British rhythm and blues
British rhythm and blues | |
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Stylistic origins | |
Cultural origins | Late 1950s – early 1960s, United Kingdom |
Derivative forms | |
Other topics | |
British rhythm and blues (or R&B) was a musical movement that developed in the United Kingdom between the late 1950s and the early 1960s, and reached a peak in the mid-1960s. It overlapped with, but was distinct from, the broader British beat and more purist British blues scenes, attempting to emulate the music of American blues and rock and roll pioneers, such as Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. It often placed greater emphasis on guitars and was often played with greater energy.
The origins of the movement were in the
Several of the bands and their members went on to become leading rock music performers of the late 1960s and early 1970s, helping to create psychedelic, progressive and hard rock and making rhythm and blues a key component of that music. In the mid to late-1970s, British R&B enjoyed a revival through the British soul and disco scenes, the pub rock circuit, new wave music and the mod revival, and has enjoyed a resurgence of interest since the late 1980s. In the 2000s, a British version of contemporary R&B began gaining popularity, and since the late 2000s the success of British female singers influenced by soul and R&B led to talk of another "R&B British invasion".
Characteristics
Commentators often distinguish British rhythm and blues bands from beat bands (who were influenced by rock and roll and rockabilly) on the one hand, and, from "purist" British blues (which particularly emulated Chicago electric blues artists), on the other, although there was considerable crossover between the three sets of musicians.[1] Merseybeat bands like the Beatles, or from the parallel beat scene in Manchester, were influenced by American forms of music that included rockabilly, girl groups and the early Motown sound, helping them to produce commercial orientated form of music that began to dominate the British charts from 1963. However, bands from the developing London club scene were mainly concerned to emulate black rhythm and blues performers, including the work of Chess Records' blues artists like Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, but also wider rhythm and blues singer and rock and roll pioneers like Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley resulting in a "rawer" or "grittier" sound.[1]
British rhythm and blues differed in tone from that of American artists, often with more emphasis on guitars and sometimes with greater energy.
Nick Logan and Bob Woffinden noted that after the split of Blues Incorporated at the end of 1962, four main strands could be discerned in British Rhythm and Blues. Cyril Davies left to attempt to recreate the Chicago electric blues of Muddy Waters.
History
Origins
In the early 1950s blues music was largely known in Britain through blues-influenced
Outside of recordings, occasional radio broadcasts were one of the few ways that British people could become familiar with the blues. A one-off broadcast by Josh White while he was visiting Britain in 1951 was so popular that he was asked to perform for a series of programmes for the BBC, eventually titled The Glory Road and broadcast in 1952. Later that year, folk song collector Alan Lomax, then resident in London, produced a series of three programmes under the title The Art of the Negro, of last of which, "Blues in the Mississippi Night" featured folk blues recordings by artists including Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson and John Lee Hooker and was the first introduction of many later followers of the blues to the music and hardships of life for African Americans in the Southern US. The next year the Jazz Club programme, hosted by Max Jones, included a recital of "Town and Country Blues", which played music by a wide range of blues artists.[12]
Jazz
The British rhythm and blues scene developed in London out of the related jazz, skiffle and
British trad jazz band-leader Chris Barber was one of the major figures in the development and popularisation of rhythm and blues in Britain the 1950s. His interest in the blues would help foster both the skiffle craze and the development of electric rhythm and blues, as members of his dance band would be fundamental to both movements. He founded the National Jazz League partly as a means of popularising the blues, served as co-director of the National Jazz Federation and helped establish the Marquee Club, which would become one of the major venues for British R&B bands. He also brought over American folk and blues performers who found they were much better known and paid in Europe than America, a series of tours that began with Josh White and Big Bill Broonzy in 1951, and would include Brownie McGhee, Sonny Terry, Memphis Slim, Muddy Waters and Lonnie Johnson.[12]
Skiffle
Lonnie Johnson played at the
Folk
Until the mid-1950s in Britain the blues was seen as a form of folk music. When Broonzy toured England he played a
The more traditional American folk blues continued to provide 1960s British groups with material, particularly after the emergence of
Development
Blues Incorporated
Blues harpist
Blues Incorporated had a fluid line up and became a clearing house for British rhythm and blues musicians in the later 1950s and early 1960s. These included future members of the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, Manfred Mann and the Kinks;[1] beside Graham Bond and Long John Baldry.[30] As well as acting as a mentor to these figures and others, including John Mayall and Jimmy Page,[32] Korner was also a historian, writer and record collector pivotal in the growth of the movement, and often referred to as "the father of British blues".[33] Blues Incorporated established a regular "Rhythm and Blues Night" at the Ealing Jazz Club and were given a residency at the Marquee Club, from which in 1962 they took the name of the first British blues album, R&B from the Marquee (Decca), but Korner and Davies had split over the issue of including horn sections in the Blues Incorporated sound before its release.[30] Korner continued with various line-ups for Blues Incorporated, while Davies went on to form his R&B All Stars.[1]
Expansion of the scene
Early British rhythm and blues bands like Blues Incorporated found that folk clubs would not accept amplified blues performances.
