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Maximum R&B: UK Psych, Blues, Freakbeat etc... |
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#1 |
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Maximum R&B: UK Psych, Blues, Freakbeat etc...
A thread for everyone that digs the wild, raucous, scintillating sounds that came out of the UK between 63-69. If The Who, The Pretty Things, The Creation, John Mayall, The Yardbirds, Spencer Davis Group, Small Faces, Cream, The Artwoods, or any of the many other groups of that era give you a buzz, write about it here...
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#2 |
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Oh yeah! I've been digging thru the 'Rubble' for 'Nuggets' for years..still so many great bands to listen too that haven't been overplayed. Having said that, Wimple Winch remain my favorites
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#3 |
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Love it...been into that stuff since the early 80s. Still have my Bam-Causo LPs among many others. There was a lot of good Dutch stuff from that era....Outsiders, Motions, Q'65 etc.
I've got a 45 of 'From Above' by Q'65...can't believe it wasn't on the box-set...just the best guitar sound ever! |
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#4 |
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The more i listen to, and discover, the more i realise that Eric Clapton made an immense contribution throughout the 60's!
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#5 |
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Quote:
The more i listen to, and discover, the more i realise that Eric Clapton made an immense contribution throughout the 60's!
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#6 |
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I recently watched the Cream reunion show, and that was a great reminder of why Clapton achieved his reputation in the 60s.
The Who were superb, and highly original in the 60s, although they never achieved as much success as they deserved in that era. They were on the verge of splitting, until Tommy rescued them in 1969, and they went onto even better things in the 70s. The Rolling Stones are often mocked for their age etc nowadays, but they were superb throughout the 60s. The recent release of the double cd Rolled Gold is a fine example of their work from that period. |
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#7 |
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Best bands of that period? Music links -
Jimi Hendrix Experience - a British formed band managed by Chas Chandler of The Animals - the complexity of their blues-rock can be easily overlooked. "Electric Ladyland" with Dylan's "All along the watchtower" and "Voodoo Chile" is the high point for me, but on "Axis: Bold as Love" there is quite some experimentation into stereo. something that was often missed at the time, is the way Eddie Kramer (a brilliant recording engineer) pans Jimi's guitars from speaker to speaker - some of Hendrix stuff is just as 3D as Jean-Michel Jarre, but with less technology. listening to Hendrix in a darkened room with earphones/well set up stereo (with or without your substance of choice) can be ear-opening. Fairport Convention - following the fatal RTA that killed off some original members, the new line-up Fairport with the core of Sandy Denny on vocals, Dave Swarbrick on fiddle and Richard Thompson on guitar was an awesome band. they wrote music that you could mistake for traditional british folk and had a knack of getting the lyrics right at the same time as creating what seemed like a whole new way to play 'folk music'. unlike the jazzy Pentangle (with danny Thompson on bass - who is Richard Thompson's bassplayer these days), Fairport sounded 'folky' yet got into some seriously heavy grooves. "Tam Lin" on "Liege and Lief" (their seminal album) has an almost heavy metal feel to it -with some serious riffs and Sandy Denny's soaring vocals - leading to an end section that could rival Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" for being the top lead out. Sandy sang on a Zep album - taking the female vocals on "Battle of Evermore" - she was a perfect counterpoint to Robert Plant. Members of Fairport founded or played in almost every folk-rock band or their era and beyond. almost nobody in the folk-rock field was left uninfluenced by them. When I used to play for dances, we used to bring the same jazz-rock-folk groove to the music and Fairport's tretment of "Tam Lin" was probably our inspiration for a very heavy and sometimes funky "Rakes of Kildare" - were we untouched by Fairport? No - our apprentice fiddle-player and his dad the sometime caller were related to somebody in Fairport and the senior guy had been taught squeeze-box by the mother of Fairport's late era stand-in female vocalist (whose sister in law worked with my wife!) Fairport got everywhere, spreading their modernising of traditional tunes. The tune "Willard O'Winsbury" recorded pre-Fairport by Anne Briggs, but popularised by them as "Farewell