When the Blues Came to Britain, the British Came to America Part 2

With the big English interest in blues music, suddenly, America’s original bluesmen started hearing about the chance to reignite their careers with English, French and German audiences.  Unbelievably, they found themselves welcomed, even celebrated. American Bluesmen like Big Bill Broonzy, after living years in poverty, discovered they could actually have careers in Europe.   The Cunard Yanks, and the American Folk Blues Festival were the catalysts behind cultural and musical changes that revolutionized Britain in the years after World War 2.

The impact on young English musicians was epic.  The bands and musical brilliance of the period has been an inspiration for several generations that followed.   You know the names: The Beatles,  the Rolling Stones, the Who, The Kinks and many more.  Now, hear the music, and learn the history!

In this episode, you'll hear the stories, the music, and the artists who lived and created this formidable library of music that millions around the world are still listening to!

Inspired by American music, sculpted, painted, and built by the English, the music is in many ways, still with us today.  Enjoy this second installment in the story of the British Invasion!

Transcript

Season Two Episode Nine

John Mayhalls Blues Breakers

In the last episode,  we saw that England’s music industry was working hard to grab a piece of the imitation pop-idol meal ticket,  while still upholding the traditional British values which were so important to mummy and daddy, another set of indy musicians, musical purists, enamored of black American music, began replicating New Orleans-style jazz (a.k.a. “trad jazz”) and acoustic folk blues. This crowd, and not the Cliff Richards/ Billy Fury crowd turned out to be from where the Beatles and the rest of the British Invasion came stampeding.

One very important area where English and American music fans diverged was in how they responded to the Blues.  I mean, the American bluesman, Taj Mahal, said “The Brits essentially rubbed the Americans’ noses in the fact that they had this music in their own backyard and they didn’t even take care of it.”  Representing the English perspective, the Moody drummer Graeme Edge said, “I must agree with Taj Mahal’s ‘rubbing their noses in it.  I wouldn’t have put it that way, but I must say the man has a delightful turn of phrase.” 

Big Bill Broonzy

Back in racially divided America, Black blues musicians and their music had been ignored and put-down at home since forever.  You might remember how, in Season One, Episode 13, I talked about how, in the beginning, Elvis was mega-popular because, being white, he made black music safe to listen to.  

With the big English interest in blues music, suddenly, America’s original bluesmen started hearing about the chance to reignite their careers with English, French and German audiences.  Unbelievably, they found themselves welcomed, even celebrated. American Bluesmen like Big Bill Broonzy, after living years in poverty, discovered they could actually have careers in Europe.  Here’s Mick Jagger and Keith Richards talking about how the blues were a major influence on their career in the Rolling Stones.

Keith and Mick Here

In the last episode, we saw how, in the 1950s, England’s first live blues exposure came from acoustic country bluesmen like Sonny Terry, Browny McGhee and Big Bill Broonzy toured England.  Broonzy had told the European presss that he was the only living U.S. bluesman.  As you might imagine, this was all the challenge another ‘living legend’, namely Willie Dixon, needed to collaborate with a group of German promoters.  They got together and created the American Folk Blues Festival.   From 1962 to 1989, the American Folk Blues Festival featured artists like Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker, Sonny Boy Williamson, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Son House and Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters and a bunch of others.  The Who’s Who list of living blues 

Eric Burdon (the Animals), Mick Jagger (Stones), and Eric Clapton (Yardbirds) sat in the audiences for some of those shows. American Folk Blues Festivals.

Muddy Waters, Rolling Stone, 1958, Manchester

In 1958, Muddy Waters brought his electric guitar sound and tore down the walls of every English theater and club he played at.   Here he is, playing in 1958 in Manchester.  He followed it up in 1962 when, along with Howlin’ Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson and loads of other major blues musicians he toured as part of the American Folk Blues Festival.  Here’s Howlin’ Wolf from the ’62 Festival…. Incidentally, the same year that Beatlemania took off.  The elite English musicians from the British Invasion – including  members of the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, the future Led Zeppelin, and many others got schooled in those audiences.  

