Rock ‘n’ Roll is nothing more than black Rhythm & Blues played by white musicians with a bit of Country & Western thrown in for good measure. There are exceptions to this but this definition allows us to see the complicated interwoven relationship that exists between the music that became known as Rock ‘n’ Roll and its black cousin Rhythm ‘n’ Blues. Throughout their short evolution the two styles have become so closely associated that it is almost impossible to distinguish one from the other. Indeed there is a great deal of confusion as to which type of music an artist is playing within the confines of a single performance or album.
Does it matter?
Not really. It only matters if you want to explore the various avenues that lead to the stuff you love.
You might find a few more things to get enthusiastic about.
You may get to understand why you appreciate it.
It is possible to trace the roots of Rock music right back to the 18th and 19th centuries with the introduction of African rhythms and beat to the European Folk Tradition. This was a meeting of spirits that was to reach fruition in the Southern States of America, particularly New Orleans in Louisiana and Memphis Tennessee. It was a merger that first gave rise to Country Blues, Cajun and Gospel. It led to Rhythm ‘n’ Blues, Jazz, Bluegrass, Honky Tonk and Country Boogie. In the early part of the 1950s it gave birth to a vigorous hybrid that came to be known the world over as Rock ‘n’ Roll.
It took the world by storm and altered all our lives. It was a revolution. It was strongly allied to the prevailing youth culture of teenagers that emerged after World War 2.
The very name itself set the whole tone for everything that followed. It was coined by Alan Freed who borrowed it from the black slang for sex. It set generation against generation and rocked the world. It instigated a sexual revolution and social change on unheard of proportions. It upset the prevailing racial and gender attitudes and provoked the move to equality and freedom that prevails today. It set in motion a climate of questioning that altered the deferential way people thought about politicians.
The moment Elvis shook his hips the world would never be the same. Even Elvis did not have a clue that would happen. He was as bemused as everyone else. It took on a life of its own. It was powerful.
To understand where it began and where it went we have to go back to the very beginning. The story of Rock begins with the fusing of the two cultural traditions in the latter part of the 19th century to produce a new type of music that we now refer to as Country Blues. This was first written about by W C Handy who recalls hearing a black musician playing this style of music at the railway station in Tutwiler Mississippi in 1903. He was playing an old guitar by running up and down the frets with a penknife. W C Handy was hearing Country Blues, bottle-neck style, for the first time. He was captivated.
Rock Routes is my definitive book on the story of Rock Music. It gives you insight and detailed info about all the best genres, bands and tracks. (BTW – the cover is one I took of The Grateful Dead in San Francisco!)
Here’s another slab:
British Psychedelic Bands of the 1960s Underground
Towards an end of the Progressive scene were the songs that were trying to create the sounds that were convivial to the use of LSD. These bands created a spacey type of music with soaring movements and electronic effects. They extended out long ethereal pieces of music using organs, synthesisers and guitar effects to create echoey wafting sound, with tape loops, building, with a basic rhythm towards peaks and crescendos reflecting the mind blowing experience of an acid trip. The music was more complex and with the use of light shows created a total environment to augment the experience of the audience and the band. Their minds would get lost in it.
The British psychedelic scene was closely connected to the US Acid Rock scene. They respected and fed off each other. They were influenced by bands such as the Jefferson Airplane, Doors, Captain Beefheart, Grateful Dead, Byrds and country Joe & the Fish.
A number of clubs sprang up to satisfy the need and provide all-night venues for psychedelic experience. These included Middle Earth, UFO Club, and The Roundhouse. These were places for experimenting with mind expansion and were the model for other similar ventures around the world like ‘The Paradiso’ in Amsterdam.
Many of the Progressive Rock Bands of the Underground contained elements of Psychedelic music or played psychedelic material along with their other material and many of the established bands dabbled successfully with the new psychedelic sounds. They all buoyed each other along. The ground breaking work of these established bands can be seen on albums such as the Beatles ‘Revolver’, Srgt Peppers Heart Club Band’, ‘Beatles (Double white)’, the Rolling Stones ‘Their Satanic Majesties Request’, the Pretty Things ‘S F Sorrow’, the Animals ‘Winds of Change’, the Who ‘Tommy’ and the Small Faces ‘Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake’.
The Pink Floyd was the stand out Psychedelic Band. They had evolved out of an R&B band due mainly to the genius of Syd Barrett. The name was taken from a Blues record from Barrett’s collection of Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. The group had previously been known as Sigma 6, the T-Set and the Abdabs. They were signed up by Peter Jenner for Blackhill Ents and started out at the Marquee and UFO clubs developing one of the first light shows in the business.
Syd was heavily into LSD at the time and the music he dreamt up reflected the state of his consciousness.
Peter Jenner put on the infamous ‘Games for May’ and other similar free events similar to Kesey’s ‘Acid Tests’ in 1967. They released a couple of singles without success and hen it all came together. Their unusual ‘Arnold Lane’ – a song about a fetishist who stole washing off washing lines – and then ‘See Emily play’ were hits. It paved the way for their quintessential psychedelic album ‘Piper at the gates of Dawn’. They were up and oaring as Britain’s top Psychedelic act.
Unfortunately no sooner had they achieved success than Syd became an Acid casualty and cracked up. Roger Waters took over and they drafted in Dave Gilmour and managed to keep up the standard with ‘Saucerful of Secrets’.
