The British Invasion

Home , A Message to You Rudy, British popular music, Dandy Livingstone, Marsha Albert, Stand Back

Created by Jennifer Sage Objective: theme ride, cadence challenge Working intensity: moderate to hard Length: 60 minutes

This ride is for fun, based on music from artists from the UK, beginning in the 1960’s on up to the 1980’s. It was inspired by hearing so many wonderful songs at the London Olympics opening and closing ceremonies, but this is by no means limited to an “Olympic theme”. I’ve been doing British Invasion themes for many years and they are always a big hit. Since music is such an important part of what we do in the indoor cycling studio, and so many British bands have been instrumental in shaping the music industry around the world, what a perfect combination the two make. If your students are anything like mine, they will eagerly await each song in this profile to see what you have for them. Especially if your students grew up during the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. I anticipate you’ll have a lot of smiling faces…unless they are grimacing from the effort!

The profile is designed around the song selection, which is the opposite of how I usually create my profiles. That shows you that it’s not necessary to always do something one way. You can change the objective of this ride by altering the intensity. For example, you can turn it into more of an interval ride, by pushing much harder on the climbs and riding much easier on the flats, paying closer attention to interval work:recovery ratios. Or you can treat it like a fun group ride outdoors where the purpose is less on specific training and more on having a good time, going hard on a whim, recovering when your body tells you to, perhaps even racing friends.

The latter is how I am presenting this profile. It’s more about having fun and enjoying the ride although when I teach, the importance of proper technique never takes a back seat! I don’t use heart rates during this profile and instead coach it with perceived exertion.

By manipulating these songs based on their beats per minute, I’ve turned this into a bit of a cadence challenge, alternating faster songs with slower ones. That means you’ll be playing with your leg speed and the resistance knob quite a bit during this ride. Therein lies the challenge in this profile – being able to comfortably ride at a wide range of cadences.

The profile ends with two wonderful challenges - two very classic songs that will bring a smile to your students’ faces (that is, if they can get the grimace of their face from the effort)! These are Under Pressure by Queen and Baba O’Riley by The Who. You are going to have fun with this!

Indoor Cycling Association Audio Master Class British Invasion Theme Ride and Cadence Challenge

The History of the British Invasions It’s always fun to bring in a little trivia and history into a ride like this. As I was researching the music for this profile, I discovered some very interesting facts about music of the 1960’s to 1980’s. I should point out that it’s not entirely true to state that the “British Invasion” ran from 1960’s to 1980’s as my profile title implies. There were two distinct “invasions”; the first in the 1960’s and the second in the 1980’s. During the 1970’s for the most part, Rock and Roll ruled the music world, with bands from the US equally as successful as those from the UK. The post- punk emergence of “New Wave” music began at the end of the 1970’s and is cited as being the pre-cursor to the second (musical) British Invasion. [If you want to know more, look up British Invasion and Second British Invasion on Wikipedia. The following is from Wikipedia, edited for brevity.]

The Huntley-Brinkley Report aired a four-minute segment on The Beatles on 18 November 1963. On December 10, 1963, the CBS Evening News re-ran the CBS report about the Beatlemania phenomenon in the United Kingdom. After seeing the report, 15- year-old Marsha Albert wrote a letter the following day to disc jockey Carroll James at radio station WWDC asking "why can't we have music like that here in America?" On December 17 James had Miss Albert introduce "I Want to Hold Your Hand" live on the air for its American premiere. WWDC's phones lit up and Washington, D.C. area record stores were flooded with requests for a record they did not have in stock. On December 26 Capitol Records released the record three weeks ahead of schedule with unprecedented success. On February 7, the CBS Evening News ran a story about the Beatles' United States arrival stating "The British Invasion this time goes by the code name Beatlemania". Two days later they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. It was estimated that 45% of Americans watched them on television that night. On April 4, the Beatles held the top 5 positions on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, and to date no other act has accomplished this feat.

Other British groups soon followed including Dusty Springfield, The Animals, Manfred Mann, Donovan, The Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, Tom Jones, the Yardbirds and many more.

