Oph & Mike’s Lost Radio Scripts! – The Mid Sixties!

Posted on by Opher

These were a few notes for a series of radio shows that Mike and me put together!! We called ourselves SHYTE!!

Radio Shows

The Oph and Mike Karma Sutra of Sound

We look at Rock music from different positions

Programme 9 – Mid 60s British consolidation & songwriting development

We’re Opher and Mike and together we’re SHYTE!!!!

Around the mid-60s Britain still ruled the planet. The States had made a few forays with Bob Dylan, the Byrds and a bit of Surf music from the Beach Boys, but it was the long-haired English bands that set the pace, called the tunes and defined the fashion.

They’d moved on from covering Blues, R&B and R&R to writing their own songs. This was the transition phase between British Beat and the start of the 60s Underground.

The Yardbirds had started as an R&B Blues cover band. Though they put their own style on it, speeded it up and built up to freak out crescendos – a brilliant exciting live band. They’d backed Sonny Boy Williamson on tour, recorded Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters songs and then moved on.

The mid sixties saw the exit of Eric Clapton and the entrance of a brilliant innovative guitarist, fresh from the Tridents, Jeff Beck.

Beck brought a new edge to the band. His playing was loud, raw and exciting and it was different and distinctive

Yardbirds – Over under sideways down

The who had started out doing Slim Harpo covers – got love if you want it. Their management made them into a Mod band. Mods and Rockers were all the thing in the mid-60s. With fights on Brighton beach and rallies on old LD Scooters in Parkas.

Mods wore their hair layered, smart Italian suits and Parkas with fur trim. They rode around on scooters with loads of headlights, dangly bits, aerials and Mod girls draped on the back all trying to look like Twiggy.

Rockers wore greasy leather jackets, motorcycle boots and jeans and rode big Triumphs or BSAs.

At one end of my town was a Mod café – they played Ska and Beat and dropped purple hearts – amphetamines.

At the other end was a rockers café. They listened to loud Rock n Roll.

The Who developed their Mod Art with roundels and union jack jackets and a wild act representing the rebellion of the time. They had the best live act of all with their mad drumming from Keith Moon, Their guitar gymnastics from Pete Townsend, microphone mayhem from Roger Daltrey, held together by John Entwhistles revolutionary bass playing. They finished it off by wrecking their instruments in a final act of mayhem and feedback.

Glorious.

Who – My generation

The Smallfaces were the other big Mod band fronted by Steve Marriott. They too started out with R&B covers but by the mid-60s were doing weirder stuff. I never quite got into the strange cockney type stuff. Sounded a bit to Chas and Dave for my liking but stuff like Itchycoo park was in another league.

Smallfaces – Itchycoo park

The Pretty Things were always too far out. Phil May always had the longest hair. They moved into songwriting in a big way and arguably wrote the first Rock Opera with SF Sorrow.

By the mid-sixties they were treading a very alternative path.

Prettythings – LSD

The Beatles were never a band to be left behind. They remained at the forefront of things right up to their break up in 1970.

Every single release seemed to take them to a new level and a new direction. By the mid 60s they were ploughing some weird and wonderful stuff on albums such as Rubber Soul and Revolver.  Tomorrow never knows came out of an LSD experience with Peter Fonda and the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

Beatles – Tomorrow never knows

The Stones didn’t stand still either. Their best years were ahead of them but the mid-60s was fertile ground for them, churning out some classic songs such as ‘have you seen your mother, baby standing in the shadows’, 19th Nervous breakdown, Ruby Tuesday, Let’s spend the night together, Last time. They held their position as the bad boys.

Rolling Stones – 19th Nervous breakdown        

The Downliners Sect sadly never hit the heights the promise of their brilliant debut album indicated. They released a couple more albums, trying to jump on the Country trend and then Rock trend without great success.

He was a square was quite fun. I used to play it a lot.

Downliners Sect – He was a square

It was in the mid 60s that Ray Davies really came into his own as a songwriter. He specialized in quiet English songs of precise social observation as you get on Well Respected Man or Dedicated Follower of Fashion. The 60sc were littered with his brilliant songs – Waterloo Sunset, Days, Lola, See my friend etc, etc.

Kinks – Well Respected man

The Animals were most prolific and successful with a string of hits but never seemed to develop too much and remained a bit commercial. None the less they produced some great tracks before splitting up and Eric Burden going off to form the more progressive New Animals.

Animals – Don’t bring me down

There were a few new British bands that started up. The Zombies were one. Not really a Beat group. They went on to produce a brilliant final album in the late 60s -Odessey and Oracle – before splitting.

