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SCREAMS AND SCREAMERS IN
ROCK AND ROLL David N. Green 3 December 1987 Screaming, as a mode of
expression, has its roots in all cultures, be they North American Indian,
African, East Indian or European Folk.
Along the rock and roll lineage these roots extend, via the blues
(especially jump blues), back to African tribal culture. The following discussion covers the origin
and history of the scream in rock and roll music. An attempt has also been made to group the screams and
screamers into four general categories for discussion, namely: early rock and
roll, the emotional scream, the virtuoso scream and the applied scream. According to Webster's Ninth
New Collegiate Dictionary, the noun of "scream" can be defined as
"a loud sharp penetrating cry or noise". This definition is somewhat weak in its descriptiveness for
this particular study. The active
verb definitions are however quite applicable, and include: 1. "to voice a sudden sharp loud
cry" 2. "to produce harsh
high tones" 3. "to speak or
write with intense hysterical expressions" 4. "to produce a vivid startling effect". It is interesting to note that as music
progresses from the basic rock and roll of the early fifties to the grandiose
art-rock compositions of the middle seventies, the function of screaming
shifts, or at least expands, from definitions 1 and 2 to definitions 3 and
4. Webster's dictionary defines the
"screamer" simply as "one who screams". Furthering the set of
definitions will facilitate easier discussion of some scream topics. The HARMONIC scream is defined as that
which relates to the harmony of the music or has some component of tonality. The TRUE scream is essentially
atonal. The LYRICAL scream observes
the lyrical content of a song and the PURE scream does not. Early Rock and Roll In the thirties the blues
artists began to develop a more aggressive and forceful approach to their
music. Singers became less sad, and
more mad, about their blues. This
increased energy (not hostility) was channelled into a new driving rhythm,
resulting in the Rhythm and Blues.
Singers like Robert Johnson and Joe Turner are credited with the
development of this style. The term
"jump blues" was used to describe blues with lyrics containing
phrases like "rock'em" and "shake it", which were common
in the blues performed by R&B artists such as Joe Turner. Early rock and
roll was essentially modified (if at all) jump blues, with an enhanced
driving rhythm that frequently included drums. The screamers of early rock and roll are frequently referred to
as shouters. This is perhaps a more
appropriate title to use when comparing these early artists to the more intense
screamers in later rock. The bigger, louder and newly
electrified (literally) sound of the back-up bands in the fifties meant that
the singers had to really shout to get their messages across. "Rock Around The Clock" [1] by
Bill Haley and the Comets is a good example of this newly amplified sound. Elvis Presley, Little Richard and Jerry
Lee Lewis were three of the most popular rock and roll shouters of the
fifties. Elvis Presley wasn't just
crooning when he sang "You ain't nothin' but a hound dog" [2],
although he could sing a soulful ballad.
Little Richard, probably the most famous of early rock and roll screamers,
was constantly screeching and whooping with excitement as he banged out (on
the piano) tunes like "Good Golly, Miss Molly" [3]. Jerry Lee Lewis spent much of his vocal
performance pounding on his piano and shouting directly at the audience
[4]. Most of the rock and roll
screamers of the fifties and early sixties were shouting because of the
excitement of the music, to be heard, or just for the fun of it. Deep emotion and feelings were not usually
a major factor in the drive of the early rock and roll screamers. (There are definitely exceptions from this
era; some of whom will be mentioned later.)
Screaming in rock and roll was due more to attitude and excitement
than anything else during this early period.
Screams with this same basic drive can be found in later rock and roll
as well. John Fogerty often used a
"crackling" scream in songs like Creedence Clearwater Revival's
"Travelin' Band" [5]. The
Beatles "Hey Jude" [6] was full of exuberant screams. Joe Walsh offers a parody of these types
of screams on the album "The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get"
[7]. The Emotional Scream True emotion, feeling or
"gut" reaction was often the source of the rock and roll scream,
the previous examples not withstanding.
Two artists of the fifties (and sixties) that come to mind in this
category are Ray Charles and James Brown.