The British Invasion had a profound impact on the shape of popular music. It helped internationalize the production of rock and roll, establishing the British popular music industry as a viable centre of musical creativity, and opening the door for subsequent British and Irish performers to achieve international success. In America the Invasion arguably spelled the end of such acts as instrumental surf music, and (for a time) the teen idols that had dominated the American charts in the late 1950s and 60s. It dented the careers of established R&B acts like Fats Domino and Chubby Checker and temporarily derailed the chart success of surviving rock and roll acts, including Elvis Presley. The British Invasion also played a major part in the rise of a distinct genre of rock music, and cemented the primacy of the rock group, based around guitars and drums and producing their own material as singer-songwriters.

A second wave of the invasion occurred featuring acts such as The Who, The Zombies, and The Hollies, which were influenced by the invasion's pop side and American rock music.

Indoor Cycling Association Audio Master Class British Invasion Theme Ride and Cadence Challenge

The emergence of a relatively homogeneous worldwide "rock" music style about 1967 marked the end of the "invasion"

A second musical British Invasion happened in the early 1980’s as a result of the influence of music videos and MTV. It’s pretty interesting to read about the effects of music videos on the music of the time. Videos are so commonplace now, but those of us who crouched in front of the television drooling at George Michael can remember how groundbreaking MTV was.

Music videos, having been a staple of British music television programs for half a decade, had evolved into image-conscious short films. At the same time, pop and rock music in the United States was undergoing a creative slump due to several factors, including audience fragmentation and the effects of the anti-disco backlash. Videos did not exist for most hits by American acts, and those that did were usually taped concert performances. When the cable music channel MTV launched on August 1, 1981, it had little choice but to play a large number of music videos from British New Wave acts. At first, MTV was only available in small towns and suburbs. To the surprise of the music industry when MTV became available in a local market, record sales by acts played solely on the channel increased immediately and listeners phoned radio stations requesting to hear them.

On July 3, 1982, The Human League's "Don't You Want Me" started a three-week reign on top of the charts. The song got considerable boost from MTV airplay and has been described as "pretty unmistakably the moment the Second British Invasion, spurred by MTV, kicked off". The September 1982 arrival of MTV in the media capitals of New York City and Los Angeles led to widespread positive publicity for the new "video era". By the fall, "I Ran" by A Flock of Seagulls, the first successful song that owed almost everything to video, had entered the Billboard Top Ten. Duran Duran's glossy videos would come to symbolize the power of MTV.

During 1983, 30% of the record sales were from British acts. On 18 July, 18 of the top 40, and 6 of the top 10 singles, were by British artists. Overall record sales would rise by 10% from 1982. Newsweek magazine ran an issue, which featured Annie Lennox and Boy George on the cover of its issue with the caption Britain Rocks America – Again. In April 1984, 40 of the top 100 singles, and on the 25 May 1985 Hot 100 8 of the top 10 singles, were by acts of British origin.

During the Second British Invasion, established British acts such as Queen, David Bowie, Paul McCartney, Phil Collins and Elton John saw their popularity rise.

Indoor Cycling Association Audio Master Class British Invasion Theme Ride and Cadence Challenge

The British Invasion Profile Depending on how much music trivia you want to give out during the ride, you can read or paraphrase some of the history of the two musical British Invasions, either in a handout, or during your introduction, or during periods of recovery in between the songs. Add it as you see fit. I’ve also given you a little information on each song below so you can let your students know more of the history of the songs. We often don’t realize how long ago they were actually released.

Warm-up #1: Beatles, I Saw Her Standing There, 2:56 156 bpm #2: Beatles, Can’t Buy Me Love, 2:14 170 bpm These first two songs will allow you to gradually increase cadence from 78 to 85 rpm. Cue light resistance at first, adding a little more as their legs wake up. Introduce the theme of the ride, and interject a little music history here and there.