Zombies – She’s not there

Amen Corner, featuring Andy Fairweather-Lowe, were another new addition. Andy went on to feature in many other projects in the future.

Amen Corner – If Paradise was half as nice

The Searchers managed to hang on for a while. They were a big influence on the guitar sound of the Byrds. They did some topical stuff with Jackie De Shannon numbers.

Searchers – What have they done to the rain

The end of this interim period is very confused but it gave way to the British Underground proper with its Blues Bands, Psychedelia, Folkrock, and Progressive Rock.

By the end of 1966 the underground was beginning to build ready for the great summer of love in 1967.

A band that heralded this transition was Jimi Hendrix. They exploded on the scene and propelled everything forward.

Jimi Hendrix – Hey Joe

Suddenly we had Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, Cream, Jethro Tull, Taste,  Incredible String Band, Traffic, Family, Arthur Brown, Edgar Broughton, Fairport Convention, Strawbs, Social Deviants, Chicken Shack, John Mayall and a whole new Ball Game. But that’s another story.

Today’s Music to keep me SsSsaaaaAnnnneee in Isolation – The Yardbirds

Posted on by Opher

This is the band that boasts having three of the greatest guitarists of their time in Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page! All still alive. Wouldn’t it be great if the band reformed and sported all three of them??

(4) The Yardbirds – Greatest Hits (FULL ALBUM – BEST OF ROCK) – YouTube

(4) The Yardbirds – Live! Blueswailing July ’64 (Full Album) 2003 – YouTube

Today’s Music to keep me SssAAANnNnNeEE in Isolation – The Yardbirds

Posted on by Opher

They came out of the British sixties Beat boom and became one of the most experimental and psychedelic finally giving rise to Led Zeppelin. They also had three of the best lead guitarists ever in Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page.

Today I’ll enjoy listening to the.

Rock Music Genres – The British Blues Beat Groups of the early 60s – The Rolling Stones, Yardbirds, Them, Pretty Things, Downliners Sect and Animals.

Posted on by Opher

Rock Music Genres – The British Blues Beat Groups of the early 60s – The Rolling Stones, Yardbirds, Them, Pretty Things, Downliners Sect and Animals.

DownlinersSect1

The British Beat Group Blues boom – 1964

Hard on the heels of Merseybeat came the first British Blues boom in the form of the sixties beat groups. They were led by the Rolling Stones but closely followed by the Animals, Pretty Things, Yardbirds, Downliners Sect, Manfred Mann, Bo St Runners, Kinks and Them.

The real pioneers of this Blues boom were Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, Graham Bond and Zoot Money. But, while being seminal, they did not receive the commercial success of their compatriots.

The blues set, of which I was one, were a little snooty when it came to the blues. We saw it as superior to the Pop and Rock of the day. It seemed raw, earthy and authentic, not produced as a product by the record companies. This was genuine music from the heart, or at least the genitals. It spoke of real life and not soppy love, and teenage crap. You could wander about looking incredible serious and intellectual clutching your Sleepy John Estes and Elmore James albums. It was all very cliquey. And this was precisely how many of these bands came together. They were passionate aficionados. To us blues wasn’t just a music form; it was a crusade. We loved it and we loved those old black guys from the depths of Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana. It was an exclusive club.

In the Art Colleges all over the country various passionate blues musicians got together to swap their precious collections of coveted albums, learn licks, exchange tales and learn how to imitate their idols. They didn’t do it quite the same. They speeded it up a bit, added a bit of a rave up, but in general were remarkably true to the music of their heroes. They might have wanted to make the big time but it was more important to be true to the music, do it justice and win the respect of your fellow musicians. In the process it created a great club scene and a lot of followers. The blues was cool.

From the Deep South of the Thames Delta we had the Rolling Stones and Yardbirds fighting it out for supremacy in Richmond and the Kinks and Pretty Things battling with the Downliners Sect. From the swamps and levees of Newcastle we had the Animals and from the plantations of Ireland we had Them. Almost overnight the blues was the biggest thing going and the kids were all dancing to the music of black southern America.

The catalogues of Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, Robert Johnson, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry and John Lee Hooker were plundered.

