Before The Beatles and Elvis were famous, there were individual singers who had the early equivalent of "-mania." In the early '50s, Johnnie Ray was wildly popular. In the '40s it was Frank Sinatra, in the '30s it was Rudy Vallee and in the '20s it was Al Jolson. They had just stunning levels of popularity for their day, complete with the shrieking, fainting women and mobs of people flocking to see them. You should also consider that there wasn't the kind of mass-media exposure there is today. These singers became famous by making personal appearances, 78 RPM single records (not albums) that were played on jukeboxes as well as bought by fans, and singing live on the radio. Once they achieved a certain level of fame, they were able to branch out into acting in movies. Sound familiar?
Elvis was a country boy who grew up listening to gospel, and what used to be called "hillbilly music" - country and folk songs by mainly poor white people, and "race music" - that is, R&B music by black people that was only played on a very few radio stations. He was able to synthesize the country and R&B sounds into a new kind of music that was just being born. They didn't call it rock and roll yet when Elvis cut "That's All Right (Mama)," a song by blues artist Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup. Adults didn't know what to make of him. He was handsome, and sexy, and he was a white boy who sang and danced like a black man. This made him dangerous in the eyes of a lot of parents and authority figures. There was a lot of racism in those days, and many white parents forbade their children from listening to that "n***** music" - as well as any records by black people. But to the kids who had never seen or heard anything like him, Elvis was electric. He made thousands of young people want to be like him. They took up singing, and trying to play the guitar licks they heard Scotty Moore play on Elvis' records. As Elvis became more and more famous, people wanted to hear more music from Sun Studios, and then Carl Perkins was next to become a star, then Jerry Lee Lewis after him. Perkins inspired a generation of guitarists who longed to emulate his rockabilly style. American music was just about to burst at the seams, and it began to be heard in places like England. American seamen would buy these 45 RPM singles in the States, and when they docked at English ports such as Liverpool, they would sell the records to rabid English fans, who could not get them any other way. And a legion of English rock and rockabilly fans was inspired to be like these Yanks who were playing a kind of music they had never heard before.
John Lennon was one such English kid who was a rabid fan of Elvis and Little Richard and Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly, and many of the American R&B and R&R songs he could hear on shortwave radio, coming from places such as Radio Luxembourg. Across town, Paul McCartney was similarly enthralled by the same music, including songs by Eddie Cochran, and his schoolmate George Harrison was an aficionado of Carl Perkins' guitar style. In 1956, an English singer named Lonnie Donegan covered an American country blues record by Huddie Ledbetter, who was known as "Leadbelly." It was called "Rock Island Line," and it was played in a style called "skiffle" by the British. This song started a revolution in England. Suddenly, hundreds and thousands of young boys were taking up skiffle, because it could be played by anyone with modest talent. It used acoustic guitars and stomping feet and washboard percussion and washtub bass - things their mothers had around the house. It became a national obsession among young people, then, coincidentally, rock and roll music reached England, and lives were changed.
John Lennon put together a skiffle group with ever-changing members, and they would play anywhere they could get an audience. He named the group The Quarrymen, after the school they attended - Quarry Bank. One such Quarrymen gig was at a church fair held in a Liverpool park, on July 6, 1957. They were seen by Paul McCartney, who didn't know them, but appreciated the talent of their singer/guitarist. The two met for the first time that day, and Paul demonstrated his ability to play the Eddie Cochran song "Twenty Flight Rock" on the guitar, and he sang all of the words correctly. Lennon was impressed. He was now aware that there was a large disparity in the talents of the guys in the group and this new kid. He was faced with the decision to remain an amateur with amateur players, or invite the new guy to join the group. He went with the new guy. Eventually, Paul brought his friend George to see them play, and George was invited into the group on the strength of his Carl Perkins licks and still very raw, but impressive ability to play lead guitar. The other Quarrymen dropped off the radar one by one, until it was just the three of them. Sometimes they'd play without a drummer, because drummers were quite hard to come by.
The three honed their craft playing the songs of American R&B and R&R artists that were taking the world by storm. They would soon drop the skiffle entirely and focus on the music of Berry, Holly, Little Richard, Elvis, Perkins and others. Their influences were shaped by the music of their parents, which was English music-hall stuff and popular male and female vocalists. The mix of all these influences were what made them stand out. Then, they acquired Pete Best as their drummer, and started at the very bottom of the music business, playing hundreds of hours all over the north of England, and then they got booked in Hamburg, Germany. They became among the top three groups in Germany, all of whom were British. Playing twelve hour sets for months on end made them into professional musicians and entertainers. When they came back to Liverpool, they were head and shoulders above the rest of the groups there in terms of sheer professionalism. This attracted the attention of record shop owner Brian Epstein. The rest, as they say, is history.
There were no famous English groups of musicians who wrote their own songs before The Beatles. They were originally trying to write songs as well as the Americans they admired, including Carole King and her husband Gerry Goffin. It was not long before they joined the ranks of professional songwriters based solely upon their own talents. This, in turn, inspired a generation of first English boys, then, after they appeared on Ed Sullivan in February 1964, American boys, to take up guitars, basses and drums, and make up their own songs. And the sixties were born.
25 Jan 2010, 8:48 pm