Welcome everyone to the British Invasion! Today’s music has been chosen specifically to not only entertain you and to make you a little nostalgic - especially for those of you who grew up listening to this music - but also to challenge your cadence. The music dates from the 1960’s to the 1980’s, which actually encompasses two British music invasions – the 1960’s and the 1980’s. I’ve thrown some popular 1970’s British bands in as well. The cadence will run the gamut from a slow climb at 56 rpm to a fast, seated flat at 112 rpm. Get ready to rock these bikes, and get ready to roll those legs!

This first song gives you a cadence of 78 rpm, a nice starting place to engage your leg muscles. The second song is a little faster at 85 rpm.

[I saw Her Standing There: written by Lennon and McCartney, opening track on their debut album Please Please Me. Released in 1963. In 1988, it was sung by Raymond (Dustin Hoffman) to Charlie (Tom Cruise) in the movie, The Rain Man. Can’t Buy Me Love: Written by Paul McCartney, in 1964. It became their fourth number-one single and their third single to sell over a million copies in the UK.]

#3: Leg Surges Beatles, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds 3:28 97 bpm We are still warming up here, but this song will ask for much faster legs for short periods. Right now, just ride at a cadence somewhere in the 80’s rpm, at a moderate flat road resistance, and then on the chorus, we’ll grab that fast beat and surge the legs. It will spike your heart rate for a short period of 20 seconds. Just sit in the saddle and surge faster against the resistance you have already set.

At 40 seconds, when he sings “and she’s gone” get them ready, and go! This happens three times, 20 seconds for the first two (chorus), and then for 50 seconds on the third. In between, you can have them stand up and jog for 10-15 seconds. The three surges happen as follows: :50 – 1:10 1:50 – 2:10 2:32 – 3:22

Indoor Cycling Association Audio Master Class British Invasion Theme Ride and Cadence Challenge

[Written by John Lennon in 1967, for the album Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which became the biggest selling album of the 1960’s. The song title was inspired by a nursery school drawing by John Lennon’s young son Julian of one of his classmates, Lucy. Julian called it “Lucy in the sky with diamonds”. After the song’s release, speculation arose that the first letter of the nouns in the title spelled LSD. Although Lennon denied this, the BBC banned the song. In 2004 McCartney said it was indeed about acid.]

#4: Fast climb Paint it Black, Rolling Stones, 3:46 159 bpm OK, that should have gotten your legs ready. Now, let’s get real, and turn onto a hill. Grab the beat and settle into a fast climbing pace. It’s 80 rpm.

Fast climbs have a tendency to increase intensity, so be careful so early in the ride. You’ll increase resistance a couple of times, then crank it out the final 30 seconds of this song, but start out seated, at a moderate intensity. At 1:39, add a little more resistance (with the drums), intensity to “moderately hard. At 2:38 add a little more, still in control of the breath. At 3:08, with about 30+ seconds left, ask them, “who wants to crank it? Turn it on and push hard to the top.”

[The first single from the Rolling Stones fourth album, Aftermath, in 1966. Written by Mick Jagger (words) Keith Richards (music). It reach #1 in both the US and the UK. Jagger said the lyrics are about a girl’s funeral.]

#5: Attacks on a hill The Kinks, All Day and All of the Night, 2:24 137 bpm As soon as you feel they have gotten their breath, get them on a moderately hard hill at 68 rpm. The song is short, and the next song will be more of a recovery so it’s ok to push here without too much recovery. You’ll get out of the saddle twice, on the chorus. Tell them: You are riding with your buddies on an outdoor ride, and you are faced with a short steep hill. Are you feeling competitive? If so, you are going to attack three times on this hill, and see who gets to the top first. If you’re not feeling competitive, then go ahead and take the hill at your own pace.

Here are the “attacks”: At :28 when he sings “Girl I want to be with you”, turn it up, stand up and push hard for 20 seconds. At :42 sit back down, back off just a little, but still working hard. At 1:04 stand back up on “Girl I want to be with you” and push for 20 seconds. At 1:23 sit and climb, back off intensity just a little bit (and rock out to the electric guitar). At 2:02, turn it up, stand again, this time to the finish (50 seconds). Race your buddy to the top! Push until breathless

[Released in 1964 on their debut album The Kinks. It reached #2 in the UK and #7 in the US in 1965.]

