The birth of rock, as opposed to rock-and-roll, is often marked with the distorted guitar riff that opened the Kinks’ “You Really Got Me” in 1964 the following year gave us The Who’s “My Generation,” and as the decade closed, Cream, Blue Cheer, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, and others were championing that heavy, pile-driving sound. Starting in the late ’60s and ’70s, that was the sound of American radio from coast to coast. In decades past, one couldn’t have guessed that rock’s power might wane. Despite national trends, this is where rock, aka RAWK, lives on. While that slice of the rock and roll pie is not often honored in the halls of music history and doesn’t rule the charts as it once did, it’s still an undeniable element of what makes Memphis music great. And while those genres were indeed indispensable aspects of the Memphis sound, they tend to obscure another style at which the city excels: hard driving, guitar-fueled rock, loaded with full-throated screams and chugging riffs. The history of Memphis music is celebrated in a host of local museums and venues where one can take in the rockabilly, rock-and-roll, soul, R&B, and blues that put this city on the map. All four original members have played together since high school. Tora Tora on the 2023 Monsters of Rock Cruise.
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