farewell" appears on Kate Rusby's 2007 album. Richard Thompson is right up there with Clapton in the shortlist for best/most influential English guitarist from the 1960s. Cream - somebody has already put them forward and I can't argue. despite the difficulties with drugs which in his book Clapton identifies as the core problem in Cream, the records that they made - such as "Crossroads" and "Tales of brave Ullysses" - were really 'on the money'. Eric had adopted a lot of Freddie King's guitar style (listen to "Going down" and say with a straight face that you don't think it's Clapton playing!) and with Jack Bruce being one of the best ever rock bassplayers and Ginger Baker a powerhouse on the skins, you had a band that completely rocked the house to its foundations. the guys had known each other for a fair while, each being in and out of the great 60s R&B bands and I for one am really disappointed that Clapton couldn't convince the others to let Stevie Winwood into the band. Traffic - to me Winwood WAS "Traffic" (OK along with Wood, Capaldi and Mason) and he played on "Electric Ladyland". "traffic" were somewhere between 'fairport' 'hendrix' and 'cream' - Winwood is a distinctive vocalist and their songs were almost psychedelic folk - "John Barleycorn must die" - interestingly the "Mr Fantasy" album was engineered by...Eddie Kramer. there were so many great bands who are still worth listening to - Spencer Davis, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Stones, Beatles, Led Zep, Pretty Things, the Move, Small Faces - I still listen to it because no matter how good an album the likes of the Levelllers, The Darkness or the Kaiser Chiefs put out - the bands that went before them created the scene. |
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#8 |
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On the subject of Clapton and Winwood, i'm always a bit undecided as to whether i like the Blind Faith album or not.
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#9 |
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interesting part of the biog that era - Clapton liked working with people and to keep learning from people he met - with BF - the worry that they were doing the wrong thing was reflected in the title it was "Blind Faith" to perfrom together.
I think some of that was GB's allegedly heavy drug use - great drummer, but along with many of that era, he was out of it. "Presence of the Lord" and "Can't find my way home" are both great tracks - funnily enough I don't have the BF CD but those tracks are on Clapton and Winwood compils respectively. a friend of mine saw Winwood in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. I haven't seen him or Clapton, alhtough I thought of upping my drinking to get to the local AA gig he plays on New Years Eve at Woking leisure centre! My boss met Gary Brooker a while back and asked me who he was exactly - if only that had been me, I could have had a great conversation. saying that, his son was taught drums by Bill Bruford, so he should have known better! |
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#10 |
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I love the live Cream recordings - especially some of the old Blues covers. Clapton had the authentic Blues guitar sound nailed during his Bluesbreakers phase, and Cream certainly benefited from this.
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#11 |
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seeing the title of this thread a bet loads of people are clicking on it thinking you are talking about that modern rubbish that calls itself RnB
![]() Love the Who and need to get some Yardbirds and Cream stuff as they are missing from my collection at present. The Small Faces were amazing and also want to mention Roy Harper and Michael Chapman two other faces of mine but more folk based than RnB |
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#12 |
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I have seen Roy Harper - and also seen Ben. a friend of mine is a massive Roy Harper fan and has seen him and Ben many times. when I was a student 20 years + ago, a mate was into RH. he seems to have had a very strong following throughout his career.
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#13 |
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You look through the releases of bands like The Who, The Beatles, The Kinks and The Rolling Stones and see that they were full of fresh ideas and creativity. Dozens of wonderful hit singles that were never even featured on albums because they had so much good material to record. You look at modern corporate metal bands for example and i doubt that Iron Maiden or Metallica have ever released a single that wasn't strategically lifted from a carefully marketed album.
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#14 |
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I've just watched "Red White and Blues" - one of Scorcese's series of films about the blues - it features lots of great performers talking about the British blues scene, particularly about the 1960s.
