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Rock Routes – 1 – Rock ‘n’ Roll Music

Posted on February 3, 2026February 3, 2026 by Opher

Rock ‘n’ Roll Music

Rock ‘n’ Roll is nothing more than black Rhythm & Blues played by white musicians with a bit of Country & Western thrown in for good measure. There are exceptions to this but this definition allows us to see the complicated interwoven relationship that exists between the music that became known as Rock ‘n’ Roll and its black cousin Rhythm ‘n’ Blues. Throughout their short evolution the two styles have become so closely associated that it is almost impossible to distinguish one from the other. Indeed there is a great deal of confusion as to which type of music an artist is playing within the confines of a single performance or album.

Does it matter?

Not really. It only matters if you want to explore the various avenues that lead to the stuff you love.

You might find a few more things to get enthusiastic about.

You may get to understand why you appreciate it.

It is possible to trace the roots of Rock music right back to the 18^th and 19^th centuries with the introduction of African rhythms and beat to the European Folk Tradition. This was a meeting of spirits that was to reach fruition in the Southern States of America, particularly New Orleans in Louisiana and Memphis Tennessee. It was a merger that first gave rise to Country Blues, Cajun and Gospel. It led to Rhythm ‘n’ Blues, Jazz, Bluegrass, Honky Tonk and Country Boogie. In the early part of the 1950s it gave birth to a vigorous hybrid that came to be known the world over as Rock ‘n’ Roll.

It took the world by storm and altered all our lives. It was a revolution. It was strongly allied to the prevailing youth culture of teenagers that emerged after World War 2.

The very name itself set the whole tone for everything that followed. It was coined by Alan Freed who borrowed it from the black slang for sex. It set generation against generation and rocked the world. It instigated a sexual revolution and social change on unheard of proportions. It upset the prevailing racial and gender attitudes and provoked the move to equality and freedom that prevails today. It set in motion a climate of questioning that altered the deferential way people thought about politicians.

The moment Elvis shook his hips the world would never be the same. Even Elvis did not have a clue that would happen. He was as bemused as everyone else. It took on a life of its own. It was powerful.

To understand where it began and where it went we have to go back to the very beginning. The story of Rock begins with the fusing of the two cultural traditions in the latter part of the 19^th century to produce a new type of music that we now refer to as Country Blues. This was first written about by W C Handy who recalls hearing a black musician playing this style of music at the railway station in Tutwiler Mississippi in 1903. He was playing an old guitar by running up and down the frets with a penknife. W C Handy was hearing Country Blues, bottle-neck style, for the first time. He was captivated.

Rock Routes: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781514873090: Books

Rock Routes – The history of Rock Music – The introduction

Posted on February 3, 2026February 3, 2026 by Opher

Introduction

Rock is dead. That is what Jim Morrison proclaimed in 1970. He was wrong.

Rock is alive and well.

Rock as a universal unifying force for Youth Culture is dead. For most young people it would appear that music is incidental to their life. It has become a consumable product to be bought and discarded. For those to whom it is central it has become an easy recognisable cult with dedicated devotees.

It was not always the case.

In the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s music was the focus for social change. It was the unifying force for fashion, politics, attitude, morality and social perspective. Rock was the vehicle that youth culture rode on. Its influence was universal. Rock ‘n’ Roll, Beat music, Psychedelia and Punk were world-wide phenomena. It is salutary to look back at the 60’s psychedelic phenomena and see long-hair bands complete with kaftans, bell-bottoms and accoutrements springing up all over the world including Peru, Afghanistan, Australia, Tokyo, Brazil, South Africa, Russia and Saudi Arabia. Everyone wanted to be part of the scene. They all wanted to be the Beatles, Stones, Floyd, Hendrix or Doors.

Everything now is controlled by the ‘Biz’ and run for profit.

I guess it was ever thus. It did not seem like it though. It seemed that the music was a revolution that was changing the world. It was made by us and controlled by us. It was not a product. It was an emotional portrayal of how we felt. It was ours, of us, by us and for us.

