Lesson 14 - Lecture notes 14 PDF

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William Ryan...

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Introduction

Paul Revere and the Raiders

The British Invasion bands began their careers by playing American music such as rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and electric blues. Their reinterpretations of American rockabilly and rhythm and blues brought a fresh sound to American listeners, who had spent most of the early 1960s enveloped by Phil Spector’s wall of sound, the songs of teen idols, or the pop tunes of the Brill Building formula. As British bands absorbed the sounds of American rock and roll and its predecessors, they also forced American rock bands to reconsider their own sounds and approaches to music. Some artists in the mid-1960s held tight to older ideas and formulas, sometimes with great success. For example, songwriting duo Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller continued to pen hits during the 1960s, such as "Chapel of Love ♫," recorded by the Dixie Cups, and "Leader of the Pack ♫," recorded by the Shangri-Las. At the same time, new types of bands gained popularity in the American market, demonstrating that garage bands, folk rock, and blues revival groups could be a formidable presence on the American record charts. In this lesson, we will consider several artists and types of rock that became

popular soon after the British Invasion. As we will see, many American musicians were inspired by British groups’ love for American genres, which spawned a number of interesting imitations of the music of the British Invasion.

“The Monkees was a straight sitcom, we used the same plots that were on the other situation comedies at the time. So the music wasn't threatening, we weren't threatening.” -Peter Tork

“The '60s was one of the first times the power of music was used by a generation to bind them together.” -Neil Young

The Monkees' "Davy Jones appeared in an episode of The Brady Bunch where he sang to Marsha." Songfacts

Garage Bands

Garage Band

As the Beatles became popular in the United States, teenage boys everywhere sought to copy their music, their looks, and, most likely, their appeal with female listeners. These teenagers usually had more enthusiasm than they had talent, putting together makeshift rock bands with the help of their friends. These garage bands earned their name because, more often than not, they practiced their music in a garage or a basement. Playing on cheap, borrowed, or second-hand instruments, the members of garage bands covered their favorite songs by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Once they mastered the songs of their idols, they wrote their own music in the style of the British Invasion groups. Other groups began covering the music of other artists. They recorded on simple, inexpensive equipment and occasionally released their music with the help of local, independent record labels. Garage bands had a notoriously sloppy sound, which was a combination of

their amateur musicians’ skills and their low-budget recording equipment. Some bands gained regional popularity through their recordings and live performances, but most simply did not have enough exposure or talent to reach a larger market. A few garage bands did make it to chart hits in the United States, but almost all of these bands were one-hit wonders who were unable to produce a second hit following their initial success.

Garage Band

The quintessential garage band hit was "Louie Louie ♫," which was recorded by the Kingsmen and released in 1963. "Louie Louie ♫" is a cover of a song that had been written and recorded in 1956 by Richard Berry. The members of the Kingsmen recorded this song in a tiny Portland, Oregon studio for only $50. "Louie Louie ♫" is genius in its simplicity: a four-chord pattern repeats endlessly throughout the song, which allows a musician with a limited skill set to master it. The song is in verse-chorus form, and it begins with the chorus instead of with the first verse. A guitar solo appears after the third iteration of the chorus. At the end of the guitar solo, singer Jack Ely begins to sing the third verse, but he stops after singing a

single syllable. Although Ely’s timing was correct (the guitar solo had lasted the standard length of sixteen measures), he seems to have thought he entered too early, because he begins the third verse again two measures later. True to the garage band aesthetic, the Kingsmen left this mistake in the recording. The lyrics of "Louie Louie ♫" are nearly impossible to understand, but early in 1964, the governor of Indiana claimed that "Louie Louie ♫" contained obscene lyrics and needed to be investigated by the FCC. The FCC’s conclusion: the lyrics of "Louie Louie ♫" were indecipherable. Following in the wake of the Kingsmen’s success, the American charts were inundated with a rash of one-hit wonders by other garage bands. 1965 and 1966 saw a series of Top 40 hits such as "96 Tears ♫" by ? & The Mysterians, "Land of a Thousand Dances ♫" by Cannibal and the Headhunters, and "Psychotic Reaction ♫" by Count Five. The majority of these garage bands only produced one single that managed to chart, but there were a few exceptions. For example, Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs had six hits between 1965 and 1967, including "Wooly Bully ♫" and "Little Red Riding Hood ♫."

