Rock Routes – British Folk Rock

Posted on by Opher

My next instalment of my book telling the story of Rock Music concerns the amalgamation of folk and rock that took place in the sixties.

I hope this whets your appetite to give it a whirl!

Rock Routes: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781514873090: Books

British Folk Rock

The underground Folk Rock scene came out of the acoustic scene. It was inevitable that this should be the case because of the close connection between the Folk and Rock acts in the underground clubs, college circuits and festivals. It was not at all unusual to find an acoustic act like Roy Harper on the same bill as Free or Pink Floyd.

With Dylan and Donovan going electric and the advent of US Folk Rock acts like the Byrds there was a precedent set. Indeed nearly all the acoustic singers developed an electric format on heir later work. Some, like Al Stewart, found this to be their greatest period of creativity and success.

The result of this was the establishment of a number of Folk Rock bands spanning a large number of different styles. These included bands such as Pentangle, the Incredible String Band, the Strawbs, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Fotheringay, Fairport convention, the Humblebums and Lindisfarne.

Some of these developed out of aggregations of established solo singers while others were new to the field and attracted in musicians from other genres like Jazz, Blues and Rock.

Pentangle grew out of an informal gathering of musicians at the Three Horseshoes pub in Charing Cross road. John Renbourn and Bert Jansch had already been playing together producing their ‘Baroque Folk’ style. They added in the lilting voice of Jacqui McShee, the Jazzy double bass of Danny Thompson and the drumming of Terry Cox. It was a type of Folk Jazz fusion.

The Incredible String Band started as a trio with Clive Palmer but soon became a duo with Robin Williamson and Mike Heron. They later incorporated their partners Licorice McKechnie and Rosie Simpson. The trio had started up playing at Clive’s ‘Incredible Folk club’ in Glasgow. They were the house band – hence the name. Joe Boyd took them on and recorded them. They were renowned for their ability to play a multitude of instruments – the stage was littered with them. They produced a great happy sound gleefully blending Buddhist and Christian themes with scientology to create a mystical music full of great glee reflecting the spiritual awareness of the times. The music bounced and bubbled along delightfully. Lyrically they were interesting, enlightening and complex. Under Joe Boyd’s direction they produced a highly distinctive style that was psychedelic folk on albums like ‘The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter’ and ‘Wee Tam and the Big Huge’. They were always uplifting and inspiring and were highly influential on bands like Led Zeppelin.

Tyrannosaurus Rex were a folk duo featuring Marc Bolan and Steve Peregrine Took creating a sound based on bongos and acoustic guitar to Marc’s songs which were based on mythology and dragons. It went down very well with stoned out Freaks. They were very quaint with Marc’s wavering vocals and with the support of the prophet and seer John Peel they established themselves as a top act with minor hits with ‘Deboraarobed’ and ‘Salamanda Palaganda’ and albums like ‘My people were fair and had the sky in their hair but now they’re content to wear stars on their brows’. Steve got into the psychedelic scene with the Deviants and Pink Fairies and wanted his songs featured on future albums. It led to a fall out with Marc – Steve left and Marc morphed the band into a glam Rock unit and went on to gain huge success on the teeny-bop scene.

The Strawbs started off as a bluegrass band called the Strawberry Hill boys. They soon began doing their own stuff and became the Strawbs including Sandy Denny on vocals. Sandy left to form Fairport Convention and the Strawbs moved on to produced a couple of albums with Dave Cousins ‘The battle’ and ‘The man who called himself Jesus’ being stand out tracks before morphing into a Rock band.

Fairport Convention is probably the most important Folk Rock unit to come out of Britain. With Ashley Hutchins, Simon Nicol, Richard Thompson, Ian Matthews, Dave Swarbrick and Sandy Denny in its incarnations it had an incredible folk super-star status. The band was named after Simon Nicol’s house ‘Fairport’ where they had first convened. With their dual male and female vocalists they were greatly influenced by the West Coast sound, particularly Jefferson Airplane and yet remained quintessentially British.

Lindisfarne was a Newcastle Folk Rock band who hit big in 1970 with Alan Hull being hailed as a major songwriter.

Fotheringay were formed by Sandy Denny when she left Fairport Convention. They only released one album.

The Humblebums consisted of Billy Connolly with Gerry Rafferty as a mad Folk duo.

Steeleye Span was formed by Ashley Hutchins when he left Fairport Convention. It was a more traditional based band and also more commercial.

ArtistStand out tracks
PentangleNight Flight Let no man steal your thyme Pentangling The time has come Once I had a sweetheart Sally go round the roses Lord Franklin
Incredible String BandMaybe someday October song Smoke shovelling song Way back in the 1960s Hedgehog song Painting box First girl I loved Little cloud A very cellular song The minotaur’s song Air Ducks on a pond The half remarkable question Douglas Traherne Harding Maya Cousin caterpillar Log cabin in the sky Puppies The iron stone The circle is unbroken
Tyrannosaurus RexDebora-arobed Salamanda Palaganda Hotrod mama Mustang ford She was born to be my unicorn
StrawbsThe man who called himself Jesus The battle Oh how she changed
Fairport conventionMeet on the Ledge Si vous dois partir I’ll keep it with mine Fotheringay Who knows where the time goes Percy’s song Cajun woman Matty Groves Tamlin
LindisfarneLady Eleanor Meet me on the corner Fog on the Tyne
FotheringeyNothing more Too much of nothing
Steeleye SpanBlackleg miner Gaudette Dark eyed sailor The blacksmith
WatersonsBoston harbour The North country maid The ploughboy The Whitby lad

Rock Routes – Paperback 

Posted on by Opher

Thought I’d share another little slab of my History of Rock Music in the hope that I might entice you to purchase a copy or two!

