Rock Routes – 2 – Country Blues

Posted on by Opher

Country Blues

The insistent African beat was imported into the USA along with the captured Blacks destined for a life of slavery in the cotton fields of the Deep South, especially the plantations of the Mississippi Delta which was particularly productive.

African slaves were prevented from carrying on their native traditions and forced to adopt the dress, housing, language, religion and attitudes of their ‘masters’. In particular the use of drums was prohibited. The plantation owners were terrified of an insurrection. They thought that the black slaves could communicate though drumming. They might seek to get organised. However, music was encouraged. It was seen as a harmless recreational outlet. It had its uses in the workplace. Work chants in the field and ‘Shouts’, with songs such as where the song ‘Pick a bale of cotton’ was derived, were useful to promote productiveness. Black musicians even provided entertainment for white plantation owners. It raised morale. The black musicians were introduced to western style instruments – including such instruments as banjos, guitars, harmonicas, pianos, and mandolins – and western style music including hymns, folk songs, country reels and popular ballads. It all went into the mix.

The mix fermented for a hundred years or so before coming together as a distinctive style of music around the turn of the 20th century. It was inevitable. The black musicians had taught themselves the rudiments of western instruments and in so doing had introduced the African beat and rhythms of their African heritage. When this was applied to hymns the end result was Gospel. With Blues it was a little more complicated. The Blues was a name given to a musical form that had a great deal of variety. It evolved differently in different parts of the country. It incorporated the various prevailing musical influences from the black slaves’ environment and distilled it into a new musical style. These influences included Gospel, traditional Folk, Hillbilly country music and popular ballads. When these musical forms amalgamated with the intrinsic African rhythm the result was the 12-bar blues.

In some forms the Blues was seeped in emotion, agonising and soulful, as it attempted to communicate the trials and tribulations of being an oppressed people living in extreme hardship in a tough environment. In this form it often acted as a catharsis for the pent-up frustrations resulting from ill-use and mistreatment. In other forms it told the story of stolen pleasures, of women, violence and drinking that were also part of black man’s everyday life and part of the hardship within which he lived. But the Blues was not always sad. In other forms it was fast and beaty, used as dance music at the country barbeques known as ‘Jukes’. These songs were happy and carefree and reflected the good times when people would get together to eat, drink, dance and have a good time. These ‘Jukes’ would have people playing solo or in little combos known as ‘Jug Bands’. A whole genre of Blues was concerned with risqué songs based on double entendres that were well beyond the normal scope of white music. The Blues was also incorporated into the Spirituals, Gospel and Work songs of the era. A lot of these itinerant musicians would move around, tailoring their repertoire to the occasion or audience. It was not unusual for them to perform a range of Blues styles as well as popular songs and ballads. What was recorded was not always what being played.

The times were hard and musicians tended to choose instruments that were fairly cheap to buy. When they couldn’t afford an instrument they improvised – creating Diddley Bo’s out of nails and piano wire or the side of their wooden shacks, or commandeering washboards, thimbles, spoons or bottles. An early Jug Band, such as Bo Carter’s Mississippi Sheiks or Sleepy John Estes Jug Band, might consist of guitar, mandolin, washboard, jug, harmonica and spoons.

Many of the early Country Blues performers were blind or crippled. There was no welfare. If you couldn’t work the fields you would starve to death. The way out was to become a musician and play the ‘Hollers’ and ‘Shouts’ to accompany the workers in the field, to busk on street corners or play the dives and Jukes. This was how Peg-leg Howell, Blind Boy Fuller, Blind Willie McTell, Blind Sonny Terry and Blind Snooks Eaglin made a living. Others, like Blind Jimmy Johnson augmented their playing by being preachers. It was play or starve.

If you were busking you had to capture an audience. This led to the whole tradition of showmanship that culminated in some of the wild acts of Chicago Blues and Rock ‘n’ Roll and persisted through to Rock Music of today. Tommy Johnson was famous for doing handstands while he played his guitar. Later T-Bone Walker would play his guitar behind his head while doing the splits or walk his guitar round the sage playing it with one hand. It was the sort of stuff that led into Chuck Berry’s duck-walking, Bo Diddley’s square guitars and Screaming Jay Hawkin’s macabre voodoo act.

