David Essex – Rock On

The bassline and minimalist nature to this song…makes it all worth the repeat listens. It’s very much a cultural artifact that encapsulates its time.

This is a song from childhood that I will never forget. It had a strange sound and that is what made it special. No other than Herbie Flowers played bass on this song and he made it stand out. Yes this song is worn out but I will turn it up sometimes just to hear that bass.

David wrote and released this song in 1973. It appeared in the movie he and Ringo Starr were appearing in called That’ll Be The Day. Essex made unsuccessful recordings in the sixties until found success as an actor. This was the first of his many hits in the UK.

On another note. That’ll Be The Day is a really good movie and so is the follow-up… Stardust. I would suggest if you get the chance…watch them. I think it’s the best movie Ringo Starr ever appeared in excluding A Hard Days Night.

The song peaked at #1 in Canada, #5 in the Billboard 100, and #3 in the UK in 1973. Essex never charted another hit in America, although the Grammy nomination he got for “Rock On” was enough to give him a cult following in America.

The producer of this song was a jingle composer named Jeff Wayne. Wayne was an unusual choice, but his background in jingles, which must be very efficient, proved worthy.

Jeff Wayne: “I can recall the three musicians on the backing track for ‘Rock On’ all looking around in a mostly empty Advision Studios, Studio 1, wanting to know when the rest of the band was arriving! I explained there weren’t any others for that track, and I was relying on them to understand my idea for the production. While the drums and percussion parts were written out, it was definitely Herbie that grasped immediately that a bass guitar playing a lead riff could fill a large part of the spatial spectrum and he took my idea and turned some basic notes of mine, into his amazing bass riff. Then to top it off, he suggested playing it again an octave higher. So you get this unusual bass sound right up front – now it couldn’t have been up front if the arrangement didn’t allow the air and the space to be created that way.”

Rock On

Hey kids rock and roll,
Rock on, oh my soul
Hey kids boogey too, did ya

Hey shout, summertime blues,
Jump up and down in my blue suede shoes
Hey kids rock and roll, rock on

And where do we go from here?
Which is the way that’s clear

Still looking for that blue jean, baby queen
Prettiest girl I’ve ever seen
See her shake on the movie screen, Jimmy Dean
James Dean, rock on

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

27 thoughts on “David Essex – Rock On”

  7. I remember hearing this every now and again on our local AOR stations… but I was “today years old” when I learned who did it! Thanks for the great work Max, I’ve learned sooo much from your blog! Just goes to show that even (self described) music snobs that think they know everything have blind spots and a lot to learn still!!

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    1. I really appreciate it man. I grew up with this on A.M. radio… but I didn’t learn who did it either. I didnt know til I saw the movie “That’ll Be The Day”…

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  8. So many ‘music’ style movies have just faded away these days. I’d forgotten even the title of ‘Stardust.’ ‘Rocky Horror PS’ is the only one that lives on, yet there was ‘The Phantom Of The Paradise’ and others that were doing the rounds at roughly the same time. Gone, faded like stardust.

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    1. Yes they have obbverse. I remember That’ll Be The Day and The Beatles like Stardust….heck I have both of them now.
      I saw Rocky Horror once or twice…you go in and people would say the lines before they did.

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  13. Leppard did a cover of this tune and it didn’t do anything for me. Yet for a few tours they kept playing it which was like why? lol. They released it on a covers album they recorded. Some were good and some were meh….

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    1. They did do a good job on No Matter What…the Badfinger song. I still like the original more because…well it was Badfinger! But I did like their version.

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  16. David was regarded as the more cool girl’s pin-up at the time and retained his following well into the 80’s with non-stop hits in the UK, and musical hits to boot. Jeff Wayne did the War Of The Worlds album and singles including David and Justin Hayward, all of which were fab. I played this recently and its still very good, and moody. Stardust, Gonna Make You A Star and Hold Me Close were the next big hits, but I recommend his epic minor hits like City Lights, or Evita’s Oh What A Circus, Imperial Wizard or the soaring Silver Dream Machine from another of his films.

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    1. I learned about him through That’ll Be The Day and Stardust…but that was in the 80s…although I remember this song well at the time.

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