A hit in
1973 for
David Essex. Surely written in about five minutes, full of
nostalgia swatches (with a touch of the
de rigueur boogie), from the
Rock and Roll Revival of the day. And
minimalism - the recording consisted mainly of a
bass guitar, an
echo unit, and an actor. It has aged better than the motormouth maximalism of "
Life is a Rock". But still, you have
rock and roll,
soul music, the aforementioned boogie, the
50s anthem "
Summertime Blues", "
Blue Suede Shoes",
the Isley Brothers' "
Shout", perhaps via
Lulu, and
James Dean. A vast
rock iconography trip in three minutes. I have no idea who fills the
blue jeans.
The song was originally written by Essex for That'll Be the Day, a film designed to capitalize both on the nostalgia boom and on Essex's success playing Jesus in Godspell on the stage; the film's producers rejected it, maybe because it didn't fit in musically with this British American Graffiti.
It was covered, years later, by an American soap opera star named Michael Damian, and, no doubt, his version was full of rock star bombast, far removed from the simplicity of the original; Essex wasn't a rock star - his pop-singing career fizzled several times before "Rock On".