According to a recent report in
The Mailbox News, NASA's Voyager 1 is reaching the fringe of our solar system after 28 years hurtling through space. On board is a payload which includes, among other things, a
golden phonograph record that includes multilingual messages, natural sounds and musical selections from earth. The music
playlist on this 12-inch copper disk includes Western and Eastern classics as well as ethnic music and one jazz recording, one blues track, and one rock-and-roll classic.
Not a bad list, but the conspicuous absence of any Beatles or Dylan makes it a little elitist, even with Johnny B. Goode in the seventh slot. And considering that this is an American space mission the list is even more troubling, particularly because it is loaded with German über-composers and little from the best of American music. Anything from Minnesotan/Greenwich Villager Bob Dylan is conspicuously absent, though much of his best work represents the apex of traditional American folk music (not to mention that he also drew from Berry and the great bluesmen like Blind Willie Johnson whose "Dark Was the Night" did make the trip into space). Sounds like this list was made by some Classic Music Snob and/or self-loathing American music deficianado. One could even argue that American folk music was the first so-called World Music given its roots in Celtic and African rhythms and traditions, so I would have to fault them for leaving out something along the lines of "Like a Rolling Stone" or almost anything from Highway 61 Revisited or Blonde on Blonde.
I suppose Chuck Berry’s classic song represents the best of 20th century rock and roll, and I can live with that, but five hundred years from now the only pop music names most remembered will be The Beatles, Bob Dylan, but only maybe Chuck Berry whose role as an originator might be foolishly forgotten. If it hasn't been already (both Dylan and the Beatles would be the first to acknowledge his influence on them).
Maybe the Voyager record will end up in a black-hole jukebox somewhere in the universe, and then NASA will wisely contact The Rock Snob for a new, more comprehensive list for the next unmanned mission to the far reaches of the universe.
"You know, my temperature’s risin’And the jukebox blows a fuse.My heart’s beatin’ rhythmAnd my soul keeps on singin’ the blues.Roll over Beethoven and tell Tchaikovsky the news."-Chuck Berry
