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