Although not specifically rock and roll artists, these two figures
show their soul/gospel/R&B based rock and roll sides once and a
while. Ray Charles usually conveys to
the listener the feeling of a musician very close to his music [8]. James Brown, "Mr. Dynamite", has
a from-the-gut type of vocal attack which declares a no-nonsense approach to
his performance; although his lyrics themselves are often nonsense [9]. The rock and roll shouters and screamers
mentioned thus far have been predominately black. This is certainly no more a rule than is gender bias. Janis Joplin is another example of the
emotional rock and roll screamer.
Joplin has been popularly described as the reincarnation of one of the
most famous of blues singers, Bessie Smith.
Joplin's screams are much more scream-like (true and pure) in their
form, but still very similar to, say, those of Ray Charles in their essence. Joplin sounds as if she really feels the
flesh rip when she sings "Take another little piece of my heart"
[10]. One final example of the
emotional aspect of the scream is taken from The Who's "Won't Get Fooled
Again" [11]. Here Roger Daltry's
pure scream is not as much a personal statement as it is an extension of the
resolve that comes from the attitude and performance of the song. The Virtuoso Scream The virtuoso scream is a
legitimate phenomenon in rock and roll music. Many different types of screamers offer what can be classified
as the virtuoso scream. These screams
usually have some clearly outstanding features, such as those relating to
aspects of duration, dynamics, purity, tonality and applicability. This level of development of the scream is
frequently associated with the hard-rock, eclectic and avant-garde styles of
music. Examples of these types of
screams can however be studied for the sole purpose of observing the nature
of the virtuoso performance. The
following examples of virtuoso screams should also help illustrate some of
the different types of screams that can be identified. Arthur Brown is one of the premiere art-rock
screamers. His screams are usually
associated with musical direction or purpose, however they are often
performances in themselves. The song
"Nightmare" [12] contains many insanely and hysterically screamed
passages. One particular scream in
this song illustrates the difficulty involved in trying to categorize some screams. It begins as a harmonic-lyric scream and
quickly transforms into a true-pure scream.
The harmonic-pure scream is also demonstrated well by Arthur Brown, in
the song "Faster Than The Speed Of Light" [13]. This level of scream is the basis for the
"premiere" title of Arthur Brown as a screamer. Frank Zappa'a bands have attracted some of
the most talented of contemporary musicians.
His performances are, for the most part, instrumental in nature. Vocals, or at least lyrics, usually take a
back seat to the instrumental performance.
There are however some outstanding exceptions with some of the
musicians employed by Zappa; the crowd gives an ovation for a single scream
during the live performance of "Love of My Life" [14]. One of the most famous of rock and roll
screams is found at the beginning of the Beatles' "Revolution" [15],
and is the epitome of the true-pure scream. The Applied Scream Musical direction is one of the
most diverse, and possibly significant, topics for an analytical discussion
of rock and roll. Screaming is but a
small part of this very involved topic.
The scream is probably best discussed in terms of its
"function" in rock and roll music.
From a study of screams throughout rock and roll history, it seems
apparent that the phenomenon of the carefully applied scream does not surface
until the middle to late sixties. The
end of the sixties saw the scream become a standard functional tool of many
art-rock musicians (and others). The
present discussion distinguishes three major areas of the applied scream;
desperation or despair, insanity or unbalance and functional
composition. Situations of desperation and
despair are the oldest and most frequent instances of the applied
scream. These types of screams are
quite natural in their purpose, and are rooted in the early blues (and late
blues for that mater). Janis Joplin's
version of "Ball and Chain" [16] is an excellent example of the
"hurting" feeling that can be induced by a scream. Rather than singing a shorter song with
constant "strain", Joplin induces "pain" at will. Atomic Rooster is a sometimes-avant-garde
art-rock group that has made its way from the eclectic rage of the early
seventies to the present day, despite personnel changes. The Atomic Rooster song,
"Banstead" [17], is a modern-day throwback to the
"power-blues" type of vocals of the likes of B.B. King and Muddy
Waters. The roughness of the vocals
in this song hits the listener in such a way that the rather common message
of the song seems much more vital. The concept of insanity or
unbalance in society and within the individual has been explored extensively
by the eclectic and art-rock stream of musicians through use of screams. The psychedelic and liberation movements
of the sixties spawned much of this rather severe (compared to the fifties)
use of the scream. The Beatles
"Helter Skelter" [18] evokes a frenzied terror that could be
associated with the psychedelic or even psychotic frame of mind. The over-stressed vocals seem like those
of someone undergoing severe withdrawal from something. "Careful With That Axe, Eugene"
[19], a late sixties song by Pink Floyd, portrays an inner world of
insanity. Roger Waters (the source of
the scream) carries this idea through Pink Floyd themes of the seventies and
into his own projects in the eighties.
