Early ‘60s – before the explosion
Tracing the development of blues
and
Understanding how the „British
Invasion” could have taken place
Blues development
• American --at least two centres
– Traditional southern centre: Memphis, Tennessee
• Take note: where Elvis started from
– Blacks migrating to the North: Chicago
• Technologically improved sound, amplification, etc.
• Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker (What a name!
• British
– First, good students to the Americans – first class artists later
– Industrial, port cities first
• London, Liverpool, Manchaster (e.g. John Mayall)
• British Invasion (of US, reexporting the blues)
– How is/was this possible?
• Influence of blues over the whole period fro the course, until the
end of ‘70s
• Disco music, punk music
• Later developments in heavy metal, e.g Whitesnake
Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker
• The „in-between years”: primarily black artists
• Muddy waters, associated with Chicago blues
– „father of modern Chicago blues”
– First electric guitar in 1944
– Blues standard Hoochie Coochie Man, 1954, first recorded by Waters, or
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ4NFsw4bOU
– Champagne and Reefer, typical and instantly recognisable
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHowqKYSXNI&index=3&list=PLEKZKgEsQ
U4odDOamfj7mC8u71vG4A
• John Lee Hooker, son of sharecropper
– Born in Missisippi, „worked with Memphis luminaries”, then went North:
„Delta blues” „talking blues”
• Influencing the Animals, the Who, the Small faces, the Yardbirds, Canned Heat
– Boom, boom, 1962
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X70VMrH3yBg&list=RD9oz66xHeaaM&ind
ex=4
– I’m in the Mood, 1951
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw-bvvDfAjs
John Mayall
& the bluesbreakers
• Pioneering British blues, e.g. initially backing John Lee Hooker
– „charismatic catalyst of some of the finest white/multi-racial lineups ever” or
– „finishing school for many of Britain’s leading instrumentalists”.
• Double Crossing Time, from Blues Breakers (with Eric Clapton,
1966
– Song about Jack Bruce
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsNr9t2fPns
• Recently, Road Dogs, from eponymous album, 2005
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUI8flStluQ&list=AL94UKMTq
g-9CjdiNEver0SMulYOY00vgI&index=13
Double Crossing Time
It's a mean old scene
When it comes to double crossing time.
It's a mean old scene
When it comes to double crossing time.
When you think you got good buddies,
They will spin around and cheat you blind.
Double crossing man is mean,
He will try to make it so you lose.
Double crossing man,
He will try to make it so you lose.
You'll fill your mind with worry,
You know he hurt me with the blues.
***
Interesting read about the album:
http://jbonamassa.com/blog/classic-albumsjohn-mayall-blues-breakers-with-eric-clapton/
Eric Burdon and the Animals
• British Band from the North
– Front man singer (boozer) Eric Burdon, raw and fierce
vocals
• Folk ballad, from (around) New Orleans, 1964
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6wtVSQXjP8
• Earlier recording by Bob Dylan
• Identify a frequently heard 1960s instrument?
• We Gotta Get Out of This Place, 1965
– Cult song among soldiers in Vietnam
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJVpihgwE18
TheHouse of the Rising sun and We
Gotta Get out of this Place (1)
There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God I know I'm one
My mother was a tailor
Sewed my new blue jeans
My father was a gamblin' man
Down in New Orleans
Now the only thing a gambler needs
Is a suitcase and trunk
And the only time he's satisfied
Is when he's on a drunk
Oh mother, tell your children
Not to do what I have done
Spend your lives in sin and misery
In the House of the Rising Sun
Well, I got one foot on the platform
The other foot on the train
I'm goin' back to New Orleans
To wear that ball and chain
Well, there is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God I know I'm one
In this dirty old part of the city
Where the sun refused to shine
People tell me there ain't no use in tryin'
Now my girl you're so young and pretty
And one thing I know is true
You'll be dead before your time is due, I know
Watch my daddy in bed a-dyin'
Watched his hair been turnin' grey
He's been workin' and slavin' his life away
Oh yes I know it
(Yeah!) He's been workin' so hard
(Yeah!) I've been workin' too, baby
(Yeah!) Every night and day
(Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!)
We gotta get out of this place
If it's the last thing we ever do
We gotta get out of this place
'cause girl, there's a better life for me and you
Now my girl you're so young and pretty
And one thing I know is true, yeah
You'll be dead before your time is due, I know it
We Gotta get Out of this Place (2)
Watch my daddy in bed a-dyin'
Watched his hair been turnin' grey, yeah
He's been workin' and slavin' his life away
I know he's been workin' so hard
(Yeah!) I've been workin' too, baby
(Yeah!) Every day baby
(Yeah!) Whoa!
(Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!)
We gotta get out of this place
If it's the last thing we ever do
We gotta get out of this place
Girl, there's a better life for me and you
Somewhere baby, somehow I know it
We gotta get out of this place
If it's the last thing we ever do
We gotta get out of this place
Girl, there's a better life for me and you
Believe me baby
I know it baby
You know it too
Comment to the „We Gotta …” video
This here is a SHOUT OUT, to all surviving Vietnam Veterans.........THANK YOU,
FOR YOUR SERVICE!!! I am so glad you all came home and it still breaks my
heart how you all were treated, when you returned Home. I was only five
years old when my 18 year old cousin was sent to Nam, back in 66. I was so
proud to know this guy and I got to sit on his lap on the ride to Fort Lewis,
Wash. At that moment, in my life, my cousin was my greatest hero. I didn't
find out, until I was around 10 years old and nobody wanted to tell me, before
then, that my cousin barely made it a week in Vietnam, when he and his
group were ambushed and my cousin was killed. I took it harder than my
family thought I would. I was inconsolable. That conflict was not our fight,
nor should our troops have been sent there, but, we all now know the reality
of just what a fiasco Vietnam was. I have so much respect and just as much
love for all the surviving Vietnam Vets, who sacrificed so much of themselves,
for such bullshit and then got shat upon, by their own countrymen, who
should have saluted you guys and shook your hand, instead. I have always felt
this way. You Vets ARE my Heroes! Thank you, once again.
Homework
• Powerpoint: Listen again, revise, etc.
• Watch BBC video episode 1/1
– Questions in the next slide
• Readings
– Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, John Mayall,
– The Animals
BBC video 1/1
• American rock and roll in the early 1960s is described
with negative and critical words phrases, e.g. patriarchal
Am. media? Note down as many of these as possible.
• What was the „British invasion”? Why was it successful?
– What is Jackie deShannon’s explanation: What have the
Americans overlooked?
•
•
•
•
How were the Beatles only „trailblazers”?
British kids raised on rations. How come?
The Brits were „groovy”? To mean what?
Do you recognize/notice any famous names/faces?
Who?