Henry Rollins - 2019 - Author - Comedian - Musician - Vocalist

(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)

The immortal beginnings of rock and roll felt like a game of back-and-forth between the UK and the US. As much as The Beatles are heralded as history’s greatest rock band, the groundwork of rock and roll came when people like Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry took the makings of blues and combined it with the energy that became a new genre altogether. While Henry Rollins is more than happy to talk about the grand history of rock and roll that raised him, he knew that some of the greatest examples of classic rock and roll wouldn’t come out for years after its inception.

Then again, that’s almost expected from any type of genre. No one can hit it out of the park right out of the gate, and even when talking about the greatest Beatles albums ever made, it’s hard to take all of it seriously when people continually discuss whether some songs belong in the rock category and which ones gravitate more towards the pop sphere.

Although The Rolling Stones were a more authentic version of rock and roll for most people, there was always one foot trailing back into the blues. That was a great place to start, but the heart of all great rock and roll was to have things be a little ramshackle, and the greatest artists of all time always started as a bunch of kids hashing things out in the garage.

That’s not too far from what Rollins identified with when he started getting into punk rock. The entire appeal of the genre was about going against the system that you were raised in, and despite being one of the single most badass frontmen of all time, Rollins’s main message was that anyone could be able to make their punk rock masterpieces as long as they had their hearts in the right place and a desire to play whatever they wanted to play.

Before there was punk, there were bands like The Velvet Underground and The Fugs paving the way for what the genre would become. Neither of them played by the rules and would after find themselves in hot water for going against the grain, but if they inching up to the line, Iggy Pop was going to do everything he could to break down the laws of normality, to the point where he seemed to be at war with everyone when he came onstage.

Pop and The Stooges may have only stuck around for a few years after their debut, but Rollins insisted that an album like Raw Power needed to be studied, saying, “A record that should be given to everyone upon birth is Raw Power by The Stooges. My favourite album in the whole world is Fun House, their second album, but I think the third album is America’s greatest contribution to hard rock, if we had a hat to throw into the hard rock ring, next to The Stones and Zeppelin and Deep Purple. That’s where America said, ‘We got game.’”

Considering what the rest of the rock world had to offer in England, though, Pop’s influence extended far beyond every single garage rock band in existence. David Bowie was always an avid fan of his, and listening to his music, it was about more than making noise. Yes, it was noisy and a little bit irritating for some people, but for anyone in the know, this was performance art being played out for as long as any venue would house them.

And it’s not like Pop has ever slowed down in the years following its release. Whether with The Stooges or in his solo career, Pop has become the glorified patron saint of all things punk, even bringing in people like Mike Watt of Minutemen to play with him on occasion. And whenever he takes the stage to this day, that fire he had in his belly still rages on. It’s been over 50 years since the debut, yet still at war with the world.

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