A Watershed In 1960s Rock Music

[randyz]

Roy: Wasn't Sandie's song called 'Puppet On A String'? I was just listening to that a few days ago.

[leftyguitars]

To any European forum members, please don't take offence at my last posting. I meant governments not individual people. (Apart from the French that is! - just kidding)

[leftyguitars]

Yes, Puppet on a String. She was one of my first loves (not in real life unfortunately).

[randyz]

Sandie's gimmick was singing barefooted. I have video of her rehearsing a 'Ready Steady Go!' performance of 'Long Live Love' before an empty studio. The camera makes repeated pans of the empty dance floor (just like it will during the actual show) and Sandie walks around on the rostrum looking disinterested while miming the song. It's quite odd.

[royclough]

Yes as Peter say it was Puppet On A String though years later she said she hated the song and that was two of us.

[sowhat]

That's lovely, Peter! Mean, you probably should have heard what do they say about Eurovision here... okay, Russia never won the contest - Ukraine did. Once...

[leftyguitars]

Wait 'til you hear the "gem" we have this year!

[leftyguitars]

I can hear it already "Royaume-Uni Nullpunkte"

[sowhat]

Heh... i've seen it only once - right the year when Ukraine won... twas quite enough for me...

[admin]

Just as unique and treasured driftwood finds its home on distant shores, so too have many interesting comments found their way here in this discussion of Liverpool's role in the British Invasion.

Whilst the nexus of the Invasion may never be known, different perspectives have emerged herein that have allowed myself, and I hope others, to savour thoughts on this important subject that we did not have before. Regrettably, time does not afford a detailed analysis, but I will comment on as many points as I am able until the incoming tide forces me to rush for safer ground.


The Port As Musical Hub

The role of Liverpool as a port and destination for incoming resources is nicely pointed out by Brian Medway. I concur that this was a factor, even though shipping records seem to provide us with information that the Docks were beginning to be less travelled as the 1960s were in full swing. This quantitative viewpoint, however, ignores the importance in chance meetings that were so common as sailors and merchants made their way to shore. Surely, such qualitative experiences had an impact on Merseyside and the surrounding area.

As we are all keenly aware, a single record or used instrument has many times wet the appetite of a budding young performer who would go on to fame and fortune. A visitor to a new club requesting a song, performing on stage or leaving his congratulations behind are all events that have inadvertently reinforced thoughts of a young performer that hitherto lay just beneath the surface of consciousness. There is no accounting for the cognitive driftwood that gently nudges the creativity of those who had resigned themselves to a lot in life that was beneath their calling.



The Competitive Spirit

Even the briefest look at the history of Liverpool allows the interested reader to appreciate that there were many challenges to its people with regard to housing, employment and education. Just one look at the Liverpool Football Club, reminds us that "Liverpool loves a trier." It is just this sort of competitive spirit that I consider enabled Liverpool artists to dig in and get to work where others would have thrown in the towel.

It would certainly seem that the Irish influence had a role to play here, as there was a toughness and fighting spirit that pervaded their lives that stood them in good stead in any number of activities of daily living. Brian Medway makes mention of Liverpool artists wanting to better previous music and I consider that this desire stemmed from a competitive flame that burned more brightly in this northern port from the moment that the Irish community crossed the gangplank. Certainly much more needs to be said about the Irish influence in the success of Merseyside groups.


Isolation Fosters Resourcefulness

Brain Medway has also touched on a topic that would seem to be central to the success of Liverpool groups. The distinct lack of resources forced these young musicians to make do with what they had. They were required to do more with less and as such become innovative in the manner in which they performed. While speculative, "making do" I would argue, lead to radically different arrangements and original compositions. Roy Clough considers that there was a raw quality of sound with the groups, at least as far as The Shadows were concerned. At the end of the day, this led to fresher, never material with a raw edge that become just noticeably different from the sound of America. The stage was set for the inevitable, an Invasion.

I also believe that Mike Guitarez has hit the nail on the head with his comment that British lyrics were comparatively more expressive than those being written in the United States at the time. The affluent writing machines in America could not match the freshness of the individual composers of Liverpool who were facing hard times. The writers of blues once had this same edge, perhaps for similar reasons, but big business became the order of the day and song writing think tanks and studio musicians certainly wrote from a different perspective.


A Flash In The Pan

That the British Invasion, the Beatles excepted, left quickly on the same high tide in which it arrived is of particular interest to me. Did the Beatles, after the mid 1960s, become something other that the British Invasion? After all, they still dominated the charts. Were they now "owned" by the world rather than Liverpool as they travelled extensively, and moved away to cosmopolitan southern England and beyond? To me the Invasion continued until 1969.

