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The cultural fragmentation of rock is a melancholy sight for anyone who grew up with the magic waveband synthesis of Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry and Jackie Wilson, the Coasters and the Drifters, on through the Beatles and down to Creedence. The young people who turned out all over America for the recent Rolling Stones tour were checking out the myths firsthand, and maybe they will eventually reinvent them. But if those young people promise continuity, they also suggest the danger of imitation. Radio stations that play oldies flourish as never before. The kids who grew up in the rock generation found an identity, and a voice, in their music. Their kids have yet to find a sound of their own.
"Young rock 'n' roll is alive," maintains Wexler. "It's boiling, it's fermenting." Indeed, the success of a good-times group like the Go-Go's or, even more, the trip-hammer velocity of the Blasters may justify Wexler's optimism. It is a tough mark to make, though, tougher than ever before. The Blasters, with their raw excitement and down-the-middle exhilaration, have been held up to Creedence, and the comparison, which is flattering, is also fitting. Maybe they know the words of the song. It should have been written yesterday, about tomorrow.
Wrote a song for ev ev'ryone Wrote a song for truth. Wrote a song for ev 'ryone And I couldn 't even talk to you.
— By Jay Cocks. Reported by Martha Smilgis/ Los Angeles andDenise Worrell/New York