“The Monkees was a straight sitcom, we used the same plots that were on the other situation comedies at the time. So the music wasn't threatening, we weren't threatening.” -Peter Tork

“The big turning point, really, was the Beatles' influence on American folk music, and then Roger took it to the next step, and then along came the Lovin' Spoonful and everybody else.” -Barry McGuire

The Monkees' Micky "Dolenz almost got the part of The Fonz on Happy Days. He was beaten out by Henry Winkler." Songfacts

Rock on TV

Paul Revere and the Raiders

Paul Revere and the Raiders were one of the few garage bands that achieved lasting commercial success. This success came with the help of Dick Clark. Paul Revere and the Raiders recorded and released their own version of "Louie Louie ♫" at almost the same time as the Kingsmen, but the Kingsmen’s version was far more commercially successful. Paul Revere and the Raiders continued to have a productive career. In 1965, Clark invited Paul Revere and the Raiders to serve as the musical hosts of Where the Action Is, a new rock variety show that he had created for CBS. Created as a response to the ABC show Shindig, Where the Action Is offered a chance for British and American rock bands to gain national exposure. These two shows, along with NBC’s Hullaballoo, helped artists such as the Supremes, the Lovin’ Spoonful, and Roy Orbison gain national exposure. Paul Revere and the Raiders served as the house band for Where the Action Is until 1966. On the show, the band was presented as an American response to the British Invasion. The group wore costumes inspired by the uniforms worn by soldiers in the American

Revolution, and they frequently performed slapstick comedy routines and farcical dance choreography. During their time on the show, they released several hit singles such as "Kicks ♫" and "Hungry ♫," which were written by the Brill Building team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill. In 1966, Paul Revere and the Raiders released the first song they had written themselves, which was "The Great Airplane Strike ♫." Paul Revere and the Raiders continued to enjoy commercial success after they left Where the Action Is. Their 1971 single "Indian Reservation ♫" was their first recording that reached number 1 on the American pop charts.

“The '60s was one of the first times the power of music was used by a generation to bind them together.” -Neil Young

“The big turning point, really, was the Beatles' influence on American folk music, and then Roger took it to the next step, and then along came the Lovin' Spoonful and everybody else.” -Barry McGuire

The Monkees' Micky "Dolenz almost got the part of The Fonz on Happy Days. He was beaten out by Henry Winkler." Songfacts

Rock Made for TV

The Monkees

The Monkees also achieved significant commercial success thanks to the exposure they received on television. Unlike Paul Revere and the Raiders, who were already a band when Dick Clark signed them, the Monkees were created specifically for television and the movies. In 1965, producers Robert Rafelson and Bert Schneider began seeking out actors who could also carry a tune. Much like the teen idol stars such as Frankie Avalon and Fabian Forte, the members of the Monkees needed to have an image and a look much more than

they needed to have remarkable musical talents. Over four hundred young men auditioned. Rafelson and Schneider eventually hired four actor-musicians who had never met each other before, and they became the Monkees. All four members had backgrounds in acting or singing. Guitarist Michael Nesmith had played some gigs and written music in the folk scenes of Texas and California. Peter Tork was a folk musician in Greenwich Village. Mickey Dolenz had a professional acting background and had starred in a 1960s TV show called Circus Boy. Finally, Davy Jones was a Broadway actor who had earned a Tony nomination for his performance in Oliver! and had appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Mickey Dolenz

The Monkees were initially created to emulate the music, comedy, and overall sense of fun from the two Beatles films Help! and A Hard Day’s Night. In addition to creating films, the Monkees starred in their own TV show, The Monkees, which premiered in 1966. Dolenz once described the show as "a television show about an imaginary band that wanted to be the Beatles but that was never

successful." Unlike the imaginary band of the television show, however, the Monkees ended up with far more commercial success than anyone could have imagined. In the early days of the show, the Monkees were trained specifically in acting and very little in music. When it came time for the members of the band to play music on their television show, the producers used studio musicians. The songs for the television show were written according to the Brill Building formula, and the producers hired Don Kirschner (of Aldon Publishing), as well as Brill Building songwriters such as Carole King and Gerry Goffin, to write the songs that the Monkees would perform on the show. Tork, Dolenz, Nesmith, and Jones initially did little more than sing in the early days of the band and the television show. The band’s music was originally intended as a marketing ploy for the television show and not much else.

Peter Tork

The group’s first two albums gave no credit to the studio musicians who had performed most of the music. Instead, the albums were made to look as if the four members of the Monkees had actually performed the music themselves. It did not take long, though, for people to find out how little the members of the group had been involved in the recording process. Rock purists either ignored or made fun of the Monkees because they were a band that had been

created for television and had little artistic input in the music that they recorded. By the late 1960s, to be a "true" rock musician like the Beatles or the Stones, the band members had to write their own music and convey their own artistic vision in their recordings. The Monkees were simply poster boys for someone else’s vision. Much like the girl groups that had recorded for Phil Spector in the early 1960s, the Monkees’ singing was the final piece of a musical formula that had been composed, arranged, orchestrated, recorded, and produced by someone other than the members of the band. The Monkees may have had their naysayers among the rock and roll purists, but they were, for the most part, a smash hit with American audiences. In 1967, they sold more records than either the Beatles or the Rolling Stones.

