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A possible history of pop ... DAVID JOHNSTON To musicians and music-lovers, everywhere, and forever. A possible history of pop… DAVID JOHNSTON Copyright © 2020 David Johnston. All rights reserved. First published in 2020. ISBN 978-1-64999-623-7 This format is available for free, single-use digital transmission. Multiple copy prints, or publication for profit not authorised. Interested publishers can contact the author: [email protected] Book and cover design, layout, typesetting and editing by the author. Body type set in Adobe Garamond 11/15; headers Futura Extra Bold, Bold and Book Cover inspired by the covers of the Beatles’ first and last recorded LPs, Please Please Me and Abbey Road. CONTENTS PROLOGUE 1 I BEFORE THE BEATLES 1 GALAXIES OF STARS 5 2 POP BEGINNINGS 7 3 THE BIRTH OF ROCK’N’ROLL 9 4 NOT ONLY ROCK’N’ROLL 13 5 THE DEATH OF ROCK’N’ROLL AND THE RISE OF THE TEENAGE IDOLS 18 6 SKIFFLE – AND THE BRITISH TEENAGE IDOLS 20 7 SOME MARK TIME, OTHERS MAKE THEIR MARK 26 II WITHOUT THE BEATLES A hypothetical 8 SCOUSER STARTERS 37 9 SCOUSER STAYERS 48 10 MANCUNIANS AND BRUMMIES 64 11 THAMESBEAT 76 12 BACK IN THE USA 86 13 BLACK IN THE USA 103 14 FOLK ON THE MOVE 113 15 BLUES FROM THE DEEP SOUTH OF ENGLAND (& OTHER PARTS) 130 III AFTER THE BEATLES 16 FROM POP STARS TO ROCK GODS: A NEW REALITY 159 17 DERIVATIVES AND ALTERNATIVES 163 18 EX-BEATLES 190 19 NEXT BEATLES 195 20 THE NEVER-ENDING END 201 APPENDIX 210 SOURCES 212 SONGS AND OTHER MUSIC 216 INDEX 221 “We were just a band who made it very, very big. That’s all.” John Lennon 1 PROLOGUE n 1962 a new, quite different-sounding song clawed its way up through the IUK’s best-selling fifty singles. The young musicians from the north of England who’d recorded it had started out, like so many others, as a bunch of enthusiastic schoolboys. Some had been able to play their instruments quite capably, some less so, and the lineup that took a long time to settle on a name had fluctuated around its committed core members. They’d immersed themselves in many of the Amer- ican folk and blues songs that British jazz musicians had frenetically transformed into something they called skiffle, as well as, also from the US, seminal rock’n’roll and rare black rhythm and blues. They were entranced by the sweet harmonies of African American vocal groups, especially female vocal groups, and they embraced some of the more recent melodic white pop music. They’d occasionally been lucky to witness exotic stars touring the UK when they played concerts in the regional city where they lived. But they still recalled childhood singalongs of family favour- ites around the piano that had imbued them with a love of music – any music – as long as it had that special magic. Of a large number of these songs they’d painstakingly worked out the chords, learned the riffs and guitar solos, discerned the lyrics, arranged the vocals. And over half a decade they’d played them, probably many hundreds of times, some- times all through the night, to appreciative, even adoring, as well as drunken and brawling audiences. Their performances had become tight, but exciting. As a close- knit group their individual and collective personalities had radiated from the stage and this had been reflected in how they looked and behaved, what they chose to wear, even how they combed their hair. Sometimes consciously, sometimes subconsciously they had been influenced by some of their mentors as they tentatively began writing songs of their own, believing that success, and self-pride could only lie with becoming totally autonomous. They didn’t want to be dependent on a string of outside songwriters and as they’d become proficient players they also didn’t want session musicians replacing them in the studio as was the practice of the time. Even after all this, the man they’d accepted as their manager had almost given up trying to secure a recording contract until finally one producer – who didn’t much like their own songs and certainly not their drummer, nor even his successor to start with – had taken them on. 1 without the beatles They’d stuck to their guns though and this ultimately oddly-named group of four young men from Liverpool with thick provincial accents, strange haircuts and a serious, yet quite unconventional approach had, nine months into 1962, recorded their first, self-composed single. It had a keening harmonica introduction, a simple and repetitive melody, a plodding stop-start beat, and raw, almost bluesy vocals with penetrating two-part harmonies that expressed the basic, incessantly pleading lyric. The song wasn’t rock’n’roll…it wasn’t a ballad…what exactly was it? The