Month: May 2024

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Folk rock, country rock & blues rock (History of rock after 1960 2/6)

Bob Dylan (2011) Photo by Kevin Winter

The revolution in music in Western Europe had a huge impact in the US. Until the early 1960s, folk, surf music and the Nashville sound were dominant musical styles there. Almost overnight, these genres faded into the background in favour of music imported from Western Europe; only the ‘Motown sound, managed to hold its own. Talk was therefore of the ‘British Invasion’. The ‘Beatles’ performance on the Ed Sullivan Show (1964) was the starting point. You can see this performance HERE.

A much better picture of the Beatles’ reception in the US is provided by the following recording of their performance at the Washington Coliseum a few days after the Ed Sullivan show. The group sang five of his well-known songs. Remarkably, they more or less had to build the stage themselves.

Many members of (future) folk-rock acts, such as ‘Byrds’, ‘Jefferson Airplane’, ‘Lovin’ Spoonful’, ‘Mamas & Papas’ and ‘Buffalo Springfield’, also turned away from traditional folk music in 1964 and 1965. The careers of Chubby Checker, Ricky Nelson, Fats Domino, Everly Brothers and ‘Elvis Presley’ suffered (temporary) damage. The British invasion also influenced the style of garage bands. Their numbers also increased to an estimated 180,000 bands, of which at most a few thousand did record at one time or another. 

A US reaction to the British invasion was not absent. American artists blended the sounds of existing embattled genres with European ‘rock’ influences. 

From ‘folk’ to ‘folk rock’

In the early 1960s, ‘rock’ and ‘folk’ were separate genres, with their own audiences and festivals. ‘Folk’ as a genre – poetic songs accompanied by acoustic instruments – totally snowballed in the 1960s as a result of the ‘British Invasion’, which temporarily established the hegemony of Beatles and Rolling Stones and related groups and artists in the US. But several former ‘folk’ singers struck back. They mixed the existing ‘folk’ repertoire with rock, including the use of electric guitars and drums. One inspiration was the group ‘the Animals’ who turned the acoustic lament ‘House of the rising sun’ into an archetypal folk-rock song. Precursors in the US of ‘folk rock’ were the Byrds and Bob Dylan. The latter indicated that the rock version of ‘House of the rising sun’ had motivated him to perform with electric instruments.

The first folk-rock song of American origin was ‘Mr Tambourine Man’, a composition by Bob Dylan, sung here by the Byrds in 1965. In turn, the Byrds influenced countless other artists such as ‘the Mamas & the Papas’, Simon & Garfunkel and Sonny & Cher.

Compare the folkrock version HERE with the acoustic version sung by Melanie in 1968. 

Bob Dylan’s metamorphosis can be heard on his album ‘Bringing it all back home’. On 7 of the 11 tracks, he is accompanied by a band with electronic instruments. On his later albums, such as ‘Like a rolling stone’, he continued this trend, much to the dismay of some of his original fans, who made no secret of it during performances. I now play two songs from the album ‘Bringing it all back home’. 

Acoustic is ‘It’s all over now, baby blue’, live at the Newport folk festival:

Next you can watch and listen to Maggie’s farm, a solid rock version. Dylan sang this version at the same edition of the Newport folk festival. Bob Dylan achieved great fame as a folk singer, think of songs like ‘Blowin’ on the wind’ and ‘The times they are changing’.  Less well known is that Dylan was a lover of rock & roll from a young age. In 1965, he decided to manifest it as such. According to exegetes, when he sings ‘I don’t want to work on Maggie’s farm anymore’, Maggie’s farm symbolizes the folk music scene. Listen to ‘Maggie’s farm’ here, including the booing at the end.

To this day, a significant group of fans of original ‘folk’ and ‘country’ music has continued to exist, outside the US too. This genre is called Americana or ‘roots music’. Examples include The Band, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young as well as Ry Cooder and Bonnie Raitt. Another example is the Dutch group ‘CCC Incorporated’. You can hear a recording of the latter here.

