That thing called Rock 'n Roll

The very name pushes a whole gamut of thought up your throat, thoughts jostling together on their way up the vocal alley, to set themselves free as words. Rock ’n Roll, the thing which surpasses all definitions and boundaries….. Those ‘drum-rolls’ which came with the winds from distant Ohio, changed the very notion of who you are. Oh wait, can’t speak about you but at least for me it did.

Down the memory lane as I go through the brittle yellow pages of life, the tryst with rock seems to have become an ancient one now. Just that the lustre stays anew forever and ever. Speaking of the genre, some will say about The Beatles, Pink Floyd; some will bring the iconic Jimmy Page with the Led Zeppelin holding his hands. With Pearl Jam, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Doors, Freddie Mercury, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Cream the queue will grow rather long. Then again are these legendary bands playing with two guitars, a bass and drum kit all about the genre? Those who know and love that thing, called Rock ‘n Roll, are already shaking their heads in a no.

My days with rock started within muddy pits of disdain. Dark times those were when I’d sit at one abysmal corner of my room letting the hours of plight to pass. Then appeared one crimson evening when an English guy sang “Wish you were here” thereby giving me some way to express how badly I yearned for my brother’s presence. That was David Gilmour for the rest of the world. The song came with a feeling which calmed my tumultuous inside. It soothed and healed and before leaving it filled a lot of void within me. As if there was a strange stoned woman breathing deep down me and suddenly the Rapunzel she had trapped for quite a while was released. Then again it is how my life has planned the rendezvous with Rock ‘n Roll. Am sure there are other stories of the like and they are happier ones.

Rock ‘n Roll is dynamic. It twists and turns like a meandering river and gets younger with the years. It screams and shouts and turns you on. And as you groove into the music, it touches you. It has its golden bygones that have led to its magnanimous presence defeating the race with age and time. Like you mould yourself as you grow, it has grown too giving birth to one way and the other. Yes, at the end of a very long road you can see the sun. It is waiting for you and it will go down in a bright red shine. That is where you have to reach; the horizon will be your limit. This journey you travel with the lyrics and they hum at your ears the many secrets of life.

When I was young, I remember I’d attach my omens to it. Inviting darkness to my room, I’d light a candle and hold it facing the east to find that ‘Stairway to heaven’. It never showed itself before me but then explained the theory of making it myself. To move on, walk ahead and get what is mine. Suddenly, in its own journey, progressive rock made it all so literal. Often I’d find myself sailing in a boat holding a lamp with a frail glow, all alone in a dark navy ocean with gigantic tides. Jugband blues indeed showed its true colours that way. Psychedelic you see!!

Oh yes I have loved Rock ‘n Roll more than all my teenage boyfriends and though my puerile adventures with romance would end after a brief whirlpool of emotions, that thing called Rock ‘n Roll would just keep coming closer to me. It would paint all sorts of pictures to me. From Norwegian Woods to Tangerine all what grows in distant lands would pass by my sight leaving me astonished. The Tambourine Man would sing to me during lonely nights as pathos of Yesterday would gently rejuvenate. For one they will not hurt me rather they would mildly caress my heart giving a feel of what it was like to be with all that I’ve lost. The tears would fall on the ground and glitter in the silver moon which laid herself down in my room through the open windows. As the water would dry up leaving behind long trails of contemplation, the silence would speak to me, in whispers. It would recall me of promises I might have made once, those which are due to be fulfilled. As I just wrote, this pain is different. It tells you gently what you are capable of, those little things yet to be done and then build up one golden moment. As the wise hour would go, I’d hold the dusty portrait of my brother to my heart for one last time. The apple would faintly cease to play its songs and his smile would tell me that the prince was to come to me, surely. I was a folly to love till then. But when I did make an effort to hold it right, I saw I’ve already learnt a few good things about it. Sweet surprise?? Rock ‘n Roll the name would say.
I once made a journey with rock on a swing. To and fro I'll move as the songs kept ringing to my ears unfolding paradoxes that have baffled me before. And as the tangles open you feel that lightness of being in the air. A certain weight from you is fetched down by gravity and all of a sudden you break free from a shackle. its more like a freedom from being anyone or rather it is the feeling of being a no-one. Then again you are someone right? Who are you? Are there voices in the wind to tell you that? Just when this paradox itself appears intriguing, Rock 'n roll will spare you a dilemma by providing the necessary distraction. You are happy being no-one in spite of being someone. In short, you are just happy.

The songs make us stay delighted. Carefree, we ride over waves after waves in a joyful sea. Happiness is wealth and the world is a miser when it comes to it. Often we rejoice by living in a bowl. The bowl is our arena and we move there unhindered by any worldly force. Just one thing seems like a glitch, the bowl is placed as the edge of a table and even a slight push of wind might upturn it. You know what I’m talking about, that scare of losing a loved one, that fright to feel a scarcity of love within the apparent perfection of our daily lives. But the songs would pay no heed to that. Beyond the supervision of regulations, there is a small island of wishes. The songs take you there while you keep hearing them like a one last time before you go to meet your heart. You live, you imagine, you want and then you conquer. And when imagination is out for a vacation, Rock ‘n Roll will introduce the enigma to you. While there are people rushing and racing to make it big in the bad world as they say, the music will make you recline closing your eyes and have a lazy day. There will be people becoming doctors and engineers and all that big names while all you become is passionate. You get hold a love you can live and die for. Oh yes, it teaches you to live weird and make the most out of it. It makes you valiant enough to trade everything for that one love with which you can die happily beneath the stars. The glorious people, bright stage lights and the undying cheers of thousand fresh spirits who dance to their sounds are the apparent about the big life we all aspire. But what if you turn that to inspiration? Well, maybe the veil of untouchability which forms a transparent sheath over them does not dispel but you do learn to live like yourself, unadulterated by exterior influences. The destinations and prejudices you make are your original thoughts and in a way, the world becomes your cup of tea. What you share is an undying fervour for a single thing which happens to fit your entity in one line. And you start loving it so much that all your pain and mirth encircles it. You become, as I would name a song here, a ‘Simple Man’.

No, the world is not a stringent jailhouse. Those who were austere with their ideas can keep it to themselves. The birds fly, flowers bloom, trees grow and storms make noise whenever they feel like. And Rock ‘n Roll shows you a way to emancipate yourself, letting you be exactly who you are. Yes it has its dark alleys, smeared with pigments of drugs and promiscuous scandals. But Rock ‘n Roll was never about sex and alcohol. It is about Pete Townshend who looks for ‘The Who’ in you. It is about growing young gracefully as you meet your destiny with that one special thing or person who makes the journey worthwhile. The sun is waiting for you showing its orange hues and it will go down only with you. For once, talking and thinking about yourself is not selfish. Rock ‘n Roll spares that conviction. Peace. Now move yourself with the faith in you being unperturbed. Write your name in diamonds on the night sky. Why worry? Be sure, one day all those wishes made by your taciturn mind will come to your abode in little boxes. Well you must know, “good things come in small packages”. And remember, Rock ‘n Roll is one of those things which will not desert you even as you grow old. 
Till then here is Jimmy Page saying to you,
~"Tangerine, tangerine
Living reflections of a dream"~