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OT: The Music Thread Part 7

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JAD said:
Moody Blues

Tuesday Afternoon


Legend Of A Mind


Lovely To See You
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I'd love to post the entire PBS/WGBH documentary series Rock & Roll (1995), but it's no longer available on YouTube per copyright issues.

Given your post here, I'd especially like to post episode 2, "In The Groove," which focuses on the Brill Building era of Leiber & Stoller, Phil Spector, Carole King, and the black girl groups riding high between rock n' roll's first great era and the advent of the Beatles.

The black artist Bessie Banks released her version of "Go Now" in January, 1964.

In the documentary, she claims the record was climbing up the charts when, in November, '64, the Moody Blues released their version of the song. That single reached No. 1 on the UK charts, giving the band its first commercial breakthrough worldwide,



Banks maintains that radio play of her version of "Go Now" promptly disappeared, supplanted by the Moody's hit. She implies that the radio industry preferred the British, white pop groups then flooding the American market to black American musicians.

It's certainly true that in the wake of Beatlemania and the subsequent British Invasion, the momentum and promise of many black artists was summarily snuffed out.

The episode ends with slow mo footage of the Beatles February '64 arrival in New York. The Moody's version of "Go Now" provides the closing soundtrack.

Narrator Liev Schreiber:

"It was said that the Beatles had saved rock and roll.

"But from whom?"
 
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GordonHowe said:
Banks maintains that radio play of her version of "Go Now" promptly disappeared, supplanted by the Moody's hit. She implies that the radio industry preferred the British, white pop groups then flooding the American market to black American musicians.
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The early British Invasion groups revered the Black Bluesmen and European tours were arranged to give them exposure to a wider audience and give them their due. From Perfect Sound Forever is this.

The Web Is Woven Tightly
The standard story most commonly told about Sonny Boy Williamson II emerged primarily from a series of interviews he did, mostly with Blues Unlimited in 1963-65 in Europe. I have yet to find evidence of a substantive original interview of Sonny Boy by an American blues writer. He is referenced everywhere only in the most respectful but superficial terms with little follow-up research.

Sonny Boy, at the time, was clearly the star of the 1963 and 1964 American Negro (Folk) Blues Festivals. Along with Willie Dixon (the talent coordinator) and Horst Lippman (the promoter), he toured Europe during those two autumns along with Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Lightnin' Hopkins, Lonnie Johnson, Sleepy John Estes, Big Joe Williams, Otis Spann and a select cast of blues legends playing their most brilliant music with each other. Sonny Boy Williamson was the acknowledged and revered star of the tour. When he returned to Britain to tour the college circuit on his own with a very young Eric Clapton and the Yardbirds hanging on for dear life as his backup band, he extended his legend.

He recorded not only with his fellow legends Memphis Slim, Hubert Sumlin and Matt "Guitar" Murphy but also with the Clapton-era Yardbirds, the Animals and, on his final day in England, Jimmy Page, Brian Auger & The Trinity and two jazz sax players! He returned home to die a month later in his home of Helena Arkansas but not before returning to the jukes and his beloved King Biscuit Time radio show and a final jam with Levon & The Hawks (yes, the folks who became The Band) who told the story in a memorable interview segment of "The Last Waltz." movie. Sonny Boy died in sleep in his humble apartment on May 25, 1965. The rumor is that, had he lived but four months longer, he would have been a member of The Band (then The Hawks) when they joined Bob Dylan. One can only wonder if Dylan would have been cheered rather than booed in 1966 if he had Sonny Boy with him on that tour. The mind boggles.





 
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aguineapig said:
The early British Invasion groups revered the Black Bluesmen and European tours were arranged to give them exposure to a wider audience and give them their due. From Perfect Sound Forever is this.

The Web Is Woven Tightly
The standard story most commonly told about Sonny Boy Williamson II emerged primarily from a series of interviews he did, mostly with Blues Unlimited in 1963-65 in Europe. I have yet to find evidence of a substantive original interview of Sonny Boy by an American blues writer. He is referenced everywhere only in the most respectful but superficial terms with little follow-up research.