Indoor Cycling Association Audio Master Class British Invasion Theme Ride and Cadence Challenge

#6: Flat Road David Bowie, Young Americans, 3:15 84 bpm OK, time to just cruise a little bit on this flat road with your cycling buddies. You know you have a long series of rolling hills in front of you, so for these three minutes, ride at an easy to moderate pace.

[Released in 1975 on the album of the same name, Bowie’s 9th studio album. Although Bowie was an English musician bringing up touchy American issues, the album was still very successful in the United States.]

#7: Climb with switchbacks Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark, Enola Gay, 3:32 143 bpm Grab the beat right away, and over the first minute, gradually increase the hill, getting ready for switchbacks.

After 1 minute: Here’s the first switchback. Turn it up and stand up. Then alternate standing with seated every 30 seconds. Finish the song out of the saddle, pushing pretty hard. This is a snappy climbing cadence of 72 rpm.

[An anti-war song by British synth-pop band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), released as the only single from their 1980 album, Organisation. It addresses the atomic bombing of Hiroshima at the end of WWII and references Enola Gay, the name given to the plane carrying the first atomic bomb used as a weapon of war, and “Little Boy” the code name for the atomic bomb.]

#8: Fast Flat The Specials, Message to You Rudy, 2:53 102 bpm Recover as needed, letting them know the real cadence challenge begins with this song. After 30- 40 seconds, coach them to sit deep in the saddle, relax and grab the beat.

As your legs spin at this 102 rpm, make sure the rest of your body is relaxed, because tight arms, shoulders or hips will impede the ability of your legs to move freely. Feel that rhythm, transmit it to your pedals.

If any of your students have difficulty with fast cadences, let them do this in intervals of 30-40 seconds to make sure their form doesn’t fall apart.

[The song was first released in 1967, written by Dandy Livingstone. The Specials cover released in 1979 achieved much broader success, reaching #10 in the UK. The Specials are an English ska revival band formed in 1977. Their music combines a "danceable ska beat with punk's energy and attitude", and had a "more focused and informed political and social stance" than other ska groups.]

Indoor Cycling Association Audio Master Class British Invasion Theme Ride and Cadence Challenge

#9: Climb, resistance loading The Clash, London Calling, 3:19 134 bpm Back to a seated climb, dial it in right away, but give yourselves some room to make it steeper.

At :45 first increase At 1:30 increase again, dig in and drive the legs At 2:06 increase again and stand up to the finish at 3:30, pushing hard.

[Released in 1979 on the Clash’s 3rd studio album of the same name. The song reached #10 in the UK and the album sold over 5 million copies worldwide. The lyrics are about the March 1979 nuclear reactor accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, and rising unemployment and drug use in the UK.]

#10: Fast Flat The Pretenders, Brass in Pocket, 3:06 98 bpm Once again, you’ll probably need the first part of this song to recover. Stand up and jog easily if needed. But by a minute into the song, grab the beat and play with resistance to bring them to a moderately hard fast seated flat. Give them this advice:

Here’s a tip to make it easier to pedal quickly: don’t fight it! Relax. Our fast flats after this one will just keep getting faster and faster, so hone your skill right here. You will have to really focus on your pedal stroke. Use the power of your mind to stay committed. Focus…

[Written by Chrissie Hynde, and released in 1980 and spent two weeks at the top of the charts. The music video was the 7th video played during MTV’s launch on August 1, 1981. The song title refers to looking for money (brass) in your pockets.]

#11: Moderate climb The Police, De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da, 4:07 148 bpm Up to now, most of the highest intensity has been on the climbs, with a little more recovery on the flats. That’s going to change here. Keep this as a mild climb at 74 rpm, knowing the next flat road will really challenge your students.

Climb this hill as you desire, getting in and out of the saddle here and there, but making sure not to spike the heart rate.

