Flooding. Could see gustings mainly tonight and the first half of labor day gusting up to 45 miles an hour, dangerous rip currents. Tropical storm warnings remain in effect until further notice and ill have more coming up on the 6 to find a home deep amidst our cultural identity. Today, its a catch phrase, an idiom of our english language, a style all its own and even a symbol of true heroism. But, today we recall the original roots of rock and rolls sound. The soul and spunk it forged through the decades and the personalities that have appropriated its beat for our listening pleasure. So, we start where else . The beginning. If we were going to script the debut of rock and roll in american culture, we might be tempted to craft a cinematic moment where in a single Television Appearance a young star debuts a new sound, a new style complete with devilsh good looks and all at once charms, seduces and changes america for ever. Well that cinematic moment is exactly how history played out from the first note elvis played on ed sullivans show and forever changed us. It was one of seminal moments in television history. The power of the medium and the force of an unforgetabel performer on full display. A defining moment for a Musical Force that could not be censored. This man stood on stage, shook his hips and startled america. His sound came from his deep south gospel roots and instinctive understanding of blues and country but his moves were so raw, so passionate, so sexual that he was actually branded subversive and dangerous. Press coverage was highly critical. They talked about his threat to the morals of the country and how if this were not stopped, young people would be subjected to all kinds of immoral thoughts and sexual thoughts. September 9, 1956 was the first of elviss three appearances on the ed sullivan show. Sullivan, backed by the power of winning ratngs publicly declared hed never have elvis on his family show. That changed after elvis turned up on his competitors steve allens show and despite the fact elvis wore a tuxedo and sang to a hound dog, allen trounced sullivan in the ratings. Ironically, neither sullivan nor elvis were actually at sullivans new york studio the night of his first performance. The talk show host was recovering from a serious car accident and elvis was in hollywood filming a movie so Charles Laughton did the honors. Wearing a loud plaid jacket, elvis started things off with dont be cruel and love me tender. Elvis performed for the National Audience as only he could, shaking moving, grooving and gyrating. Later he wished ed well and sang little richards ready teddy and hound dog. The reaction was instant. You tell america this man is too dirty to be on stage, suddenly everyone looks and pays attention. By the last time elvis appeared on sullivans show, four months later in 1957, cbs censors were ready ordering the cameras to shoot him only from the waist up. But it was too late, the masses had already crowned him the king of rock and roll and there would be no turning back. When our journey continues, they helped define the sound of the late 60s and early 70s, Crosby Stills Nash and youngs own graham nash sits down to talk about how the turmoil of the time helped guide the songs they created. In 1969, it was basically almost heavy metal you know there were lots of marshall amps on stage you know and hendrix and led zeppelin of course, csn made this not an accoustic record but kind of a gentler record even though it had some good rock and roll on there and we kind of knew that it might just slip on righthrough everybody and go to the top of the charts which it did. The release of an album that proved to be a Pivotal Moment within the music world. Plus, the irish rock band from dublin equally known for their sound as for their bold views on politics and religion and i think im a good salesman of of ideas, songs, melodies, if i believe in them. You know, people getting out on the streets, getting organized and fighting to eliminate extreme poverty is working and thats the mission because i believe if people understand it and see the successes of it then theyll do more of it. I arrived as an activist. Social justice was part of u2s agenda. And we turn back the lens of time on the enigmatic musician who redefined sexy. Stay with us, as we look back on the evolution of rock n roll through the decades. As the Rock Movement evolved from the bobby soxers that elvis dazzled in the 50s to the more complex and selfcontained folk sound of the 1960s. One of the most important voices to come out of that era was graham nash and his band Crosby Stills Nash and young. If there was one band whose music could score a soundtrack to the late 60s and early 70s, it would be crosby, stills and nash. Or csn and y as theyd be known with the frequent addition of neil young. I dont know how i write songs. I dont know what this process is. I see something. I feel something. I have to explain to myself what it that im periencing. Thats what i do. How i do that . I dont have a clue and i dont want to know. The first of rocks socalled supergroups formed at the end of 1968 ts very interesting being in a band with three sometimes four strong writers. We knew that we had the goods. We knew that we could play music, play rock and roll so it was very interesting time. All of the members had had success before. And the band came together right as both rock music and the counterculture found themselves at a crossroads. In 1969, it was basically almost heavy metal you know there were lots of marshall amps on stage, you know, and hendrix and led zeppelin of course, cs n made this not an accoustic record but a gentler record even though it did have some good rock and roll on there and we kind of knew that it might just slip on right through everybody and go to the top of the charts which it did. Then they were at places like woodstock where the band performed only their second concert. I wonder why people are so fascinated with woodstock. It was the end of a bunch of people getting together in the garage and making music and becoming stars and the begining of corporate invasion into music because when all the corporations saw half