Sonny Boy, at the time, was clearly the star of the 1963 and 1964 American Negro (Folk) Blues Festivals. Along with Willie Dixon (the talent coordinator) and Horst Lippman (the promoter), he toured Europe during those two autumns along with Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Lightnin' Hopkins, Lonnie Johnson, Sleepy John Estes, Big Joe Williams, Otis Spann and a select cast of blues legends playing their most brilliant music with each other. Sonny Boy Williamson was the acknowledged and revered star of the tour. When he returned to Britain to tour the college circuit on his own with a very young Eric Clapton and the Yardbirds hanging on for dear life as his backup band, he extended his legend.

He recorded not only with his fellow legends Memphis Slim, Hubert Sumlin and Matt "Guitar" Murphy but also with the Clapton-era Yardbirds, the Animals and, on his final day in England, Jimmy Page, Brian Auger & The Trinity and two jazz sax players! He returned home to die a month later in his home of Helena Arkansas but not before returning to the jukes and his beloved King Biscuit Time radio show and a final jam with Levon & The Hawks (yes, the folks who became The Band) who told the story in a memorable interview segment of "The Last Waltz." movie. Sonny Boy died in sleep in his humble apartment on May 25, 1965. The rumor is that, had he lived but four months longer, he would have been a member of The Band (then The Hawks) when they joined Bob Dylan. One can only wonder if Dylan would have been cheered rather than booed in 1966 if he had Sonny Boy with him on that tour. The mind boggles.





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Thank you for this fine treatis.

Recall as you may Keith Richards assessment of why American teenyboppers didn't quite take to their home grown Blues giants,

"One, they were old.

"Two, they were black.

"Three, they were ugly."
 
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Bahama Mama said:
Oh my my indeed! what was he thinking. lol.

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He was thinking at the time, and he was right, that he could get away with it.

Many of them did. Go ask Jimmy Page. Or the Eggman.

You might also dust off the landmark, marathon Rolling Stone interviews, "Lennon Remembers," conducted by noxious Jann Wenner himself. Eye opening stuff for 1970.
 
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aguineapig said:
The original was from the sock hop era, a far more innocent time (maybe).



"You didn't know what Rock n Roll was"

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Was it innocent times then or just not known? if innocent, what's responsible for the spike since the 70? with predators,pervs and pedophiles. I've seen countless much older men ogling and leering at my daughters when they were way too young to be seen like that.



Bahama Mama said:
OMG, what a voice! goosebumps.

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This man and this woman..............................talent!

 
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Thanks to Spotify I've been listening to the Stone Roses a lot this week. But only their first album really.

They're a real interesting case of what-if, their reputation and legacy far outreaches their actual output because their record label screwed them over badly. They were in litigation for years and couldn't record an album for 5 years during their peak popularity. From 1989 to 1993 or 1994 they probably were regarded as the best band in Britain but weren't able to actually release music, and by the time their second album came out, the whole Madchester movement was over and their attempts at adapting to a new sound were just not very good. Also, Ian Brown is just insane and unstable which didn't help matters. Their first album is brilliant though, so I recommend that and nothing else.


 
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Andy Rourke passed away at the age of 59. His basswork with the Smiths was very good and should get as much attention as Johnny Marr gets for his guitar.



I used to dislike the Smiths and skip their songs when they came on Pandora or Spotify, but I've come around on them in the last year or so. First I realized that I didn't like Morrissey's vocals but the instrumental backing was phenomenal, and recently I'm even softening on Morrissey. I think at some point I realized that he's essentially an Irish Tenor backed by a mod revival jangle pop group it kind of clicked for me.
 
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McGarnagle said:
Thanks to Spotify I've been listening to the Stone Roses a lot this week. But only their first album really.

They're a real interesting case of what-if, their reputation and legacy far outreaches their actual output because their record label screwed them over badly. They were in litigation for years and couldn't record an album for 5 years during their peak popularity. From 1989 to 1993 or 1994 they probably were regarded as the best band in Britain but weren't able to actually release music, and by the time their second album came out, the whole Madchester movement was over and their attempts at adapting to a new sound were just not very good. Also, Ian Brown is just insane and unstable which didn't help matters. Their first album is brilliant though, so I recommend that and nothing else.


Click to expand...


I bought their album at the time. Thanks for reminding.

Here's the one they played on FNX, which hooked me,

 
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