Difference between revisions of "Anarchy 51/Blues in the Archway Road"
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{{tab}}If the new music is dif­fer­ent, so are the new stars. Many of them are strange pop idols. {{w|Keith Relf|Keith_Relf}}, leader of the {{w|Yard­birds|The_Yardbirds}}, was a {{w|Beat|Beatnik}} before he made a liv­ing by sing­ing and so was {{w|Rod the Mod Stewart|Rod_Stewart}}, pos­sibly the best vo­cal­ist to emerge from the {{qq|boom}}. (Rod Stewart was also an In­ter­na­tional Am­a­teur {{w|foot­baller|Association_football}}.) Many groups ''look'' Beat; tired, worn and weary with the bum{{s}} slouch­ing walk. In­deed the myth­o­logy of the r {{a}}n{{a}} b clubs is the myth­o­logy of the angry, dishev­elled re­ject of ortho­doxy, the pro­test­ing bum. The {{w|Pretty Things|Pretty_Things}}, the most beat{{h}}look­ing of all, sing: {{qq|I{{m}} on my own, just wanna roam/<wbr>I{{ll}} tell you man, don{{t}} wanna home/<wbr>I wander roun{{a}} feet off the groun{{a}}/<wbr>Dig­ging sounds from town to town/<wbr>I say I think this life is grand/<wbr>I say, I dig it man, don{{t}} bring me down, man/<wbr>{{w|Don{{t}} bring me down|Don't_Bring_Me_Down_(The_Pretty_Things_song)}} {{tab}}I met this chick the other day/<wbr>Then to me she said she{{ll}} stay/<wbr>I got this pad just like a cave/<wbr>And then we have a little rave/<wbr>And now I{{m}} lying on ground/<wbr>My head is spin­ning round, don{{t}} bring me down man/don{{t}} bring<!-- 'bringe'' in original --> me down}}. | {{tab}}If the new music is dif­fer­ent, so are the new stars. Many of them are strange pop idols. {{w|Keith Relf|Keith_Relf}}, leader of the {{w|Yard­birds|The_Yardbirds}}, was a {{w|Beat|Beatnik}} before he made a liv­ing by sing­ing and so was {{w|Rod the Mod Stewart|Rod_Stewart}}, pos­sibly the best vo­cal­ist to emerge from the {{qq|boom}}. (Rod Stewart was also an In­ter­na­tional Am­a­teur {{w|foot­baller|Association_football}}.) Many groups ''look'' Beat; tired, worn and weary with the bum{{s}} slouch­ing walk. In­deed the myth­o­logy of the r {{a}}n{{a}} b clubs is the myth­o­logy of the angry, dishev­elled re­ject of ortho­doxy, the pro­test­ing bum. The {{w|Pretty Things|Pretty_Things}}, the most beat{{h}}look­ing of all, sing: {{qq|I{{m}} on my own, just wanna roam/<wbr>I{{ll}} tell you man, don{{t}} wanna home/<wbr>I wander roun{{a}} feet off the groun{{a}}/<wbr>Dig­ging sounds from town to town/<wbr>I say I think this life is grand/<wbr>I say, I dig it man, don{{t}} bring me down, man/<wbr>{{w|Don{{t}} bring me down|Don't_Bring_Me_Down_(The_Pretty_Things_song)}} {{tab}}I met this chick the other day/<wbr>Then to me she said she{{ll}} stay/<wbr>I got this pad just like a cave/<wbr>And then we have a little rave/<wbr>And now I{{m}} lying on ground/<wbr>My head is spin­ning round, don{{t}} bring me down man/don{{t}} bring<!-- 'bringe'' in original --> me down}}. | ||
− | {{tab}}Other sing­ers too have strange pasts. {{w|John Mayall|John_Mayall}}, leader of one of the most vigor­ous groups, the {{w|Blues­break­ers|John_Mayall_&_the_Bluesbreakers}}, lived in a {{w|tree top house|Tree_house}}. {{w|Manfred Mann (sin­gu­lar)|Manfred_Mann_(musician)}} was {{w|clas­sic­ally trained|Classical_music}} at {{w|Juilliard<!-- 'Juillard' in original -->| | + | {{tab}}Other sing­ers too have strange pasts. {{w|John Mayall|John_Mayall}}, leader of one of the most vigor­ous groups, the {{w|Blues­break­ers|John_Mayall_&_the_Bluesbreakers}}, lived in a {{w|tree top house|Tree_house}}. {{w|Manfred Mann (sin­gu­lar)|Manfred_Mann_(musician)}} was {{w|clas­sic­ally trained|Classical_music}} at {{w|Juilliard<!