Sheena Colvin and Mike Guitarez have commented in a manner that suggests that this rising high in April and shot down in May roller coaster is typical and expected in the music industry. Part of the business if you will. Peter Levett's comments are along similar lines and he characterizes the Invasion as a unique and creative period that has come and gone. Surely the Liverpool groups were "destined to fade" but it is to be remembered that The Beatles were counted out of the picture for several years before it was the case. Actually, have they ever been out of the picture?


Birds Of A Feather

Roy Clough has made the interesting observation that the emergence of "the group" was a rather unique event that separated the British performers from the solo artists of the United States. I consider that this was a salient factor in the success of the British acts. There is something about the commradarie of a group that has considerable appeal to the adolescent consumers, as there is considerable focus on social interactions at this time. The groups were different and generated more interest in that there were more details to be learned about the act and moreover, the whole was greater than the sum of the parts when it came to performing and recording.

The Shadows were out of the box first when it came to the stereotypic group, however, most of their instrumental music was covers of other songs and there was limited original work at first and very few vocals. Cliff Richard added to their success only in the beginning, but at the same time. Cliff seems to have been more successful when he was associated with a group rather than a solo act, at least in America.


Talent Of A Lifetime

There remains the possiblity that unique talents emerge once in a blue moon that standout above the crowd. The Beatles might be a strong argument for this theory. Peter Levett touches upon tis idea, only fleetingly, maintaining that newer technology has "killed individual creativeness." In a similar vein, Gary Wilkinson credits the success the of Brtisih Invasion, at least in part, to the "skill and style of recording engineers." There can be little doubt that producers such as George Martin and recording engineers of the day were breaking new ground when capturing the original material of The Beatles. The quality of the recordings put the Beatles and other Liverpool artists ahead of the pack and had American sit up and take notice.


Early Musical Influences

Robert McLean considers that some of the success of Liverpool and other United Kingdom groups is to be found in the roots of this sound, skiffle music. This seems a fair statement. While Skiffle was very short lived, it was one of several platforms that allowed Invasion groups to springboard to the next level. That Lonnie Donegan's Rock Island Line had an influence on groups such as The Beatles is well documented.

It is considered that there is also room here for the Irish influence in the music of Liverpool. The Irish drinking songs were well known to Liverpudlians and the emotions they stirred were evident to any who visited the many pubs in the City. The pubs and cellar clubs become the venues and testing grounds for new groups trying to make a living and a name for themselves. The aggressive nature of the music and pubs in concert with orignal compositions and coupled the spirit of the Irish was to become an unbeatable formula for success.

I am grateful for all your comments as each one of you has given me something else to think about and to challenge my own views of the role of Liverpool in the British Invasion.

[royclough]

A very well written piece as always from our leader but I feel I need to take issue with the comment regarding The Shadows,their albums may have contained, in some instances, their versions of previously released songs but their singles were most certainly not, of 25 hits in the sixties alone only one, a rare vocal release for them, had been previously recorded. Being pedantic Apache was originally recorded by Bert "play in a day" Weedon( in fact can I get a refund I wonder on his book, I still can't play 45 years on) but The Shadows got their version out first.

Cliff Richard did not have any success in US till 1976 long after he and The Shadows had parted company.


Whilst much is made of the fact Liverpool was a port and had access to records brought in, even if you lived like I did in Bradford nowhere near a port thanks to Radio Luxembourg one heard the new sounds and I am certain many a group also heard these tracks that became part of their repertoire this way. The Beatles being an exception as they were able to write their own songs though whilst I never saw them play in Liverpool of course I believe their act did not really consist of many of their own songs, mainly ones associated with American acts.

When the Shadows hit the big time loads of groups were signed to record deals and released instrumentals but few caught the public imagination. This parallel to me is what happened to the plethora of Liverpool bands that were offered deals, record companies hoped that one of them would emulate the success The Beatles were having.

[admin]

Thanks for your comments Roy, I appreciate you setting the record straight with regard to the Shadows.

Also, the role of Radio Luxemborg is also important to note. Radio Nord and Sud also had a significant impact on the UK audience.

Good point that some groups clearly "overshadowed" others. In Canada, I had always assumed that Bachelor Boy and Summer Holiday were significant for Cliff who I perceived was in a group at the time with The Shadows. I suppose it is a toss up whether Cliff made the Shadows famous or vice versa.