Syd was persuaded back into the studio with the aid of Dave Gilmour and Rick Wright to produce two extraordinary albums that were psychedelic masterpieces in their own quirky way – ‘Syd Barrett’ and ‘The Madcap Laughs’.
The Soft Machine was Floyd’s stable mates and took part in the free festivals and underground club scene. They featured Kevin Ayres and Robert Wyatt and produced a number of psychedelic Jazz/Rock fusion albums. They became jazzier as they went along.
Hawkwind were a community band, indeed often joined up with the Pink Fairies to create Pinkwind, and featured such individuals as Dik Mik, Del Detmar, Lemmy Kilminster (Later of Motorhead), Dave Brock and Nik Turner. They were based at Notting Hill and produced a space-Rock Sci-Fi type of psychedelia. In their early development they were closely associated with the Sci-fi writer Michael Moorcock who actually performed with the band. They were infamous for their intricate light shows, soaring music as well as playing a lot of benefits in aid of drug busts and the like.
Tomorrow feature Steve Howe and Keith West and were briefly one of the up and coming psychedelic acts before Keith had his very light-weight hit with his ‘Excerpt from a teenage opera’ and lost all credibility with the underground scene. Tomorrow had an impressive stage act with strobe lights and the use of long colourful gowns that jerked around with the flashing light.
The Misunderstood started of as the Blue Notes in California. They had played Surf Music and had the trade mark blue colour. This included guitars, hair, shoes, and clothes. In 1965 they changed their name to the Misunderstood and began playing Garage Punk. By 1966 this had become psychedelic and they were discovered by John Peel. He persuaded them to try heir luck in London. Their sound was based around Glen Ross Campbell’s distinctive wild steel guitar on numbers like ‘Children of the sun’. Unfortunately they then got visa problems and most of the band had to leave. Glen formed Juicy Lucy and went on to do psychedelic versions of things like Bo Diddley’s ‘Who do you love?’.
The Crazy world of Arthur Brown was an extremely theatrical outfit. Arthur used to wear long gowns and big headdresses that he set on fire. He’d be lowered on to stage from a crane. It was a four piece band with Vincent Crane, Nick greenwood and Drachen Theaker who went on to form Atomic Rooster.
Other Psychedelic bands included the Pop songs from early Status Quo – ‘Pictures of matchstick men’ and ‘Ice in the sun’; the Lemon Pipers ‘Green Tambourine’, Purple Gang’s ‘Granny takes a trip’.
There were the minor bands – Dantalion’s Chariot, Syn, Mandrake Paddle Steamer, Smoke, and Wimple Wynch.
Established bands got into the scene like the Move – with ‘Night of Fear’ & ‘I can hear the grass grow’.
The Beatles released ‘Srgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band’ and the Rolling Stones ‘Their satanic majesties request’. The Yardbirds released ‘Roger the Engineer’ and the Pretty Things ‘SF Sorrow’.
Artist
Stand out tracks
Pink Floyd
Arnold Layne See Emily play Candy & a currant bun Astronomy Domine Lucifer Sam Take up your stethoscope and walk Interstellar overdrive The Scarecrow Bike Chapter24 Pow R Toc H Flaming Set the controls for the heart of the sun Mathilda mother Saucerful of secrets Let there be more light Green is the colour Cirrus minor Cymbaline Careful with that axe Eugene Grantchester meadows Fat old sun Atomic heart mother Julia dream
Soft Machine
I did it again Joy of a toy Priscilla
Hawkwind
Hurry on sundown Silver machine Masters of the universe Children of the sun
Tomorrow
My white bicycle Revolution Strawberry fields forever
Misunderstood
Children of the sun I can take you to the sun
Juicy Lucy
Who do you love Willie the pimp
Crazy World of Arthur Brown
Fire Fanfare/Fire Poem Prelude/nightmare
Move
I can hear the grass grow Night of fear Flowers in the rain Fire brigade Cherry blossom clinic
Dantalion’s chariot
Madman running through the fields
Syn
Flowerman 14 hour technicolour dream Created by Clive
Mandrake paddle steamer
Overspill Cooger & Dark
Smoke
My friend Jake High in a room
Wimple Wynch
Save my soul
Kaleidoscope
Flight from Ashiya
Fleurs de lys
Moondreams Circles
Blossom Toes
What on Earth Look at me I’m you
Idle Race
Here we go round the lemon tree
Man
Erotica Spunk box My name is Jesus Smith
Beatles
Lucy in the sky with diamonds Strawberry fields forever A day in the life
Rolling Stones
She’s a rainbow 2000 light years from home Sing this all together
Pretty Things
LSD SF Sorrow is born Walking through my dreams
Yardbirds
Over under sideways down Psycho daisies The Nazz are blue
Gods – once revered and died for, now dead and forgotten. Every culture thinks they are right and their gods are forever. Every culture dies away and leaves their gods as oddities in museums.
It was extremely impressive to see the remains of this incredible temple. It is salutary to see how mighty empires and religions fall. Our empire, culture and religions will one day be nothing more than a historical relic. All our lives and beliefs no more than traces.
Fascinating to wander through the Manilla museum. One gets a glimpse into the past – the art, the gods, weapons and instruments of a life that no longer exists. But it can fuel the imagination.
This was a major trading place. It was constructed to be impressive. The caravans would come in with their spices and produce. They were meant to be intimidated.