Extract:

British R&B of the early 1960s

For some inexplicable reason Europe has always shown a greater interest in the Blues than has been shown in its own home country. Blues artists who made the crossing were pleasantly surprised to find they were so warmly received.

Chris Barber was not only instrumental in the birth of Skiffle but was also responsible for bringing the Blues to Britain. His Jazz Band incorporated Blues and provided a platform for artists like Big Bill Broonzy, Leadbelly and Lonnie Johnson to visit Britain in the mid to late 1950s. They were closely followed by such luminaries as Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson and John Lee Hooker. Some of these found the experience so rewarding that they stayed and took up permanent residence. These included Memphis Slim, Jimmy Witherspoon and Champion Jack Dupree.

These seminal artists stimulated a lot of interest in genuine Blues. Musicians began breaking away from the Jazz and Skiffle scene to form R&B groups playing authentic black American Blues. There was a lot of cross-over. Musicians, such as the saxophonist Dick Hexstall-Smith, found themselves playing in both R&B and Jazz bands. The Blues was a cult scene. There was an ardent following for the few bands in existence. But these bands acted as a proving ground and launching pad for both the Beat Explosion of the mid 1960s and the later Blues Bands of the 1960s underground. Many important personnel involved in these two movements were first blooded in the R&B Bands of these early pioneers.

The fact that these early R&B bands were successful, attracting regular audiences at a number of venues enabled promoters to bring other City and Country Blues artists across and in the early 1960s, while most youth was absorbed with the Teen Idols of Cliff, Ricky, Bobby, Billy, Marty, and their ilk, a small contingent of discerning kids were grooving to the beat of Muddy, John Lee, Sonny Boy, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, Otis Spann and Howlin’ Wolf. These were major exponents of the Blues and it exposed our young developing musicians to a very high standard of musicianship that was to have a big influence their playing and had a tremendous effect on the direction their music was to take. It is amazing how many of our top British Blues musicians were in those early audiences watching those Blues guys perform.

The leading exponents of this British R&B movement were Alexis Korner (who lead the seminal R&B band Blues Incorporated), Graham Bond (who led the subsequent R&B band ‘The Graham Bond ORGANisation), Zoot Money, Cyril Davies, Georgie Fame and a little later John Mayall. Then there was Steampacket who did not record but seemed to contain just about everyone from Rod Stewart and Vic Briggs to Long John Baldry, Brian Auger & Julie Driscoll.

These were the pioneers who richly deserve the title of ‘Fathers of British R&B’. There early efforts in the first years of the 1960s, while not being very commercial or widely appreciated, were instrumental in pushing British Rock to the forefront of world popularity. The list of eminent Rock Stars who came out of this training ground is immense: Mick Jagger, Brian Jones, Charlie Watts, Jack Bruce, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Ginger Baker, Long John Baldry, Jimmy Page, Rod Stewart, Keith Richards and Art Wood. Without them the Rolling Stones would not have happened, nor John Mayall, Cream, Fleetwood Mac. Probably the whole Beat and British Blues scene would have been impoverished. It does not bear thinking about.

Blues Incorporated and the later Graham Bond ORGANisation and Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band may not have been brilliant but they brought rawness and a new level of vigor back into the music. They were seminal to all that followed. Without them the whole of the Merseybeat scene might have descended back into Teen Pop trivia. Britain would have returned to being a Rock backwater as has happened in so many other countries.

Fortunately Alexis Korner and his compatriots, particularly Cyril Davis, shared a vision and made it happen. They set up a club, imported genuine Black Blues musicians from the States, formed a seminal R&B band and trained up or enthused a whole generation of budding R&B musicians. This new breed of evangelical enthusiasts created a new generation of R&B bands that swept across the world like a plague and transformed the whole music business.

You could argue that Alexis Korner, not a brilliant musician in his own right, is a relatively unsung hero and is responsible for everything that followed on from the British invasion of the USA in 1964. That might be stretching it a bit thin but every movement needs its fulcrum point. Alexis was that fulcrum.

ArtistStand out tracks
Alexis Korner’s Blues IncorporatedI wanna put a tiger in your tank I got my mojo working I got my brand on you I need your loving
Graham Bond ORGANisationLong tall shorty Wade in the water Long legged baby
Zoot Money Big Roll BandThe Uncle Willie Bring it on home to me Please stay
Cyril DavisHoochie Coochie man Country line special

Rock Routes: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781514873090: Books

Rock Routes – Paperback – the definitive story of Rock Music – all the artists and outstanding tracks

Posted on by Opher

I thought you might enjoy another dollop from my book on Rock Music. The book tells you about every single genre with all the important artists and outstanding tracks. (In the book the tracks are separated out but WordPress doesn’t seem to like that!)

Rock Routes: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781514873090: Books

New Orleans Rock ‘n’ Roll

The New Orleans style of Boogie Woogie R&B, with a dollop of Cajun and Creole, gave rise to the New Orleans branch of Rock ‘n’ Roll. This was a seamless move.

There were two main branches of Rock that emerged out of New Orleans. The first evolved out of the Blues Shouting style of artists such as Roy Brown. It had a lot of Gospel in it and developed into the aggressive Rock style of Little Richard.

Little Richard’s piano pounding showmanship, storming songs and Gospel tinged shouting delivery provided Rock with one of its most dynamic acts and a string of classic Rock songs that are unsurpassed. These included ‘Long Tall Sally’, ‘Tutti Frutti’, ‘Rip it up’, ‘Ready Teddy’, and ‘Lucille’.

