When we lived in California in the early 90s, I became aware at that time, and I’m not sure the UK has caught up yet, that rock music, especially what was defined as classic rock, was everywhere in a way it wasn’t in Britain.
For example, we went to the Hotel Mondrian on Sunset Boulevard in L..A. for breakfast. As we walked in they were playing Moon Tears by Grin, not even the popular live recording by Nils Lofgren. Now tell me a hotel in the UK that would do that. Peter Buck from REM was walking in at the same time holding a Johnny Cash album. Of course he was.
We went into Fashion Island in Newport Beach and in the open air, through speakers in the planters, came the gentle sounds of early James Taylor and Carole King. In Henderson in Las Vegas, in an open air mall, the speakers were pumping out Mississippi Queen by Mountain and Still Alive And Well by Johnny Winter.
A supermarket in Laguna Beach, Albertson’s, in between the usual musack played Turn To Stone by Joe Walsh and Barnstorm. I imagined that a freak had infiltrated into the PA system and sneaked in some good sounds
I can’t say how this made doing the mundanities of life so much better. Back in ‘93 there was little rock on the radio, so imagine how great it was driving up Pacific Coast Highway, blasting out Neil Young’s Cinnamon Girl.
I don’t know why this isn’t commonplace now. I don’t expect to hear deep cuts from Richie Havens records but places that play musack could be playing the Beatles or Fleetwood Mac. I suppose it costs money but the public experience is immensely improved.
Ironically, the one place you might’ve expected to hear rock music was in the Hard Rock Cafe, which we used to go to all the time. Except virtually the last thing you hear at the Hard Rock is hard rock. And if you notice the clientele almost certainly do not own a Captain Beyond or Steamhammer album, let alone anything by Hawkwind or Steve Hillage. Such is the extent of corporatism’s creep. I remember going to the Hard Rock near Hyde Park in 1986 and it was full of things that musicians had played, not just donated without playing. It was so different from now. Much more of a rock oasis in the straight world desert.
I recall seeing Hendrix’s white flying v and feeling it was like a kind of holy relic. I’m sure I saw The Fool SG guitar in a L.A. Hard Rock donated by Todd Rundgren. It was above the bar. I was very excited.
The point here is good rock music is a great accompaniment to everyday life and incredibly broad and wide, so why isn’t it routinely used in every public space?
