CHAPTER 19 | ROCK ENTERS THE 1970s 469ROCK ENTERS THE 1970s
As the decade began, the wave of psychedelia that had fascinated the youth coun-
terculture of the late 1960s reached its crest. By the mid-1970s, though, following
the end of the Vietnam War and President Richard Nixon’s resignation in the
wake of the Watergate scandal, much of the countercultural movement’s energy
had dissipated. Rock in those years lost some of its rebellious attitude, resulting
in what some critics have called “corporate rock.” But an unruly undercurrent
persisted, and by the end of the decade the anarchic spirit of early rock and roll
reemerged in a new guise: punk rock.THE RISE OF THE ROCK VIRTUOSO
W hen rock and roll emerged in the 1950s, teenage listeners had reveled in the
crude, sometimes amateurish sounds of musicians who were often self-taught
or informally trained. Compared to mainstream pop’s polished professionalism
and jazz’s intellectual complexity, rock and roll’s simplicity came as something
different. As rock’s audiences reached adulthood in the 1960s, however, the music
took on much of the sophistication of the genres to which it had formerly stood in
opposition. One aspect of that maturation, the use of elaborate studio recording
techniques, was discussed in chapter 18. Another aspect was the arrival of a new
generation of rock musicians who displayed the sort of ferocious instrumental
virtuosity previously associated with classical music and jazz.
In the 1960s perhaps no musician embodied the idea of the electric guitar-
ist as rock hero more dramatically than Jimi Hendrix. By the time of Hendrix’s
drug-related death in 1970 at age twenty-seven, his example had inspired other
musicians to create rock music of dazzling brilliance. In England, Eric Clapton
of the band Cream and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, musicians inspired by the
Chicago blues of Muddy Waters and other Chess artists, brought Hendrix-style
showmanship to their renditions of blues standards and original compositions.
In the American South, Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers Band, Allen Col-
lins of Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top did likewise. One of the most
original, infl uential, and long-lasting of the guitar heroes is the Mexican-born
Carlos Santana, who rose to prominence as the leader of the band Santana, a mix
of Latino, black, and white musicians. Emerging in the San Francisco psychedelic
scene in the late 1960s, Santana gained national fame at the Woodstock music fes-
tival in 1969, and in the next three years would release three landmark albums.
“Oye como va” (LG 19.1), from Santana’s second album, Abraxas (a number 1
pop album in 1970), displays the band’s blend of blues-based rock improvisation
with Latin percussion and rhythms. A cover of a tune introduced in 1962 by Tito
Puente, this number is an easygoing celebration of the joys of making and listen-
ing to music. The words, “Oye como va, mi ritmo, / Bueno pa’ gozar, mulata,” may
be roughly translated as “Listen to how my groove goes; / It’s good for savoring,
mulata” (a woman or girl of mixed race).
Puente’s music for “Oye como va” is built on a striking two-bar chord pro-
gression: a minor tonic chord alternates with a major subdominant. In a con-
ventional minor mode, both chords would be minor. The alteration creates the
feeling of the Dorian mode, a medieval scale that survives in various types of folk
music. Percussion instruments provide layers of dance-inducing polyrhythms,LG 19.1Jimi HendrixCarlos Santana172028_19_468-494_r3_sd.indd 469 23/01/13 11:04 AM