The Church of Rock and Roll

Sometimes, it takes me a bit to figure out how I want to start these “Favorite Album” essays, but not this one! I’ve told this story so many times that it’s really just a matter of whether or not I can convey this in written form as well as I’ve told this verbally. Here we go!

It’s May of 2012. I’m attending the Rock on the Range music festival in Columbus, Ohio for the first time in four years. With me was my friend Chrissie (she and I would start dating in November of the same year and get married three years later). Chrissie worked in a college library and was a big researcher.

Yes, this matters. Give me a bit, okay?!

Anyway, at this time, the Rock on the Range music festival (now known as Sonic Temple) was only a two-day affair, Saturday and Sunday. This particular year, Rock on the Range added an additional half-day kick-off called the “Friday Night Foreplay”. This started in the evening, about 6pm, and featured maybe four bands.

I didn’t know any of these bands but Chrissie did her research, as she does, and know what to expect from this show. She also chose to not tell me.

One of the bands playing that night was Foxy Shazam. The band was… we’ll call them “eclectic”. I remember looking up at this stage from the clearing we found trying to figure out what the hell was happening on stage in front of me. I didn’t have my glasses or I was too far away to see what was happening clearing and I just remember staring at the oddly dressed band members, one tumbling across the stage, with my mouth agape for about the entirety of their 45-minute set.

It wasn’t just the acrobatics that got my attention, but the lyrics of some of their songs. Again, Chrissie had already looked this band and their music up and knew what my reaction would be.

I was totally set up!

After the set, I picked my mouth up off the ground in time to hear someone announce that there would be an autograph signing for Foxy Shazam beginning shortly. Chrissie, seeing my current state of bewilderment, as me if I wanted to get their autograph. It took some coaxing, but I would eventually relent. Now, for this signing, one had to go to the music store tent that was setup and purchase something from the band to receive a wristband. I bought a CD.

I’m standing in line waiting aside Chrissie and a few others, including the guy behind me who asked his friend, probably sarcastically, if the band would sign his… umm… anyway, we’re waiting and the signing begins and it was odd, as some of the members seemed like they wanted to be ANYWHERE but there with us. They weren’t rude but you could tell that this was an obligation in the minds of some of them.

With this being the vibe I walked away with, I wasn’t exactly excited to have this CD but I had it and it was a story to tell. As Chrissie and I were heading back to the hotel, I joked that I bought this CD and we HAD to listen to it. I didn’t really remember the details of their set, like, if I actually enjoyed their music because, again, I was just in shock of the presentation.

I put the CD in the player ready and set to hate it from beginning to end. What I felt when Track 1 started was the emotional definition of “pleasantly surprised”. The guitar slide into the drum beat. The clear album mixing and leveling. The vocals. There was nothing “weird” about this track and when the chorus played, I felt like they were talking to me with a sense of “Ha! Gotcha!” What were those lyrics?

“Welcome to the Church of Rock and Roll”

“The Church of Rock and Roll” by Foxy Shazam is so good from start to finish. With music this good, they can be as weird as they want to on stage. In retrospect, I can see their odd demeanor and stage theatrics was apart of their charm. It was something that their fans could attach themselves to. It made the band stand out and as evident with me, it creates a lasting experience with new fans that leads them to write about it in an essay 13 years later while ironically in the same city I originally saw them in.

Now, during this festival’s “Friday Night Foreplay”, I was see people walking around with these drawstring bags. I didn’t understand the message that was written on them. To be clear about the confusion, here’s what you have to understand: this was a group of almost exclusively White people walking around with drawstring bags that said, something to the effect of, “Big Black Ass”. As a Black man visiting a rock festival in the middle of Ohio, this was very…odd.

It’d turn out that this was a reference to the second song on the album, “I Like It”. The chorus is, “That’s the biggest Black ass I’ve ever seen and I like it, I like it.” This is the second track on the album and when I got to the chorus I realized that I had indeed heard them correctly during the show. This is what really led to my shock and it just kinda fell off from there.

First verse:

Big magic woman
Oh you got me
Under your spell
You hypnotize
Me with your hips and thighs
I wear these shades
So when I stare
No one can tell

Second verse:

My gangsta girl
With the wavy curl
And a sexy
Street talking slang
You mesmerize
Me and you mess with I
When you booty pop and drop it
Like it ain't no thing

When I hear this song, in conjunction with the rest of the album, it’s a funny song about a guy that meets a woman with a big ass and wrote a song about her. Maybe it’s not quite, “Hey There, Delilah”, but it’s awkward music fun, which is on par with Foxy.

