Static Live Magazine November 2020

BLUE AND BRITS By David Dequasie
40
When one mentions the term ‘The British
Invasion’ of the early ‘60’s, a few artists immediately
come to mind:The Rolling Stones,
The Beatles, The Yardbirds, etc. To the less
well rounded listener, it might be assumed
that these bands were creators of a new style
of rock and roll. This is hardly the case,
although their sense of folk-like melodies
and use of nicely arranged vocal harmonies
may have been more advanced than American
groups, to what they really owed their
sound was American blues. How were these
young musicians exposed to a form of music
from another country....a category of music
played mainly by African Americans who
were then abandoning the form?
It really comes down to just a few names and
circumstances.1950’s England was somewhat
of a hot spot when it came to dance
halls and its bands playing a tame and unexplorative
type of jazz. Not exactly inspiring
for most teenagers. Add to that, by the end
of the decade, rock and roll was headed to
a downfall. Buddy Holly had died, Elvis
had been drafted, and other popular figures
seemed to be going through a slump. Enter
Alexis Korner and John Mayall: the first
‘bluesmen’ of England to get band bookings
in the smaller jazz joints. This wasn’t polite,
watered down horn band music or happy,
bouncy rock and roll. This was some gritty,
deep grooving nastiness - the kind of music
that reminded the post World War II
generation that things weren’t alright in
the world. Alexis Korner even hosted radio
shows exposing the real deal American
blues to virgin British ears.
Inspired by the wailing cries of the originators,
it didn’t take long for the guitar to
replace the saxophone in small combos.
John Mayall can be thanked here for letting
his lead guitarists crank up their amps on
stage as well as the recording studio so that
the amp would distort and provide some
singing sustain. Now we had the first guitar
heroes, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Peter Green,
Mick Taylor, and Jimmy Page.
The blues isn’t the most difficult music to
get a handle on, and was nicely accessible
as well to those who weren’t virtuosos, The
Rolling Stones were gigging steady sticking
entirely to blues covers as well as providing
plenty of tunes for many other bands to fill
their set lists. Ringo Starr once said that if
you want to hear The Beatles really playing
as a live band on record, listen to Yer Blues.
The bass sound on that song is the meanest
that Paul McCartney has ever sounded.
The list of British rock bands fueled by the
blues is enormous. Fleetwood Mac, Foghat,
Deep Purple, Free, and so many other favorites,
all have to thank the American artists.
At the same time we can thank the Brits for
bringing attention to this great music so that
the early bluesmen will not be forgotten.
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