2006-09-11 - 8:46 a.m.
A few days after September 11, 2001, I was scheduled to deliver a lecture to aspiring Record Hospital DJs at my old radio station, Harvard�s 95.3 FM, WHRB (one of the few college stations that�s commercial, but non-profit). It was the first in a series given by various different older DJs to students (mostly freshmen) going through the �comp� process of training to be radio announcers themselves (mine was the first in the sequence � the �pre-punk� lecture, trying to cover everything from the beginnings of rock to about 1977). The lecture series, along with the accompanying �listening assignments�, was intended to give DJs an understanding of the history of �underground rock� (as well as make sure their tastes didn�t deviate too widely from the rest of the Rock Department�s).
Given the recent events, the kids in the room were understandably agitated and didn�t necessarily want to focus on a talk about early rock history. I also wasn�t really sure how motivated I felt to deliver the lecture. There had been hastily-organized memorial services at Harvard (many of the students were from New York City) and a rush on the chaplains and on psychological counseling. In the first hours after the attack, when it wasn�t clear if more planes weren�t headed for other cities, there was a widespread fear that Harvard would be a particularly attractive target if Boston were hit. It seemed almost inappropriate to be chatting about the birth of rock�n�roll. I wasn�t a teacher; I had no power to make everyone listen to Bo and Chuck and Gene and Link.
We were sitting in a small circle by the turntable in the record library. The kids were peering at me. They seemed so much younger than me � 18 to my 27. I guess I seemed like some sort of authority figure, like an instructor instead of just some guy (although an instructor is really also just some guy�). But were they interested in being here? Was there any point to this?
�Hey, is there any point to this?� I said out loud. Maybe not the best opening line, but I felt the need to offer some reassurance, some justification of what we were doing there. �I mean now, with everything that�s going on. Are we wasting our time listening to mid-century pop music? Is it just a bunch of niggers yelling and thwacking guitars and not appropriate to take seriously at a somber time like this?�
The kids rustled in their seats. Someone nervously giggled. I supposed �nigger� wasn�t a common word to hear around here.
�Well, this is American culture. This is our homegrown meaning. This is what the people who took down the Twin Towers can never understand. Today, rock is every country�s music and the whole world�s joy. But it started right here in America. Looking into and discussing the history and development of rock�n�roll is a singular tribute to the America that�s under attack. It�s exactly the kind of thing we should indeed be doing right now.�
There was general nodding. Everyone had chosen to be here, after all, because they love rock�n�roll. Hey, cool. We�re a bunch of angry Americans. That�s how it should be.
�So let�s start. Does anyone know what a diddley bow is?�
� 2006 Geoff Gladstone
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