From 1962 demand for blues recordings in Britain and Europe led to new outlets for American recordings, Chicago recordings that were now available included
Peak
1964 was the year of most rapid expansion and the peak of the British R&B boom.[42] It has been estimated that there were 300 rhythm and blues bands in England at the beginning of the year and over 2,000 by the end.[38] In June 1964 John Lee Hooker's 1956 "Dimples" reached number 23 on the UK charts during a stay of 10 weeks.[43] The song was chosen by the Spencer Davis Group as their May 1964 debut single and the Animals covered it on their first album. Howling Wolf's "Smokestack Lightning", released in the UK by Pye International Records that year, peaked at number 42 in the singles chart[44] and was covered by the Yardbirds, Manfred Mann, the Animals and the Who.[45] On 5 December 1964 the Rolling Stones version of Willie Dixon's "Little Red Rooster", based on Howlin' Wolf's 1961 version and recorded at Chess Records in Chicago, topped the UK chart for one week.[46] Willie Dixon-penned songs would continue to be covered by British artists.[47]
Major acts
The Rolling Stones
The most commercially successful act in the genre, were the Rolling Stones.[48] Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, who had renewed their childhood association after discovering a shared interest in R&B records, were introduced to guitarist Brian Jones through Alexis Korner, after a Blues Incorporated gig at the Ealing Jazz Club.[39] Blues Incorporated contained two other future members of the Rolling Stones: Ian Stewart and Charlie Watts.[49] Formed in London in 1962, Jones took their name from a track on the cover of a Muddy Waters album and they abandoned blues purism before their line-up solidified to focus on a wide range of rhythm and blues artists. They debuted at The Marquee and soon gained a residency at the Crawdaddy Club, building up a reputation as a live act.[48] They signed a recording contract with Decca and their first single was a cover of Chuck Berry's "Come On" released in June 1963. Despite its being virtually unpromoted by the band or the record company, their reputation among R&B fans helped it reached number 21 on the UK singles chart.[50]
They produced their first album, The Rolling Stones, in 1964, which largely consisted of rhythm and blues standards. Following in the wake of the Beatles' national and then international success, the Rolling Stones established themselves as the second most popular UK band and joined the British Invasion of the American record charts as leaders of a second wave of R&B oriented bands.[48] In addition to Chicago blues numbers, the Rolling Stones also covered songs by Chuck Berry and Bobby and Shirley Womack, the latter's, "It's All Over Now", giving them their first UK number one in 1964.[51] After the success of their cover of "Little Red Rooster" in 1964, the song-writing partnership between Jagger and Richards gradually began to dominate the band's output, giving them their breakthrough international hit "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction (1965), a song which borrowed phrases and rhythms from R&B standards, and would be covered by both Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin.[46] The importance of the writing partnership contributed to the marginalisation of Jones and marked a shift away from R&B material. They would investigate a series of new musical styles in their long career, but blues songs and influences continued to surface in the Rolling Stones' music.[1]
Other London bands
