I started thinking, for any quality even to be considered as the essence of rock and roll, that quality must be observable in the music of its king, Elvis Presley. Elvis sang a lot of happy songs about happy things (e.g. Good Luck Charm, All Shook Up, Viva Las Vegas) and sad songs about sad things (e.g. Heartbreak Hotel, Crying in the Chapel, In the Ghetto), but it took me awhile to find any bonafide examples of happy songs about sad things by Elvis.

I did find one that possibly fits: Return to Sender. There may be others, depending on your exact criteria for "happy" and "sad," but I don't think they were a mojor part of his ouvre.

A really good balance between sorrowful and sprightly: "Kentucky Rain." In lesser hands, this would have dragged out lugubriously.

I tend to prefer "I Know You're Out There Somewhere" from 1988's "Sur la Mer."

I take back what I said earlier about your musical taste improving.

Technically aren't those two songs pop rather than rock? At the very least they are MOR.

Well, they're certainly staples on Adult Contemporary (aka "Dentist-Office") stations.

I've been thinking more about this sad song thing.
I think Mama Cass's song I Can Dream Can't I is really a pretty sad song. It has stuff in there about drinking, wine, her heart is a sad affair,
there's disillusion there, etc. That's really pretty sad. Actually that's very sad. I also think Barry Manilow's Copacabana is sad. There's Lola, Rico,
Tony and then she gets old and she's drinking.
Anyway, those are my two choices. I have more choices and I will be analyzing them on my blog.
I haven't decided what to title my analyzation yet, but I'm sure I'll come up with something.
It probably won't be clever, but still I'm definitely back in the game. Because when you're a writer, you just are. You can't help it. Like Christopher Hitchens says, it's hard to go one day without it. I'm pretty sure that's what he said.
Well it was close to that, maybe not word for word. And he meant writing. I'll look it up.
Anyway, those are my choices.

"Fools rush in, so here I am,
Very glad to be unhappy..."

That one always stuck in the back of the brain/heart/spleen [choose one] for some reason.

(Mental note: Sheesh. Look at yourself. If you had a sense of humor you would laugh to beat the band.)

I don't buy the central premise. True 'Rock 'n' roll' is rooted in Rockabilly, which is/was essentially joyful and beat-dependent. I don't even consider most of what the Moody Blues did ('Wildest Dreams' aside) to be rock 'n' roll. They were mainly bluesy and, um, moody. Bands like the Doobie Brothers are further removed from rock's roots, hanging on to its coattails. In fact, a lot of what lazily gets lumped under 'rock' - wasn't. Was 'Yellow Submarine' rock? 'Course not, it was a nursery rhyme for overage toddlers. Just because they used an electric guitar doesn't make it rock.

A lot of what gets called 'rock' probably needs to be reclassified as 'pop'. That works for probably the majority of what the Beatles did, along with the Mamas and Papas, Donovan and most of the 60's stuff we hear in TV commercials today aside from the Stones and Led Zeppelin.

Elvis started out doing rockabilly, evolved to rock when he branched out to reach the masses ('Hound Dog' straddles the rockabilly/rock fence, 'Teddy Bear' crosses over to rock), then started in on ballads when he became more icon than rock star ("I Can't Help Falling in Love with You").

I don't see rock being "happy songs about sad things," at all. COUNTRY, maybe.

Actually, it's not the central premise; it's simply one angle I thought I'd bring out. ("Someone once said" hardly qualifies as an appeal to authority.) Besides, most of my grounding is in R&B, an area the Moodies more or less abandoned once Justin Hayward and John Lodge came aboard. (After "Go Now," in other words.)

Usually the lead sentence (or two) in an article (or book, report, post) establishes the tone/premise/concept/[insert term here] for the entire piece. It's sort of a summary, foreshadowing, or reader guide.

But it's your piece, so if that's not your central premise, it's not. Just give me the contact info for 'someone' and I'll go have a talk with him.

I should have added, I guess, that this is the 'rule' for "well written" pieces. I learned everything I needed to know about writing structure in the eighth grade, from Mr. Walsh, and have used it in my professional writing (I write ads, annual reports, etc.) ever since. I never learned anything more substantial or helpful about form and structure from any teacher since that time.

Maybe that says something about ME of course.

I note that most of your posts (such as the subsequent one and the previous one) do adhere to this concept. Whether a writer knows it or not, this is what one winds up doing. It's effective, and we usually gravitate to what works.

If I follow any rule, it's Johnny Carson's: "You buy the premise, you buy the bit." Not all premises, alas, are equally valid. And I wasn't seeking to establish that this was an Inviolable Rule of Rock and Roll; it was simply a quote upon which to hang the rest of the piece. To the extent that it stimulated debate, it must be reckoned a success, regardless of its potential effect on my perceived level of authority (which I perceive to be a hell of a lot lower than some of you think).

Sometimes we remember the words which someone said long time ago... We remember text of song which is His or Her favourite... We remember... The memories are forever...

my blog: aquarius90.blog.onet.pl