Classic Rock History

Dr. Rob Brosh, Aly Castle, Sarah Wimberley

• Publisher: DDG Publishing
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781647869199
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

Classic Rock History is a new and exciting book for rock music enthusiasts of all ages that enjoy the many rock subgenres that developed over the past 75 years.

Dr. Rob Brosh takes you inside the music of the legendary classic rock artists and bands that changed the course of rock history. From the British Invasion bands to the American Answer, all of rock's subgenres are represented including; heavy metal and hard rock, punk-rock, grunge, alternative rock, country-rock, progressive rock and more. The most influential rock legends, such as Keith Richards and Bruce Springsteen, are profiled as well as various topics and issues connected to rock music. The many colorful illustrations capture the spirt of each rock music style and genre. Have you have ever wondered why Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page used a violin bow on his guitar or why heavy metal became the most popular rock subgenre internationally? Classic Rock History is a must have to expand your rock music knowledge.

Classic Rock History connects you to dozens of rock's groundbreaking albums, hundreds of rock's greatest songs, and gives you an in-depth look at what made rock music the most exciting and evolving combination of subgenres in music history.

Part One: Rock Music

The Evolution of Classic Rock

Chapter One:

The Beatles and The Solo Beatles

The Beatles

By the late 1950’s, rockabilly had lost its appeal with the youth of America, as Elvis moved into movie star mode singing pop ballads. The teen idol movement that had made an impact on rock music was coming to an end. In November of 1963, American culture was in a state of crisis with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The nation was is need of healing and something new musically. This would come from a British band that would create an unprecedented impact on music and culture, both American and worldwide. The rules of rock would soon be rewritten while the music of Elvis, Chuck Berry, and Buddy Holly would be used as inspiration for a new British style that would capture a new generation of rock music fans.

The Beatles (1960-1970) grew out of a combination of musical cultures and styles in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. Based on the British folk music style called skiffle, and the strong influence of Buddy Holly and the Crickets, John Lennon and Paul McCartney formed one of the greatest songwriting teams in rock history. With the final additions of George Harrison and Ringo Starr, The Beatles took America by storm in 1964 at a time of great political and social upheaval. In their relatively short ten-year career, no band in music history achieved such worldwide success and musically evolved in such dramatic fashion. In this chapter we will trace The Beatles evolution in their different phases and then look at the solo careers of the Fab Four. We will also examine the transitional albums of Rubber Soul and Revolver and do a full breakdown of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

The port city of Liverpool, England was home to a thriving, yet different musical scene than that found in London. One significant difference was that London was visited much more frequently by American blues greats such as Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. Meanwhile, the music scene in Liverpool was influenced more by skiffle musicians. Skiffle was a simple style of British folk music that featured guitar or banjo and homemade instruments such as washboard bass and a wooden box. Skiffle drew from simple two and three chord harmonies. It was fairly easy to play and sing basic skiffle folk melodies.

At this same time, a Liverpool resident, sixteen-year-old John Lennon (1940-1980), was intrigued with the sounds of Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly. Lennon, with the help of his mother, Julia, learned to play simple chords on his first guitar. John soon adapted a rebellious image and wore slicked back hair and tight pants. He also heard the single “Rock Island Line” by skiffle singer Lonnie Donegan and was determined to form his own skiffle group with his friends from his school, Quarry Bank High School. Lennon named the band The Quarrymen and they played little gigs around Liverpool. It was then that John was introduced to Paul McCartney (1942-) in 1957 at a Quarrymen gig. Paul was raised in a musical family where his father, Jim, had led a successful society band. He learned to imitate the guitar and vocal styles of Elvis and other rockabilly artists. McCartney also listened to Little Richard and The Everly Brothers. Soon, Paul impressed Lennon with his knowledge of Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, and Little Richards’ tunes. Within a week, McCartney was asked to join the Quarrymen.

Rock Hard Fact

The Beatles had twenty songs go to number one on the American charts and seventeen on the British charts.

The Lennon and McCartney combination found instant chemistry in the Quarrymen. They shared a love for both rock ‘n’ roll music and guitars. They also loved art and language, a sign of what was to come. However, they had very different personalities. John was uninhibited and rebellious while Paul worked to establish a “good boy” image and wanted the approval of authority figures. Their similarities and differences contributed to their strong songwriting relationship but would also eventually contribute to the demise of The Beatles. Lennon and McCartney were also smart and they shared an ability to understand the creative approaches of other musicians and composers. By 1957, Lennon had failed out of Quarry Bank and enrolled in the Liverpool Institute where he joined his bandmate, McCartney. At the Institute, Paul was a model student. Later that year, a younger student and friend of McCartney, George Harrison (1943-2001) began to hang around and sit in with The Quarrymen on guitar. Harrison was also absorbing the sounds of American rock ‘n’ roll, especially Buddy Holly. Harrison soon joined the group. In 1958, tragedy struck when John’s mother, Julia, died when hit by a car. John managed to stay in school and continued to gig with The Quarrymen. He soon met his eventual wife, Cynthia Powell.