The Stones nearly hit with their first single – a cover of Chuck Berry’s ‘Come On’ and then had theit first top ten hit with a song given to them by the Beatles. After that it was all systems go. They actually got to number one with an extremely authentic version of Howlin’ Wolf’s ‘Little Red Rooster’. Their first two albums were stuffed with blues covers. Likewise the Kinks first album was full of Swamp Blues. Them hit the charts with ‘Baby Please Don’t Go’. There were covers of ‘Dimples’, ‘Got My Mojo Working’, ‘I’m a Lover not a Fighter’, ‘Got Love if You Want It’, ‘Good Morning Little Schoolgirl’, ‘Hoochie Coochie Man’, ‘I Just Want to Make Love to You’, ‘I Ain’t Got You’, ‘Cadillac’, ‘Honest I Do’, ‘I’m a Man’, ‘I’m Mad Again’, ‘I Wish You Would’, ‘Smokestack Lightnin’’, Mona (I Need You Baby)’, ‘Too Much Monkey Business’, ‘Around and Round’, ‘Bo Diddley’, ‘You Can’t Judge a Book’, ‘You Can’t Catch Me’, ‘Boom Boom’, and a dozen more. The blues was selling to white kids. They were in the playground discussing blues harp, slide guitar and square guitars. The exclusive club had opened right up.

This in turn paved the way for the blues guys to come back over from America. Middle-aged blues guys like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson and John Lee Hooker received rapturous receptions from young white kids while mini-skirted white girls danced to their rhythm. They must have been amaqzed. It was a million miles away from the sweaty Chicago clubs.

The Press had a field day. They pitted the long-haired, scruffy blues bands against the smart suited Mersey bands. There were the lovable mop-tops and the obscene and dangerous Stones who you wouldn’t want your daughter going within a hundred miles of. It was great fun and of course the Stones manager – Andrew Loog Oldham – lapped it up and fed it for all it was worth.

What it did to the music was to bring a harder edge to the sound. It was not so Poppy and over-produced. There was a rough, raw edge to it. This was not commercial pop; this was unrefined blues – and it rocked! The excitement and energy was right there in your face!

The first band I ever saw live were the British Birds with Ron Wood on guitar. The second band I caught was Them when ‘Baby Please Don’t Go’ was riding high in the charts. I was in my element.

Of course it couldn’t last. The blues bands were quickly joined by the Mod bands and soon everyone was writing their own material. It all became more ‘original’ sounding and the blues became only one component.

You can see it with the Stones – the first two albums were heavily Blues and then the music changed. Likewise with the Downliners Sect – one superb blues album and then into country. The Kinks – one Swamp Blues album and then their own distinctive sound. The blues phase moved on and burnt itself out. After 1964 the British Blues Beat Bands changed their sound.

The irony was that, on the back of the Beatles and Merseybeat, the British Beat groups exported blues back to America. The Rolling Stones, Animals and Yardbirds got the American white kids dancing to black American blues. The real thing might have been playing on their doorsteps and they had never heard it. They went for the sound of the British Beat groups with a vengeance. The blues invaded America.

Rock Music Genres – The British Blues Beat Groups of the early 60s – The Rolling Stones, Yardbirds, Them, Pretty Things, Downliners Sect and Animals.

Posted on by Opher

Rock Music Genres – The British Blues Beat Groups of the early 60s – The Rolling Stones, Yardbirds, Them, Pretty Things, Downliners Sect and Animals.

DownlinersSect895 DownlinersSect1

The British Beat Group Blues boom – 1964

Hard on the heels of Merseybeat came the first British Blues boom in the form of the sixties beat groups. They were led by the Rolling Stones but closely followed by the Animals, Pretty Things, Yardbirds, Downliners Sect, Manfred Mann, Bo St Runners, Kinks and Them.

The real pioneers of this Blues boom were Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, Graham Bond and Zoot Money. But, while being seminal, they did not receive the commercial success of their compatriots.

The blues set, of which I was one, were a little snooty when it came to the blues. We saw it as superior to the Pop and Rock of the day. It seemed raw, earthy and authentic, not produced as a product by the record companies. This was genuine music from the heart, or at least the genitals. It spoke of real life and not soppy love, and teenage crap. You could wander about looking incredible serious and intellectual clutching your Sleepy John Estes and Elmore James albums. It was all very cliquey. And this was precisely how many of these bands came together. They were passionate aficionados. To us blues wasn’t just a music form; it was a crusade. We loved it and we loved those old black guys from the depths of Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana. It was an exclusive club.

In the Art Colleges all over the country various passionate blues musicians got together to swap their precious collections of coveted albums, learn licks, exchange tales and learn how to imitate their idols. They didn’t do it quite the same. They speeded it up a bit, added a bit of a rave up, but in general were remarkably true to the music of their heroes. They might have wanted to make the big time but it was more important to be true to the music, do it justice and win the respect of your fellow musicians. In the process it created a great club scene and a lot of followers. The blues was cool.

