le still representing a distinctive national character. In other
words, clinging to the countercultural images and agendas of the late
1960s, Marcusp osited a notion of "Americanism"th at would embrace
rock 'n' roll in its entirety.
Mystery Train identified the bedrock of a rock 'n' roll canon for the
mid-1970s by distinguishing six figures as the most telling representativesof this musical style: two "Ancestors"-Harmonica Frank and RobertJohnson-had influenced four diverse "Inheritors"-The Band, Sly Stone,145146 The Musical QuarterlyRandy Newman, and Elvis Presley-through their expression in a potentsubcultural musical style.4 The rock 'n' roll medium had allowed theseartists to communicate a "version of America" that, for Marcus, exposedthe idiosyncrasieso f the nation's unique culturals phere. He viewed thismusic from the perspective of America's larger artistic canon, seeking toclaim for certain musicians the same aesthetic and historical significancethat has been accorded to such American writers as Whitman, Melville,and Hawthorne. His culture-critical project was thus positioned withinthe broader context ofAmerican literary studies: he argued that the music
under discussion,l ike the nation's great literature," dramatize[sa] sense of
what it is to be an American; what it means, what it's worth, what the
stakes of life in America might be. This book ... is rooted in the idea that
these artists can illuminate those American questions and that the questions
can add resonance to their work."5I n the end, Marcus'sc laim was
that all American artists were best thought of as "symbolic Americans."6
In what follows, I would like to consider Mystery Train as a central
text in the tradition of writing on rock 'n' roll. Rather than merely revisitingone influential source and considering its continuing discursive power,I wish instead to use this examination of Mystery Train as a means ofentering into a largerh istoriographicadl iscussiono f the writing of rockhistories. Historiographicali nquiriesh ave recentlyfound themselves atthe center of musicological discourse. Investigations of the historicalreception of certain classical-musicr epertoriesh ave broughtt o the disciplinea growing awareness of the social and cultural uses to which musichas been put. Music history textbooks, music criticism in the popularpress, and discussions of music in literary works are a few of the many critical-historical genres that have comeunder scrutiny as the musicologicalcommunity attempts to confront its own past while claiming continuedlegitimacy in the currents ituation of curriculara nd disciplinaryr eforms.7Equally indicative of musicology's current state is the broadening of itsconcerns to include the realm of popular music. If the study of popularmusic is to be considered a concern of musicology, it seems clear that thesame lines of historiographicalq uestioning that have revealed the agendasof certain institutions of high culture should also be applied to the broadand varied literatureo n popularm usic. Becauseh istoriographyl ends itselfso well to mapping the cultural space that music occupies, one of the
potentially rich studies awaiting today's musicologists is an examination of
the ways in which music scholars and critics have treated different musichistorical
repertories.
At issue is the kind of writing that the rock 'n' roll repertory has
received and its mediating function on the music it disc
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