The Quarrymen were without a bassist (and drummer), until a fellow student and friend of John, Stu Sutcliffe, bought a bass guitar. Sutcliffe was invited to join the band, although he had no idea how to play. What he did do was suggest a name change to the “Beetles” inspired by Buddy Holly’s “Crickets.” After a short time as “Long John and The Silver Beetles” they settled on The Silver Beatles changing the spelling, a pun on the word beat. In 1960, the still drummer-less Silver Beatles were not very good and did not have a stage act. They were learning to play by covering early rock and skiffle songs. George was defining his role in the band as Sutcliffe was faking the bass, barely getting by. Later that year, The Silver Beatles added drummer Tommy Moore, who was a friend of Sutcliffe. In 1962, the band received an opportunity to play in the rebuilt World War II city of Hamburg, Germany. New drummer Moore was not up to a lengthy engagement out of the country and McCartney quickly asked a local drummer, Pete Best to join the band for its two-month engagement as The Beatles (thus dropping Silver). The demands of a nightly four and a half an hour gig forced the band to develop more material and get its stage act together. Soon, the German police discovered that George was underage to play in clubs and promptly deported him. To compound the problem, The Beatles got into some other minor trouble and soon returned to England. At the same time, Stu Sutcliffe became more interested in painting and less in The Beatles. He was also suffering from severe headaches and soon died of a cerebral hemorrhage. Now without a bassist, Paul quickly moved to become the new bass player in The Beatles.

The Beatles’ early stage repertoire at this point was a healthy mix of Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, The Everly Brothers, and Gene Vincent tunes. They also covered Chuck Berry’s “Too Much Monkey Business,” Hank Williams Sr’s “Hey Good Lookin,” and Ray Charles’s “Hallelujah, I Love Her So” etc… The first of their original songs included the McCartney songs “Tip of My Tongue,” and “Like Dreamers Do,” a Lennon tune “Hello Little Girl,” and a Lennon /McCartney tune “P.S. I Love You.” Thus far, The Beatles had recorded only one original song (it wasn’t released until after their initial success) and one cover. These recordings were the Lennon/McCartney original “In Spite of All the Danger,” and the Buddy Holly cover “That’ll Be the Day.”

Back in Liverpool, The Beatles started a residency at the Cavern Club, owned by Pete Best’s mother, Mona. It was here that they gained a steady following. A local store manager, Brian Epstein (1934-1967), was asked if he sold any Beatles records. That request peaked his interest in The Beatles, who were playing down the street from his store. Epstein befriended the band by going to many of their Cavern Club shows and eventually asked to become their manager in late 1961. He had no managerial experience but quickly learned on the job. However, all of the major record companies including Decca, EMI, and Pye Records rejected Epstein’s proposals to sign The Beatles.

“We were driving through Colorado (in 1971) and we had the radio on and eight of the top ten songs were Beatles songs”

– Bob Dylan

Brian Epstein

Brian Epstein was strongly determined to make The Beatles a success. Epstein created an image for them right from the beginning. He made them give up their leather jackets and jeans and embrace a professional look that started with matching, custom-made velvet collared jackets. They sported narrow pants and what became Beatle boots (Cuban-heeled boots handcrafted by a custom shoemaker). Then came the mop-tops, better known as Beatles cut hairstyles. George Harrison was first to adapt this new “Beatles look,” (started back in the days of their Hamburg residency) and the others soon followed. Epstein also made them behave. He no longer allowed them to smoke, to swear or eat or drink onstage. He made them bow after tunes to appear humble, especially to win over adults who were disapproving of their hairstyles. Epstein was passionate about promoting the band and simple refused to take no for an answer. While they were becoming a sensation in Britain, Epstein had bigger plans; the musical takeover of America.

Epstein flew to New York in November of 1963 looking for American label support. In Britain, Epstein convinced Capitol to release “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (small labels Vee Jay and Swan had released the first three Beatles singles with none making the top 100) and in January of 1964, Epstein also secured a concert date at Carnegie Hall and two appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show. Epstein was successful as over 70 million people saw The Beatles first Sullivan appearance. In return, The Beatles were very loyal to Brian Epstein. In 1963, Epstein had The Beatles unfortunately sign a publishing contract with Northern Songs. This publishing company only gave Lennon and McCartney twenty percent each and Epstein nine percent of the publishing rights to their tunes. Epstein was very busy managing The Beatles schedule between 1963 and 1965. After what would be their last live concert, held in 1966 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, Epstein pressured The Beatles to continue touring but they refused.

Brian Epstein died of an alcohol and sleeping pill overdose in August 1967. He will always be remembered for his aggressive and unwavering ambition that broke The Beatles wide open to the whole world. Brian Epstein was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014.

The Beatles returned again to Hamburg for a seven-week engagement at the Star club, a new rock venue. They honed their stage act playing four hours a night, seven nights a week. While The Beatles were still in Hamburg, Brian Epstein set up a meeting with Parlophone Records, a subsidiary of EMI. George Martin (1926-2016), the head of Parlophone, liked Epstein but was unimpressed with the quality of the demo that Epstein provided. Martin was looking to make Parlophone a respectable and successful label. Martin was intrigued with The Beatles and was thinking about signing them, since he had come to believe in their potential. However, he was unsure of what to do with them in terms of material. In June of 1962, Martin had The Beatles play through some of their repertoire and finalized an offer for a contract to record four songs over a one-year period. Later that summer, the band decided that Pete Best was not working out both personally and musically. Brian Epstein fired Best and replaced him with Richard Starkey, aka Ringo Starr (1940-).

Ringo Starr had first started out in a skiffle band called Rory and the Hurricanes. He received the nickname, Ringo, because he wore so many rings. Rory and the Hurricanes were well known around Liverpool and Hamburg. Ringo began to hang out with The Beatles in Hamburg and by August of 1962, The Beatles were complete with Ringo in place. He soon got his own Beatle haircut and shaved his beard to fit into the band’s image. The first original songs in The Beatles’ repertoire were not profound lyrically but were very simple and musically inventive. The Beatles worked within the conventions of the standard pop market but often added different chord changes. They experimented with key shifts that they learned from their various musical influences. Early Beatles songs were not about personal life events and they knew their lyrics didn’t possess much meaning or depth. Soon, they would expand their inf...