“The big turning point, really, was the Beatles' influence on American folk music, and then Roger took it to the next step, and then along came the Lovin' Spoonful and everybody else.” -Barry McGuire

“The Monkees was a straight sitcom, we used the same plots that were on the other situation comedies at the time. So the music wasn't threatening, we weren't threatening.” -Peter Tork

The Monkees' "Davy Jones appeared in an episode of The Brady Bunch where he sang to Marsha." Songfacts

Rock Made for TV continued

The Monkees

"Last Train to Clarksville ♫" (1966) was the Monkees’ first single, and it quickly went to number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Written by the songwriting and production team of Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, "Last Train to Clarksville ♫" largely follows the Brill Building formula. The song is in simple verse form, but unlike most pop songs of the time, each verse is a different length. The guitar licks and the guitar timbre in the song echo those of Beatles hits such as "Day Tripper ♫," "I Feel Fine ♫," "Paperback Writer ♫," and "Ticket to Ride ♫." All of the instrumentals in the song are performed by studio musicians, not by the members of the Monkees. Although the members of the Monkees were originally four actors who had been cast to play the members of a Beatles-like band, by the late 1960s, the Monkees had become an actual band. Both Tork and Nesmith were songwriters and guitarists, although they were rarely invited to play on the early recordings made by the Monkees. The members of the Monkees began fighting for the right to produce their own songs and to supervise all of the music that was released under the band’s name. Essentially, the Monkees wanted to make the change from fictitious television band to an actual rock band. In 1967, only four months after the premiere of the television show, the Monkees had their first recording session at RCA studios as a self-contained band. "The Girl I Knew Somewhere ♫," which was written by Nesmith and recorded during this session, became a Top 40 hit single. Other songs, such as "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You ♫," (a cover of a song by Neil Diamond) also had modest successes. Over time, the band began writing and recording songs that increasingly showed the influences of country and folk music. Told Me ♫" includes a banjo. For example, "You In subsequent seasons of The Monkees, the band members played all of the songs themselves with the occasional inclusion of session musicians when necessary. "Daydream Believer ♫," released in 1967, is a good representation of the music that was recorded by

this later version of the Monkees. The song was written by John Stewart, not by the Monkees, but Tork provided the arrangement of Stewart’s song that the band recorded. Tork also played piano on the recording, with Nesmith on lead guitar, Jones on lead vocals, and Dolenz on backing vocals. The Monkees had accomplished a rather remarkable feat because they became the characters they played on television. These four young men had transformed themselves from fiction into reality. The success of the Monkees inspired a number of other rock bands that were made for TV. For example, in the 1970s, The Partridge Family television show featured everyone’s favorite fictional band, fronted by teen heartthrob David Cassidy. Unlike the Monkees and the Partridge Family, however, many of these later made-for-TV bands were cartoons or people in costumes, probably because a cartoon band was unlikely to lobby for the rights to its own music. The show The Banana Splits Adventure Hour featured the band the Banana Splits, whose members included Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper, and Snorky. The members of the band were played by costumed musicians, and the show’s theme song, "The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana) ♫," managed to crack the Billboard Top 100 in 1969. The Archies were a band created by Don Kirschner that included the characters Archie, Reggie, and Jughead from the animated television show The Archie Show. (The show was based on the Archie comics.) The Archies’ music was written by Jeff Barry and performed by studio musicians, but they still had several hits on the American charts, such as "Bang Shang a Lang ♫" and "Sugar Sugar ♫." Perhaps strangest of all of these made-for-TV bands was the Evolution Revolution, an all-chimpanzee band who appeared on the show Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp. Clearly, by the late 1960s, rock and roll had become more than a musical phenomenon. It was a media empire, capable of creating new stars, bringing television shows to life, and even creating hit music for fictional characters.

“The '60s was one of the first times the power of music was used by a generation to bind them together.” -Neil Young

“The Monkees was a straight sitcom, we used the same plots that were on the other situation comedies at the time. So the music wasn't threatening, we weren't threatening.” -Peter Tork

The Monkees' Micky "Dolenz almost got the part of The Fonz on Happy Days. He was beaten out by Henry Winkler." Songfacts

Conclusion

Paul Revere and the Raiders

As we have seen in this lesson, the popularity of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones in the 1960s inspired a number of different responses. TV bands and garage bands each represented a different way of emulating the British Invasion groups. TV bands were fictional representations of Beatles-like bands, some of whom came to life, such as the Monkees. Garage bands imitated the music of the Beatles and the Stones in their garages and basements, but if they did happen to chart a hit, they were usually unable to follow it. In the next lesson, we will consider another type of music from the 1960s that had a very different set of interests and concerns compared to the bands discussed in this lesson: folk musicians.

“The big turning point, really, was the Beatles' influence on American folk music, and then Roger took it to the next step, and then along came the Lovin' Spoonful and everybody else.” -Barry McGuire

“The '60s was one of the first times the power of music was used by a generation to bind them together.” -Neil Young

The Monkees' "Davy Jones appeared in an episode of The Brady Bunch where he sang to Marsha." Songfacts...