a million kids that they could sell another pair of sneakers and another cola to. As for the song woodstock, the tale of a spritual journey to that remote farm in upstate new york, it was a hit that went all the way to number 11. Even if the story of its creation takes place, not in the rain or amid the crowd but in a hotel room. Joni mitchell was supposed to play woodstock. She was supposed to play the last day on a sunday but on a monday she was supposed to do the dick cavett show which was her first major american broadcast in her career. When it was obvious there was going to be more than 100,000 people there, our magers decided that maybe joni shouldnt goand so joni didnt go to woodstock. By the time we got back to the hotel, shed already written woodstock 90 percent of it anyway and it was amazing to us that she could pin down the exact essence of what was happening at woodstock in a song, having never been. Thats how good she is. As the 60s came to a close, the media spotlight was shining on places like new yorks Greenwich Village and san franciscos haight ashbury. Musicians started migrating to an area in the Hollywood Hills known as laurel canyon. During the first csn record, i was in love with joni and living with joni in laurel canyon. Steven was in love with judy collins and dave was in love with his girlfiriend, christine. By the time we got to asking neal to join us and doing the record of dejavu, christine had been killed, i was no longer with joni and steven wasnt any longer with judy collins so its a very different album, different feeling. While the band would be almost as notable for their feuds as for their music. If youre trying to understand that time in america, the sounds of crosby, stills, nash and young light the way. We had the songs and we had the songs that seemed to have fit the era of those late 60s, early 70s. Yeah, we were a pretty decent band. Csny didnt work in a vaccuum. The music they made came out of collaborations and life experience. One of those who helped influence the csny sound and certainly their life experience, was singer and songwriter , judy collins. Her hit song, both sides now, came out of new yorks then burgeoning folk music scene. Burgeoning folk music scene. Judy collins was a fixture of the early 60s music scene in Greenwich Village playing some of the villages most famous clubs alongside a whos who of the moment. The first time that i was in new york working was at gerties folk city in 1961. Now ill tell you that when i got there all the people that i knew from the cds, from the records rather, were there. Joan was there. Mimi was there, her sister. Dave enronk was there. Peter, paul and mary were there before they became peter, paul and mary, Ramblin Jack Elliott was there and this guy who was this young, ratty looking, badly dressed guy named Robert Zimmerman was there singing old Woody Guthrie blues. I was the headliner and i thought well how did this happen i mean i just started doing this and then i discovered why they were all there. They were all there because my opener was a 13 year old named arlo guthrie. Then collins hit the top ten on the pop charts with both sides now. The vietnam war and Civil Rights Movement were in full swing. The Womens Liberation Movement was picking up momentum and in the midst of it all was judy collins. Lbj was president of course, during the worst of the war and we thought that jfk was going to stop the war. We thought that kennedy would be our man in the white house and when he was killed, i think there was a huge shock and shift in the way people perceived things. Mostly they said if not now, when. It was if the mask came off and the truth was out. The truth was most people had been lying to us who were in government, president s included and the world was not the world we had grown up with in the eisenhower years and we were in a new place and we better do something about this and i think that the action in combination with the music stuck with people. It makes people think, probably quite rightly, that something was happening there that was extremely powerful and that they would have loved to been a part of and if they arent a part of it physically they could be a part of it musically. They can experience all of this music. What was it about . It was very, very powerful powerful to live through, powerful to survive, thank god that i did, and powerful to still believe it had a huge impact on the culture, which i think it did. Still to come, we remember the release of an iconic rock opera. One that crossed into terrority no album had dared to tread before and we look back on when the voice of a Rock Movement brought his own story to an early end. The lead singer of nirvana, a rock group especially popular with people in their teens and twenties shot and killed himself at his home in rock and roll began as the music of rebellion. Its next iteration was the soundtrack of the counterculture from california to Greenwich Village. By the mid60s, ambitious concept albums like the beach boys pet sounds and the beatles sgt. Pepper broke new artistic ground. But then , the who released the first great rock opera, tommy, and history was made once again. An opening at the metropolitan opera is usually an occasion for a lot of people to get dressed up in evening clothes, furs and jewels and then brace themselves for an evening of verdi, puccini, or wagner. Well, this opening at the met is not like that. If there are any furs in the audience the odds are theyre secondhand and instead of evening clothes and jewels you get blue jeans and love bds. And you dont get puccini, either. Instead you get the who. In 1968, the who was just another ambitious band looking for a way beyond the standard threeminute radio play. Pete townshend, the whos lead guitarist and chief songwriter, had an inspired idea a fullscale rock opera. The result was tommy. a doublealbum extravaganza, a composition dealing with the life story of a tormented deaf, dumb and blind boy. It was a critical and commerical success and scored hit singles with im free, pinball wizard, and see me, feel me. Townshends yearning, harmonically complex music drew on themes from his own