From The Doors' first album came the song "The End"
[20]. The foreboding feeling of a
terrible end to everything is instilled in the listener by this song. Within the song's main context runs the
concept of the purposefully driven insanity of a man (or all of man). The screams are those of a young man at
the peak of his psychosis. (From the
philosophic point of view it might be argued that the young man is quite
close to reality.) One further example of the insane or unbalanced idea is
illustrated again by Pink Floyd, with the song "Comfortably Numb"
[21]. The function of this
frustrating-painful scream in this song is quite straight forward if one
follows the storyline within the song (and on the album from which it comes). The most significant technical aspect of
this scream is that it illustrates the ease with which this
painfully-disturbed sounding scream can be artistically (and appropriately)
placed into the song structure, which leads into the following discussion of
screaming in composition. Art-Rock musicians have
cultivated the scream for use as a tool in composition since the beginning of
the formation of the art-rock concept itself. The song "Whole Lotta Love" [22], by Led Zeppelin,
contains screams and other guttural sounds that separate it from other music
in it's time (1969). The song centres
around Robert Plant's moans and groans during a break in the main
"drive" of the song. The vocal
"noises", although not very musical, are original enough to
separate Robert Plant's vocal style from most commercially successful performers
of the time, and provide encouragement for many similar heavy-rock screamers
of the seventies and eighties.
"Sheep" [23], by Pink Floyd, contains some technically and
artistically interesting studio "tricks" with the vocals. In various sections of this piece an
extended vocal line is transformed or blended into a synthesizer tone that
reveals its presence only after the subtle change has taken place. In this case the voice has simply become a
new source for studio experimentation.
This experimentation is perhaps a natural extension of some of the
more bizarre screams of the sixties and early seventies. The scream probably reaches one of its
highest levels of application in the song "Conception" [24] by
Arthur Brown. This rather eclectic
piece is based almost entirely on three screams, without which there would be
no song. An encyclopedic history of
screams and screamers could certainly not be incorporated into a study of
this scope. The majority of artists
using the scream have of course not been mentioned, and the screams that have
been discussed tend to cross categories. Appreciation (and classification) of
this kind of vocal work is best accomplished through listening (and
screaming!). Reference Recordings [1] Bill Haley and The Comets, "Rock Around The
Clock", 1955. [2] Elvis Presley, "Hound Dog", 1956. [3] Little Richard, "Good Golly, Miss Molly",
1958. [4] Jerry Lee Lewis, "Whole Lotta Shakin' Going
On", 1957. [5] Creedence Clearwater Revival, "Travelin'
Band", 1970. [6] The Beatles, "Hey Jude", 1970. [7] Joe Walsh, "The Smoker You Drink, The Player
You Get" (album), 1973. [8] Ray Charles, "What'd I Say", 1969. [9] James Brown, live 1981, "Get Up I Feel Like
Being A Sex Machine", 1970. [10] Big Brother and The Holding Company (with Janis
Joplin), "Piece of My Heart", 1967. [11] The Who, "Won't Get Fooled Again", 1971. [12] Arthur Brown, "Nightmare", 1968. [13] Arthur Brown/Vincent Crane, "Faster Than The
Speed Of Light", 1980. [14] Frank Zappa, "Love Of My Life", 1981. [15] The Beatles, "Revolution", 1968. [16] Big Brother and the Holding Company (with Janis
Joplin), "Ball and Chain", 1967. [17] Atomic Rooster, "Banstead", 1986. [18] The Beatles, "Helter Skelter", 1968. [19] Pink Floyd, "Careful With That Axe,
Eugene", 1971. [20] The Doors, "The End", 1967. [21] Pink Floyd, "Comfortably Numb", 1979. [22] Led Zeppelin, "Whole Lotta Love", 1969. [23] Pink Floyd, "Sheep", 1977. [24] Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come,
"Conception", 1974. |