The Poetry of Rock 'N Roll

The Poetry

of

Rock ‘N Roll

 The Focused Insight on How To Raise Children

By Dr. Jan Wade Gilbert

F o r e w o r d

 The Poetry of Rock ’N Roll

It is written in stone that: human nature is immutable.

The parents of the baby boomers were, to one degree or another, dumb; and the evidence for such is not only an avalanche in quantity but blatant, overwhelming and so right-in-front-of-their-faces that the very thing against which they battled, Rock ‘n Roll, was the very thing they needed to be good parents.

In his book The Poetry of Rock ‘N Roll, the author outright tells the reader that the best way to intelligently raise children is to know what they are thinking and what pushes their buttons; about what they are pre-occupied; what their world is like and what they want and what they fear.

The only book one needs to read to become understanding parents, parents better able to guide their children is The Poetry of Rock ‘N Roll for all of the intricate thoughts; the personal hurdles; the pangs of growing up; the stresses of school; the effects of raging hormones; the confusions of relationships; experiencing new and powerful emotions; and having fun are not only brought to life but displayed in multiple dimensions of song and timeless lyrics.

The children understand discipline (Can’t keep the car, my marks ain’t been so good); anticipation (He’s coming home to see me with a weekend pass – a 48-hour date); and heartbreak (Happy Birthday though you’re with somebody new). They’re confounded by society (Signs, signs, everywhere a sign) and lovestruck (My heart went boom when she crossed the room).

We’re told what girls are thinking (But, will you love me tomorrow?) and what’s driving the guys (Let’s lock the door and throw away the key) and whether looking to take advantage of the situation (I think we’re alone now) or explaining oneself (When I see lips begging to be kissed, I can’t stop). And we know that all the cats want to dance with sweet little sixteen.

Every thought, concept, emotion and fun-with-abandon (Let’s go surfing now) is there for the mere listening.

It’s only when you know what your child is thinking that you can be pro-active, properly reactive and smart enough to know now what you wish you knew then. Children have not changed. They were that way in Plato’s time and they are that way now. And in the year 2525, if Man is still alive, they’ll still be that way.

In every generation, there are guys who feel they are a flop with chicks and will be looking for Madam Rue; you know, that gypsy with the gold-capped tooth selling Love Potion #9. But, guys dream as well and not only in the still of the night because they can dream by falling on their face on somebody’s new mowed lawn. They’ll learn to make choices ? having to say yes to one and let the other one ride. For the right girl, they just want to be their teddy bear; put a chain around their neck and lead them anywhere. And they’ll make vows: The only one for me can only be you. And they’ll become demanding: I’ve got to be your number one or I ain’t gonna love you at all.

Girls will get religion (The only one who could ever reach me was the son of a preacher man).

And every dreamy-eyed girl will think of her guy as:

• Tall because “I gotta look up.”
• Not know the color of his eyes because “He’s always wearing shades.”
• When told that he’s bad, will respond with: “He’s good and he’s bad; but he’s not evil.”
• And when asked how he dances, will just sigh with: “Close; very, very close.”

The Poetry of Rock ‘N Roll is the ultimate insight on how to raise your children.

Chapter One

Look out!

Look out!

Look out!

The teenage girl screamed the warning as her just-became-former boyfriend dangerously wheelied his motorcycle on the rain-slickened street distancing himself from her. Too dangerous. He lost.

It was the second time that evening that he lost. Only a few minutes previously, she told him they were through; they had to stop dating on her dad’s orders. It was a time when parental authority still carried some weight; enough to stop a romance between highschoolers.

This guy, her dad claimed, was bad. He came from the wrong side of town, was the leader of the pack and he forbid his daughter to continue to see him as a boyfriend.

And so went the story of the 1964 song (Leader of the Pack) by the girl group The Shangri-Las.

The ongoing battle for authority between parents and their children is one that extends backward in recorded history as the following quote indicates:

"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers."

Whether this quote is erroneously attributed to Plato and/or Socrates or rightfully to a 1907 Cambridge student, it describes the chasm between the generations, one that is and seems to always have been – and likely will always be. It isn’t who said it that matters but what’s said and that holds true for all quotations and pieces of wisdom that jot civilization.

Trying to pin down what constitutes the era of Rock ’n Roll is difficult because of the many influences that can be found in the music. So, reconciling how many songs go into that genre is also a task with no definitive answer. Nor does it matter for what we have is the continuing identification of the teenage years as a time of fun, turmoil, angst, the quest for liberation and hosts of other transitions one experiences as one grows up.

It’s safe to say that it began in earnest after the era of the big bands; after Glenn Miller; after Tommy Dorsey; and ran counter and concurrently to The Lawrence Welk Show (1951-1982), which did play Rock Around The Clock. While Lawrence’s show is re-running on cable and does still offer the appeal of good talent, Rock and Roll is forever and will likely dominate for as long in one form or another.

Being the parent of a teenager is not like being the teenager and, because every parent went through the same gauntlet of, roughly the years 12-19 (Pat Boone’s 1956 book and song Twixt 12 and 20), they either remember it and use their memories to guide their parenting or use some other set of parameters to fashion their mode of bringing up their offspring. And, it is sadly acknowledged, that there are those parents who never have any idea of what they are doing and never abide by any mindset and so deliver no consistency at all – to the extreme confusion of their children.

What we do know is that the recurring themes of the teenage years include:

• The want of children to be free and independent but they do not want to be too far from the security of having parents or parent figures. They want the freedom of the wind but the safety of the tether. They want to run free in the warm summer rain but desire the shelter provided by the family against the cold and snow.
• Silliness (so many!)
• 1961 Buzz Clifford - Baby Sittin' Boogie
• 1958 Dr. Dimento The Witch Doctor (Ooh Eee Ooh Ah Ah Ting Tang Walla Walla Bing Bang)
• 1958 Sheb Wooley Flying Purple People Eater
• Heartbreak (so many, many!)
• 1965 The Beatles Yesterday
• 1956 Elvis Presley Heartbreak Hotel
• Billy J Kramer & The Dakotas (and The Beatles) Bad To Me
• A testing of the waters
• 1962 Joanie Sommers - Johnny Get Angry
• 1964 Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons Big Girls Don’t Cry
• They want to act like adults but have fun as children.
• Adults want to act like children but have fun as adults.

         And while they are our children, they can have some of adulthood while still being children as they slowly learn and transition from the child to the adult (1956 Barbara Mason’s Yes, I’m Ready). It’s that transition period that requires the adult supervision and guidance and the only way a parent can guide with reason and understanding is to know what the child is thinking and that is what the poetry of Rock ’n Roll tells us.

The words are all there. These instructive and illustrative stories are plainly written and in no uncertain terms these are the stories of children, filled with the anxieties and emotions of the teenage years. For the most part, they wrote them and they sang them. They certainly lived them – but so did we and all parents before them and before us. While their time may not have been the technology base with which we are familiar today, a first kiss requires no technology; a breakup requires no technology; jealousy requires no technology (1957 The Rays Silhouettes); nor does bravery. Although technology today can make it easier and less stressful as opposed to a face-to-face split, it’s debatable whether or not the pangs of such a separation are diminished. It’s likely that the emotional scars and the lessons learned are in the same soup every generation tastes.