Little Richard was so successful that the labels hunted around for similar talent. They never quite cracked that although they came really close with the wonderful Larry Williams. He had a string of highly influential hits that ended up covered by the Beatles and a host of others, these include: ‘Dizzy Miss Lizzie,’ ‘Slow down’, ‘Boronie Moronie’ and ‘Short fat fanny’. Others such as Esquerita and Don and Dewey failed to break through to such heights although they produced some memorable tracks. Lloyd Price came up with his big hit ‘Lawdy Miss Clawdy’ in 1952 as a jingle for a radio station. He failed to follow that up successfully until 1958 when he had a hit with ‘Staggerlee’ and then in 1959 with the more commercially sounding ‘Personality’.

The other stream was more in the Boogie-Woogie style of Archibald, Champion Jack Dupree and Professor Longhair. This branch was epitomised by Fats Domino and Smiley Lewis. Fats, was by far the most successful. His lazy, mellow sound still retained that basic rolling beat and his piano boogie conspired to give him a string of million sellers. These included ‘I’m in love again’, Blueberry hill’, ‘Blue Monday’, ‘Walking to New Orleans’, ‘Aint that a shame’, and ‘I’m walking’. His cheerful beaming smile made him a favourite with the film men and gained him numerous cameo roles in the exploitative ‘Teen’ films. His amiable nature was unthreatening.

One of Fats contemporaries was Smiley Lewis. He had a big hit in 1955 with ‘I hear you knocking’. It had a harder edge than the easy going style of Fats but he failed to establish himself.

The New Orleans sound was successfully used to create a unique sounding series of Rock/pop hits called Swamp Pop. Huey ‘Piano’ Smith typified the style with sides like ‘Rockin’ pneumonia and the Boogie-woogie Flu’, ‘Don’t you just know it’, and ‘High blood pressure’.

Other artists included Frankie Ford with ‘Sea Cruise’ (produced by Huey), Bobby Charles with ‘See you later alligator’, Clarence ‘Frogman’ Henry with ‘Ain’t got no home’, Gary ‘US’ Bonds with ‘New Orleans and Cookie and the Cupcakes ‘Mathilda’.

ArtistStand out tracks
Little RichardLong tall Sally Rip it up Ready Teddy Good Golly Miss Molly All round the world Heeby Jeebies Ooooh my soul Get down and get with it Bama lama True fine mama Slippin’ and a slidin’ Miss Ann Jenny Jenny She’s got it She knows how to rock The girl can’t help it Lucille Kansas city Shake a hand Keep a knockin’ Hey Hey Hey Hey Send me some lovin’
Smiley LewisI hear you knocking
Fats DominoBlueberry Hill The fat man Ain’t that a shame Walking to New Orleans I want to walk you home Be my guest I’m walking Blue Monday I hear you knocking I’m gonna be a wheel someday My blue heaven Let the four winds blow
Huey Piano Smith & the ClownsHigh Blood pressure Rockin’ pneumonia & boogie woogie flu Don’t you just know it Little chicken wah wah Well I’ll be John Brown Don’t you know Yockomo
Frankie FordSea cruise
Bobby CharlesSee you later alligator
Don & DeweyJungle Hop Justine Farmer John Just a little lovin’ Ko Ko Joe Bim Bam Little Sally Walker
EsqueritaRockin’ the joint I’m batty over Hattie Rock ‘n’ Roll is here to stay Golly Golly Annie Mae Ooh Baby Katie Mae
Larry WilliamsDizzy Miss Lizzy Slow down Bad boy Bonie Moronie Short fat Fanny She said Yeah High school dance You bug me baby Jelly Belly Nellie School girl Heeby Jeebies Hootchy-Koo
Gary US BondsNew Orleans

Rock Routes – Paperback – A definitive history of Rock Music

Posted on by Opher

In the 1980s I had successfully run the first adult education courses on the history of Rock Music. I had a collection of 11,500 vinyl albums and thousands of C90 tapes. Music was my life. Loved it. I set about writing it up into a four volume book and snagged an agent and publisher. They wanted it condensed into one volume. This is that!

If you want to know about Rock Music – all the major players, genres and tracks – This is your book! It’s magic! Give it a try!

Rock Routes: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781514873090: Books

Extract:

City Blues

Following the economic depression of the 30s many black farm workers began to migrate north to the big cities such as Chicago and Detroit where the burgeoning motor industry and factories were providing job opportunities. There was a line of migration up from New Orleans, through Louisiana and Mississippi to Memphis Tennessee and then on to Chicago. Work on the plantations had dried up and with it the money to pay musicians. They drifted up to Memphis where Sam Philips scouted the best of the talent for the Chicago labels of Chess and the Bihari Brothers. They took their music with them to the cities.

The cities had a different feel to the country. People were different. There was a hardness and edge to life. The country Jukes were replaced with hot steamy night-clubs in the basements of down-town Chicago skyscrapers. After a day on the assembly line the kids just wanted to let off steam. They wanted to dance and have fun. These were the days following the depression and the austerity of the war years. They craved excitement and wildness. Their music had to reflect this. It had to swell with the urban harshness and have a beat and ‘Go’. There was a lot of pent up tension and it had to come out.

Partly to satisfy this new demand for excitement and partly just so they could be heard over the loud hub-bub of the sweaty Blues Clubs with their packed audiences of rowdy drinkers, the old Bluesmen bought amplifiers and turned electric. They formed bands based around guitar, bass and drums with amplified harp and vocals and optional brass sections. All of a sudden the cities were jumping.

White folks could waltz to their ‘Twenty Little Fingers’ by the Stargazers but black folks knew how to rock to Howlin’ Wolf!