From the Deep South of the Thames Delta we had the Rolling Stones and Yardbirds fighting it out for supremacy in Richmond and the Kinks and Pretty Things battling with the Downliners Sect. From the swamps and levees of Newcastle we had the Animals and from the plantations of Ireland we had Them. Almost overnight the blues was the biggest thing going and the kids were all dancing to the music of black southern America.

The catalogues of Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, Robert Johnson, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry and John Lee Hooker were plundered.

The Stones nearly hit with their first single – a cover of Chuck Berry’s ‘Come On’ and then had theit first top ten hit with a song given to them by the Beatles. After that it was all systems go. They actually got to number one with an extremely authentic version of Howlin’ Wolf’s ‘Little Red Rooster’. Their first two albums were stuffed with blues covers. Likewise the Kinks first album was full of Swamp Blues. Them hit the charts with ‘Baby Please Don’t Go’. There were covers of ‘Dimples’, ‘Got My Mojo Working’, ‘I’m a Lover not a Fighter’, ‘Got Love if You Want It’, ‘Good Morning Little Schoolgirl’, ‘Hoochie Coochie Man’, ‘I Just Want to Make Love to You’, ‘I Ain’t Got You’, ‘Cadillac’, ‘Honest I Do’, ‘I’m a Man’, ‘I’m Mad Again’, ‘I Wish You Would’, ‘Smokestack Lightnin’’, Mona (I Need You Baby)’, ‘Too Much Monkey Business’, ‘Around and Round’, ‘Bo Diddley’, ‘You Can’t Judge a Book’, ‘You Can’t Catch Me’, ‘Boom Boom’, and a dozen more. The blues was selling to white kids. They were in the playground discussing blues harp, slide guitar and square guitars. The exclusive club had opened right up.

This in turn paved the way for the blues guys to come back over from America. Middle-aged blues guys like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson and John Lee Hooker received rapturous receptions from young white kids while mini-skirted white girls danced to their rhythm. They must have been amaqzed. It was a million miles away from the sweaty Chicago clubs.

The Press had a field day. They pitted the long-haired, scruffy blues bands against the smart suited Mersey bands. There were the lovable mop-tops and the obscene and dangerous Stones who you wouldn’t want your daughter going within a hundred miles of. It was great fun and of course the Stones manager – Andrew Loog Oldham – lapped it up and fed it for all it was worth.

What it did to the music was to bring a harder edge to the sound. It was not so Poppy and over-produced. There was a rough, raw edge to it. This was not commercial pop; this was unrefined blues – and it rocked! The excitement and energy was right there in your face!

The first band I ever saw live were the British Birds with Ron Wood on guitar. The second band I caught was Them when ‘Baby Please Don’t Go’ was riding high in the charts. I was in my element.

Of course it couldn’t last. The blues bands were quickly joined by the Mod bands and soon everyone was writing their own material. It all became more ‘original’ sounding and the blues became only one component.

You can see it with the Stones – the first two albums were heavily Blues and then the music changed. Likewise with the Downliners Sect – one superb blues album and then into country. The Kinks – one Swamp Blues album and then their own distinctive sound. The blues phase moved on and burnt itself out. After 1964 the British Blues Beat Bands changed their sound.

The irony was that, on the back of the Beatles and Merseybeat, the British Beat groups exported blues back to America. The Rolling Stones, Animals and Yardbirds got the American white kids dancing to black American blues. The real thing might have been playing on their doorsteps and they had never heard it. They went for the sound of the British Beat groups with a vengeance. The blues invaded America.

Rock Music Genres – The British Blues Beat Groups of the early 60s – The Rolling Stones, Yardbirds, Them, Pretty Things, Downliners Sect and Animals.

Posted on by Opher

DownlinersSect895 DownlinersSect1

The British Beat Group Blues boom – 1964

Hard on the heels of Merseybeat came the first British Blues boom in the form of the sixties beat groups. They were led by the Rolling Stones but closely followed by the Animals, Pretty Things, Yardbirds, Downliners Sect, Manfred Mann, Bo St Runners, Kinks and Them.

The real pioneers of this Blues boom were Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, Graham Bond and Zoot Money. But, while being seminal, they did not receive the commercial success of their compatriots.

