Da Beat Goes On! Back to that theme of the British Invasion arriving on the shores of a desolate American music scene and sweeping away the remains of the earlier R&B and Rock movements here in the States....I don't know about you but this looks like some pretty fertile ground that was allegedly swept over....ya know what? I remember 85% of THIS music far better than I do the 1964 Beatles or Dave Clark Five (Well...Okay, I was pretty familiar with the DC5), or Rolling Stones of
that era. When you look at the rather stunning quality of what is
here, and add what would be evident in similar compilations in other genres, the overwhelming success of the Brits is a little mystifying to me. Of course I don't exactly represent mainstream America music tastes either so to
me the early 60's were an incredibly fertile time in Jazz, Blues, R&B and Soul and the British Invasion interrupted and marginalized what should have been a Golden Age....
7 comments:
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Have to agree with your comments - yes, I remember seeing The Beatles and The DC5 and The Stones on Ed Sullivan. I also, looking at the tracking list from '64 remember many more of these than any of the other 'British Invasion" bands that I (know I) heard on the radio. But then, as I've said for years, when I got a little older and friends of mine were going to see "Zep" - I was heading to Atlantic City's "World Famous" Steel Pier to see, for example, The James Brown Orchestra...and, with all due respect to others, that was more 'mainstream' to me!
G
Thanks KC
Wow what a year ! Some real classic tracks here
And Soul proper coming of age - I'll enjoy this
Cheers
In it's first two years the alleged British Invasion introduced some of us in the north to music that wasn't yet getting much airplay on popular radio; however, by 1965 many of us were listening to Motown and Stax-Volt and seeking the roots of that music, the blues. By high school we were hooked on Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Chuck Berry, John Lee Hooker, and others. I agree with your comments. A few of my friends were buying the Beatles and sitting around agape when listening to each new release while I was buying the Chambers Brothers, Ray Charles, Otis Redding, Aretha, and James Brown. Different strokes for different folks, I guess, but I was never attracted to the ersatz blue-eyes soul like the Righteous Brothers when the real thing had finally become so accessible.
This blog has allowed me to delve much further and learn much more and I am grateful that its contributors are so willing to share the music and the history. When I was young, there was no music so great as soul music in the sixties and it had a profound influence on my music taste. Aretha would send chills up my spine and lead me to Irma Thomas' version of Loving Arms. I guess it says something that the only British band in which I was interested was the Rolling Stones. They were reworking the genres that influenced them and I suspect that is the reason they are still around and celebrating their fiftieth anniversary.
There were loads of us in the UK, too, who found it impossible to comprehend how and why the American public were so keen on the crap foisted on them under that odd label 'the British Invasion'.
Dave Clark, for example. He happened to live with his mum just two blocks from me, on top of a co-operative grocery called Williams Bros. where they beat butter with wooden paddles and thwacked stamps into a tiny book with every purchase. I passed the place regularly running for errands. Often, I would hear him practice, but it never seemed to make any difference - he was just fucking awful. Smart lad, though. Made his money, hung on to it, used it well. Crap drummer.
Major positive thing about the '60s - for me as for UK music generally - was that the size of the ordinary gig market encouraged lots of venues and hence there was a circuit - which meant lots of musicians trundling around the country in the back of a van - to play gigs.
The gig-circuit provided an opportunity to get better to those who were interested in doing so.
Dave Clark missed out.
Following this series since 1945 and enjoying every album tremendously - many thanks again, again and again :-)
I am REALLY looking forward to the second 5 volumes of this set. I think there were tons of Motown etc hits during the 60's along with the British stuff. All of was great and I remember those days fondly. In all actuality my fondest memories involve two Dylan LPs: Bringing it All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited, which must mean that I was a real rebel! Fortunately, I'm still at it. Thanks for these.
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