But then I’ve always been an idealist.

Well – I lived through it all. I’ve seen most of them and got to meet some of them. I have enjoyed a life-time of Rock Music. It has been central to everything I have done. It has affected my philosophy and impinged on every aspect of my life. I’ve lived it.

I am sitting here in 2013 looking forward over the next few weeks to a programme that includes Nick Harper, Roy Harper, The Magic Band, North Mississippi Allstars and Leonard Cohen. Wow! I’m looking forward to it. I’m 64 and still rockin’.

Back in the 1980s I ran an adult education on the history of Rock Music. I had great fun even though it cost me a fortune. My vinyl collection grew exponentially.

This book is an extension of that course. I first wrote a four volume book totalling 1500 pages entitled Rock Strata. It told the whole story of Rock Music through from the early 1900s to 1982. A publisher loved it. He loved my charts. He just thought it was a little too long. He wanted me to cut it down to 200 pages.

This is the rewrite of that attempt!

This book is the history of Rock Music up until 1982. I stopped there. I could have continued but it all rather broke up into fragments. There have been a number of those fragments that I continue to love but others I get frustrated by. I hate overproduced muzac for the hard of thinking. I hate product.

Rock Routes: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781514873090: Books

The Cleansing – 25 – Chapter 11

Posted on February 3, 2026February 3, 2026 by Opher

Trying to explore the impact of coming face to face with a scientifically/technologically superior culture is difficult. One has to base it on the impact of European cultures on the indigenous populations of South America, Australia and North America.

Chapter 11 – Conflict

Billy Smythe had discovered his forte. His reception at the Ashley Arms had unleashed a force within him. Billy was buoyed up and raring to go. From the moment he had been hoisted up on to that bar he’d felt transformed. A bubble had burst inside him. All his fears and lack of confidence had melted away. The ‘new’ Billy Smythe could take on the world.

Charlene orchestrated from behind the scenes. She put out a stream of messages through social media that miraculously all seemed to go viral. They highlighted a string of grievances that drew attention from right across the world. It was Charly who publicised the date and a time of their next meeting and ensured it received the maximum publicity. She was good with words.

For their next foray they’d hired the community centre. This time they had a proper stage, seats, a table and an actual podium. All very professional. There was even a PA if they wanted it. Billy declined. He was happy projecting to a crowd. The idea of a microphone was scary. He didn’t really know how to use one. How close did you have to be? How loud did you talk? No, he was better off doing what he was familiar with – talking to people.

They aimed to get their early to get set up. There were seats to set out in the hall and a last check that everything was working. Nobby had set up a bar at the back and was hoping to make another killing. Taking on the lizards was thirsty work.

‘How many you expecting?’ Foxy asked, looking to Billy for guidance. The place would hold a few hundred. It looked a little vacuous when empty.

Billy looked nonplussed.

‘I reckon there was about a couple of hundred at the Ashley,’ Charlene chipped in. ‘Probably a few more.’

‘Might be a few more, a few less,’ Denby suggested.

‘The novelty will have worn off,’ Debbie conjectured.

‘I don’t know,’ Cheryl replied. ‘People I’m talking to are all up in arms. They want something done. I’ve had a huge response on line. There might be more than you think. Hell of a buzz on social media. Some people took viddies of Billy and they’ve gone viral.’ She looked up at him admiringly. ‘Our Billy’s quite a celeb!’

Billy blushed. He liked this newfound admiration.

‘I reckon we should lay out all three hundred,’ Charlene suggested. ‘If they’re not needed there’s nothing lost.’

A half hour before the event people started trickling in. The trickle turned into a steady stream and the seats began to fill. Ten minutes off and every seat was taken. Still people came. The aisles, sides and back were full and more and more were coming. The capacity was three hundred but there had to be at least twice that.

Billy peered out from behind the curtains. The whole place was heaving, people pushing and jostling to get to see.