Chicago became the major centre for this new city blues with stars like Muddy Waters, Elmore James, B.B. King, Howlin’ Wolf, Otis Rush, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, John Lee Hooker, Shaky Horton, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Jimmy Reed and Billy Boy Arnold recording for Chess, Vee-Jay or Modern. These labels were mainly based on the talent sent up to them from talent scouts down south. Sam Philips was one of those. He was based in Memphis and attracted in talent from as far afield as New Orleans and Texas. He is best remembered for discovering Elvis and his role in inventing rockabilly but was primarily responsible for recording black R&B and Blues singers and white Country & Western. He discovered Ike Turner, Rufus Thomas, Junior Wells and Howlin’ Wolf. He decided that rather than just discover them and send them up to Chicago to make money for others he could do better by recording them. He set up his famous Sun Studios.

The change from Country Blues was easy to make. The basic structure of the music was not altered. The sound was louder and delivered with a heavy beat. In particular it was the Delta Blues bottle-neck style that proved most receptive to amplification. The most searing, driving style of city blues, as with Elmore James and Muddy Waters, was played in this style.

The Country Blues had been the music of a rural black community overshadowed by poverty and slavery. The City Blues was more vibrant. Black people were becoming more assertive and confident. They were no longer slaves per se but were still very much the victims of intense discrimination and economic slavery. Their labour was sought but they were still severely persecuted, cheaply rewarded and awarded few rights. They were trapped in ghettos of poverty, violence and oppression.

To white youths of the 60s it appeared more real. Black City Blues reflected this new brashness and self-assurance. They might be poor and persecuted but they were now walking tall, and with style. Their lives had few of the pretensions of white middle classes. They knew how to let their hair down and enjoy themselves. The music oozed with pride verging on arrogance, it reeked of sex, drink and having a good time without recrimination or guilt. They dressed sharp, like gangsters, with flash coloured suits, big hats, rings and cars. There were guns, knives, drugs, booze and prostitution. They lived big.

The emotion was still there. It was infused with a raw rhythm and earthy sexuality with a heavy driving beat, thumping bass and searing guitar runs. On its faster cuts it was the merest fraction away from being Rock ‘n’ Roll. Indeed the astute younger exponents – Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley – sized up the white teenage market and adapted their style to move into it. A hugely important Rock ‘n’ Roll style came storming out of the City Blues.

ArtistStand out tracks
Muddy WatersGot my mojo working Hoochie Coochie man I just want to make love to you I’ll put a tiger in your tank I can’t be satisfied Mannish boys Big leg woman Same thing Honey bee Can’t lose what you ain’t never had I’m ready I want to be loved Good morning little school girl
Howlin’ WolfSmokestack Lightnin’ Do the do I asked her for water Moaning at midnight Backdoor man Spoonful Killing floor Wang dang doodle Little red rooster Built for comfort 300 pounds of joy Evil How many more years Shake for me Tail dragger Howlin’ for my darling
Jimmy ReedBright lights big city Big boss man Aint that lovin you baby Aw Shucks Hush your mouth Baby what you want me to do Honest I do Shame shame shame You got me dizzy
John Lee HookerDimples Boom Boom I’m mad again I’m in the mood Boogie Chillun Crawlin’ King snake Sallie Mae This is hip No more doggin One bourbon, one scotch one beer Big legs tight skirt House rent boogie Hobo blues
BB KingLucille The thrill has gone Every day I have the blues 3.00 clock blues Why I sing the blues
Albert KingBorn under a bad sign Cross cut saw The hunter
Albert CollinsIce man
Elmore JamesDust my broom Shake your money maker I believe my time ain’t long It hurts me too Held my baby last night I can’t hold out Stranger blues The sky is cryin’ Anna Lee Sunnyland Fine little mama Done somebody wrong Wild about you One way out Mean mistreating baby I’m worried
Little WalterMy Babe Juke
Billy boy ArnoldI wish you would I ain’t got you
Sonny Boy WilliamsonBringing it all back home Fattening frogs for snakes The bird Nine below zero Help me baby Eyesight to the blind Downchild Don’t start me talking One way out Cool disposition Your funeral & my trial
Buddy GuyFirst time I met the blues Damn right I’ve got the blues Gully Hully Stone free
Freddie KingHide away San-Ho-Zay You’ve got to love her with feelin’
Junior WellsHoodoo man
Magic SamAll your love
Otis RushSo many roads
Lightnin’ HopkinsI feel like ballin’ the jack Got me a Louisiana woman Evil hearted woman Bald headed woman Gotta move One kind of favour
Hound Dog TaylorRoll your moneymaker Sadie Aint got nobody
Robert NighthawkSweet black angel
Etta JamesI’d rather go blind I just want to make love to you

Rock Routes – This is what you get!

Posted on by Opher

Make my day! Buy a copy!

A short extract:

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.

Rock Routes: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781514873090: Books

Rock Routes – a history of Rock Music

Posted on by Opher

Introduction

Rock is dead. That is what Jim Morrison proclaimed in 1970. He was wrong.

Rock is alive and well.

Rock as a universal unifying force for Youth Culture is dead. For most young people it would appear that music is incidental to their life. It has become a consumable product to be bought and discarded. For those to whom it is central it has become an easy recognisable cult with dedicated devotees.

It was not always the case.

In the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s music was the focus for social change. It was the unifying force for fashion, politics, attitude, morality and social perspective. Rock was the vehicle that youth culture rode on. Its influence was universal. Rock ‘n’ Roll, Beat music, Psychedelia and Punk were world-wide phenomena. It is salutary to look back at the 60’s psychedelic phenomena and see long-hair bands complete with kaftans, bell-bottoms and accoutrements springing up all over the world including Peru, Afghanistan, Australia, Tokyo, Brazil, South Africa, Russia and Saudi Arabia. Everyone wanted to be part of the scene. They all wanted to be the Beatles, Stones, Floyd, Hendrix or Doors.

