History rocks!

From Elvis Presley to Seventies punk rock, Dr. Ari Katorza belts out what he says is the first Hebrew book about the genre.

By BARRY DAVIS
the Beatles 521 (photo credit: REUTERS)
the Beatles 521
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Dr. Ari Katorza may not be of precisely the right vintage, but he is clearly in the right musical and mind-set groove. Not only is fortysomething Katorza a seasoned rock musician, he also lectures at the Rimon School of Jazz and Contemporary Music and has poured all his experience, and vast knowledge, into a new, highly illuminating book called Tomorrow Never Knows: Rock Music in the Twentieth Century. (The first part of the title refers to the name of the last track of the Beatles’ 1966 Revolver record, although the second part is something of a misnomer as, naturally, rock music only came into existence in the middle of the past century – but you get the drift.) Of course, there has been many a tome published on the rock revolution, and how it has evolved through the years, so what exactly does Katorza’s offering bring to the popular music fray? “For a start it is the first book about rock music in Hebrew, although there was one by [sociologist] Moti Regev [Rock: Music and Culture, which came out in 1995] but that was about the sociology of rock music,” the author declares. “My book talks about the music, and the culture of the music, and the history, from 1955 up to 1980.”
According to Katorza, it is about much more than the just the sounds and energies produced by a star-studded roll call of rockers during that crucial quartercentury.
“In fact, I try to tell a story about the Western world. In a sense it is a story about the tremendous hope of young people for a better world. But that hope dissipates in the 1970s, against a backdrop of diminishing expectations in the Western world. That actually refers to the general picture of the time, and not just to the music. You know, the conservatives came to power at the end of the Seventies – [Ronald] Reagan in the United States and [Margaret] Thatcher in Britain.”
That, says Katorza, filtered through to the popular music of the time.
“All that impacted on the way people thought then, and the music tells the story of how this developed. Everything, the mood, the vibe, is all reflected in the music. If people are upbeat, or there is a general mood of cynicism, it all comes through in the music.”
Katorza talks about his book, and the period and artistic endeavor it covers, with passion and authority. He has obviously done his homework and has dug right through all the strata that underpin the emergence of rock music, as well as many of the directions, colors and strains the genre took on in that formative 25-year period.
The book opens with a look at earlier musical forms, such as gospel and the blues, country music and even a dab of klezmer, all of which Katorza states contributed to the birth of rock music. He gives us an overview of the start of the music industry, followed by the counterculture scene of Sixties United States.
“Besides being the first book in Hebrew on the subject, I am not sure there has been another book until now, by an American or British journalist or other professional, which has told the story of the music in such a way,” suggests Katorza.
Nary a stone is unturned, including the role played by Jews, as writers, producers, agents and performers. Katorza also sheds light on the intriguing synergy between African Americans and Jews in a section titled “Jewish Rights, Black Performers.”
The advent of surf music, with the Beach Boys, in the mid-Sixties, and the shift of focus to the West Coast is in there, as is one of the most surprising developments in the rock-pop continuum, that of the so-called British invasion of the US in the wake of The Beatles. The author uses the progress of the Fab Four to advise us of some of the advances made in recording technology, which naturally generates new sonic options and possibilities.
Bob Dylan, the folk revival, followed by Dylan’s so-called treachery in switching to electric guitar, rock guitar icons Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, and the subsequent popularity of progressive rock also feature, and Katorza takes us all the way through to the stage at which commercial music eventually imploded to give rise to the feral output of British punk bands such as the Sex Pistols, the Stranglers and the Clash.
If, by now you have gained the impression that the above sounds like a lot to imbibe, you’d be right. Tomorrow Never Knows is chock-full of information – historical, musical, cultural and even social and political – but if your Hebrew is up to it, this is a valuable addition to any rock or pop music fan’s library. Musicians will also appreciate the excerpts of sheet music, and more in-depth approach to some of the cited songs.
Thankfully, Katorza includes a summary at the end of the book. The section, which he calls an epilogue, explains that the book covers rock, “from the moment Elvis Presley entered the Sun recording studio in Memphis, through the climax of The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Dylan in the Sixties, and until the ‘rock and roll suicide’ of the Sex Pistols and punk rock towards the end of the Seventies.”
“This is more about rock culture,” Katorza explains. “I have never been of the opinion that you can explain music through purely musical means. It has to be connected to a wider narrative or story.
I am not a musicologist, I am a musician and a historian of music. I take a historical approach, and look at the sort of structure that governs the way a specific culture works. You can’t argue with the fact that rock music was one of the most important cultures of the 20th century.”