-- 'Juillard' in original -->|Juilliard_School}} in the USA and is, even now, more than a little odd by pop stand­ards. The whole Mann group took one man{{s}} name but in­sist that they have no leader, that lead­er­ship is re­dund­ant and re­spons­ib­il­ity shared and equal. It may have some­thing to do with the fact that their vo­cal­ist {{w|Paul Jones|Paul_Jones_(singer)}} was once a mem­ber of the {{w|Oxford|University_of_Oxford}} {{w|Com­mit­tee of 100|Committee_of_100_(United_Kingdom)}} and is, ap­par­ently, still a ''{{w|Tribune|Tribune_(magazine)}}'' con­trib­utor. The {{w|Anim­als|The_Animals}}, prob­ably the best pop{{h}}r {{a}}n{{a}} b group, emerged from the strange {{w|North East|North_East_England}} phe­nomenon of {{qq|anim­als}}, young people who spent the week­ends away from their bour­geois homes, on cheap trans­port, living {{qq|rough}}. (In the {{w|South|Southern_England}} they might have earned the de­ris­ive epi­thet {{qq|week­end ravers}}.) |
{{tab}}Most of the r {{a}}n{{a}} b groups who have had hits have done so with num­bers which were not r {{a}}n{{a}} b num­bers. The Stones made a brave at­tempt with the slow blues, ''{{w|Little Red Rooster|Little_Red_Rooster}}'', but most of their hits were white pop in origin{{dash}}''{{w|Not Fade Away|Not_Fade_Away_(song)}}'', a {{w|Buddy Holly|Buddy_Holly}} num­ber, ''{{w|It{{s}} All Over Now|It's_All_Over_Now}}'', ori­gin­ally re­corded by the {{w|C & C Boys|Clarence_Carter}} in Amer­ica, a {{w|country{{h}}and{{h}}western|Country_music}} type num­ber, ''{{w|I Wanna Be Your Man|I_Wanna_Be_Your_Man}}'' was by {{w|Lennon|John_Lennon}} and {{w|McCartney|Paul_McCartney}} and ''{{w|The Last Time|The_Last_Time_(Rolling_Stones_song)}}'' was writ­ten by them­selves al­though it is re­min­is­cent of the {{w|Staple Singers|The_Staple_Singers}}{{a}} ''This May Be My<!-- 'the' in original --> Last Time''. Manfred Mann re­corded pop num­bers, {{w|non­sense songs|Nonsense_song}} and a {{w|ballad|Sentimental_ballad}}. Georgie Fame had a big hit with ''{{w|Yeh, Yeh|Yeh,_Yeh}}'', a soph­ist­ic­ated {{w|Lam­bert|Dave_Lambert_(American_jazz_vocalist)}}{{h}}{{w|Hend­ricks|Jon_Hendricks}}{{h}}{{w|Bavan|Yolande_Bavan}} {{w|{{qq|cool}} jazz|Cool_jazz}} vocal with little blues con­tent. (Sig­ni­fic­antly his fol­low up ''In the Mean­time'', in the same vein, did not do so well, dash­ing the hopes of those who thought Fame rep­res­ented some sort of com­mer­cial break­through for {{w|soul{{h}}jazz|Soul_jazz}}.) The Anim­al{{s|r}} big hit, {{w|House of the Ris­ing Sun|The_House_of_the_Rising_Sun}}, was a folk song. Other groups have either re­corded and wrecked blues clas­sics or con­cen­trated on mono­ton­ously con­trived and un­vary­ingly dis­mal ver­sions of Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley num­bers, the staple diet of the un­in­vent­ive. With their own ma­ter­ial they are rarely con­vin­cing; au­then­tic ma­ter­ial they wreck by an ap­par­ent in­com­pre­hen­sion of what they sing. In the clubs they are usu­ally bet­ter and to hear British r {{a}}n{{a}} b, with all its un­deni­able ex­cite­ment and all its un­deni­able, over­all me­diocrity, it is ne­ces­sary to visit the clubs. | {{tab}}Most of the r {{a}}n{{a}} b groups who have had hits have done so with num­bers which were not r {{a}}n{{a}} b num­bers. The Stones made a brave at­tempt with the slow blues, ''{{w|Little Red Rooster|Little_Red_Rooster}}'', but most of their hits were white pop in origin{{dash}}''{{w|Not Fade Away|Not_Fade_Away_(song)}}'', a {{w|Buddy Holly|Buddy_Holly}} num­ber, ''{{w|It{{s}} All Over Now|It's_All_Over_Now}}'', ori­gin­ally re­corded by the {{w|C & C Boys|Clarence_Carter}} in Amer­ica, a {{w|country{{h}}and{{h}}western|Country_music}} type num­ber, ''{{w|I Wanna Be Your Man|I_Wanna_Be_Your_Man}}'' was by {{w|Lennon|John_Lennon}} and {{w|McCartney|Paul_McCartney}} and ''{{w|The Last Time|The_Last_Time_(Rolling_Stones_song)}}'' was writ­ten by them­selves al­though it is re­min­is­cent of the {{w|Staple Singers|The_Staple_Singers}}{{a}} ''This May Be My<!