Unlike most of the sophisticated popular white music of the 30s and 40s, with its ditties and crooning, the Blues was real. It did not try to couch reality in candy or look at the world through rose-tinted view of the world. It spoke of real feelings that hadn’t been sentimentalised and the realities of life bringing, drink, sex and even death out from under the carpet. It was precisely because of this earthiness that contemporary white bourgeoisie audiences found it primitive, vulgar and crude. They saw it with the eyes and ears of their day. It was the decadent music of a primitive race. They condemned it as immoral and of no musical worth. Those same characteristics were what attracted white British youth in the 60s. They saw it as real music.

This music had limited commercial viability though it was recorded, like all music, for profit and not love. It was recorded in tiny converted rooms at the back of record stores and released on small independent ‘Race’ labels that catered for the black population.

This was the age of segregation.

The black population might be poor but they knew how to have a good time and they liked to let their hair down. They had their drinking holes, brothels and even their own radio stations like WKAI in Memphis. Beale street in Memphis and Bourbon Street in New Orleans, like many other black areas were jumping and jiving with Blues and Jazz. The radio stations played ‘The Devil’s Music’ and featured shows hosted by Blues Singers who acted as DJs such as BB King, Sonny Boy Williamson and Howlin’ Wolf. These shows were usually sponsored by commercial businesses who wanted to advertise their goods to the large black market.

There was a wide range of different styles ranging from the barrel-house Boogie Woogie that emanated from the New Orleans brothels, to the finger picking blues runs of the Texas Blues troubadours to the searing slide-guitar style of the Mississippi delta.

In the 1930s the Delta style often used a National Steel Guitar in order to gain volume when playing in the open air without the use of a P.A. It was open chorded and fretted with a slide on the third finger or a penknife or lighter. The slide was sometimes a length of copper tube but often the neck of a bottle – hence the term Bottle-neck guitar. Sliding the bottle up and down the frets created a shrill oscillating note or chord and was perfected by many of the early musicians such as Charlie Patton, Son House and Robert Johnson. This style was to prove extremely successful when amplified by City Blues musicians such as Elmore James and Muddy Waters.

In the 1930s the Country Blues reflected the life of the southern black share-cropper. It dealt with their struggles, pleasures, pains, fears and preoccupations. The Blues, as described by the great Bessie Smith (an early Jazz/Blues singer who frequented the vaudeville circuit), may have been nothing but a ‘low down dirty feelin’ but even when expressed in the most abject hopelessness there was still an underlying strength to it that suggested that just around the corner ‘the sun was gonna shine someday’.

The fact that the Blues rarely expressed any political content or hatred towards their white oppressors was not because it was not there. It was probably because it was extremely dangerous for black people to express those kind of views. The Klu-Klux-Klan was rampant and ‘justice’ was summary and violent. Any blacks who crossed the line were likely to find themselves burnt, raped, hung or castrated. It was no wonder that it was rare to find those sentiments expressed. There were probably many examples of more radical song-writing but they were reserved for private audiences and rarely found themselves preserved on record.

The recorded heritage of Country Blues is the result of numerous sessions in makeshift studios in the back of hotel rooms, shops and even in the open field on very primitive portable recording equipment that often recorded directly on to vinyl. The output of many major artists, such as Blind Willie McTell, is limited to a few sessions and many early recordings and artists were only preserved due to the efforts of an enlightened white man by the name of Alan Lomax. He toured the South hunting out the relatively unknown artists and recording them on his portable equipment. He followed up rumour and tracked them down discovering new talent on the way. Many artists, including Muddy Waters and Son House, have their early recordings and future careers due to Alan Lomax. He preserved their art for posterity.

