before it changed

It began to change in 1967. Rock and Roll. That's when the hippies, poets, philosophers, and serious folk began to have their way with it.

Before then, Rock and Roll was raw, primitive, oozing a natural cool. I don't think it was trying to be a something through which a something else comes to light. It was just itself. All of a piece.

Percussion, bass, chords, riffs, and words happening spontaneously, off-the-cuff. A certain celebratory je na sais quoi, an extrusion of glandular and fidgety youthfulness into acoustical shape, tight spectacle.  

Before around 1967, Rock and Roll didn't take itself so damn seriously. It was about "Hey, this sounds good, and it makes folks bop around and snap their fingers!"