[Released as a single in 1980 and reached Top Ten in both the UK and US. According to Sting, the song is about the attraction that people have to simple songs

#12: Fast Flat Iggy Pop, Lust for Life, 5:13 103 bpm Probably my favorite fast flat song! At 5:00, it’s challenging to hold the fast cadence the entire time unless you teach this a lot in your classes and your students are pretty skilled.

Indoor Cycling Association Audio Master Class British Invasion Theme Ride and Cadence Challenge

On that last fast flat, you were preparing for this one, which is 5 rpm faster. Can you tell the difference? Pay attention to your form, and remember the focus you needed on the last one. You will need that again, but for a longer period and a little faster legs. Let’s do this!

If anyone is having a challenge and/or bouncing too much, once again, you can have them do leg surges in intervals. In this case, you may want to have them stand up and jog in your recoveries.

[Released in 1977 on the album of the same name, it was a collaboration between Iggy Pop and David Bowie. The song is known for its unique opening drumbeat, which has since been imitated in numerous songs. In 1996, the song gained a new audience when it was used in the introduction of the film Trainspotting.]

#13: Moderately hard climb Depeche Mode, Master and Servant, 3:48 128 bpm You’ll use the changes in the music rhythm to determine when you sit and stand. Right when the beat starts, turn the hill on. Start seated. At :49 stand (after “we call it Master and Servant”) At 1:19 sit (at “It’s a lot like life”) 1:34 stand (musical change) 2:04 sit (musical change) 2:49 stand (after “like life”) 3:34 sit, until the top 12 seconds later

[Released on the album Some Great Reward in 1984. It reached number 9 in the UK. Very interestingly, the overtly sexual sado-masochistic-themed lyrics - complete with synthesized whip-and-chain sound effects - got the song banned by many radio stations in the United States (although the song reached the Billboard Hot 100 chart anyway). Reportedly the song narrowly avoided a radio ban by the BBC as well, and might have been banned if the one BBC staffer who wanted to ban the record had not been away on holiday at the time the other staffers voted on whether to add "Master and Servant" to their playlist.]

#14: Alternating fast flat with slow climb Queen, Under Pressure, 4:09 112 bpm It is very challenging to use both the faster beat of a song and then cut it in half to ride at the slower beat. You will do this here, but your good coaching will be very important. Immediately when the song starts, release the resistance from the previous hill and sit down and grab the high cadence of 112 rpm. It will take them a little bit to settle into it – you may have to model it for them with your legs. Coach them to fine tune their gear to where it’s challenging but doesn’t interfere with their ability to turn the pedals or take them breathless. Ask them to look at where their resistance dial (or lever) is set, because they will return right back to that after the brief steep climb at 56 rpm.

At 1:12, when he sings “da da da”, coach them to add a lot of resistance to create a hard hill, slowing the legs to 56 rpm (half time) and staying seated. (Note: this is something you’re more likely to encounter on a mountain bike with drastic terrain changes). At 2:00 (with the snapping

Indoor Cycling Association Audio Master Class British Invasion Theme Ride and Cadence Challenge fingers) the song slows and builds – turn it up and stand up until after Freddie Mercury’s wail…(about 35 sec long)…(MAKE SURE TO NOTE WHERE THE RESISTANCE IS)

At 2:36 when Freddie sings “can’t we give ourselves one more chance” take off the resistance you added, and take it back to where they started the song, back to a flat road, picking up the 112 rpm again. This transition is very hard to do, make sure they don't take off too much.

At 3:32 When he sings “Under Pressure” again, slam the hill back on (to where you had it while standing previously) and stand up to the end of the song.

[Recorded in 1981 by Queen and David Bowie, it appeared on Queen’s 1982 album Hot Space. It reached #1 in the UK. Reportedly it was co-written by five musicians, but Freddie Mercury was the principle songwriter. The song has a very distinctive bass-rift that was later sampled by Vanilla Ica in his hip hop song Ice Ice Baby. Bowie and Queen did not receive royalties for this until well after-the fact. Interestingly, the criticism Vanilla Ice received over sample use allowed sampling to become acceptable in mainstream hip hop.]