John Lee Hooker at Blues Festival – Shake it Baby

In their own minds, every single one of the British Invasion bands considered themselves to be blues bands.  Paul McCartney is quoted as saying “We even thought the Beatles were a blues band, but it just came out sounding like us!”  Veteran Cosmic Rockers, the Moody Blues’ first album was entirely blues songs. It wasn’t until their second album, Days of Future Passed, when they introduced their signature mellotron sound – for me, that’s pretty far from anything that could be called “Blues”, but at least they started off with some balls. Obviously, the Stones started out and at core always hae been a blues band, and they still are.  So were the Yardbirds – from which Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page all sprung careers that have lasted to the present (even if Page’s career has dwindled to coasting on the winds of memory since the days when he piloted the mighty Zeppelin).

Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac

Peter Green, original founder of Fleetwood Mac has said,  “You name a band from the British Invasion, and pretty much every one of them started out playing the blues.  They weren’t thinking they were blues traditionalists. They were just playing what they heard and liked. So Fleetwood Mac would go from traditional blues to ‘Oh Well’ and ‘Rattlesnake Shake.’ People would ask, ‘Is that blues or is it rock?’  Well, if it’s a slow song it’s the blues, if it’s a fast one it’s rock. “

Howlin’ Wolf

Back in the states, the blues had been pretty well overlooked by most audiences, and not just white ones either.  Many Blacks looked at the music from artists such as Led Belly, Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf as ‘Uncle Tom’ music – a throwback to slave days.  People thought the music was too country; as I talked about back in Season One, Episode Ten, the really hip African American musicians were guys like Dizzy Gilespie, John Coltrane and other beboppers whose uncomprising, difficult jazz was a statement about the intellectual power of the black community.  These were ‘men’ that you could not call ‘boy’.  It was also the era of R&B, and Civil Rights and black artists were using their talents to lead the movement.  If you’re sitting in your pick-up, listening to John Lee Hooker on your eight-track, that’s not where the Martin Luther King-inspired black community wanted to go. They were listening to jazz and Motown, and Stax Records.

Mark’s Bumper

Short Excerpts

In the first half of the ‘50s, American blues artists were putting out records that had major influence on the same English musicians who would fuel the British Invasion in just a few years time.  These records charted a lot higher in England than they did at home in the US.  For instance, 

·      In 1950, the no. 2 record of 1950 was Fats Domino's "The Fat Man." 

·      The no. 2 record of 1951 was "Rocket 88" by Jackie Brenston.   I played you this song in Episode 13 of Season 1 and talked about how some critics point to this song as the first ever rock and roll record. 

·      The no. 4 record of 1952 was "Lawdy Miss Clawdy," by Lloyd Price, who was just 17 at the time. 

·      In 1953, the no. 3 record was the original version of  "Hound Dog" by Big Mama Thornton, also included in Episode 13, Season 1. The no. 4 record was "Shake a Hand" by Faye Adams, Bruce Springsteen included this in his set for years, and Paul McCartney covered it in his covers album Run Devil Run.  

·      The no. 1 record of 1954 was "Hoochie Coochie Man" by Muddy Waters. The no.5 record was "Shake Rattle and Roll" by Big Joe Turner.

·      1955 was a big year, too.  There were actually three blues singles that charted at the top.  

·      The no. 1 record of 1955 was "Tweedle Dee" by Lavern Baker. The no. 3 record was "I Got a Woman," by Ray Charles. The no. 6 record was "I'm a Man" by Bo Diddley. 

Not only was American blues the Sheperd’s Pie or Sausage & Mash of the English musicians who soon came invading the radios, tvs, and bedrooms of teenage America, even the hits that those marauding English rockers had were written here!  Here are a few American originals, followed by their British covers:

Coupled Excerpts

·      Bessie Bank’s had the first recording of the early Moody Blues hit, Go Now.  

·      The Exciters Do Wah Diddy was quickly covered by Manfred Man’s Do Wah Diddy Diddy

·      A singer named Early Jean MacRae, from a girl band called The Cookies, had the first recording of I’m Into Something Good, but Herman’s Hermits’ made the song famous.  Incidentally, it was written by Carol King and Gerry Goffin.

·      In the early ‘60s, Bobby Womack was the singer in a band called the Valentino’s when he wrote It’s All Over Now but I think The Rolling Stones version is much better.  I’ll let you decide….

