Rock and Roll Music

November 1971

I don't know who first told me that Rock and Roll was from the devil, but within the first week I quit listening to it which meant I didn't listen to anything. A lot of the early rock and roll came from down South and it was the Southerners who were also very much against the music that was considered to be from the devil himself.

I heard many preachers wail against it. I was told that when Moses came down from the mountain with the 10 commandments he heard noise in the camp and that noise was rock and roll music (3000 years before it came into being). I was informed that the Rock and Roll beat was straight out of the jungles of Africa. I heard stories of Christian Africans who heard it shuttering at the beat they heard because in the darkest of Africa, non-believing Africans use the same beat to conjure up evil spirits.

I was told Rock and Roll was evil, so I turned off the radio, threw out the few tapes I brought with me (I only remember Paul McCarney's RAM) and prepared to get rid of my 81 albums in Milwaukee, WI next time home.

In hindsight, I don't regret stepping away from Rock for a while, as my whole life was entrenched in Rock and Roll and drugs. Rock and drugs were too connected for me. I needed a time out to evaluate.

Other things that I learned that were bad for Christians were smoking, drinking any alcohol, gambling, dancing (it was considered erotic and led to sex), smoking, and going to movies (theaters may have a G rated movie today but will have an X rated one tomorrow, so the G rated one supports the X rated one). Playing with cards was considered bad to some people, but not others. Those who did consider playing cards evil said that the faces on the face cards were demonic.

Some of these taboos were remnants of the early reactions to Rock and Roll, other taboos came from the influence of the 19th Century holiness movement. I was under the spell of both influences.