-- 'the' in original --> Last Time''. Manfred Mann re­corded pop num­bers, {{w|non­sense songs|Nonsense_song}} and a {{w|ballad|Sentimental_ballad}}. Georgie Fame had a big hit with ''{{w|Yeh, Yeh|Yeh,_Yeh}}'', a soph­ist­ic­ated {{w|Lam­bert|Dave_Lambert_(American_jazz_vocalist)}}{{h}}{{w|Hend­ricks|Jon_Hendricks}}{{h}}{{w|Bavan|Yolande_Bavan}} {{w|{{qq|cool}} jazz|Cool_jazz}} vocal with little blues con­tent. (Sig­ni­fic­antly his fol­low up ''In the Mean­time'', in the same vein, did not do so well, dash­ing the hopes of those who thought Fame rep­res­ented some sort of com­mer­cial break­through for {{w|soul{{h}}jazz|Soul_jazz}}.) The Anim­al{{s|r}} big hit, {{w|House of the Ris­ing Sun|The_House_of_the_Rising_Sun}}, was a folk song. Other groups have either re­corded and wrecked blues clas­sics or con­cen­trated on mono­ton­ously con­trived and un­vary­ingly dis­mal ver­sions of Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley num­bers, the staple diet of the un­in­vent­ive. With their own ma­ter­ial they are rarely con­vin­cing; au­then­tic ma­ter­ial they wreck by an ap­par­ent in­com­pre­hen­sion of what they sing. In the clubs they are usu­ally bet­ter and to hear British r {{a}}n{{a}} b, with all its un­deni­able ex­cite­ment and all its un­deni­able, over­all me­diocrity, it is ne­ces­sary to visit the clubs. |
Revision as of 00:18, 12 March 2021
Blues in the
Archway Road
The origins of British “blues” are far from clear. Their seminal genius may have been Muddy Waters who toured Britain in 1958 but it was not until March, 1962, when the harmonica player Cyril Davies and the guitarist Alexis Korner opened the first of the clubs—
Kenneth Rexroth once argued that jazz is a revolutionary music only insofar as it is conducive to eroticism in dancing. The same might apply to British r ’n’ b. Today’s audiences are active and the groups, who still play for the critical club audiences rather than the easily pleased pop “concert” audiences, must make people want to dance. The modern dances are not set pattern dances. The Shake, the Dog, the Jerk are dances for crowded rooms, improvised round a basic pattern, and the groups must be able to improvise to provide variety. In the clubs, for example, Manfred Mann have played numbers like Cannonball Adderley’s Sack O’ Woe and their original—
If the new music is different, so are the new stars. Many of them are strange pop idols. Keith Relf, leader of the Yardbirds, was a Beat before he made a living by singing and so was Rod the Mod Stewart, possibly the best vocalist to emerge from the “boom”. (Rod Stewart was also an International Amateur footballer.) Many groups look Beat; tired, worn and weary with the bum’s slouching walk. Indeed the mythology of the r ’n’ b clubs is the mythology of the angry, dishevelled reject of orthodoxy, the protesting bum. The Pretty Things, the most beat-
Other singers too have strange pasts. John Mayall, leader of one of the most vigorous groups, the Bluesbreakers, lived in a tree top house. Manfred Mann (singular) was classically trained at Juilliard in the USA and is, even now, more than a little odd by pop standards. The whole Mann group took one man’s name but insist that they have no leader, that leadership is redundant and responsibility shared and equal. It may have something to do with the fact that their vocalist Paul Jones was once a member of the Oxford Committee of 100 and is, apparently, still a Tribune contributor. The Animals, probably the best pop-
Most of the r ’n’ b groups who have had hits have done so with numbers which were not r ’n’ b numbers. The Stones made a brave attempt with the slow blues, Little Red Rooster, but most of their hits were white pop in origin—
There are clubs all over the country. In London there is the Flamingo, once the modern jazz centre, with its large, lively and critical audience, many of whom are West Indian; Klook’s Kleek in West Hampstead (the name a give-