Everything now is controlled by the ‘Biz’ and run for profit.

I guess it was ever thus. It did not seem like it though. It seemed that the music was a revolution that was changing the world. It was made by us and controlled by us. It was not a product. It was an emotional portrayal of how we felt. It was ours, of us, by us and for us.

But then I’ve always been an idealist.

Well – I lived through it all. I’ve seen most of them and got to meet some of them. I have enjoyed a life-time of Rock Music. It has been central to everything I have done. It has affected my philosophy and impinged on every aspect of my life. I’ve lived it.

I am sitting here in 2013 looking forward over the next few weeks to a programme that includes Nick Harper, Roy Harper, The Magic Band, North Mississippi Allstars and Leonard Cohen. Wow! I’m looking forward to it. I’m 64 and still rockin’.

Back in the 1980s I ran an adult education on the history of Rock Music. I had great fun even though it cost me a fortune. My vinyl collection grew exponentially.

This book is an extension of that course. I first wrote a four volume book totalling 1500 pages entitled Rock Strata. It told the whole story of Rock Music through from the early 1900s to 1982. A publisher loved it. He loved my charts. He just thought it was a little too long. He wanted me to cut it down to 200 pages.

This is the rewrite of that attempt!

This book is the history of Rock Music up until 1982. I stopped there. I could have continued but it all rather broke up into fragments. There have been a number of those fragments that I continue to love but others I get frustrated by. I hate overproduced muzac for the hard of thinking. I hate product.

I love good, live, raw, loud, exciting music. I want my stuff straight from the heart, head and gut – not the bank.

This book shows how the different aspects of Rock Music developed and evolved. Nothing is ever new. True innovators are extremely rare. I’ve heard a few. Everything comes out of what has come before. You can always see where it has come from.

One of my Rock students started my course hating Country & Western. By the end of the course he had an extensive collection of 1930s/40s Country. He had ‘discovered’ it by looking at the influences acting on the music he enjoyed. He found it was stuff he’d never heard or listened to. He loved it.

This book tries to show you the things that influenced the music you love. Perhaps you will find other artists or genres you didn’t know about? Perhaps it will captivate you the way it has me?

It doesn’t matter what you love as long as you love something. It doesn’t matter if we love the same things. Half the fun is arguing the toss over songs, bands and genres.

This is Rock Music – not Pop. This is my kind of stuff. I grew up with it. It changed me. I love it!

Rock Routes: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781514873090: Books

Rock Routes – Intro

Posted on by Opher

I wanted to produce the definitive book on Rock Music and incorporate some of myself into it. It’s fun to look back on.

About the author

I was born in 1949 so I have lived through the whole Rock era.

I started collecting records when I was only ten years old and going to concerts when I was fourteen years old – The Birds (British with Ron Wood) and Them (with Van Morrison) were my first two gigs.

I have since amassed thousands of albums and, as my wife points out repeatedly, have a real obsession.

I have been fortunate enough to see most of the best:

Acoustic blues – Son House, Skip James, Bukka White, Big Joe Williams, Dave Honeyboy Edwards

Electric Blues – Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, Lazy Lester, T-Model Ford

Rock ‘n’ Roll – Jerry Lee, Bo, Chuck, Little Richard

Beat – Birds, Nashville Teens, Downliners sect, Stones, Them

British Underground – Hendrix, Floyd, Sabbath, Taste, Cream, Led Zep, Fleetwood Mac, John Mayall, Free, Arthur Brown, Chicken Shack

US Acid – Beefheart, Country Joe, Love, Doors, Mothers

Singer/Songwriters – Roy Harper, Nick Harper, Dylan, Cohen, Joni, Neil Young, Elvis Costello, Billy Bragg, Duster Bennett, Ian Dury, Davey Graham, Tim Rose

Punk – Stiff Little Fingers, Buzzcocks, Tom Robinson………..

To name but a few – I could go on and on and on. It’s the ones you didn’t see that rankle.

I taught a course on Rock Music at school. I ran the first adult education History of Rock Music course in the country.

I wrote the entire History of Rock Music up to 1982 in 4 volumes totalling 1500 pages. This book is the abbreviated version.

Rock Routes: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781514873090: Books

Rock Music – A History – Rock Routes

Posted on by Opher

Back in the late 70s and 80s we were struggling to make ends meet. I was looking for some way of pulling in extra money. As I had lived through the sixties and seen all the major bands and had around 500 albums spanning everything from Blues and Rock ‘n’ Roll to Punk I though it would be fun to earn a bit of cash and enjoy myself. So I put on an adult education History of Rock Music course.

It was very popular. Every week I’d deal with another genre or band, play some music and talk about the bands and my own experiences. It proved to be hard work, feeding all the interests and writing the hand-outs, but very enjoyable. Far from bringing in income it cost me a lot. Every weekend I’d be around all the second hand record shops buying albums to fill in the gaps. I loved it. Apart from everything else I learnt a lot and also came to love a lot of bands and styles that I had not previously entertained. By the end of two years I had accumulated 11,500 albums and an enthusiastic group of ‘students’.

Then I decided to write the notes up into a definitive history of Rock Music that I wittily called Rock Strata. It was four volumes and one thousand five hundred pages. I send it off and had a publisher interested. The only problem was that he said it was too long to publish. He told me that if I could get it down to two hundred pages he’d publish it.

That was a different book.

I spend the summer holiday pounding away on an old Remington typewriter and produced a book that was three hundred pages. This is it! The history of Rock Music from Blues to post-Punk. I called it Rock Routes.