From ‘country’ to ‘country rock’

‘Country music’ also suffered badly during the ‘British invasion’.  But many songs by artists like Hank Williams and Merle Haggard remained popular, and their popularity increased again when a dose of ‘rock’ was added. After Gram Parsons joined the Byrds, the group turned to country rock and songs like ‘Sweetheart of the rodeo’ and ‘You ain’t going nowhere’ were considered prime examples of this genre. 

Here you can watch and listen but the latter song (1968):

In the 1970s, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt became performers at respite from this genre. So did John Denver and Neil Young. Members of Ronstadt’s backing band later continued under the name ‘Eagles‘ continued the tradition.

From ‘blues’ to ‘blues rock’

In the development of blues rock, there was no one-way traffic between the US and Britain. As early as 1958, the American blues guitarist Muddy Waters toured Europe (see my exploration of the development of the blues in the US) and, especially in Britain, this led to a true blues boom. This inspired among others the members of the (future) Rolling Stones, Cream, Animals, Yardbirds, Kinks, Who and others. All these bands added a ‘rock twist’ to it.  Their music became so popular in the US in the second half of the 1960s that one could speak of a second British invasion. The blues rock was fiercer and louder that the beat music that was starting to sound dated. In the US, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Canned Heat and the Doors were the first exponents of this new genre.  The members of these the bands often played long solos during performances, following the blues. 

Here, Canned Heat plays ‘On the road again’

Blues rock was getting louder and louder, moving towards heavy metal. I will come back to this in a subsequent post. However, there were also bands that stayed closer to the traditional blues genre. In the 1980s, these included, for example, ‘the Fabulous thunderbirds’ and ‘Stevie Ray Vaughan’.

In the above, we see the dichotomy emerging between ‘soft rock’ and ‘hard rock’. Folk rock and country rock were the basis for soft rock. The emphasis was on harmonic melodies. Key artists were, Carole King, Cat Stevens, James Taylor. Commercial highlights were provided by Fleetwood Mac and Billy Joel.

Hard rock was fiercer, mainly featured repetitive ‘runs’ and distortion of the sound and joined blues rock. This genre had numerous variations from the 1960s onwards, ranging from acid rock, metal, pink and grunge. International successes were mainly achieved by Queen, Thin Lizzy, Aerosmith, AC/DC and Van Halen.

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Early 1960s: Beatlemania (history of rock after 1960 1/6)

‘Rock & Roll’ caused a furore in the period 1940 – 1960. Initially played and sung by ‘black’ musicians, later white singers gained the upper hand.  The genre spread worldwide, thanks also to the polish the record industry applied to it. This alienated young people who felt more attracted to the catchy melodies and rhythms of the thousands of skifflegroups with their simple instrumentation. Their great example in the late 1950s was Lonnie Donegan. One such skifflegroups were the ‘Quarrymen’ from Liverpool, and when they picked up the pace and called themselves Beatles, the ‘Merseybeat sound’ spread around the world at lightning speed. 

The Beatles left behind an extensive body of work, consisting of 12 albums and a string of singles. The first five albums represent the ‘Merseybeat sound’: ‘With the Beatles’ (1963), ‘Please, please me’ (1963), ‘Meet the Beatles’ (1964), ‘A hard day’s night’ (1964) and ‘Help’ (1965). You can watch and listen to ‘It’s a hard day’s night’ here, sung not by the Beatles themselves, but by the Dutch cover group, ‘The Analogues’. 

Those who still prefer to listen to the real Beatles and take in the enthusiasm of thousands of fans singing along can find a recording of ‘It’s a hard day’s night’ HERE.

