 90’s there was a shift in southern rocks role play in the music world. Bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd and ZZ Top’s popularity continued to show on the radio with classic songs such as “Free Bird”, “La Grange”, and “Sweet Home Alabama”. The identity of southern rock at this time shifted from playing shows/concerts not too far from home to acquiring the stereotype of arena rock. Basically popular southern bands started touring and enjoyed a large pay raise due to their efforts. Throughout the eighties southern rock’s popularity stood steady and continued to be more and more accepted by other musical artists during that time. Even emerging artists (not thought to be southern rock artists) such as Blind Melon and Stevie Ray Vaughn showed signs of the southern rock influence in their music. This growing trend really helped establish southern rock as a permanent music genre instead of just thought to be southerner’s rock and roll.
Now after the 90’s passed southern rock sort of flat lined in the idea that popularity didn’t diminish for the genre, but the real southern rock musicians stopped coming out with new music. But although artists stopped producing southern rock albums, offspring’s of the genre started to surface. Post Grunge Bands started to emerge during this period, these bands while having elements of 90’s grunge in their sound also incorporated southern sounds into their music. Bands such as Shinedown, 3 Doors Down, 12 Stones, and Default all enjoyed time in the musical spotlight. Kings of Leon an alternative band from Nashville music style was described as “taking the southern rock of the late 1960s and early 1970s -- already a hybrid -- and fusing it further”(Pareles). Shinedown a popular hard rock band from Jacksonville, Florida (the same place Lynyrd Skynyrd was from) showed the appreciation for their roots by covering Lynyrd Skynyrd’s classic song “simple man” in late 2004. This cover showed immediate popularity to the new age listeners of modern rock as well as classic southern rock fans.
Now days in 2009 southern rock still has its respect but unfortunately is losing its popularity. The most recent famous artist to try to produce modern day southern rock is the Hip Hop rocker from Detroit who calls himself Kid Rock. While his music is well known and in some places very popular I think anyone who is a fan of true southern rock will admit that good southern rock is long gone, now we are just seeing acts trying to continue the genre but failing. I think the idea that classic music is made classic by the time period it arrives in applies when talking about southern rock. I like being able to agree with my grandparents when I hear them say some music genre’s today just aren’t the same as they were in the past. In that assumption it almost feels as if music of today’s society has lost its soul and uniqueness.
About six months ago I was able to see Dickey Betts (guitarist from the Allman Brothers) at a concert in Louisville, Ky. My mind after leaving the show was wrapped around the idea that you just don’t see or hear music with that sense of purity in today’s world. Maybe I’m just a fan of the classics but it almost seems like music coming out today is losing its individuality and starting to blur together into just modern day music. Hit songs today can have meaningless cheesy lyrics and all sounds are processed through five different machines before reaching the fan’s ears. These are common day tendencies that really make me appreciate classic southern rock and really any type of classic music produced when musicians were deprived of the technological advances we have today.
So who knows what will happen to the genre of southern rock. The likeliness genuine bands will revive the true sound of southern rock, not likely. But that’s okay in my mind the idea of a genre dying out in a sense makes its inventors more special and irreplaceable. That’s why true southern rock music is dead and gone and I don’t think any band or artist could protest.
But not to fret, even though in my opinion the true identity of southern rock cannot be revived because of social standards and virtues consisting in today’s world, I still think the genre will live on. Martin Scorsese even agrees in his conversation with music enthusiast Levon Helm that Rock n Roll is equivalent to a melting pot (McKeen). This melting pot consists of everything that has happened musically since the first string was plucked or first drum was stroked. There are no limitations on what type of music, what genre, or who is playing the music, it all goes into this giant pot consisting of music through the years. This idea of music has always been growing and evolving from one genre to the next, whether we have noticed it or not it is simply unstoppable. In my opinion it always will be. As for southern rock I don’t think there will be any renaissance or “rebirth” of true southern rock anytime in the near future. But as a true southerner I’m content with saying that we have left our mark and that is good enough for me.




Sources Cited
McKeen, William. Rock and Roll Is Here To Stay. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000.
Pareles, John. “Good Old Southern Rock, With Some Modern Touches”. New York Times. January 31st, 2009. http://blc-lrc.bluegrass.kctcs.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=36306856&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Swenson, John. “Interview”. Billboard. December 5th 1998. http://blc-lrc.bluegrass.kctcs.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=1342847&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Szatmary, David. Rockin In Time. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2000.
White , David. "Southern Rock 101". About.com. March, 3rd 2005. http://classicrock.about.com/od/history/a/southern_rock.htm