‘Bloody hell,’ Billy muttered to Charlene, ‘what’s the Health and Safety limit on this place?’

‘Never you mind, Billy,’ she grinned, as proud as punch. Her campaign had obviously worked better than any of them could have hoped.

Not only was the hall jam-packed but once again crowds were building up outside. John, who had become increasing paranoid, kept checking through the curtains. ‘No sign of any lizards,’ he reported.

‘I reckon you’ll need that PA,’ Foxy remarked. He and Denby quickly activated the system and Foxy had the idea of directing a speaker through the open window.

It was five minutes late by the time things were ready. The crowd were restless but began to settle in anticipation as if they were at a gig.

At last Billy and the others were ready.

They’d planned it out. Seven of them trouped out on to the stage and took their seats to a lot of clapping and cheers. Then Billy emerged and walked to the podium and the place erupted, stamping, clapping, cheers and whistles. He raised his hands to acknowledge them. This time there was no sign of trepidation on his part.

‘Thank you! Thank you for coming!’ His voice boomed. He backed away from the mic.

Huge cheers greeted him.

‘We need to do something about these overgrown lizards, don’t we?’ Billy asked the question, getting the mic about right.

Rooooaaaarr!! Came the reply.

With that he launched in.

He’d not really planned it but it was all there in his head. Now it came spilling out in a stream of vitriol: How we didn’t need them here lording it over us. How they were trying to keep us quiet and shut us up – taking away our nationality and culture – that we were English and had thousands of years of history – thousands of years without ever being conquered – thousands of years of history and culture that they wanted to steal. We had to stand up and fight just like Saint George had done.

St George – the great English knight who was an example for us all. He’d killed that great fire-breathing scaly dragon.

According to Billy our overgrown lizards were nothing compared with that fearsome dragon. We could trounce them if we wanted!

Then he turned his attention to Ron Forsythe and that Global Government. They were trying to foist some silly, poncy mouthpiece on us to keep us quiet. All this talk of equality and unity. All smoke and mirrors. We didn’t want some poncy writer. What he he know about running the country? It was a ploy. Well, all this talk of unity was just an excuse for tyranny. This talk of global government was just an excuse to take our country away from us. Who needs a bunch of lizards telling us what to do? They could take their wonderful technology and screw themselves with it. We didn’t need it, or them. They should go back to where they came from!

The whole diatribe was punctuated with rapturous cheers. He seemed to hit every button. By the time he finished he had them all singing Jerusalem. ‘And did those feet…..’

If he had said the word he could have had them all marching to the nearest alien base to storm the place. They’d have followed him to hell and back.

When it was over they were inundated with people asking what they could do, looking to Billy and the others for answers, leadership, ideas. Their blood was up. They wanted action. They thought Billy might provide it.

‘You were magnificent Billy,’ Charlene chortled, taking his arm as they walked home. All the way people were coming up to them wanting to shake his hand, wanting selfies. It was like he was a star.

‘Fucking hell!’ Denby said, coming to a dead halt. They all stopped and stared. Denby had his phone in his hand. ‘There’s fucking viddies of you all over the web. It’s going viral, man. You’re a fucking superstar, Billy!’

They all looked. Already snippets of Belly’s performance were trending and going viral.

‘Can I get a selfie with you,’ Foxy asked cheekily.

Once the bewilderment had dissipated and Ron had stop asking ‘why me’ and acceptance slowly set it. Hard on its heels came anger. He was being used. They were setting him up as head of a token human government while, behind the scenes, they orchestrated their take-over. This charade was nothing more than a means of reducing resistance. Cunning and deceitful. They were tightening their grip day by day and wanted it made easy. Ron was their tool. He could see the endless stream of arrests. The internet was full of terrible scenes that made Trump’s ICE arrests look tame. Where were they dragging all those people? Were there mass execution centres? Would he find mass graves if he were to look? A wave of nausea welled up inside him at the thought. They were expecting him to put his name to this sacrilege. It felt like sanctioning Hitler’s extermination policy. What the hell was going on? How the hell was he expected to trust them?

