Sunday, December 04, 2005

Hey, man, is that Freedom Rock?

Hey, man, is that Freedom Rock?

If you're of a certain age, you remember. It was late at night in the late 80s, during one of those seven minute ad breaks that always show up when you watch TV too late.

Cut to a camper, which may or may not be at a Grateful Dead show. Two guys who look like either Tommy Chong or David Crosby hear the opening chords of "Layla" and exclaim:



"Hey, man, is that Freedom Rock? Turn it up, man!"

In one of those moments of post-Gutenberg curiosity - you know, think of something obscure, the Internet puts it at your fingertips - I decided to look back and recall just what, excactly, constituted Freedom Rock. Well, call now and you get:


Layla
Derek & The Dominos

The Story In Your Eyes
The Moody Blues

Signs
Five Man Electrical Band

Sunshine
Jonathan Edwards

Love Train
The O'Jays

White Room
Cream

White Rabbit
Jefferson Airplane

Both Sides Now
Judy Collins

We May Never Pass This Way Again
Seals & Crofts

In The Year 2525
Zager & Evans

Eighteen
Alice Cooper

Hush
Deep Purple

Get Together
The Youngbloods

The Beat Goes On
Sonny & Cher

Abraham, Martin & John
Dion

Lay Down
Melanie

I Got A Line On You
Spirit

Fire And Rain
James Taylor

Me And You And A Dog Named Boo
Lobo

Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay
Otis Redding


They were shooting for a certain 60s nostalgia vibe that was in vogue in that era, and with some of the songs ("Get Together" and "White Rabbit" best fit the bill) they catch the patchouli. The word we're looking for here is "groovy." But some songs are chronologically right but not quite "hey, maaan" enough, Alice Cooper and the O'Jays are too late, and "Me And You And A Dog Named Boo" is just dumb.

But wait! You also get:


Turn, Turn, Turn
The Byrds

I'd Love To Change The World
Ten Years After

Locomotive Breath
Jethro Tull

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
Joan Baez

War
Edwin Starr

Black Magic Woman
Santana

Jump Into The Fire
Nilsson

Smoke On The Water
Deep Purple

United We Stand
Brotherhood Of Man

One Tin Soldier (The Legend Of Billy Jack )
Coven

Somebody To Love
Jefferson Airplane

Going Up The Country
Canned Heat

Reach Out Of The Darkness
Friend And Lover

A Horse With No Name
America

Free Bird
Lynyrd Skynyrd

Ramblin' Man
The Allman Brothers Band

Share The Land
The Guess Who

Friends
Elton John

Put Your Hand In The Hand
Ocean

Black & White
Three Dog Night


I think it's so groovy now that people are finally gettin' together. Indeed.

A little more granola on this volume, though they missed the opportunity by skipping Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit In The Sky." They also forgot the Coke ad, "I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing," although Oasis didn't. You get America trying to be Neil Young instead of actual Neil Young. Jethro Tull is so awful that to call them "awful" is to overrate them. The Southern rock is too `70s, though I suppose Freedom Rock lets you get away with "Free Bird". Unsure whether that's the short version, the long version, or the live, "play it pretty for Atlanta" version.

Don't know anyone who actually Called Now and got the thing. I could home burn one, I suppose. But what I'd REALLY like would be a tape of the ad. Maybe there's one copy that actually sold out there, some sort of Holy Grail.

Wait a minute.

"Jump Into The Fire"? This was 1987, a good three years before Goodfellas resurrected Harry Nilsson's followup to chart-topper "Without You" from mid-chart obscurity and granted it cinematic immortality. (You know, the Day Henry Gets Busted sequence.)

And what does Freedom Rock start with? "Layla," as used memorably in the Everybody Connected With The Heist Gets Whacked sequence. ("When they found Carbone in the meat truck, it took them two days to get him thawed out for the autopsy.")

So that's who bought the one copy of Freedom Rock actually sold:

Martin Scorsese!

Just got re-acquainted with the obnoxious MARQUEE tag for that late-night TV ad (wait! slow down!) look.

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