The performance of the Beatles and many other British groups in clubs in Hamburg contributed greatly to the ‘sound’ and breakthrough of the new genre. The musical revolution affected not only professional groups such as ‘Gerry & the Pacemakers’, ‘Searchers’, ‘Freddie & the Dreamers’, ‘Herman Hermits’ and ‘Hollies’, among others, but also thousands of amateur groups who played the music of their idols or wrote their own songs. A phenomenon that resembled the American ‘garage bands’ I will come to write about. Singers like Dusty Springfield, Cilla Black and Petula Clark were also influenced by the new musical style.

The Netherlands had an early professional scene – Nederbeat – with groups like ‘Outsiders‘, ‘Q65‘, ‘Motions‘, ‘Shocking Blue‘ and, of course, ‘Golden Earring’. ‘Golden Earring’ made music continuously and in the same line-up from 1961. Only when George Kooymans fell seriously ill in 2021, the band decided to stop immediately.

Here is an (acoustic) recording of ‘Just a little bit of peace in my heart’. A song from 1968, which the group played until its last performances, and which has been continuously on the Dutch Radio 2 top 2000 since 1999 (2023: place 599). George Kooymans wrote this song after the end of his relationship with Melanie Gerritsen. He regretted it terribly and fortunately for him, she came back to him a year later.  They married and eventually celebrated their golden wedding anniversary together.

One of the most distinctive features of ‘beat music’ is its driving character, which is caused by the first three beats of each bar having an equal emphasis and the fourth beat having a distinctive ‘backbeat’.

It was not only ‘Merseybeat’ that set the tone. Some groups were more strongly influenced by American rhythm & blues, also because of direct contacts with musicians there. These included “Rolling Stones”, “Yardbirds”, “Spencer Davis group”, “Moody Blues”, “Animals“, “Them” and “Kinks“. 

Here is a 1965 recording of the very young ‘Rolling Stones’ with ‘I can get no satisfaction’. 

In many places, young people were also making music themselves. It was referred to as ‘garage rock’ because the usually young musicians practiced in the garages of their parents’ houses. Garage rock songs often revolved around the traumas of high school life, such as lying girls and unfair teachers. 

Here just a ‘random’ garage rock song in some venue. What rarely happened: This little band became famous and later called themselves ‘The Who’. If you know that, you immediately recognize the young Peter Townsend and Keith Moon.

By now, the term ‘Rock & Roll’ had moved into the background and was mainly referred to as ‘rock music’. In subsequent years into the first decade of the 21ste century, ‘rock’ would become an umbrella term for a variety of genres, with influences from almost all other genres, including classical music. From 2010, the influence of hip-hop, dance and electronic dance music increases, but as is the case with disco, the influence of ‘rock’ in popular music remains strong. 

Musicians in the 60s-80s embraced the predicate ‘rock’ to differentiate themselves from ‘pop’, which they condemned as being commercial. That said, many rock songs became roaring commercial successes and their creators made gold money. During this period, ‘rock’ was also seen as the musical expression of youth culture sometimes also of resistance to society. The blurring of the line between ‘rock’ and ‘pop’ repeatedly led to new more radical expressions of ‘rock’ such as ‘punk’ and ‘grunge’. 

I explore the development of ‘rock’ after 1960 in six consecutive episodes.

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The 15-minutes city and to what residents care about (7/7)

To what extent does the 15-minute city match the ideal images of residents, many of whom are used to using the car?

For decades, the behaviour of urban planners and politicians, but also of residents, has been determined by images of the ideal living environment, especially for those who can afford it. The single-family home, a private garden and the car in front of the door were more prominent parts of those images than living in an inclusive and complete neighbourhood. Nevertheless, such a neighbourhood, including a ‘house from the 30s’, is still sought after. Attempts to revive the idea of ‘trese ‘traditional’ neighbourhoods’ have been made in several places in the Netherlands by architects inspired by the principles of ‘new urbanism’ (see photo collage above). In these neighbourhoods, adding a variety of functions was and is one of the starting points. But whether residents of such a neighbourhood will indeed behave more ‘locally’ and leave their cars at home more often does not depend on a planning concept, but on long-term behavioural change. 