Rock Routes: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781514873090: Books

Opher Goodwin’s Top Rock Music Books

Posted on by Opher

Opher Goodwin’s Top Rock Music Books

Here is a list of some of my top Rock Music books (all available in paperback or kindle and some in Hardback):

Phil Ochs On Track: Every Album, Every Song  Phil Ochs was the ‘The Prince of Protest’ in the sixties. The only real rival to Bob Dylan, he was the archetypal Greenwich Village topical songwriter. Whether protesting the Vietnam War or campaigning for civil rights, workers’ rights and social justice, Phil was always there. Phil was the man to take up causes, write songs, play at rallies and even risk his life. His clear voice and sense of melody, linked with his incisive lyrics, created songs of beauty and power. As his career progressed, with lyrics and music becoming more highly poetic and sophisticated, he still never lost sight of his cause. Towards the end of the sixties he joined with the YIPPIES in protest against the Vietnam War. But idealism became Phil’s downfall. He was an idealist who could see no point in continuing if he was unable to make the world a better place. Phil lost all hope and descended into depression, which, along with excessive alcohol consumption, led to his suicide in 1976. Shortly before he took his life, Phil asked his brother if he thought anyone would listen to his songs in the future. Well here we are; sixty years later, still listening. The songs of Phil Ochs are every bit as relevant as they ever were and they are making the world a better place!Phil Ochs On Track: Every Album, Every Song: Amazon.co.uk: Opher Goodwin: 9781789523263: Books
Ian Dury On Track: Every Album, Every Song Paperback – 25 Sept. 2025  “We only ever get glimpses of Ian Dury; nothing is as it seems. From irascible rogue to national treasure, pop star to social commentator, cockney geezer to artist, he was a man greater than the sum of his parts. Part teddy boy, part punk, part vaudeville act; he was unique. The music that emanates from this powerful personality echoes the heart and drive of their complex creator.
   Dury began his career as a frontman with post-punk outfit Kilburn And The High Roads, but had his greatest success with backing band The Blockheads, which featured Chis Jankel and Wilko Johnson at various times. He found true commercial success with the albums New Boots And Panties and Do It Yourself. Dury went on to a critically acclaimed solo career and worked with The Blockheads again on the 1997 album Mr Love Pants. He also had a slew of non-album hits, especially the UK number one ‘Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick’.
   In this book, Opher Goodwin dissects his albums and songs to tease out their spirit and reveal the inspirations behind them. 
   This is Ian Dury: a Blockhead, a genius.”		Ian Dury On Track: Every Album, Every Song: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781789523744: Books
Leonard Cohen  On Track: Every Album, Every Song Paperback – 30 May 2025  An enigma, Leonard Norman Cohen was possibly the most improbable bohemian intellectual songwriter/singer in music history. He was certainly the working-class hero, the peoples’ poet, the suicidal lamenter of doom and the purveyor of popular songs. But the truth is even more complex. Throughout his life, there were juxtapositions of the most unlikely life choices and influences. To have fashioned a mishmash of ideas, styles and influences into a successful, long-lasting musical career is nothing short of amazing. He blended secular, mystical, sexual and religious themes into ambiguous poetic tapestries and devised an intricate, unique musical style. He possessed a deep baritone voice that, although mesmerising, was sometimes in danger of sounding monotonous. Leonard was able to fuse these elements into a distinctive amalgam that somehow worked on many levels. He did not look the part, play the game or conform to any rules, but Leonard touched hearts and minds all over the world, while writing some remarkable songs, including ‘Halleluyah’ and ‘Suzanne’. Focusing equally on his popular early albums, his more experimental mid-period and his final, late-career renaissance, this book analyses and interprets every album and every individual song to shed light on the phenomenon of Leonard Cohen.Leonard Cohen On Track: Every Album, Every Song: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781789523591: Books
The Beatles – White Album – rock Classics    Arguably the greatest album by the best rock band ever, The Beatles – also known as The White Album – proved to be a watershed recording. Coming as it did, after manager Brian Epstein’s death; after the disillusionment with the Maharishi; in the middle of the break-up of long-term relationships, and following on from the psychedelic masterpiece Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, it heralded changes of style and the marked the start of the falling apart of the previously tight-knit group.The album’s diversity and creation are analysed and its background and dynamics revealed. This extraordinary double album reflects a remarkable time and period. As the sixties came to an end, so too did the band. They mirrored the times they lived in. The album also followed on from their first highly criticised TV flop Magical Mystery Tour, the success of the first global satellite triumph of ‘All You Need Is Love’, and the highly ambitious Apple business venture. George Martin ducked out and ructions broke out between band members. But, among all the pressures and stress they found time to write and record an incredible array of songs; songs that synergised into a spectacularly successful album with a fascinating story. This is the tale of every track and every facet of this remarkable record.The Beatles: White Album – Rock Classics: Amazon.co.uk: Opher Goodwin: 9781789523331: Books
