Music 262: Rock Music, History and Social Analysis, 70s Hard Rock

[Music Playing on Piano]

[Brian Ward]: Okay so coming out of the rhythm and blues and blues bands that came out of Britain, we have this kind of mainstream of rock n’ roll that happens in the 1970s. The label is a very loose label. It’s called hard rock nowadays. There are really two branches of hard rock. We still have the British hard rock coming out that’s based on these blues bands. We also have the American hard rock that takes on this southern rock sort of aesthetic. During the 70s rock continues to go in this mainstream direction and it’s mainly blues based.

One of the first of these bands that we can really call hard rock was the band called Cream. They come from Britain. They are a power trio. We have Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, and Jack Bruce. These guys kind of continue in the tradition of The Yardbirds. What they do is they have these epic solos on the guitar, very improvisational music. But along with that they have these more riff based songs and a heavier sound. Those along with Led Zeppelin and you can kind of say they started the whole heavy metal movement, but very early on. So the heavy metal aspects of these bands are these heavy guitar riffs and a lot of blues jamming going on. Clapton kind of broke the band up and he started a super group called Blind Faith. In Blind Faith we have a guy named Steve Winwood. Now Steve Winwood was a keyboard player and a singer. He eventually started his band, Traffic. Well actually he started the band, Traffic in the 1960s and then joined the super group Blind Faith afterwards. The thing about Steve Winwood is that he’s very R&B based and he’s really known for his singing. He would dominate any group he was in, because he was such a great singer. He sang with a really Ray Charles type voice and was very influenced by American soul singers and he went on to have a great pop career as well.

We also have this guy coming out of Britain. His name is Rod Stewart. Now Rod Stewart, he helped form the Jeff Beck Group actually in 1967. Along with Ron Wood and Jeff Beck, they were hard rockers from Britain as well. He started his own band called Faces in 1970. But really he had his own solo career and it overshadowed everything. He produced this record, Gasoline Alley in 1970. This was a very hard rocking album, very mainstream rock n’ roll. Rod Stewart is really known for his hoarse, raspy voice which is really meant for delivering the blues and really shouting out the blues. He is also known for his flamboyant persona. He would wear these flashy costumes. He had this really super blonde hair and he would do these crazy flamboyant things on the stage.

Now on the American side of things, we have what I mentioned already, southern rock that comes out. We have The Allman Brothers which is Gregg and Duane Allman from Nashville. They really start this thing as what we call now, southern rock. It’s kind of a new approach to U.S. rock actually. But it’s still very blues based. Epic jams on the blues. If you listen to their record, Live at Fillmore East, you can hear that blues influence throughout the whole set. The key to this southern rock sound is the dual lead guitars. We have these two lead guitars playing

1 at the same time. And they might be playing the same melody together or one harmonizing the other. That along with two drummers that sort of seems to be the southern rock aesthetic. They really started this whole thing. Duane Allman died in a motorcycle accident and then a year later, the bass player died basically in the same area riding a motorcycle as well. So that was kind of an odd coincidence.

Another group that comes out of The Allman Brothers aesthetic of southern rock is Lynyrd Skynyrd. Now Lynyrd Skynyrd is a hard rocking band. They really followed in The Allman Brothers’ footsteps though. They are very blues based. They add a third lead guitar and they still have the two drummers. They do the blues like The Allman Brothers, but they really add a hard rocking edge to their music. Their aesthetic is really very southern. Their music’s all about whiskey, guns, raising hell. Ronnie Van Zant, the singer and a couple other members of the band died in a plane crash. But they really took the southern rock to another level, giving it that much harder edge.

Another guy that comes out of the U.S. in the 70s is Bruce Springsteen. He’s not a southern rocker. He’s from New Jersey, but he has that same mainstream rock aesthetic. His band, The E Street Band is really just right down the middle of the road rock n’ roll straight from the 50s. They really update it with more topical working class lyrics. You know, with his New Jersey background, Bruce is very much a working class kind of guy. He has, in his band, a couple of guitars, a drummer, piano, and Clarence Clemons on the sax playing this middle of the road rocking saxophone style. This is really just dead center rock n’ roll with Bruce Springsteen. He really paid his dues for a lot of years. He was actually discovered by John Hammond which is very interesting. Before he became a superstar in the 80s, he really paid his dues. He struggled for a long time. In 1975 he had a good record. It was called Born to Run. Like I said, this is just quintessential mainstream rock n’ roll with his raw, unsophisticated voice. It’s kind of like Dylan, Joplin, Hendrix kind of delivery. He finally reached mega-success though in 1984 with his album, Born in the U.S.A.

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