#15: Progressive climb to a downhill The Who, Baba O’Riley, 5:09 118 bpm AND 175 bpm When the first few notes play, your students will look up and smile or shout “yeah”! Who wouldn’t?

Back on a climb everyone, but once again, give yourself some room to grow this hill. This is a slow cadence climb, like the last one, but just a tiny bit faster. 59 rpm. Start seated, knowing that we’ll build to a steep climax, and then fly downhill at the end of this song.

The song is 118 bpm until 3:36 when it changes rhythm – that is when you’ll transition off the hill to a fast cadence downhill. On the climb, add a little resistance every 30-40 seconds, until 2:32 (when he sings “Sally take my hand”) stand up and push to the top. It’s not aggressive climbing, but it should be steep and hard. You are out of the saddle for a little over a minute. After he sings “They’re all wasted!” have them roll over the top, gradually releasing resistance and progressively increasing leg speed. 175 bpm = 88 rpm.

How often do you have a song that changes beat? Hardly ever! This is a very special song. So we will enjoy this ride down this hill, letting our legs pick up speed as we imagine feeling the wind in our faces. Sit deep in the saddle, spin those legs, and enjoy the ride!

[Written by Pete Townshend, originally for a rock-opera that was to be the follow-up to their successful 1969 opera, Tommy. When the project was scrapped, it was released on the 1971 album Who’s Next. Townshend wrote the lyrics about what he witnessed at Woodstock. He said, "'Baba O' Riley' is about the absolute desolation of teenagers at Woodstock, where everyone was smacked out on acid and 20 people, or whatever, had brain damage. The contradiction was that it became a celebration: ‘Teenage Wasteland', yes! We're all wasted!” Drummer Keith Moon had the idea of inserting a violin solo, in which the style of the song shifts from crashing rock to an Irish folk-style beat.]

Indoor Cycling Association Audio Master Class British Invasion Theme Ride and Cadence Challenge

#16: Cool Down Queen, Crazy Little Thing Called Love 2:43 153 bpm Freddy Mercury sings “Gotta be cool, re-lax” in this song, and we’re going to listen to him! It’s time to recover after that great ride. This is a cadence of 77 rpm, let it coax the intensity out of you, breathe easy, lower your heart rate.

[Written by Freddie Mercury in 1979 as a tribute to Elvis Presley. It was released on the album The Game. It hit #2 in the UK, and #1 in the US for four consecutive weeks.]

#17: Cool Down/Stretch The Police, Wrapped Around Your Finger, 5:15 I hope you enjoyed our British Invasion from the 1960’s to the 1980’s. This was only the first one. Next time, we’ll explore British music from the 1990’s to more current bands.

[The second UK single from the 1983 album Synchronicity. It reached #7 in the UK and #8 in the US.]

Indoor Cycling Association Audio Master Class British Invasion Theme Ride and Cadence Challenge

British Invasion Playlist All of these songs are easily findable via a variety of sources, including iTunes, Amazon, eMusic and more.

I Saw Her Standing There, The Beatles, Please Please Me Can’t Buy Me Love, The Beatles, Please Please Me Paint It Black, The Rolling Stones, Forty Licks [Disc 1] All Day And All Of The Night, The Kinks, 60's Rocks Young Americans (Single Version) (2002 Digital Remaster), David Bowie, Best Of Bowie Enola Gay, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, The OMD Singles A Message To You Rudy (2002 Remaster), The Specials, The Specials London Calling, The Clash, The Singles Brass In Pocket, The Pretenders, The Singles De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da, The Police, Every Breath You Take: The Classics Lust For Life, Iggy Pop, Trainspotting Master And Servant, Depeche Mode, The Singles 81-85 Under Pressure, Queen, Hot Space Baba O'Riley, The Who, Who's Next Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Queen, Greatest Hits Wrapped Around Your Finger, The Police, Every Breath You Take: The Classics