On the contrary, it’s only fair that I mention that there was/is a lot of people who listen to this song and declare that it’s “…straight-up fetishizing the Other…”, as stated in an article by Miles Raymer for the Chicago Reader [“Foxy Shazam and the Accidentally Racist Single”, April 25, 2012]. There are many blogs and reddit post that claim the same.

[I should note that I was unable to read the entire article myself due to what seems to be a non-paywall paywall on the ‘Reader’ website (the article just kinda stops and then there’s a box stating how the ‘Reader’ is free but producing it is not and tells me to donate. Not sounding very free to me.) The title of the article leads me to believe that the Raymer acknowledges that the lyrics are/maybe problematic, but it wasn’t intentional and to me, intention is the difference between “you’re a racist” and “yeah, you should probably not say that”. Also, there wasn’t anything I found where the band themselves commented on the intentions or motives behind the song. I will continue to search and if I find anything, there will be an update to my blog.]

Personally, I don’t have a problem with the song. I can see where these thoughts are coming from and I’m not going to tell you that if you believe this way, you’re wrong. We all have things we like and don’t like. I don’t like the mentioning of the N-word by anyone in media, but when I see Quentin Tarantino say it himself in “Django Unchained”, I’m not going to just blast Quentin as a racist or condemn the film or the period piece (great movie, by the way).

Luckily, this isn’t about just a single song, this is about the album, so let’s carry on.

This essay may need a holy touch to get back on track. I guess it’s a good thing that the next song is called “Holy Touch”.

There was a time when I used to care
I had a heart man, something was there
I didn't know it then but now
That it's gone the fire died

The song seems to be about a person losing hope and needing the “holy touch” of someone to make him whole again…maybe?! Honestly, this song was just fun to dance to. I do this little dance when the song hits the chorus and its just fun to do.

…not I regret telling people this as now they’re going to make me do it. I won’t, but now they’ll try.

Oh well.

Don't bid me farewell, don't tell me goodbye
Please, be here tomorrow when I wake up

I have a family; a wife and four kids. I worked a job for a very long time that kept me out of the house. I was away from my family far more than my schedule required. There were many times I was required to cover someone’s shift or come in on my day off, or I’d have to leave them to take a call and handle a problem. When I would eventually leave that job, I was able to talk to my oldest son about how that affected him. I knew the sadness and guilt that I felt when I would have to cancel fun times with him because someone’s else troubles resulted in me stay at work.

I always think about this when I hear “Forever Together”.

When I go on tour, my son always tells me
Wish he had a normal dad just like all the other 9 to 5's
He don't understand what it is to be in a band
In rock 'n' roll land, they don't understand

Hearing about his son not getting that his daddy has to be away to pay the bills. You friends not understanding why you’re not enjoying the “rock and roll lifestyle”. Being torn between both worlds of Fame and Family.

It's so hard to live these two lives
Hello Dr. Jekyll, Hello Mr. Hyde

This strikes that really personal cord with me. I have to hold back the tears just to write this. I lot so much times with my family because of work. I don’t regret the work, but I strongly regret the time lost.

Something I love about this album is the music itself; lyrics notwithstanding. Tracks like “(It’s) Too Late Baby” and “Wasted Feelings” are songs that are just fun to listen to. There’s a retro vibe to a point in time I can’t exact place, but is a good feeling. “The Temple” was a weird spoken part in the middle but, I love it. It’s followed by a horn of some kind, maybe a saxophone - not sure - but it’s, again, that retro vibe that holds you. Also, the bass guitar on “The Temple” is so good! Play it and just listen for it.

FREEDOM!

In 2025, listening to a Midwest-sounding song about freedom from a band of Ohio would hit so much differently. But in 2012, there wasn’t that tainted vibe such songs have today. “Freedom” closes the album as a quick little ditty about how we have freedom but take it for granted.

Liberty queen
She was an American dream
They put a statue of her in the river
Boats passing by catch the big woman's eye
But a second glance, sailor don't give her
Gathering moss, staring across from the city
It's a pity
Nobody care-a
Bout a relic from a bygone era

Home of the brave
Cradle to grave
Being righteous don't make you no money
Cause I'm barely able to put food on the table while
Big Bear's rolling in honey
But don't cry
There's only one thing you take with you when you die

Freedom isn’t free, what freedoms we have is often unappreciated, and oftentimes isn’t as free as we think. That’s what I get from two verses and that’s saying a lot in 2012.

All in all, this is a “play and walk away” album meaning that you play it and let it run. I like it while driving and/or cleaning. Whatever you’re doing isn’t as much of a task anymore. The music is classic but still original even if some of the lyrics leave much to be desired.