“She’s Got the Devil in Her Heart”

For the English, recording covers of American songs was just paying their due respects. After all, it was our music that got the wheel rolling on their side of the Atlantic, and more were being written every day, either by authentic US bands, or by song-writers like Carol King and Gerry Goffin in New York’s Brill Building.  Even the Beatles, who were sitting on top of the biggest crest of the Beatlemania wave in 1964, did American covers, like this song from their debut U.S. album, Meet the Beatles.  

It was originally recorded by a female quartet from Detroit called The Donays, and recorded on a tiny little label called Correc-tone Records. The Beatles had heard it in their manager, Brian Epstein’s record store and liked it.  

House of the Rising Sun

The Animals, House Of The Rising Sun, was a big hit.  They’d been playing it on a tour they were doing with Chuck Berry and were getting a great response from it.  They  knocked it out of the park in record studio time, – just 15 minutes, and the song was four and a half minutes long!  It turned out to be the first British Invasion record not by the Beatles to rech number one on the U.S. charts 

Since the Animals had actually booked four hours in the studio, they recorded the rest of their set.  They played everything live, no studio tricks and it became a classic album.  Other covers on it included: 

·      Sam Cooke’s (Bring It On Home) 

·      John Lee Hooker’s (I’m Mad) 

·      Nina Simone’s (Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood and  Gin House Blues)

The bottom line is this: the British Invasion did not conquer America, the British groups gave us our music back!

Glad All Over

Suddenly, America’s defenses fell, and the British Invasion was on!  The very first band to make it past our musical defenses was the Dave Clark 5, who had actually gotten their start playing for GI’s and their dates at enlisted clubs and military bases.  Their first single, “Glad All Over”, made it to No. 6 on the American charts, and actually knocked the Beatles, I Want to Hold Your Hand, out of the No. 1 slot in the British charts.  That single, and other early recordings like Bits and Pieces, Can’t You See That She’s Mine, Catch Us If You Can.  The Dave Clark 6 were the second band, following the Beatles, to play on Ed Sullivan; eventually, they were on a total of 18 times.  One of the most successful of the British Invasion bands, they had 17 top 40 hits between 1964 and 1967.  

These records, and others from the British Invasion, got to our shores just like the blues records got to England, the Cunard Yanks brought them in!

While they weren’t the point of the spear, Beatlemania left no one guessing who the giants on the battlefield really were and you can tell the size of things that once past through a place by the tracks they left behind - like the dinosaur tracks you can still see in what used to be muddy ground.  

Circa Waves

Kieran Shudall, lead singer for the Liverpool Indie band, Circa Waves, put it like this: 

“Growing up in Liverpool, you definitely feel the presence of past fires. Every family occasion is soundtracked by the Beatles and every band wants to sound like the Coral or the Zutons. (Both are Liverpool/ Merseyside bands from the early 2000’s).   I remember putting out our track Getaway and it was reviewed on a round table show where someone said: “It doesn’t sound Liverpool enough - it doesn’t have enough harmonies.” I was like: “Fuck off mate!” Just because you’re from Liverpool doesn’t mean you’re restrained to sounding a certain way. I wanted to do something that didn’t sound like it was from Liverpool, to move away from that Merseybeat sound. In Liverpool the bar has been set really high - you’re up against the greatest rock’n’roll band that ever existed! It’s not demoralising, though, it’s encouraging. It’s like having someone really good on your football team you can always depend on.”

Emily Lansley, singer and guitarist for the three woman pop-band, Stealing Sheep, said “You hear the Beatles all your life and we looked at them recently and noticed just how unusual and surreal they are.” The Beatles were a band that has influenced almost everyone that followed them over the last 50 years.  

Mark’s Bumper

Beatles Fans 1 & 2

We Love You Beatles

On landing at JFK airport in 1964, a reporter asked the Beatles how they’d found America – meaning what was their initial impression.  Ringo’s famous sarcastic comment was that they’d taken a left at Greenland.  But before ever leaving to conquer America, the Beatles had already created Beatlemania in Britain.  America was the biggest market they would conquer, and another point on the map to conquer on the road to biggest band in the world.  Before they left England, She Loves You had already sold 13 million copies, becoming that country’s biggest selling record in history.  Like any great military campaign, its important to soften defenses before sending in the ground troops.  In the Beatles case, the pre-arrival promotional campaign included bumper stickers (The Beatles Are Coming! and Ringo For President), buttons (Be A Beatle Booster) and Beatle wigs — as well as tantalizing glimpses of their performances on Walter Cronkite’s newscast and The Jack Parr Show.   One of the first questions shouted at the Beatles’ airport press conference was “Are you in favor of lunacy?” Paul McCartney, not missing a beat, replied, “Yes, it’s healthy.”  