Spending hours in a small room with a nine foot lizard equipped with fangs and titanium-edged claws was intimidating but you got used to it. After a short while he began to glimpse her personality. Soon he was seeing Chameakegra as a person, a real person, with a real personality..

Despite the horrendous scene on the internet he warmed to her. Chameakegra explained how the excision was necessary to cleanse society, that the removals were not as bad as they seemed and the people taken would be rehabilitated. He wanted to believe her but it flew in the face of the repulsive scenes he was seeing on line.

Chameakegra spent time with Ron. She knew it was important to win him over. She shared her vision for the future and the more she talked the more he came to see it. Could he buy into this? Could he even believe it? A world where there was no such thing as racism and violence, no wars and cruelty; a world with free energy, clean rivers and seas and the revival of nature. It sounded too good to be true. Could he believe her?

Making America Poor and Irrelevant!

Posted on February 3, 2026February 3, 2026 by Opher

A short while ago the USA was the undisputed leader of the Western World, the champion of Western values and Democracy.

Then came Trump.

In one short year all that changed.

Firstly, Trump clearly sided with our mutual enemy Putin over Ukraine and threw Europe into confusion.

Then he threatens Canada and Greenland and threatens the future of NATO.

He pulls out of the UN – the bastion of Western vales.

Trump makes disparaging remarks about allies, flattering remarks about enemies and gives support to various right-wing groups who are threatening to overturn Western values in Europe.

As a result alliances are threatened, the USA is not only untrustworthy but is actually seen to be working against the alliances forged over 80 years – increasing global instability and empowering our enemies.

The result is that the Western Allies are forging alliances WITHOUT the USA.

Trump proceeded to throw a spanner into the whole complex global trade network by using tariffs as a weapon. He stupidly thought that he could blackmail the world into doing what he wants and in the process extort huge sums of money out of other countries.

He didn’t seem to understand that trade is a two-way business and that other countries has essential resources or skills that the US did not possess.

Countries retaliated with their own withdrawal of services/goods or retaliatory tariffs.

Countries began looking for alternative markets and cutting the USA out of the loop.

Trump clearly doesn’t believe in democracy. Not only does he openly admire despots and dictators – like Putin and Kim Jung Un – but he seeks to undermine democracy his own country. He is seeking to control the democratic process, take charge of the mechanisms, control how it is done, control the courts and legislators and hold the sort of elections that give Putin 99% of the votes. He wants to be the USA dictator and sees that’s how it’s done.

He wants to rule the world and is setting himself up as the leader with his Board of Peace – loaded with dictators and despots – like Putin, Milei, Netanyahu and Lukashenk – a more scurrilous bunch of authoritarian warmongers you could not assemble. He thinks they can replace the UN and rule the world by force. It’d be like the Third Reich made real.

The destruction of trust will be detrimental to everyone, including the USA most of all. For short-term gain he has ruined long-term relationships, alliances and trade.

America will become increasingly isolated, poorer and irrelevant.

Put a fool in charge backed up by a bunch of useless sycophants and don’t be surprised at the outcome. Only the fool and his sycophants come out of it in profit! (Billions so far!)

White House Cover Up. Release ALL the Epstein Files!

Posted on February 3, 2026February 3, 2026 by Opher

Quantity not quality.

Redaction and omission.

This feels a lot like putting a fox in charge of the hen house.

We’re being swamped with trivia and info against certain individuals who have been thrown to the wolves – Mandelson, Prince Andrew and others – but all damning mention of Trump has been carefully massaged out of the reports.

Strange that. Put Trump and the White House in charge of what’s released and they spend months doctoring the releases and then look to stifle all criticism under an avalanche of irrelevant material with snippets of salacious criminal activity.

I don’t buy it.

It’s like putting Al Capone in change of tax revenue.