Meet Your Rock N Roll Jesus

 

I flipped open the new issue of Rolling Stone to the charts page on the back page I was pleased to see this blurb on the Top 40 Albums chart.

Ten months after its release, Kid Rock’s Rock N Roll Jesus is back in the Top Five thanks to the success of the single “All Night Long,” a mash-up of “Sweet Home Alabama’ and “Werewolves of London.”

Truth be told that song and album are the reason for this blog.

I picked up Rock N Roll Jesus one afternoon after reading the review for it in Rolling Stone.  The magazine gave the record (yes I said record) rave reviews.  I enjoy Kid’s schtick so I gave it a shot.

Those old hippies were right.

Rock had put out the best pure rock record I had heard in a long time.  As usual he wore his influences on his sleeve.  He’s not a great singer, but his swagger more than makes up for his vocal shortcomings.

Then I hit track 3, the aforementioned “All Night Long.”  It starts with the piano intro from Zevon’s “Werewolves of London” and Kid Rock looking back on his days growing up in Michigan.  Then the really genius part happens.  Rock figured out that he could lay Werewolves right on top of “Sweet Home Alabama” and create magic.  The songs mesh perfectly and create the perfect accompaniment to the song of those special summer days gone by.

I couldn’t decide if this was the greatest act of thievery in recorded history or the single greatest homage of all time.  Months later I still can’t decide.  It doesn’t take a genius to rip off two of the greatest riffs of all time and shove them into a song.  It does take some genius to meld them together so seamlessly.  Months later, I still can’t decide, but I still love the song.

I told all of my friends who would listen to get the record.  I couldn’t say enough good things about it.  Eventually I ran out of friends to tell and wanted to tell other people.  I didn’t have a way to do that.

So I gathered together a bunch of those friends and put GonzoGeek together.

I saw the tail end of the video for “All Night Long” a couple of weeks ago and at the end the boys from Skynyrd and the dearly departed Mr. Zevon are listed as co-writers so I guess, in the end, its an homage.  That makes me like the song even more.

Chris and I are taking the wives to the Kid Rock/Lynyrd Skynyrd concert next weekend.  I’m hoping I can get some pictures to post here with a concert review.  More importantly, I’m hoping that Skynyrd hits the stage to play “All Night Long” with Kid Rock.

That would be a great hot summer night moment.