Other London-based bands that pursued a similar course to the Rolling Stones included the Yardbirds, the Kinks, the Downliners Sect, the Pretty Things, Gary Farr and the T-Bones and Pink Floyd.[1] The Yardbirds began as the Metropolis Blues Quartet. By 1963 they had acquired Eric Clapton as a lead guitarist and were acting as the backing band for Sonny Boy Williamson on his British tour. They earned a formidable reputation as a live act, developing frantic improvised guitar–harmonica "rave-ups", but they enjoyed only modest success with singles based on R&B covers. In 1965 they cut the more pop-oriented single "For Your Love", which made the top 10 in the UK and US, but the move away from the blues prompted Clapton to quit the band for a stint with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and then to form Cream. His replacement Jeff Beck (and eventually his replacement Jimmy Page), saw the band enjoy a series of transatlantic hits and to go on to become pioneers of psychedelic rock.[52]
After an early lack of success with R&B standards, the Kinks enjoyed their breakthrough with the single "
The Downliners Sect formed in 1963, and developed a strong reputation in London clubs, but had less commercial success than many of their contemporaries.
Provincial groups
Bands to emerge from other major British cities included
Mod groups
The British Mod subculture, which was at its height in 1965 and 1966, was musically centred on rhythm and blues and later
Jazz-influenced acts
Among more jazz-influenced acts the Organisation were led by
African-Caribbean and Afro-American artists
A number of visiting black stars became part of the British R&B scene. These included
The most significant and successful visiting artist was
Solo artists
A number of solo artists who emerged from the British R&B scene would go on to highly successful careers in the later 1960s and 1970s. These included Long John Baldry, Rod Stewart and Elton John. After the dissolution of Blues Incorporated in 1962 Long John Baldry joined the Cyril Davies R&B All Stars, and after Davies' death in early 1964 took over leadership of the group, renaming it Long John Baldry and His Hoochie Coochie Men. The band featured Rod Stewart as a second vocalist, with whom Baldry formed short lived proto-supergroup Steampacket in 1965. Baldry moved on to front Bluesology, which had originally been formed as an R&B band in 1962 by teenage keyboardist Reggie Dwight, later better known as Elton John. Baldry enjoyed his greatest success with pop ballads, beginning with "Let the Heartaches Begin" (1967), which reached number one in Britain, but, despite supporting the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, he remained virtually unknown outside of the UK.[72] After Steampacket dissolved in 1966, Rod Stewart joined blues-rock combo Shotgun Express and then the Jeff Beck Group, and when that broke up in 1969 he moved on to the Small Faces, which became the Faces, and also began to pursue his solo career, mixing R&B with rock and folk, to become one of the most successful British solo artists of the 1970s.[73] Elton John, taking his first name from Bluesology saxophonist Elton Dean and his last from John Baldry, formed a partnership with lyricist Bernie Taupin in 1968 and after writing hits for major pop artists embarked on a solo career that would be the most commercially successful of the early 1970s and one of the most sustained in pop music.[74]
British blues boom
The wider rhythm and blues boom overlapped, both chronologically and in terms of personnel, with the later and more narrowly focused British blues boom. The blues boom began to come to prominence in the mid-1960s as the rhythm and blues movement began to peter out leaving a nucleus of instrumentalists with a wide knowledge of blues forms and techniques.[1][42] Central to the blues boom were John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, who began to gain national and international attention after the release of Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (Beano) album (1966), considered one of the seminal British blues recordings.[75] Peter Green started a "second great epoch of British blues",[76] as he replaced Clapton in the Bluesbreakers after Clapton's departure to form Cream.