Here’s the Beatles press conference from when they landed at JFK.

Ed Sullilvan

70 million people tuned in to Ed Sullivan’s show on 2/9/64 to see their new heroes perform live. The audience set a world record that stood for years!  Following the broadcast, I Want to Hold Your Hand topped the charts for seven weeks and their first album, Meet the Beatles sold 3.6 million copies – the biggest selling album in history.  Then came Can’t Buy Me Love, the third single in a row to go number one.  Twist and Shout and She Loves you rounded out the streak of five straight number ones.  During the first week of April, the Beatles had 12 songs in the top 100.  Their red hot streak went nuclear in July when they released their first movie, A Hard Day’s Night.  In 2021 dollars, first week box office receipts were over $11 million.  The critics loved it; the Village Voice critic wrote that it was “the Citizen Kane of jukebox musicals”.  In August, they kicked off their first American tour, which was actually one leg of their world tour.  They did 32 performances in 25 cities in 31 days.  Each performance of their 12 song set 

earned the Beatles the equivalent of $440K in 2021 dollars.

Here’s the Beatles from that 1964 tour playing at the Washington Coliseum.  

Like a number of the bands and artists covered in this episode, I could probably create an entire podcast series about the Beatles and still not completely cover their story.  Instead, I’ll just quote what George Harrison said when the Beatles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in. 1988.  He said,  “It sort of turned out all right, and still a lot bigger than we expected.”  That is an understatement for the ages!  

Peter and Gordon A World Without Love

Peter and Gordon were the next band, after the Dave Clark 5, to come out of London.  It definitely didn’t hurt that they had a steady supply of Lennon and McCartney rejected compositions to work with – on account of Peter Asher’s sister, Jane,  being Paul McCartney’s girlfriend at the time (in fact at one point, they were actually engaged).  What would Wings have been like if Linda hadn’t been in the picture?  Like the Beatles, Peter and Gordon also rode the rocket to the top of the U.S. charts with singles like this one, A World Without Love.  All in all, they made the top 20 of the US charts five more times, with songs like Nobody I Know, I Don’t Want to See You Again, Woman, Del Shannon’s song, “I Go to Pieces” and a music-hall novelty titled “Lady Godiva.” before they broke-up in 1968.  Afterwards, Peter worked at the Beatles Apple Records producing albums such as James Taylor’s first record, and in the ‘70s, he helped Linda Ronstadt create her classic sound.

Rolling Stones – The Last Time

Tougher sounds also came from London’s rhythm & blues scene where guys like Mick Jagger, Brian Jones and Charlie Watts (of the Rolling Stones), Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker (of Cream) and Paul Jones (of Manfred Mann) were all gigging in their pre-fame days.  Out of that scene came some of the biggest bands of the ‘60s including The Rolling Stones, Cream, and the Yardbirds.  The Stones – the only surviving link back to those astonishing Invasion days, just completed their 60th anniversary tour.  Mick Jagger, seen from a distance, continues to look like he’s in his twenties with his signature on stage moves, and despite everyone’s predictions, Keith Richards did not destroy himself with a spike in his arm and heroin in his veins and continues to play a great guitar.  

This song, The Last Time, was their first U.S. hit, reaching Number 9 on the U.S. charts.  Based loosely on the Staples Singers gospel song, This May Be The Last Time, was an early Richards-Jaggers composition.  You can hear the major influence Chuck Berry had on Keith Richards when you listen to the song’s guitar riff, it’s present at song’s opening, and runs through the entire song – a totally Chuck Berry song structure if ever there was one. The Stones were also into  County music, and there are elements of it in The Last Time, too.  Keith’s solo in the song was actually copied note for note from the song’s demo, as played by Jimmy Page, from Led Zeppelin (for any younger listeners who somehow don’t know)!

Yardbirds – For Your Love

Also in the blues tradition, London was home to the Yardbirds.  They were the first British Invasion group to build their success on the strength of their instrumental greatest.  Three of the best guitarists ever came from this band, including Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. As the Beatles also did in other ways, the Yardbirds redefined what a pop song could sound like.  They used a harpsichord on “For Your Love”, and a droning, sitar-style lead in “Heart Full of Soul”.  Most Yardbirds fans paid attention because of,  what the band called, their ‘raveups’ — long jams in their songs to show off the guitar-tistry of Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page.