Bob Dylan – Bringing It All Back Home – Rock ClassicsOne of the most pivotal albums in the evolution of rock music, few other recordings have had more impact than the 1965 Bob Dylan classic, Bringing It All Back Home. In the mid-sixties, rock music was about to explode into psychedelia, prog and jazz fusion. Meanwhile, Bob Dylan had made an enormous impact on songwriting with his first four all-acoustic albums. He had created a different way of writing songs, by embracing themes such as civil rights, anti-war protests and social issues, which lifted the subject matter from teenage love songs to serious poetic works of art, rife with symbolism. But with Bringing It All Back Home, Dylan shot his lyrics through with surreal hard-edged beat poetry while the music contained both acoustic songs and blues-based loud electric rock. It alienated him from many of his peers in the folk community but nonetheless contains classic cuts like ‘Mr Tambourine Man’ ‘Maggie’s Farm’ and ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’. Dylan had opened the door to experimentation. The Beatles, The Stones, The Who, The Doors, Hendrix, Pink Floyd and Cream all listened and responded. In its wake, Songwriting rose to new heights with few boundaries. After Bringing It All Back Home, music was forever changed.Bob Dylan Bringing It All Back Home: Rock Classics: Amazon.co.uk: Opher Goodwin: 9781789523140: Books
Captain Beefheart On Track: Every Album, Every SongCaptain Beefheart (Don Vliet) was undoubtedly the creator of the most bizarre and wonderful music. A child prodigy sculptor, he applied his artistic approach to music, creating ‘aural sculptures’. He befriended Frank Zappa in High School, collaborating on a teenage rock opera and sci-fi/fantasy film entitled Captain Beefheart vs The Grunt People. It was from this film that Don took his name. Of course, a magic character had to have a magic band. Captain Beefheart On Track: Every Album, Every Song : Opher Goodwin: Amazon.co.uk: Books
Roy Harper On Track: Every Album, Every SongRoy Harper must be one of Britain’s most undervalued rock musicians and songwriters. For over fifty years he has produced a series of innovative albums of consistently outstanding quality. He puts poetry and social commentary to music in a way that extends the boundaries of rock music. His 22 studio albums 16 live albums, made up of 250 songs, have created a unique body of work. Roy is a musician’s musician. Roy Harper: Every Album, Every Song (On Track): Amazon.co.uk: Opher Goodwin: 9781789521306: Books
In Search of Captain Beefheart – A Rock Music MemoirThe sixties raged. I was young, crazy, full of hormones and wanting to snatch life by the balls. There was a life out there for the grabbing and it had to be wrestled into submission. There was a society full of boring amoral crap and a life to be had in the face of the boring, comforting vision of slow death on offer. Rock music vented all that passion. This book is a memoir of a life spent immersed in Rock Music. In Search of Captain Beefheart: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781502820457: Books
Bob Dylan 1962 to 1970 On Track (Decades)  Bob Dylan is the magician who sprinkled poetic fairy dust on to the popular music of the early sixties and his songwriting sparked a revolution and changed rock music forever. The diminutive poet/singer claimed he was merely a ‘song and dance man’ but Dylan altered popular music from intellectually bereft teenage rebellion into a serious adult art form worthy of academic study. Bob Dylan 1962 to 1970 On Track (Decades) : Opher Goodwin: Amazon.co.uk: Books
Neil Young 1963 to 1970: Every Album, Every Song    In the realm of singer songwriters, few have been as influential as Neil Young, whose music has always been creative and relevant throughout six decades. Neil is a chameleon for whom boundaries of genres do not exist. He has delved into folk, country, r&b, rock ‘n’ roll, grunge, hard rock, electronic and pop and made them his own.Neil Young 1963 to 1970: Every Album, Every Song: Amazon.co.uk: Opher Goodwin: 9781789522983: Books
Nick Harper: The Wilderness Years    Nick speaks!  I first met Nick when he was a young child and over the years he has become a close friend. This book illuminates the genius that I feel is Nick Harper and is designed to accompany ‘The Wilderness Years’, a trilogy of vinyl albums. Nick talks candidly about many aspects of his music and career. I include, with Nick’s permission, the lyrics of all the songs featured in the trilogy. There are also many photos dating from his childhood to the present day.Nick Harper: The Wilderness Years: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9798815185630: Books
The Blues Muse – A novelI was in conversation with a good friend who, like me, is a Rock Music fanatic. We have both been everywhere, seen everyone and have had our lives hugely affected by music. However it is not who you have seen but what you failed to catch that you dwell on. I said to him that it would be brilliant if we had a time machine and were able to go back and see all the major events in Rock history; Robert Johnson play in the tavern in Greenwood, Elmore James in Chicago, Elvis Presley in the small theatres, The Beatles in Hamburg, Stones in Richmond, Doors in the Whiskey, Roy Harper at St Pancras Town Hall…………….. and a thousand more. Then I realised that I could. The Blues Muse: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781518621147: Books
Rock Routes – A History of Rock MusicThis charts the progress of Rock Music from its beginnings in Country Blues, Country& Western, R&B and Gospel through to its Post Punk period of 1980. It tells the tale of each genre and lists all the essential tracks. I was there at the beginning and I’m still there at the front! Keep on Rockin’!!Rock Routes: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781514873090: Books
Opher’s World Tributes to Rock Geniuses  If you like Rock Music you’ll love this! – 195 tributes to Rock Acts of Genius. – Each one a gem of a picture. You’ll find out what makes them so brilliant and a lot more besides! This is the writing of a true passionate obsessive. These are Ophers tributes to Rock geniuses – loving pen-pictures to all the great artists and bands that have graced the screens, airways, our ears, vinyl grooves and electronic digits – (well a lot of them anyway). These tributes make you thrill to all the reasons why they were so great.Opher’s World Tributes to Rock Geniuses: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781508631279: Books
537 Essential Rock Albums  – Pt. 1This is not your average run through an opinionated list of somebody’s favourite albums. This is much more than that. By the time you get to the end of the book you will be in no doubt as to the type of person who has written this and what their views are. This is Opher at his most extreme and outspoken. He’s been there at the front through thousands of shows, purchased tens of thousands of albums and listened to more music than seems possible to fit into a single life.537 Essential Rock Albums – Pt. 1 The first 270: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781502787408: Books

Thank you for looking. Why not try one or two? And please leave a review!