In 1967, after one record with the Bluesbreakers, Green, with the Bluesbreakers' rhythm section
Decline
By 1967 most of the surviving major British R&B acts had moved away from covers and R&B-inspired music to psychedelic rock, and from there they would shift into new subgenres. Some, like
Revivals
British R&B continued to be played in the
1970s
With the rise of
1980s
Paul Weller broke up the Jam in 1982 and formed the Style Council, who abandoned most of the elements of punk to adopt music much more based in R&B and early soul.[93] Some major figures of the movement, including Robert Palmer[94] and Steve Winwood, re-emerged as solo artists in the early 1980s, being as defined as blue-eyed soul singers.[95]
During the 1980s and 1990s, musicians, particularly African Americans, mixed pop with disco like beats and high tech electronic production to produce the new genre of contemporary R&B, adding elements of other genres, including funk, hip hop, and soul music.[96]
1990s
2000s–2010s
In the 2000s, British artists began to enjoy success with the genre, including
Significance
Because of the very different circumstances from which they came, and in which they played, the rhythm and blues produced by British artists was very different in tone from that created by African Americans, often with more emphasis on guitars and sometimes with greater energy.[1] They have been criticised for exploiting the massive catalogue of African American music, but it has also been noted that they both popularised that music, bringing it to British, world and in some cases American audiences, and helping to build the reputation of existing and past rhythm and blues artists.[1] In order to sustain their careers most British R&B artists soon moved on from recording and performing American standards to writing and recording their own music.[1] Many from the 60s helped pioneer psychedelic, and eventually progressive, hard rock and heavy metal, mixing in elements of world, folk and classical music. Others from the 1970s and 1980s, helped shape new wave and post-punk music and had a major impact on later genres, including Britpop.[89] As a result, British rhythm and blues has been a major component of the sound of rock music.[1]
UK chart hits
This table lists recordings by British groups that made Record Retailer magazine's chart in the early 1960s, of material previously recorded by American rhythm and blues musicians:[106]
See also
Notes
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- ISBN 0-7546-5580-6, pp. 22 and 49.
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- ^ ISBN 1-84353-519-X, pp. 62–3.
- ^ ISBN 0-415-97160-8, p. 98.
- ^ ISBN 0-7546-3282-2, pp. 69–80.
- ISBN 1-86105-140-9.
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- ^ ISBN 0-352-39715-2, pp. 61–2.
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- ISBN 0-7894-9998-3, p. 137.
- ^ R. Unterberger, "The Yardbirds", AllMusic. Retrieved 16 July 2010.
- ^ Thomas M. Kitts (23 January 2008). Ray Davies: Not Like Everybody Else. Routledge. p. 41.
- ^ S. T. Erlewine, "The Kinks", AllMusic. Retrieved 18 July 2010.
- ^ R. Unterberger, "Downliners Sect", AllMusic. Retrieved 30 July 2010.
- ^ R. Unterberger, "The Pretty Things", AllMusic. Retrieved 18 July 2010.
- ISBN 0-85965-431-1, p. 66.
- ^ D. Hatch and S. Millward, From Blues to Rock: an Analytical History of Pop Music (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1987), p. 102.
- ^ R. Unterberger, "Them", AllMusic. Retrieved 18 July 2010.
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- ^ D. Hatch and S. Millward, From Blues to Rock: an Analytical History of Pop Music (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1987), p. 105.
- ISBN 0-352-39715-2, p. 104.
- ISBN 0-313-33845-0, p. 218.
- ISBN 0-7486-1745-0, p. 64.
- ISBN 1-85109-431-8, p. 154.
- ^ ISBN 0-7546-5580-6, p. 242.
- ISBN 1-84353-229-8, pp. 13–4.
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- ^ S. T. Erlewine, "The Style Council", AllMusic. Retrieved 25 July 2010.
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- ^ ISBN 0-8078-4482-9, p. 275.
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- ^ Lynch, Joe (1 May 2019). "2019 Billboard Music Awards Winners: The Complete List". Billboard.
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External links
- The Mod Generation: "The Rhythm and Blues Scene" – essay by Robert Nicholls.