| Mid-Sixties
British Blues |
| The British Blues "Movement"
grew out of the trad and skiffle fads of the 1950s and, before them, those
playing versions of Louis Armstrong's hits. These were the artistic homes
of the musicians who would lead British interest in the blues. They began
by creating a myth about America populated by iconic black blues musicians
and singing cowboys. In their flattening transatlantic telescopic gaze,
they beheld their idols on a common stylistic plane. British musicians
merged styles that Americans both figuratively and practically segregated.
Different blues styles (urban, country, electric, and acoustic) and the
always tentatively divided rhythm and blues and country and western (seemingly
so distinct in American minds) melded into one. Thus, two of the best
known musical ensembles to emerge in this era (the Beatles and the Rolling
Stones) drew upon eclectic repertoires: hootenannies, musicals, blues,
"girl" groups, doo wop, country, Motown, R&B, and almost anything else
American they could hear. However, British musicians absorbed these styles
and produced something distinctly their own. |
| Perhaps Americans liked British
rock, pop, and blues in the 1960s for what it reflected of its origins.
We saw a vibrant musical mix that others in the world had absorbed and
regenerated. The mirror flattered us. However, we should not overlook
the reality that we were more willing to accept Whites with British accents
into mainstream popular culture than we were Black Americans. Of course,
this is not to say that performers like Muddy Waters did not have American
audiences; but they would never grab the audiences that the Rolling Stones
and the Yardbirds would with the same material. Entrepreneurs like Barry
Gordy sought to create a Black America that was acceptable to White America.
Howlin' Wolf was never part of that approach. |
| The racial reality of the
United Kingdom in the late fifties and early sixties was a place where
Asian, African, and Caribbean immigrants flooded into industrial centers.
Riots in 1958 shattered British complacency that theirs was a tolerant
and inclusive society. Nevertheless, musicians continued to test the interracial
waters. Notably, Georgie Fame's band featured Ghanaian and Jamaican musicians
and Steve Winwood's early hits with the Spencer Davis Group were interpretations
of Jamaican recordings. Many British musicians gained their validation
by accompanying African American musicians (e.g., Little Richard) on their
UK tours. Lonnie Donegan (who took part of his name from a visiting Black
American artist, Lonnie Johnson) was one of the first and he was soon
followed by the team of Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies. Their venues were
often no more than the back room of a pub rented out one night a week,
but these became the meeting places where bands like the Rolling Stones,
the Yardbirds, and others first met. |
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