Many of these brilliant artists died or faded into obscurity before they could ever come to the attention of white audiences but in the 60s many found themselves rediscovered and their careers resurrected. They were suddenly popular on the white college circuit, in Greenwich Village, the Newport Folk Festival and were rapturously received in Europe. Artists like Sleepy John Estes, Blind Willie McTell, Bukka White, Son House, Muddy Waters, Big Joe Williams, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, John Lee Hooker, Sonny Boy Williamson, James Cotton and a host of others were brought over to Europe on Blues packages. I’m glad they were. It meant I got to see them play at the Hammersmith Odeon. They were old men but they still played with vigour and dynamism. Son House had us all standing on our seats and yelling. Many of these were performing in front of white audiences for the first time and sadly were soon dead. But they had delved back into their repertoires to dig out those gems from the 1930s and 40s and brought them to life. They filled many gaps in our understanding of the Country Blues. It is just a great shame that greats like Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton, Memphis Minnie and Elmore James didn’t live to see that day when they were lauded by white audiences and treated like the talented men and women they were.

Through the limited recording output of these Blues singers we are able to trace the development of this style through the 1920s with artists such as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Texas Alexander, Blind Willie Johnson, and Charlie Patton through to the thirties with Son House, Robert Johnson, Bukka White, Blind Willie McTell, and on to the 1940s with Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker, Mississippi John Hurt, Lightnin’ Hopkins before amplification kicked in after the war.

In the 1940s it provided the rhythmical structure that gave rise to many forms of Rhythm & Blues such as Boogie Woogie, City Blues, and Doo-Wop. These were the seminal force behind Rock ‘n’ Roll. In that sense it is possible to view these early exponents of Country Blues, and in particular men like Arthur Big Boy Crudup, Robert Johnson, and Son House as being the founding fathers of Rock ‘n’ Roll.

Where would we be without them?

ArtistStand out tracks
Son HouseDeath letter blues Pearline Delta blues Walking blues The pony blues
Robert JohnsonDust my broom Sweet home Chicago Come on in my kitchen Crossroad blues Love in vain Terraplane blues Walking blues Last fair deal going down Stop breaking down blues Milkcow’s calf blues
Bukka WhiteShake ‘em on down Fixin’ to die blues Parchman Farm blues
Sleepy John EstesOllie blues Broke and hunger Black Mattie The girl I love she got long curly hair
Skip JamesDevil got my woman Hard time killing floor I’m so glad
Big Joe WilliamsBaby please don’t go
Kokomo ArnoldMilk cow blues Busy bootin’ The twelves Salty dog
Bo CarterPig meat is what I crave Banana in your fruit basket What kind of scent is that Don’t mash my digger so deep
Hambone Willie NewbernRollin’ & Tumblin’
Tommy JohnsonCanned heat blues Cool drink of water
Charlie PattonSpoonful blues Shake it and break it High water everywhere
Furry LewisShake em on down
Blind Lemon JeffersonMatch box blues Broke and hungry
Blind Willie McTellStatesboro blues Broke down engine
Blind Willie JohnsonDark was the night cold was the ground You’ll need somebody on your bond Nobody’s fault but mine God moves on the water
Sonny Terry/Brownie McGheeSitting on top of the world Rock Island Line Step it and go
Memphis MinnieChauffer Blues Hot stuff Selling my chops Dirty mother for you Bumble bee blues You dirty mistreater
Peg Leg HowellTishamingo blues
Lightnin HopkinsKatie Mae Let me play with your poodle Blues in the bottle Bottle up and go
Leroy CarrHow long how long blues Mean mistreating Mama
Texas AlexanderLeevee camp moan
Gus CannonYou can’t blame the coloured man
Bessie SmithT’aint nobody’s business if I do Careless love St Louis blues I’m wild about that thing Gimme pigfoot Do your duty
Victoria SpiveyBlack snake blues Dope head blues Organ grinder blues
Lucille BroganShave ‘em dry

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

Rock Routes – 1 – Rock ‘n’ Roll Music

Posted on by Opher

Rock ‘n’ Roll Music

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

Extract – Rock Routes – British Psychedelic Bands

Posted on by Opher

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

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’.