I'd been listening to CDs earlier on and every British artist I had been listening to was in the film somewhere - from Mick Fleetwood, to Stevie Winwood to Clapton. I've even seen half the jazz performers mentioned in the film, seen a fair few of the blues performers - and got albums by just about everybody in it. [there was a superb collectors series of blues CDs about 10 years or so ago - I bought about the first 50 of them, which when you are trying to hear some of the more obscure people, obviously helps.] |
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#15 |
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I recently bought a cd entitled "The best of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac" and would certainly recommend it as a good introduction for anyone wanting to hear the 60's version of the band. Aside from pop hits such as Albatross and Man Of The World, it mostly consists of stunning Blues tracks.
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#16 |
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I saw Green perform and he could still knock out "Green Manalishi" and "Rattlesnake shake" - if you liked that, get the BBC sessions of FM - loads of good stuff on there.
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#17 |
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Quote:
I saw Green perform and he could still knock out "Green Manalishi" and "Rattlesnake shake" - if you liked that, get the BBC sessions of FM - loads of good stuff on there.
![]() I am very much a fan of Peter Green as is Mrs YorkieUK. I bought her the Peter Green story on DVD for her for Christmas which I am very much looking forward to seeing. Despite liking Cream very much I have to admit to not being a huge fan of Eric Clapton. With all due respect to all the Clapton fans he just leaves me cold. I found this clip recently on Youtube. It is Steve Marriott singing Black Coffee. It may be a little late for this thread, 1973, but it is a treat to see and hear. Fantastic singing. There is nothing to compare to it from this era at all. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc-9cZ6iu6o |
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#18 |
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This is on YouTube, THEM - Call My Name
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#19 |
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The Open Mind Magic Potion (audio)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RQM4r9mo6o Stunning late 60's UK psych! Shotgun Express Curtains (audio) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmHQRgL6_Mc Mid 60's Supergroup. Odd that with Rod Stewart and Beryl Marsden on board, 50% of their released material should be instrumental! Small Faces Don't Burst My Bubble (audio) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU29_RST49c Totally wild, shake your hips music! The Prisoners used to do a pretty decent cover of this in their Live set. |
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#20 |
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I watched Amazing Journey: The Story Of The Who on BBC2 last Friday night. Although I had seen bits of it before, this was the first time that I had watched the complete film. I have to say, some of the early footage is stunning; what a wild group they were at the peak of their powers, mid 60’s through to early 70’s (?). Surely not many other bands could touch them for ferocity and showmanship at the time?
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#21 |
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Quote:
I watched Amazing Journey: The Story Of The Who on BBC2 last Friday night. Although I had seen bits of it before, this was the first time that I had watched the complete film. I have to say, some of the early footage is stunning; what a wild group they were at the peak of their powers, mid 60’s through to early 70’s (?). Surely not many other bands could touch them for ferocity and showmanship at the time?
I still think they were the best live band ever. I was lucky enough to see them twice in the early 70s, and they were unbelievable. I've seen them recently too, and they still put on a good show. |
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#22 |
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You look at modern corporate metal bands for example and i doubt that Iron Maiden or Metallica have ever released a single that wasn't strategically lifted from a carefully marketed album.
It's also interesting you call both Maiden and Metallica "modern corporate metal bands" considering they were both formed in the 1970s! |
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#23 |
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But then the original idea of releasing a single was for precisely that reason - to promote the associated album!!:
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It's also interesting you call both Maiden and Metallica "modern corporate metal bands" considering they were both formed in the 1970s!
In the context of this thread, they are modern – but I’m glad you find it interesting. |
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#24 |
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Not necessarily, certainly not for the most prolific of groups who recorded singles or EP’s between albums, or simply independent of albums.
In the context of this thread, they are modern – but I’m glad you find it interesting. All bands, whatever their ideals, become, to a certain extent, "Corporate" as soon as they sign on the dotted line, it was true in the 1960s and it's still true today, only the pressure from the record labels today is much more intense, especially in pop music as they see a very limited life-span for any pop artist now. In the 1960s a band with potential was signed and then allowed to develope and build a following, the success was planned for the long term. Where as now, if an artist doesn't have five consecutive number 1 singles, they're dropped by the label, that's why modern pop music is in such an appalling state. Fortunately rock music never really went down the singles route to success, so the bands have been allowed to develope, although there's still the pressure to deliver huge sales consistantly now. |
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