When Rock Stars were Cowboys

Analyzing the role of Old West Aesthetics in 1980s Rock Music

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Though cowboy culture largely began to fade away in the American mainstream after the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s rock stars adopted the aesthetics and tropes of the cowboy. What are the parallels between the American cowboy and the 1980s rock star? With the help of some images and some historical analysis, let’s examine this phenomenon of the 1980s: when rock stars were cowboys.

At the end of the 1960s, a decade they had so much to do with defining, The Beatles appropriated influences of the American West in their dress (particularly John Lennon and George Harrison). This was likely due, however, to a combination of long being influenced by all things American, and that many British and American musicians returned to a more roots-oriented, simpler, and less psychedelic approach to their music around 1968. This back to basics method was influenced by The Band’s album, Music from Big Pink, and late-1960s Bob Dylan. This musical shift is evident in The Beatles’ own work when comparing the psychedelia of 1966 and 1967 (Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, Magical Mystery Tour) with the more live and stripped down approach of their self-titled double album (commonly referred to as the White Album) in 1968. (pic:slicethelife)

Gram Parsons and his band, The Flying Burrito Brothers, were among the first to incorporate the aesthetics and sounds of Country Music and the Cowboy into Rock. Parsons, however, possessed a true love for the Country genre and simply sought to bridge the divide that had existed between the two American music forms over the previous decade. The Flying Burrito Brothers’ debut album in 1969 reintroduced Country and the Cowboy to a Rock audience. The band’s (and Parson’s) short career would go on to influence legendary British bands, including the Rolling Stones, as well as some of their American peers soon after. (pic: altomont.pt)

Probably the best pre-1980s example of Cowboy Rock Stars is the Eagles’ album, Desperado, released in 1973. Their second studio album actually flopped—a fact often lost on people today. It was only due to the fact that their friend and former bandmate, Linda Ronstadt, covered the title track and made it a hit, that the Eagles were able to survive their sophomore slump. The use of WANTED posters, guns, and the various looks of the American West makes the album the proto-version (purely in terms of aesthetics) of what became prominent more than a decade later. Though The Eagles would never fully abandon their association with the American West (they were, after all, a California band whose original lineup included Bernie Leadon, formerly of the Flying Burrito Brothers), they would never return to the Cowboy Outlaw trope of Desperado. (pic: waxvinylrecords)

The back cover of The Eagles’ Desperado album features the band members captured, dead, and photographed with the late nineteenth century law enforcement figures who nabbed them. Along with the band members, the other dead figures (on either side of them) are their friends and fellow songwriters, J.D. Souther and Jackson Browne. (pic: eaglesonlinecentral)

Prior to its re-association with the Rock Star, the Cowboy look once again ascended in the early 1980s due to films like Urban Cowboy (starring John Travolta and Debra Winger) and the popularity of the television series, Dallas. The Western aesthetic acted almost as a placeholder between the end of Disco and the Jazzercize (spandex/legwarmers) look that became associated with the styles of the 1980s. The popularity of lighthearted southern-themed television shows like The Dukes of Hazzard suitably contributed as well. Dallas premiered in 1978 and was a sensation by 1980, when the American press and the American people were captivated with the mystery: “Who Shot J.R. Ewing?” It was one of the most talked about cliffhangers in the history of American television. (pics: ew/sfgate)

In 1986, Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet album was released. The band borrowed the Cowboy Outlaw concept from 1973-era Eagles as liberally as they had borrowed much of their sound from Bruce Springsteen. Because of the enormous commercial success of Slippery When Wet and its related music videos, Bon Jovi was arguably most responsible for resurrecting the Cowboy Rock Star, which would endure for the rest of the decade and into the early 1990s. (pic: discogs)

One of Slippery When Wet’s most popular singles, and—to this day—one of Bon Jovi’s best known songs, “Wanted Dead or Alive,” overtly associated the life of the Rock Star with that of the Cowboy Outlaw. Jon Bon Jovi’s references to the “steel horse I ride” and “the loaded six string on my back” celebrated that the 1980s rock musician was the cultural heir apparent of the 1880s Cowboy. (pic:soundcould)

Tom Keifer of the band Cinderella, from their 1988 music video for the song “Don’t Know What You Got ‘Til It’s Gone.” Keifer secured his band’s record deal due to his personal relationship with Jon Bon Jovi, and Cinderella continued the Cowboy theme in their dress and their videos throughout the late 1980s. (pic: youtube)

The band W.A.S.P. was using aspects of the look of the American Southwest since at least 1985, with their single “Blind in Texas,” from their Last Command album. The band’s songwriter and front-man, Blackie Lawless, notoriously wore modified sawblades on his arms and crotch in the first half of the 1980s. He would also drink blood from a skull and throw raw meat into the crowd at their raucous performances. By 1989, however, the band had similarly adopted a more Cowboy persona in their press shots and music videos, such as with the video for their song “Forever Free.” (pics: tshirtslayer/youtube)

The last significant gasp of the popularity of the Cowboy Rockstar would be Jon Bon Jovi again (this time, as a solo artist), with his song/video “Blaze of Glory.” The song was featured in the film Young Guns Two (itself a franchise which utilized legends of the American West). “Blaze of Glory” was released in 1990 and was immensely popular. It would mark the beginning of the end, however, for the dominance of the Cowboy Rock Star. (pic: youtube)

Nirvana’s Nevermind album was released in September 1991. When it hit number one on the charts in January 1992, it famously displaced Michael Jackson from the top spot. Nirvana and Alternative Rock’s ascendance also meant that the tropes of rock stardom over the previous decade, including the Cowboy motif, was decidedly out of favor. Every rock group, large and small, that had participated in the Cowboy cosplay saw deep decline in interest and sales. The Cowboy did not disappear in the 1990s, but the Country Music Renaissance of Garth Brooks (himself influenced by classic rock) and others, meant that the Cowboy theme had returned solidly back to the genre most associated with it. Though Western/Cowboy/Country styles would return in rock in later years, such as with the the White Trash Chic of early 2000s figures like Kid Rock, it would never be as overt or as sincere as was seen in the 1980s. It is noteworthy that the genuine celebration of the Cowboy in rock and roll would be at its zenith exactly a century after the very phenomenon of Western Cowboy culture began. In this way, the Cowboy and the Rock Star bridge the late nineteenth century and the late twentieth century. There was a loss of sincerity after the 1980s. Irony became common currency in the 1990s and beyond. The sincere, if not also goofy, co-opting of the Cowboy by the 1980s Rock Star marks a time when a celebration of the American story was not yet something to utterly mock and dismiss in mainstream circles. Only for a brief moment, following the 9/11 attacks, did the United States see another moment of cultural graciousness and American resolve. It is this aspect of the 1980s Cowboy Rock Star that should be remembered. More than the music, more than the crass misogyny, and more than the often shallow lyrics of much of 1980s rock, the Rock Star Cowboy marks a moment in time when some of the nation’s leading entertainers expressed a sincere love of country that was apolitical and genuine in spirit. (pic: jinglejanglejungle)

[James M. Masnov is a writer, historian, and lecturer. He is the author of
Rights Reign Supreme: An Intellectual History of Judicial Review and the Supreme Court, available here. His first book, History Killers and Other Essays by an Intellectual Historian, is available here.]