An important question is what changes in the living environment residents themselves prefer. Principles for the (re)design of space that are in line with this have the greatest chance of being put into practice. It would be good to take stock of these preferences, confront (future) residents conflicting ideas en preconditions, for instance with regard to the necessary density. Below is a number of options, in line with commonly expressed preferences.

1. Playing space for children

Especially parents with children want more playing space for their children. For the youngest children directly near the house, for older children on larger playgrounds. A desire that is in easy reach in new neighbourhoods, but more difficult in older ones that are already full of cars. Some parents have long been happy with the possibility of occasionally turning a street into a play street. A careful inventory often reveals the existence of surprisingly many unused spaces. Furthermore, some widening of the pavements is almost always necessary, even if it costs parking space.

2. Safety

High on the agenda of many parents are pedestrian and cycle paths that cross car routes unevenly. Such connections substantially widen children’s radius. In existing neighbourhoods, this too remains daydreaming.  What can be done here is to reduce the speed of traffic, ban through traffic and make cars ‘guests’ in the remaining streets. 

3. Green

A green-blue infrastructure, penetrating deep into the immediate surroundings is not only desired by almost everyone, but also has many health benefits. The presence of (safe) water buffering (wadis and overflow ponds) extends children’s play opportunities, but does take up space. In old housing estates, not much more is possible in this area than façade gardens on (widened) pavements and vegetation against walls.

4. Limiting space for cars

Even in older neighbourhoods, opportunities to play safely and to create more green space are increased by closing (parts of) streets to cars. A pain point for some residents. One option for this is to make the middle part of a street car-free and design it as an attractive green residential area with play opportunities for children of different age groups. In new housing estates, much more is possible and it hurts to see how conventionally and car-centred these are often still laid out. (Paid) parking at the edge of the neighbourhood helps create a level playing field for car and public transport use.

5. Public space and (shopping) facilities

Sometimes it is possible to turn an intersection, where for instance a café or one or more shops are already located, into a cosy little square. Neighbourhood shops tend to struggle. Many people are used to taking the car to a supermarket once a week to stock up on daily necessities for the whole week. However, some neighbourhoods are big enough for a supermarket. In some cities, where car ownership is no longer taken for granted, a viable range of shops can develop in such a square and along adjacent streets. Greater density also contributes to this.

6. Mix of people and functions

A diverse range of housing types and forms is appreciated. Mixing residential and commercial properties can also contribute to the liveliness of a neighbourhood. For new housing estates, this is increasingly becoming a starting point. For business properties, accessibility remains an important precondition. 

7. Public transport

The desirability of good public transport is widely supported, but in practice many people still often choose the car, even if there are good connections. Good public transport benefits from the ease and speed with which other parts of the city can be reached. This usually requires more than one line. Free bus and tram lanes are an absolute prerequisite. In the (distant) future, autonomous shuttles could significantly lower the threshold for using public transport. Company car plus free petrol is the worst way to encourage sensible car use.

8. Centres in plural

The presence of a city centre is less important for a medium-sized city, say the size of a 15-minute cycle zone, than the presence of a few smaller centres, each with its own charm, close to where people live. These can be neighbourhood (shopping) centres, where you are sure to meet acquaintances.  Some of these will also attract residents from other neighbourhoods, who walk or cycle to enjoy the wider range of amenities. The presence of attractive alternatives to the ‘traditional’ city centre will greatly reduce the need to travel long distances.

The above measures are not a roadmap for the development of a 15-minute city; rather, they are conditions for the growth of a liveable city in general.  In practice, its characteristics certainly correspond to what proponents envisage with a 15-minute city. The man behind the transformation of Paris into a 15-minute city, Carlos Moreno, has formulated a series of pointers based on all the practical examples to date, which can help citizens and administrators realise the merits of the 15-minute city in their own environments. This book will be available from mid-June 2024 and can be reserved HERE.