childhood. Tommy can you hear me . Can you feel me near you . Classical composer Leonard Bernstein praised the work and in 1970 tommy was given two dates at the met, new yorks high church of opera. The reaction bordered on the ecstatic. It was the most fantastic thing ive ever seen. Im still rushing from being inside. Its unreal. You could feel the vibrations from the people, you could feel the vibrations coming from them, and it was just everybody just had the same feelings at the same time. It was just beautiful. Its just nice to see people of this age group in the met. But also, the piece kind of elevated rock to a certain degree and so its nice to give it put it in a building that sort of is on the same level with what its done for its own milieu. You know what i mean . You know, weve taken over. Weve taken over the met, man. Weve freaked it all out. Its beautiful. Its really fantastic. Tommys journey continued there was a ballet in 1970 and an orchestral rendition recorded by the london symphony. Then in 1975, controversial film director ken russell turned it into a starstudded, surrealist movie featuring jack nicholson, tina turner and elton john with the title role played by the whos own roger daltrey. Tommy, in all its incarnations is now considered a milestone in rock and rolls conquest of higher culture. Because tommy was so innovative and risky when it first came out, you know i had to wait a long time for just for people to say, oh yeah, tommy a rock opera and not, what a pretent pretentious, you know outrage perpetrated on on on you know, the wonderful chevrolet life of rockand roll, you know . When the mother smashes the mirror and he discovers life, he takes his life into his own hands. He realizes that hes alone. And i think that certainly was my discovery in all this, is that we thats what rock androll is. Rock and roll is about that moment when you discover that youre alone. You know, its not about leaving home. Its not about deserting your family its just about, that one day you wake up, you could be 15, 16, 17, sometimes you can be 12 years old but at some time, you have that conversation with your folks, you either stay or you go but whatever you do, from that moment, youre on your own. There are few bands that have topped the charts with consistency through the decades all while spreading a message of social change when we continue, we delve into the story of irish rock band, u2. Plus, we look back on the life and legacy of a man who redefined what it means to be masculine and became rock royalty in process. Youre watching through the decades. Youre watching through the decades. Its our new intern, barts first week here at td bank, hello hes a robot from one of those other banks. Were training him to bank human. I am banking assistance registration technology. Wait, wait, wait. But you can call me, banking assistance registration technology. Hi amy. Thank you. Thank you. That is not protocol manager jenna. Thats ok bart, it is here. At td bank we do things differently, like having the longest hours of any bank. Dont just bank. Bank human. Fios is not cable. Were wired differently. Which means we can fix things differently. Thanks for calling fios, this is ryan, how can i help you today . Yeah, i got a big problem with my new tv. You cant tell me this cord isnt in, i know its in, its in but its not working. Okay. Im sending you a link to the my fios app thats going to let me see what youre seeing. Really . Yes, really. Mr. Mcenroe. Um, see that cord . Just plug it into the connector on the right. So you can clearly see whats in and whats out . Oh, absolutely. I like that. Hey, it worked so i dont have to see the cable guy again . Oh no, were not cable, mac. Did you just call me mac . Enroe. Mcenroe. Mr. Mcenroe . Tech support that lets your technician see the problem over your smartphone. Get 100 meg internet, tv and phone for just 69. 99 a month online for 2 years, guaranteed with a 2 year agreement. Only fios offers speeds this fast at a price this good. We turn the lens of time back to 1981 when the idea of taking your music onthego was the newest thing. Just about anywhere you go this weekend you may be listening to music or if youre really lucky as Bernard Goldberg reports, you may be watching people listening to music. From the noisy streets of new york to the laid back tranquility of california, americans are tuning out and tuning in. Its the latest fad, tiny stereo cassette players with featherweight headphones. Its caught on all over america but nowhere as it has in new york where more and more people are discovering that about the only space theyve got is between their ears in a manner of speaking of course. You know listening to beethoven and walking in manhattan. You know walking on the streets, its pretty nice as opposed to hearing the sirens going by and the jackhammers. It just puts you in your own world all by yourself. Its like carrying your stereo with you, you know, on your head and its light. Whether they wear pinstripes or no stripes theyre discovering that at least musically speaking, you can take it with you, about 750,000 people nationwide are doing just that. Everybodys buying the machines. Anyone from a wealthy executive who likes to spend his weekends out on his sailboat listening to beethoven to the street Kid Listening to new wave music down in the subways. Well, this is all it is. Theres a lot of noise and confusion down here. It just centers me. You know, i just got to go about five stops but it feels good. Is it the me generation gone wild, a height of antisocial behavior, electronic snubbery . The rest of the world tunes out to me sometimes so i might as well do it to them. Some still prefer last years model. The radio thats about as big as the Empire State Building and as loud as world war ii that exemplify the sophistication for which new york is so admired. Do you bother a lot of people with that . No. You bother me. Bothers the hell out of me. I think you are invading my life space with that damn thing. Yeah . I am . Yeah. You are really. Not only mine but everybody else around here. Can i ask everybody here, isnt this ridiculous . Youre a country dude its nic