record had scrambled up the UK chart, down, and finally up again, by Christmas reaching its zenith just inside the top twenty. With the title ‘Love me do’ it was by a group called ‘The Beatles’. These Beatles were either a quaint here today, gone tomorrow novelty, or, perhaps they might just have something more to offer. In 1963 they followed on with not one but four singles. The first of these went to two on the official weekly chart, the next finally made it to the premium position – and then two more number ones quickly followed. Their debut LP also soared to the top and stayed there for thirty consecutive weeks, more than twice the achievement of any other UK pop artist before – or since. In the Beatles’ wake, thirty of the other chart entries that year were by hitherto unknown English acts – from the north and from other parts of the country. Many of these groups had brand new shaggy hairdos styled after the Liverpool group and their songs (that however were mostly non-original) featured beaty drums, jangly guitars, and bright harmonies. They, and others after them in the years to come were taking the Beatles’ road to hoped-for fame and fortune. Whether any of them would have emerged and triumphed if the Beatles had never existed, or, to what extent they capitalised on that group’s success, its sound, its image is debatable. Would the UK still have been the launching pad for the next major pop star – or stars. Or would the US have continued to be the driver of popular music as it had throughout the twentieth century? 2 I BEFORE THE BEATLES 1 GALAXIES OF STARS here has always been pop music, and there have always been pop stars. That’s Ta bold assertion, but leaving aside music that has an intrinsic function such as for religious, tribal or military ceremonies – and even this is not always clear- cut a – ‘pop’, or popular music can be construed to mean any music that provides entertainment for the people b – in any culture, anywhere, at any time in history. c It can be regarded as ‘high art’, such as so-called classical music, or it can come from a busker playing tunes on a battered old instrument. It can be lyrical, as opera is, telling its entire story in sung word, or, the intensely personal commun- ication of a singer-songwriter. It can be purely choral – from a massed choir to a barbershop quartet – or it can be entirely instrumental, performed by a brass band or surf guitar group. Whether as a solo piece or a multi-layered composition it can be intricately melodic, or, it can be stripped of discernible melody, like that often created on electronic instruments, or, played by an ensemble of drummers. Pop stars are musicians and singers who, intentionally or otherwise, attract attention from their audience. They can do this by their performance style, whether passionate, or emotionally contained, and by the power of the lyrics that they impart, or, by their instrumental virtuosity. And finally, while this has nothing whatsoever to do with music – or even, some would claim, musical talent – pop stars can be those who come to notice just because of the way they look. Arguably, the most potent pop stars embody more than just one of these attributes. Pop stars can arrive by accident: they start with the simple enjoyment of making music and then perhaps gain some awareness of the impact it is making on those who listen. Throughout time certain musicians and singers of all styles have consciously cultivated and capitalised on their ‘star’ status: the opera singer who theatrically wrings passion from every aria or the string quartet player with arms flailing and hair flying; the music hall artiste who never fails to have the audience in stitches or the deeply emotional traditional blues singer; the perspiring jazz a Many religious, tribal and military ceremonies have features that would excite the masses in similar ways to a pop concert. b ‘people’ – from the Latin populus; ‘popular’ – from the Latin popularis meaning ‘belonging to the people’. c My definition is no doubt controversial; while the term ‘pop music’ was apparently first used as early as, but no earlier than the 1920s, it has been in general use since the 1950s. As the music evolved and diversified during the ’60s ‘pop’ came to be derided by purist ‘rock’ music aficionados – as if their music was, nor was no longer intended to be in any way popular. 5 without the beatles trumpeter with cheeks bulging or the waif-like folk singer; the country duo gazing into each other’s eyes or the axe-shredding heavy metal guitarist; the electronic musician who intensely crafts sound from a bank of keyboards or the DJ spinning turntables, and, the gesticulating rapper out front.