Well Respected Follower of Fashion

Both the Kinks, and the Who made unforgettable impact on American audiences.  Both bands combined an understanding and love for authentic blues with tour-de-force song writing.  In both these bands, you had incredibly gifted writers who could write across a wide range of styles, and give voice to their generation’s angst.  Ray Davies, The Kinks main songwriter, was a pioneer of hard rock, and the composer of “You Really Got Me” – even though a lot of people today probably think it was a Van Halen song.   Like the Beatles, they also plumbed the English colonial presence in India to produce some interesting songs like “See My Friends.”   Their best Invasion period track, “A Well-Respected Man,” showed off Ray’s wit, an attack on the upper classes and a preview of the satirical nature of their future songs.

I Can See For Miles

The Who’s Pete Townshend is a musical genius who wrote everything from short pop songs like Can’t Explain and My Generation to the rock opera, Tommy – the story of a young man who witnessed the murder of his own father by his mother and her lover and went on to become a modern-day messiah who inspires his generation to be free, to the concept piece, Quadrophenia, the story of a Quaalude popping English mod, victim to a  personality that ultimately divides into four, and ultimately drives his Vespa motor scooter off of the White Cliffs of Dover.  The Who, having just released Tommy, played an unforgettable set at Woodstock.  Stories of the tornado-like wreckage that they left across the United States – and especially our hotel rooms – is legendary.  

The Zombies were a band that created a unique sound, with songs built arount keyboard, instead of guitar riffs.  Their songs had a Motown vibe and the Zombies were about capturing this really cool feel.  One of their biggest songs was She’s Not There, written by their main songwriter, Rod Argent.  Let’s stop and hear Rod Argent talk about writing that song, now.

Gimme Some Lovin’ – Spencer Davis Group

There were also some incredible R&B bands that came from England in these years,  including bands like the Spencer Davis Group – the band that spawned Steve Winwood; the fifteen year old genius who played a Hammond B3 organ like nobody’s business, and also had a rockin’ set of pipes and sounded like a mature and weathered R&B pro from Atlantic or Stax in America but really came from Birmingham.  

Spencer Davis remembered the early days of his band, and his collaboration with Steve Winwood like this:

Here Comes the Night/ Brown Eyed Girl

Technically part of the UK, and with no offense to any of my Irish friends, Belfast gave us Them, and through that band, the great bluesman, Van Morrison.

Bus Stop – the Hollies

The Hollies were best known for their rich, intricate harmonies.  Their string of hits lasted until the mid-1970’s and included "Bus Stop", which was their first #1 in America, "Stop Stop Stop" (1966), "On a Carousel" (1967), "Carrie Anne" (1967), "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" (1969), "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress" (1972) – this was their biggest hit - and "The Air That I Breathe" (1974). The Hollies had over 22 hit singles on the Billboard Hot 100.  Along with the Stones, the Hollies are one of the few remaining British Invasion bands who are still rocking.  In fact, they will be touring the UK and Germany this summer of 2022!   Besides writing their own great songs, like the song we’re listening to now, Bus Stop, they also did a lot of covers.  They had their greatest success in the years after the ‘60s British Invasion, but their name still deserves a place along with these other amazing hall of famers.

Close:

American music had successfully lit the fuse on English youth-culture and the explosion came first with the Beatles, and then, a whole flotilla of English bands who came sailing into America, and turned our own culture in a whole new direction.  In the next episode, we’ll see how American musicians, and even American culture responded.  I hope you’ve enjoying this ‘from two shores’ view of the period we now refer back to as the British Invasion.   You won’t want to miss what happens next! 

Since you’re a listener, I imagine you might be as curious as I am about the journey American Music has taken since its earliest days.  The learning might start here, but you can dig deeper when you visit the American Song podcast page on Facebook.  All the sources for this, and every can be found there!   When you visit, I hope you’ll drop me a line to let me know what you think of the podcast.  If you’ve got questions, or ideas for future episodes, please let me know and I’ll promise to get back to you!

Thanks for listening.  This is Joe Hines.