The blues set, of which I was one, were a little snooty when it came to the blues. We saw it as superior to the Pop and Rock of the day. It seemed raw, earthy and authentic, not produced as a product by the record companies. This was genuine music from the heart, or at least the genitals. It spoke of real life and not soppy love, and teenage crap. You could wander about looking incredible serious and intellectual clutching your Sleepy John Estes and Elmore James albums. It was all very cliquey. And this was precisely how many of these bands came together. They were passionate aficionados. To us blues wasn’t just a music form; it was a crusade. We loved it and we loved those old black guys from the depths of Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana. It was an exclusive club.

In the Art Colleges all over the country various passionate blues musicians got together to swap their precious collections of coveted albums, learn licks, exchange tales and learn how to imitate their idols. They didn’t do it quite the same. They speeded it up a bit, added a bit of a rave up, but in general were remarkably true to the music of their heroes. They might have wanted to make the big time but it was more important to be true to the music, do it justice and win the respect of your fellow musicians. In the process it created a great club scene and a lot of followers. The blues was cool.

From the Deep South of the Thames Delta we had the Rolling Stones and Yardbirds fighting it out for supremacy in Richmond and the Kinks and Pretty Things battling with the Downliners Sect. From the swamps and levees of Newcastle we had the Animals and from the plantations of Ireland we had Them. Almost overnight the blues was the biggest thing going and the kids were all dancing to the music of black southern America.

The catalogues of Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, Robert Johnson, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry and John Lee Hooker were plundered.

The Stones nearly hit with their first single – a cover of Chuck Berry’s ‘Come On’ and then had theit first top ten hit with a song given to them by the Beatles. After that it was all systems go. They actually got to number one with an extremely authentic version of Howlin’ Wolf’s ‘Little Red Rooster’. Their first two albums were stuffed with blues covers. Likewise the Kinks first album was full of Swamp Blues. Them hit the charts with ‘Baby Please Don’t Go’. There were covers of ‘Dimples’, ‘Got My Mojo Working’, ‘I’m a Lover not a Fighter’, ‘Got Love if You Want It’, ‘Good Morning Little Schoolgirl’, ‘Hoochie Coochie Man’, ‘I Just Want to Make Love to You’, ‘I Ain’t Got You’, ‘Cadillac’, ‘Honest I Do’, ‘I’m a Man’, ‘I’m Mad Again’, ‘I Wish You Would’, ‘Smokestack Lightnin’’, Mona (I Need You Baby)’, ‘Too Much Monkey Business’, ‘Around and Round’, ‘Bo Diddley’, ‘You Can’t Judge a Book’, ‘You Can’t Catch Me’, ‘Boom Boom’, and a dozen more. The blues was selling to white kids. They were in the playground discussing blues harp, slide guitar and square guitars. The exclusive club had opened right up.

This in turn paved the way for the blues guys to come back over from America. Middle-aged blues guys like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson and John Lee Hooker received rapturous receptions from young white kids while mini-skirted white girls danced to their rhythm. They must have been amaqzed. It was a million miles away from the sweaty Chicago clubs.

The Press had a field day. They pitted the long-haired, scruffy blues bands against the smart suited Mersey bands. There were the lovable mop-tops and the obscene and dangerous Stones who you wouldn’t want your daughter going within a hundred miles of. It was great fun and of course the Stones manager – Andrew Loog Oldham – lapped it up and fed it for all it was worth.

What it did to the music was to bring a harder edge to the sound. It was not so Poppy and over-produced. There was a rough, raw edge to it. This was not commercial pop; this was unrefined blues – and it rocked! The excitement and energy was right there in your face!

The first band I ever saw live were the British Birds with Ron Wood on guitar. The second band I caught was Them when ‘Baby Please Don’t Go’ was riding high in the charts. I was in my element.

Of course it couldn’t last. The blues bands were quickly joined by the Mod bands and soon everyone was writing their own material. It all became more ‘original’ sounding and the blues became only one component.

You can see it with the Stones – the first two albums were heavily Blues and then the music changed. Likewise with the Downliners Sect – one superb blues album and then into country. The Kinks – one Swamp Blues album and then their own distinctive sound. The blues phase moved on and burnt itself out. After 1964 the British Blues Beat Bands changed their sound.

The irony was that, on the back of the Beatles and Merseybeat, the British Beat groups exported blues back to America. The Rolling Stones, Animals and Yardbirds got the American white kids dancing to black American blues. The real thing might have been playing on their doorsteps and they had never heard it. They went for the sound of the British Beat groups with a vengeance. The blues invaded America.