The Beat... no - Les

Wo taw in the last issue how the Influence of '50s rock, applied to the local vitality of a city like Liverpool, was able to create an incredible impact. The same process has been observed in other places, other times. Memphis in 1956, San Fmnclieo in 1966, and going back beyond rock to Chicago In the '40s, St. Louis and Kansas City in the '30s, New Orleans in the ‘20s etc etc.

What we're talking about seems to be о process whereby the great untapped potential of music to affect people on a major scale has been topped from time to time, refined through a particular stylistic or aesthetic approach, and focused through a given city or region where some combination of factors has produced the proper chemistry.

In rock, more than in other musical genres, it has worked this way because of the rapid turnover of styles, fods and fashions — or more precisely, of generations. Regardless of what some would have you believe, rock & roll is essentially teenage music; as each generation grows older, its tastes require something more complex, end the big problem in recent yean is that a lot of people have been unable to accept the fact that most of what we call rock is not rock & roll.

But that's anothertangent. The point is, rock & roll is not 1955-58; it's 12-17. Each generation is influenced by what it hears, up to about the age of 12-13 when many kids get instruments of their own and begin trying to duplicate it. Kids of this age go for simple music, which fortunately is about oil they're able to play themselves, so after a couple of yean they form bands and copy records, eventually breaking up when they go off to college, or maybe continuing awhile longer, some-times even becoming local or national stars if indeed there was any talent present. But those teenage years, that's when rock & roll is most important to them.

This is where regional music scenes become important. One group In an area finds a successful sound, others imitate it, the whole thing is refined, and then, sometimes, it breaks out. Granted, most of it is totally derivative, imitative and ultimately worthless. But then again, when you pick up some of these local records cut by high school kids, it's amazing what some of them manage to some up with. With no idea what they're doing, they break all the rules, and occasionally the product is sheer brilliance.

It's this freedom to experiment, combined with regional Influences that tend to hove more genuine vitality than any homogenized international musical style, that enables major breakthroughs In pop music to emerge from the most out-of-the- way, unexpected places. I mean, Liverpool! Who would have thought?

Most of the Liverpool musicians were around 16-20 when things started popping in 1962. They were old enough to have ployed in skiffle bonds (the British mid 50$ equivalent of simplistic rock & roll) and they also remembered and knew the most primal American rockers of the era — Presley, Lewis, Perkins, Penniman, Domino, etc. So there was no question about what music they'd play, and the regional influences provided the rest.

In America, it happened somewhat differently. The generation who grew up imitating Elvis was cut short in 1959 when lone Southern rockabilly singers were forced out of the marketplace by teen idols backed by high-powered moguls out of Philadelphia and New York. The same thing was happening in England of course, and there was a period from around 1959-62 when the two countries followed a parallel course, with local bands playing mostly Instrumental rock, based on the Ventures and the Shadows, respectively.

Where it branched off was 1962, when the Liverpool influ - ence (an unexpected fluke breakthrough) got all the instrumental groups in England into vocals and '50s classics. America meanwhile wcs coming off two years of Twist-mania and other dance crozes, which had the effect of bringing an R&B influence Into American instrumental music, os well as giving a boost to R&B itself.

By 1963 R&B in America wot booming, with the aforementioned donee bands and dance croze records, the Phil Spector Previously, local bands were dance bands and nothing else. There were scenes of a sort—the Northwest with the Waiters, Kingsmen, Raiders etc., and other areas with similar bands but without local record labels that lasted long enough to make any impact. But the really pro'ific local scenes of the mid 60's began developing only when the mixture of dance R&B and Merseybeot was catalyzed by surf music, a Style easily adaptable by instrumental bands.

The Astronauts, the first really big rock group to emerge from Colorado, were the inspiration for hundreds of others who followed In their path to create the short-lived but prolific Colorado music scene-ten years before John Denver!

The Astronauts sprang up in Denver, ond were soon copied by a hundred local groups. The Wallers in Seattle began promoting themselves as a surf band. The Trashmen in Minneapolis, as well as a plethora of other bonds, began unleashing a torrent of exciting new sounds. And so it wos across the country. Surfhotrod music, combined with Merseybeot, produced a hard, fast, simplistic form of music, while the R&B background of the musicians ond other foctxs like the availability of more modern guitars ond amplifiers, not to mention the introduction of the fuzzbox, and the added stimulus of Dylan, folk and folk-rock, sparked on amazing era in the history of A met icon rock.

