"Rock and Roll"
Johnson moved to the United States and wrote songs for Tree International for two years while vainly attempting to record his own songs. Johnson's best known song, which charted in several countries, was "Rock and Roll I Gave You the Best Years of My Life" in 1973. It peaked at #10 in Melbourne, and at #4 on the Australian singles charts. The song was written by Johnson, who became frustrated with his US record label, Dial Records, in Nashville, Tennessee and told them he was about to leave. Johnson was informed that other artists had already recorded his song, so he quickly recorded and released his own version on the Australian-based Good Thyme label through Festival.
According to a 2002 interview with music journalist, Debbie Kruger:
reflected his frustration with his own stagnation, and the futile attempts of Australian artists trying to break into America or England —Debbie Kruger, 2002Johnson wrote about a singer recalling his childhood dream of being a star and followed his life through his musical work, with some close breaks until he is faced with the ultimate realisation that he is not destined to become a star. It ends on an upbeat note from the would-be celebrity proclaiming "I thank the lord for giving me the little that I knew".
According to rock music historian, Ian McFarlane, it is one of the most covered songs written by an Australian with 27 different artists recording it in 1975 alone. Covers include fellow Australians Col Joye and Digby Richards and international artists such as Mac Davis, Terry Jacks, Gary Glitter, Joe Dassin (in French), The Cats and Tom Jones. Some cover artists, including Mac Davis, leave out the lyric "... I'd never be a star" for a happier ending. Others, like Gary Glitter, leave out the upbeat ending in the Johnson version for a more somber ending. In the U.S., Johnson's single went to #73 on the Billboard singles chart in 1973, Jacks's went to #97 in 1974 and Davis's became the biggest hit, reaching #15 in 1975.
Johnson re-wrote this song to be "Aussie Rules I Thank You for the Best Years of Our Lives", for the official Australian Football League (AFL) Centenary Song in 1996 and was used as an anthem before AFL games.
Read more about this topic: Kevin Johnson (singer)
Famous quotes containing the words rock and/or roll:
“Compare the history of the novel to that of rock ‘n’ roll. Both started out a minority taste, became a mass taste, and then splintered into several subgenres. Both have been the typical cultural expressions of classes and epochs. Both started out aggressively fighting for their share of attention, novels attacking the drama, the tract, and the poem, rock attacking jazz and pop and rolling over classical music.”
—W. T. Lhamon, U.S. educator, critic. “Material Differences,” Deliberate Speed: The Origins of a Cultural Style in the American 1950s, Smithsonian (1990)
“Three meals of thin gruel a day, with an onion twice a week, and half a roll on Saturdays.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)