I. ALLEGRO: ROCK’N’ROLL OVERTURE
Let your love light shine
Let your freak flag fly
Let it rock
I’m addicted to your love
Your love for me is a drug
Sweet honey in the rock
I’m down on my knees
I’m begging you please
Don’t stop the rock
Oh yeah, all right
Let’s not be petty tonight
This town’s gonna rock
Rock me steady, rock till you drop
Rock and roll over, rock around the clock
Rock through the night, rock away the day
Rock is dead, rock’n’roll is here to stay
Rock’n’roll is king, rock is our queen
Rock in a hard place, rock’n’roll machine
Rock the casbah, rock the nation
Rock’n’roll heaven, rock’n’roll all creation
Stand next to my fire
Quench my desire
Are you ready to rock
Shake your body, thrill my soul
Make me lose all control
Let there be rock
Trip the light fantastic
Sing the body electric
For those about to rock
Let’s talk about love, heaven above
Somebody to shove, lack thereof
Love me like a rock
Rock me steady …
Got to be movin’ on, travelin’ on
Keep on rollin’ on, ramblin’ on
Everybody rock
Spread your wings and fly, got to be free
‘Cuz there’s too many places we got to see
If you wanna rock
Free as the wind, free as a bird
Free is the spirit, free is the word
Free world’s gonna rock
Feast or famine, pleasure or pain
Chase a mystery girl on a mystery train
In the name of rock
Rock me steady …
Are you an angel fallen from grace
Or are you a devil who revels in disgrace
Do you wanna rock
Walk it like you talk it, got to be real
Cast off the fate of eternity’s wheel
You can’t stop rock
Two hearts beat as one, I wanna be with you
With all the changes you put me through
We were born to rock
So gimme some lovin’, some good good lovin’
Got to have your lovin’ your sweet tender lovin’
We’re really gonna rock
Rock me steady …
©2024 The Hesh Inc.
Sometime in the mid-2000s, after hearing the expression "ever-changing world" and the "self/shelf" rhyme in one too many songs, I began collecting a list of common, overused expressions in rock and pop songs. I thought that eventually I would assemble them all into a song, but it became clear that they would require more than one song, because of the sheer number of them as well as the variety of rock/pop subgenres that these expressions are overused in. After sitting unfinished in one of my old notebooks for more than a decade, I did a little more research and collected more such expressions, and then created a whole four-part suite out of them ... itself a cliché. The first movement, presented here, is the overture, and opening salvo, in an upbeat, hard-rock mode; the second movement slows down to a power ballad, the third movement gets the blues, and the fourth movement visits the vaunted "Jersey Shore Rock'n'Roll" genre made popular by a particular "BS" artist, as well as his peers. See how many of these tropes you can spot. And keep in mind that the lyrics do not have to make sense.