Rock
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Old Time Rock and Roll, Get Ready, I Just Want to Celebrate etc.. will “soothe your soul”. Take time out to massage the affective part of yourself. Ancient culture or atomized culture, we all need to gather around the “fire”, to warm up, to celebrate and to belong. Music as equalizer, as motivator. A call…
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You will find a bunch of Filipino bands around Saigon, from Hard Rock Cafe to Acoustic. When the British rock bands gained noteriety in America back in the 60’s, the phenomenon was coined The British Invasion. Now Vietnam is experiencing similar invasion by their neighbors. They got the language (English), the look (still brown-skinned), and the connection (E2…
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We used to lie on the floor (absorbing the coolness from the tiles) and listen to “Y0ur Song” , theme of that time’s radio broadcast. That’s my siesta as I can recall. Older brother used Hit Parade, with Elvis Presley on the cover. My friend, meanwhile, laminated his vinyl album (James Taylor). We have just met over…
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One of my first guitar solos was House of Rising Sun. Chu Van An High School music room, with two electric guitars, one bass guitar and a drum set. Long was on bass, Son counted the beat and Hung, son of a dancing instructor, played rhythm. And one, and two: Am, C …. And so we…
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Rage, rebellion and Rock seem to fit together. Gone were Happy Days and the Mamas & Pappas. As soon as we got color television, it were as if innocence had vanished along with the Black- and- White TV sets. Rage against the machine. Against materialism and modernity. Against the wind (symbolically speaking). Rock, or stone, needs to roll. Rolling Stone.…
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The audience sang along, occasionally to the shared mike. We will we will rock you. Tonight gonna be a good good night. Even Top of the World which was a relic from the 70’s. A night at Acoustic, Saigon. A night to release the stress. A night to see Rock rules in a whole new generation. The…
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After transitioning from a French elementary school to a Vietnamese middle-school, on my first day of school, I saw “First learn respect, then learn literature”. My brother’s generation at the same school had been from the same mold (his classmates are still staying in touch). No wonder they showed up at my Mom’s funeral in a…
Thang Nguyen 555 