Joker to the thief: Trickster guitarists in 1970s stadium rock

Abstract

How and why did the lead guitarist as trickster become a trope of 1970s stadium rock? Rock and roll and its interpretation were influenced by blackface minstrelsy, African American Signifying, and European traditions of foolery, all featuring quasi-demonic, protean figures who amuse, challenge, subvert, shock, but from the margins – eternally shifty, ambiguous antagonists who ‘play’ on paradoxes of rock mythology: (non-)conformity, (in)articulacy and power(lessness). In the increasingly theatrical, spectacular arena of 1970s stadium/hard rock/metal, the trickster guitarist signified as part of a homosocial rock group, as a version of the Signifying Monkey or blues trickster and as an echo of minstrelsy. The essay seeks to understand onstage performances as dramatic spectacles marked by ‘trinary’, competitive, Signifying/mocking, homosocial relationships between trickster lead guitarists, singers and their audiences. These conflicts can also be read as exemplifying the postmodern ambiguity that Lawrence Grossberg identifies in the 1970s rock formation, via consideration of the singer as Logos (heroic voice) and trickster guitarist as mockery of the same. Examples are Angus Young (AC/DC) and Rick Nielsen (Cheap Trick). In conclusion, I argue that punk rock rendered tricksters temporarily redundant by making their trickery ubiquitous, although, thanks to generic/audience fragmentation and the ubiquity of classic rock, they continue to this day.