ArtistStand out tracks
Pink FloydArnold 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 MachineI did it again Joy of a toy Priscilla
HawkwindHurry on sundown Silver machine Masters of the universe Children of the sun
TomorrowMy white bicycle Revolution Strawberry fields forever
MisunderstoodChildren of the sun I can take you to the sun
Juicy LucyWho do you love Willie the pimp
Crazy World of Arthur BrownFire Fanfare/Fire Poem Prelude/nightmare
MoveI can hear the grass grow Night of fear Flowers in the rain Fire brigade Cherry blossom clinic
Dantalion’s chariotMadman running through the fields
SynFlowerman 14 hour technicolour dream Created by Clive
Mandrake paddle steamerOverspill Cooger & Dark
SmokeMy friend Jake High in a room
Wimple WynchSave my soul
KaleidoscopeFlight from Ashiya
Fleurs de lysMoondreams Circles
Blossom ToesWhat on Earth Look at me I’m you
Idle RaceHere we go round the lemon tree
ManErotica Spunk box My name is Jesus Smith
BeatlesLucy in the sky with diamonds Strawberry fields forever A day in the life
Rolling StonesShe’s a rainbow 2000 light years from home Sing this all together
Pretty ThingsLSD SF Sorrow is born Walking through my dreams
YardbirdsOver under sideways down Psycho daisies The Nazz are blue

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 – 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 – 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

Writing – The Big Breakthrough!

Posted on by Opher

Rock Routes

By the eighties I was not making any impression on publishers. I had two bites at the bait. One of my Sci-fi books was considered, professionally read and ummed over. They decided not to go ahead.

I had been running a History Of Rock Music course as an adult Education class. Times were tough. Teaching was poorly paid. The kids were on free school meals and we could not make ends meet. I moonlighted at a Youth Club and teaching evening classes in A Level Biology and Rock Music. It brought some money in.

I had a big collection of vinyl albums that I added to substantially in the process of teaching that course. Instead of bringing money in I was spending more than I was bringing in. Not a good idea.

I decided to write a book on what I knew best – Rock Music. I launched myself in with gusto, using my notes from the Rock Class, producing charts of influences, track lists and descriptions of genres and artists and liberally sprinkling anecdotes. By the time I had finished I had produced a four volume definitive history of some one thousand two hundred pages. I called it ‘Rock Strata’.

I sent it off and a Literary Agent was highly interested. Within a week he had got a publisher interested. I went to London for a meeting. The Publisher loved it. They wanted to publish.

I was delighted.

The only problem was that he was not willing to produce four volumes and one thousand two hundred pages. He thought it was too risky and would cost too much. He wanted me to base the book around the flow diagrams and cut it down to two hundred pages.

I was dismayed. What he was talking about was a different book altogether.

I went home and spent the entire summer holiday writing the new book. I got it down to two hundred and twenty five pages with twenty flow diagrams. I called it ‘Rock Streams’ and sent it off.

He was delighted. He loved the writing, concept and knowledge. He loved the flow charts. We talked technical issues concerning designing and producing the flow diagrams. He was worried about the cost. We sorted it.

I went down to Portsmouth to their publishing house and negotiated the deal. I was to receive an advance of £200. That was a substantial sum to me and solved all my financial worries.

I wet back home and started writing a follow-up which I called ‘Under the Covers’. It was a great idea and one that I will rewrite one day.

It was just before Christmas and the cheque was due to arrive in late November. We rushed out and bought the kids Christmas presents – mountain bikes and gear. The cheque never arrived.

I rang and it was always in the post.

In January, after many awkward conversations with my bank manager, the publisher admitted that the book had been pulled. The board had considered the cost of the flow diagrams was too much. They also thought that it might be competing with Pete Frame’s Rock Family Trees – though the concept and execution were completely different. There was not going o be a cheque or a book.

My Literary Agent was apologetic. He thought it had been an unprecedented piece of bad management and I had been let down badly.

I went home and threw the manuscript in the bottom drawer along with the follow-up. I did not continue with the Literary Agent and just let everything lapse.