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| A genius plying the waters of heretofore uncharted sonic waves, Steven
Drozd grew up on Stoner Rock bands like Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd and King
Crimson… It makes me wonder about what an exciting and stimulating adolescence
he must have spent in the company of his very influential two older brothers.
In the text, which follows, he recalls how the evolution of his musical
sensibilities was deeply colored by their influence. He says his memories
of that era are a little quirky now in places, but he was still able to
offer us some deliciously lucid flashbacks to the purplish haze and thrill
of his teen experience of Stoner Rock music! Steven Drozd's knowledge of music is as eclectic as it is voluminous, and we spoke about his favourite music from the 70's. It was so inspired hearing him talk about it that I decided to ask him to write his memoirs of Stoner Rock and to recount as many weird experiences as he could muster for a Japanese hardcore magazine called Burst. Very friendly, cheerful and talkative, he agreed to this undertaking with pleasure, even though he's always really busy. Thanks to his wonderful personality and searchingly humorous curiosity, we can now read the great story of Stoner Rock! I edited his article for all you music fans out there! I hope you find it enjoyable and possibly evocative of your own purple haze days, even. Careful with that contact high. |
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| Utayo Furukuni | ||||
I Grew Up On Stoner Rock / Steven Drozd When I was a young child with an impressionable mind and overactive imagination, I loved having my mind blown by my 2 older brothers' record collection. To walk into their bedroom was to disconnect from reality and enter the hazy other world of completely wasted teenagers. |
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They "experimented" with a wide array of illegal substances and smoked pot 24 Hours a day. Posters of weird rock bands completely covered the walls and incense was always burning. What always obliterated my 8-year-old brain was the volume at which the music was played. Cranked up to a point so as to discourage any communication between us, my ears always rang when I left the room. Thanks to my hoodlum brothers I got to experience the strange reality of 1970s "STONERS" and their "ROCK"... My oldest brother had a mean streak and he loved to scare the hell out of me with music. When I was 7 years old his favorite cruel prank was to play the introduction to "Iron Man" from the album PARANOID by Black Sabbath. The thumping bass drum, cataclysmic guitar riff and demonic, robotic "I AM IRON MAN!" overture sent me screaming out of the room every time. |
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For my money, Black Sabbath is the essence of STONER ROCK. Their 1st 5 records establish the link between Blues Rock, Psychedelia and Heavy Metal. The vocalist John Ozzy Osbourne set a standard by singing about alienation, Satan, wizards, fairies, nuclear holocaust, drug damage, paranoia and all other manner of bizarre subject matter. Nowadays Ozzy cavorts around on MTV with his family and is a favorite celebrity personality in America but in the 70's he personified the wasted, creepy weirdo with one foot in the grave. I'm 33 years old now but I still get a vague "contact high" whenever I hear the early Sabbath stuff. |
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| As I got older I became more and more fascinated with all different styles
of music. I grew up in an interesting environment as my family was a very
musical one and there was always something playing somewhere in the house.
My father was a beer delivery truck driver who played in an old style classic country and western band on the weekends. Mom always had either R&B, Soul or Motown turned up really loud when she was cooking our dinner for us and my sister would go out every Saturday afternoon and buy the #1 Pop Hit of the week on 45. I myself was learning to play and was beginning to grasp the various aspects of how music works. What was it about my brothers' records that seemed so strange and otherworldly? Maybe I was getting stoned just by being in the same room with so much pot smoke, but I always lost track of time hanging out there. We would analyze album covers, memorize lyrics and obsess over every sound for hours at a time. Man, how did Robin Trower create that guitar sound on "Bridge of Sighs"? It sounds like it's being played underwater! Another classic. The spacy, Star Wars-ish synthesizer sound effects at the beginning of "2112" by RUSH had us convinced [at first] that the stereo was not playing right. I still remember every beat, guitar lick and vocal melody on that one.
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Around the time that I turned 9 my brother made a deal with me-I would clean up his bedroom when I came home from school and he would leave and let me listen to his albums [or 8-track tapes!] alone for 2 hours.2 whole hours to trip out by myself!! Incredible! Things were going to be different now... So, here I am in the year 2002 and there seems to be a keen interest in what people like to call "Stoner Rock". We never called it by that name when I was growing up-I guess it was called "Acid Rock" back then. I quite like that name, "Stoner Rock", because to me it implies any music that helps the listener disconnect from reality in some way. I'm not sure if my definition is the right one as I realize that there are many new bands making this type of heavy music that I know nothing about. That being said, I also feel that "Stoner Rock" doesn't necessarily mean that the music has to indeed have heavy riffs. Some does and some doesn't. There may be elements of Blues, Psychedelia, Folk, Heavy Metal and Prog Rock. In some ways I think it is up to the listener to decide. One person's Heavy Metal is another person's Stoner Rock...Catch my drift? What follows is a list of records that always mess my head up...
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Hawkwind "SPACE RITUAL" This double live record from 1973 belongs on any list of mindbending lysergic riff rock. Lemme, the bassist for the group at that time was originally a roadie for Jimi Hendrix in England and later found fame with the Proto-Speed-Metal group Motorhead. Hawkwind were famous [or infamous as the case may be] for smoking pot, snorting methamphetamine and dropping LSD before every performance. I didn't hear this record myself until 1990 when I fell in with some drug damaged psychopaths who insisted I hear it only when either tripping or stoned...This particular album influenced everyone from Spacemen 3 to Sleep. Classic STONER ROCK moment #1:The phased out wah wah guitar solo during "Master of the Universe" Pink Floyd "ANIMALS" Not as obviously "trippy" as "THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN", nor as melodramatic as "THE WALL","ANIMALS" is the perfect soundtrack to being depressed and stoned on a rainy day or just wanting to be depressed and stoned on a rainy day.
Classic STONER ROCK moment #2: A bastardized, paraphrased "Lord's Prayer" recited through distorted vocoder in the breakdown section of "Sheep" King Crimson "IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING" Usually this group is associated with the 1st wave of English Progressive Rock but the opening riff to "21st Century Schizoid Man" sounds as sinister as some of the best Metallica. |
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To be continued… hopefully… |