Cheers

Opher

In Search of Captain Beefheart – A Rock Memoir – available in Hardcover/Paperback/Kindle

Posted on by Opher

I really enjoyed writing this book. It charts a journey that started for me at the age of ten – my love of rock music. I bought my first singles at the age of ten – Buddy Holly and Adam Faith. I bought my first album at the age of eleven – The Shadows Greatest Hits. I saw my first live band at the age of fourteen – the (British) Birds. Them were my second live band. I never looked back. Hooked on the excitement. I was addicted.

In the late sixties I was immersed in the sixties underground scene and saw everyone – from Roy Harper to Hendrix and Cream. I used to see Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Free in pubs, Jackson C Frank, Al Stewart and John Martyn at Les Cousins and was invited to Abbey Road studios for Roy Harper’s fabulous recording sessions. Meeting and talking to major rock stars behind the scenes and purchasing twelve thousand vinyl albums seemed like paradise. I saw a lot of the old blues guys, the folk guys and all the major bands. Life rocked.

This book is my attempt to capture it in words.

It’s probably my most successful book. You might find it entertaining!

Preface

Jack White launched into the searing riff that was the intro to ‘Death Letter Blues’. It shot me straight back to 1968 and the thrill of seeing and hearing Son House. Son’s national steel guitar was more ragged than Jack White’s crystal clear electric chords, and nowhere near as loud, but the chords rang true and the energy and passion were exactly the same.

Meg pounded the drums and the crowd surged forward.

It was Bridlington Spa in 2004. White Stripes were the hottest thing on the planet. The place was packed and the atmosphere electric. I was right near the front – the only place to be at any gig – the place where the intensity was magnified.

It was a huge crowd and they were crazy tonight. I could see the young kids piling into the mosh-pit and shoving – excited groups of kids deliberately surging like riot cops in a wedge driving into the crowd and sending them reeling so that they tumbled and spilled. For the first time I started getting concerned. The tightly packed kids in the mosh-pit were roaring and bouncing up and down and kept being propelled first one way and then another as the forces echoed and magnified through the mass of people. At the front the crush was intense and everyone was careering about madly. My feet were off the ground as we were sent hurtling around. I had visions of someone getting crushed, visions of someone falling and getting trampled. Worst of all – it could be me!

For the first time in forty odd years of gigs I bailed out. I ruefully headed for the balcony and a clear view of the performance. I didn’t want a clear view I wanted to be in the thick of the action. It got me wondering – was I getting to old for this lark? My old man had only been a couple of years older than me when he’d died. Perhaps Rock Music was for the young and I should be at home listening to opera or Brahms with an occasional dash of Wagner to add the spice. I had become an old git. Then I thought – FUCK IT!!! Jack White was fucking good! Fuck Brahms – This was Rock ‘n’ Roll. You’re never too old to Rock! And Rock was far from dead!

The search goes on!!

We haven’t got a clue what we’re looking for but we sure as hell know when we’ve found it.

Rock music has not been the backdrop to my entire adult life; it’s been much more than that. It has permeated my life, informed it and directed its course.

From when I was a small boy I found myself enthralled. I was grabbed by that excitement. I wanted more. I was hunting for the best Rock jag in the world! – The hit that would send the heart into thunder and melt the mind into ecstasy.

I was hunting for Beefheart, Harper, House, Zimmerman and Guthrie plus a host of others even though I hadn’t heard of them yet.

I found them and I’m still discovering them. I’m sixty four and looking for more!

Forget your faith, hope and charity – give me Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll and the greatest of these is Rock ‘n’ Roll!

I was a kid in the Thames Delta, with pet crow called Joey, 2000 pet mice (unnamed), a couple of snakes, a mammoth tusk, a track bike with a fixed wheel, a friend called Mutt who liked blowing up things, a friend called Billy who kept a big flask of pee in the hopes of making ammonia, and a lot of scabs on my knees.

My search for the heart of Rock began in 1959 and I had no idea what I was looking for when I started on this quest. Indeed I did not know I had embarked on a search for anything. I was just excited by a new world that opened up to me; the world of Rock Music. My friend Clive Hansell also had no idea what he was initiating when he introduced me to the sounds he was listening to. Clive was a few years older than me. He liked girls and he liked Popular Music. Yet he seemed to have limited tastes. I can only ever remembering him playing me music by two artists – namely Adam Faith and Buddy Holly. In some ways it was a motley introduction to the world of Rock ‘n’ Roll.

I was ten years old which would have made Clive about twelve or thirteen, I suppose he could even have been fourteen. That is quite a lot of years at that age. We used to got off to his bedroom, sit on the bed and he’d play me the singles – 45s – on his Dansette player. He’d stack four or five singles on the deck push the lever up to play and we’d lean forward and watch intently. The turntable would start rotating; the mechanism clunked as the arm raised, there were clicks and clunks as the arm drew back and the first single dropped, then the arm would come across and descend on to the outer rim of the disc. The speaker would hiss and crackle and then the music kicked in. We watched the process intently every time as if it depended on our full attention.

The Adam Faith singles were on Parlaphone and were red with silver writing. The Buddy Holly was on Coral with a black label and silver writing. We reverentially watched the discs spinning and listened with great concentration to every aspect of the songs. It was a start.

Yet Rock ‘n’ Roll was by no means the only quest I’d started on. I was an early developer. I’d hit puberty at ten and can imagine myself as the scruffy little, dirty-faced kid who climbed trees, waded through ditches, got covered in frogspawn and lichen and was suddenly sprouting pubic hair – very confusing.

Life was going to change for me. I was in a transition phase.

In Search of Captain Beefheart: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9798346131236: Books