It was an era In which local bands with a locally inspired approach to combining these influences, were able to reach national stardom-a stardom that didn't lost long, perhaps, but long enough to get out a couple of albums ond a few hit singles, leaving behind the short-lived style known as 'punk-rock' and evolving directly Into acid-rock ond the 'progressive' music of today.

For a very large generation, larger than thot which regards the 50s so nostalgically today, this was the Golden Age of Rock & Roll. These were their teenage years, before they outgrew the simple joys of plain old 3-chord progressions. If you're In your 20's now, they were part of your teenage years.

As promised tn issues past, we're going to be examining these locol scenes one at a time, along with other peripheral aspects of the same era. Let this Issue serve os on introduction, setting the premise for what's to come. The groups covered here-The Standells, Leaves, Seeds, Knickerbockers, Beau Brummels, etc.—each hove their own story. Each was part of one or another local scene, and each outgrew It to о more lasting extent than most of their contemporaries. And that's about all they have in common, except that they were all punks, they were all great, and they've all been long overdue for more recognition.
The most Interesting thing about these groups may well be the fact that they were so atypical of the punk-rock genre. In my review of Nuggets thot appeared in Rollleg Stone, I tried to draw an analogy between punk ond rockabilly, a connection I think could use some expansion.

Rockabilly artists fall readily into two categories: the handfol who had hits (Presley, Lewis, Perkins, Orbison, Cochran, Vincent, Holly, and that's about all) and the hundreds that were totally unknown, regardless of what may have been equal ability (Feathers, Mac Curtis, Johnny Carrol I,etc). The odds against the rockabilly artist were much greater than those confronting proctlcioneis of other styles, partly because the music itself was too raw for the masses, and partly because the genre itself wos о short-lived transitional reaction to о collision of larger forces thot was taking place in pop music.

In 1955, papular music, dominated for decodes by crooners and big bands, wos being assaulted by country & western, rhythm & blues, and the sudden appearance of a vast generation of teenage music consumers. It was chaos, and when the smoke cleared rock & roll would be left as a strong, fairly unified force. But rockabilly wos a limited, intense style thot wos around for three years os best and at Its peak for only a year or so, at the jagged edge where country and R&B first met. As such, it holds a strange fascination to this day, ond remains one of the most powerful genres In the rock & roll Idiom.

With punk rock, you can apply the above equation almost exactly. Out of thousands of punk records released on weird local labels from the backwaters of the country, only □ very few mode the national charts at all, the rest were lucky to get local play, great as they were. The punk style was just too hard, too offensive, too Insulting to all musical ond social standards. The music Itself wos a reaction to the input of Merseybeot and Dylan on the traditional rock/R&B/donce band style, coinciding with another large-scale outburst of teenage energy. Its evolution con be traced from 1964, but 1965 and 1966 were its main years, after which protest became more sophisticated ond most of the punk musicians dropped out or went Into acid rock.

The parallel holds up, on these and other points as well. Which Is, I suppose, of no more than passing interest except to those looking for more evidence in support of the «Ten Year Cycle» theory. Viewing the '70s in accordance with Hot theory, we see ourselves now involved in a scene similar to thot of 1962-3, with plenty of holdovers from the previous decade still knocking around, ond new trends (glitter, production pop, the mod revival) slowly gaining more acceptance but still awaiting a catalyst.

Whether there will be a 70's equivalent to punk-rock ond rockabilly remains to be seen. There would need to be a much higher level of teen mania, and at least a couple of overwhelming new musical Influences. Obviously, anything like that would have to be a couple of years off at thh point. When it arrives, if It arrives, then we'll truly be able to soy the '70s have о style of their own. For punk rock, and rockabilly, were to my mind the purest crystalization of the attitudes, stances, ond musical essences of their respective decodes.

If any of you readers have any comments to odd to this discussion. I'd appreciate hearing them. It will probably become a lot more clear as we get deeper into discussing all the Individual groups and regions thot made up Hie punk era, and I think the end result will be Hie most accurate basis for undestanding rock in the '60s that has yet been devised.

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