I gotta tell you Brits-- yours is the best rock & roll music

[ailsagirl]

I'll probably get jumped on for posting this (from my fellow
Americans), but I realized that my favorite music has always
come from the UK:

(Not in order of importance except the first two)

WHE WHO (absolutely sensational)
KINKS
Beatles
Stones
Dire Straits
Ten Years After
Animals
Yardbirds
Clapton
Queen
Hollies
Pink Floyd
Led Zeppelin

I know there are lots more, but this is what immediately sprang
to mind.

[oldironside]

1. May I be the first to say...

a) thank you.
b) there has been some serious rock from the US too (Hendrix, Greenday, usw)
c) I do happen to agree with you. Love the Who, Beatles, Stones, Cream, Pistols, Jam, Kinks, early Bowie, Queen, Robbie, Stranglers (okay, French Bassist), etc, ad infinitum.
d) we have produced more than our fair share of shite. Any regular poster here can name Billy Idol, Def Leppard, etc.
e) I hate the Hollies. Sorry


You may like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROQVSPsV2kg

[ailsagirl]

2. I loved their harmonies... Nash's voice especially

And "Long Tall Woman in a Black Dress" was always a favorite.

The interesting thing is, the rock and roll revolution (whatever you want to
call it), was based on the Brits listening to and interpreting our old blues
songs and serving it back up-- their way. Then they began writing their own
songs and WHAM-- the top blew off!!

I thought "My Generation" was fantastic-- and the stuttering was quite
innovative. I think I read somewhere, though, that it was banned because
it was thought to make fun of stutterers. :eyes:

I can't help being fascinated by Pete Townshend and Ray Davies both.
Brilliant men. True auteurs.

Dylan, of course, is American but I don't put him in that category-- he's too
universal.

Thanks for the clip!!

Here's one I love:

http://www.youtube.com/user/alabhaois#p/a/f/2/cG_uDDEnzC4

Of all the acts, they really did steal the show and managed to do so with
a certain grace that belied their years.

[oldironside]

3. I agree with you on some points

Philip Norman (Biographer of the Beatles and Stones) described it as a Blues repetoire learned in suburban front rooms that awakened America to it's own heritage. It was blues filtered through a British ethnic experience. i.e. We're as frustrated and angry as you, so we can sing it. Think of Eric Burden's voice, or Peter Green's guitar.

Townsend and Davies share a lot of music hall (you'd call it Vaudeville) heritage, and it came out in their music. A certain lyrical story telling element that only Dylan seemed to match (I agree that he's too big to put in a box), but which Paul Weller continued.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcaCwKvMyfs

Unfortuately it seems to have died now.

I still hate the Hollies. Nash's voice grates.

[ailsagirl]

5. I know I was being too simplistic about the roots of rock & roll

That's a good line (from Norman)-- blues filtered through a British
ethnic experience. To think of the pablum the US was loving (Bobby
Dee, Bobbie Vee, The Four Seasons, the Tremeloes) while over in the
UK, things were gearing up for an unbelievable musical explosion!!

Not being a Brit, I still don't understand the difference between
mods and rockers!! :hippie:

[oldironside]

7. You need to watch Quadrophenia

which shouldn't be too much of an effort. Watch out for the Battle of Brighton Beach, a marvellous performance from Phil Daniels and a cameo by a young Sting as the Ace Face. Here are a few clips.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5K4osAGSpE

Rockers = long, greasy hair, black leather, motorbikes. Mods = smart Italian suits and smart Italian scooters. Both were attempts to break out of Britain's austere post war uniformity. Don't forget that food rationing didn't totally finish until the mid 50s and two years national service (the draft) was compulsory for all young men until the late 50s. This was the first generation that found itself with money in it's pocket and the freedom to spend it.

[ailsagirl]

8. Many thanks-- I'll check it out!!

And thanks for delineating between the mods & the rockers-- that
was very helpful.

[oldironside]

9. It's not true what they say about me.

I'm actually a nice guy. ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_1RqyNdzbE

[Vrinda]

17. The Hollies

What of the Hollies' music have you heard? Do Allan Clarke's, Tony hIcks', and Terry Sylvester's voices grate to your ears as well? The people I come across who say they hate the Hollies have never even heard any of their music, apart from the charted hits they had in the sixties, and if they don't like those songs, they judge them based on that. If you go to YouTube, you will find hundreds of videos of them from the sixties to now, with songs that embody pop, rock, country, and other genres. The Hollies were and still are exemplary musicians and a credit to the music industry. Over the years, audiences have decided to ignore their entire body of work and criticize them. It's unfair to say you hate them when you don't like one member or haven't heard a majority of their songs.

[Captain Hilts]

16. Funny about the ban for stuttering! WSC and George VI were stutterers and did okay. nt

[LeftishBrit]

4. Agree; though we've produced some crap too, especially in recent years

I'm a big fan of 60s music, and the Kinks are among my absolute favourites!

[ailsagirl]

6. They utterly ROCK!! Ray Davies is going to be in San Francisco

in November-- I'd love to see him. Pete Townshend said the
following about Davies:

I always think that Ray Davies should one day be Poet Laureate. He invented
a new kind of poetry and a new kind of language for Pop writing that influenced
me from the very, very, very beginning.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0870228/bio

That's quite a lavish compliment, especially from Townshend.

[BooScout]

11. I'll second that one....

The dance and pop crap that is all over the radio over here now is horrendous.

[T_i_B]

10. Depends what sort of music you are after

We tend to be quite good for indie music, and we've produced some pretty good dance music over the years as well (although we are also responsible for such dodgy disasters as N-Dubz, for which we can only apologise).

However, as a teenage rock/metal fan I certainly found that the lions share of the quality stuff I liked came from the States, be it Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Metallica, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Faith No More, Machine Head, Fear Factory, Korn, Deftones.....the list goes on!

[oldironside]

12. To paraphrase Mark Knopfler...

... that ain't what I call rock and roll. Still, musical taste is totally personal, like favourite foods or most desirable member of the human race.

[Mr Creosote]

13. Flattering...but not true

The best rock n roll band of all time are The Monks. FACT.

[dipsydoodle]

14. Approx. half of those

used American Blues and R & B as source material / inspiration. The good that came out of it wasn't just their music it was the fact that it encouraged the USA to recognise what it had effectively turned its back on or forgotten.

[Captain Hilts]

15. Absolutely. nt