Prodigal Son

Ry Cooder has been playing slide guitar since the mid-1960s with the Rolling Stones, Linda Ronstadt, Taj Mahal, Randy Newman, Van Morrison, the Doobie Brothers and about a thousand others.  This is Ry in the late 60s on Randy Newman's first album with the spooky Let's Burn Down the Cornfield, and with Mick Jagger on Memo From Turner from the bizarre, hallucinatory film Performance.  Here he is 2017 sounding just as good as ever. 

End Of The Line

Goodbye Charlie Watts; you were always so cool amid the chaos.  All Down The Line from a 2008 concert filmed by Martin Scorsese.

Play With Fire

     So don't play with me, cause you're playing with fire

This song came to mind today for the first time in probably decades.  Very early Rolling Stones, it was the B-side of Last Time, released in early 1965, and doesn't sound like the Stones.  Unlike the muddy sound typical of early Stones, Play With Fire has a clean, direct feel.  Last Time was a hit in the U.S., breaking into the Top 10, but it was the Stones' next single, Satisfaction, that made them THE ROLLING STONES.

Only Jagger and Keith Richards were on the recording.

Gimme Shelter

The finest song recorded by The Rolling Stones, the one I believe will endure the longest, Gimme Shelter was the first track on the album Let It Bleed, released on December 5, 1969.  A grim and turbulent song released in a grim and turbulent time.  There is so much to talk about with this song because each element is essential to its menacing atmosphere and its staying power.

The Music

We begin with Keith Richard's memorable guitar riff slathered with echo and tremolo and then he adds touches via another guitar overdubbed.  Keith's guitar is tuned to non-standard open tuning, meaning if you just strum the open strings it plays an E chord.

Nicky Hopkins hits one chord on the piano about 33 seconds in, which is then repeated periodically.

At 40 seconds, drummer Charlie Watts enters.  Charlie is noted for playing simple drum parts, usually not very distinctive, but on Gimme Shelter we hear something different.  At 47 seconds he varies the beat slightly, hitting the toms four times and adding a cymbal crash, a pattern he repeats throughout the song, a pattern that adds even more drama to the already dramatic lyrics.

At that point the basic rhythm track is in place and continues throughout the song.  At 2:03 we hear a heavy grinding harmonica played by Mick Jagger and then, at 2:19, the tempo changes and we move into the break and Keith's perfect guitar solo.

Moving into the last verse the basic rhythm track resumes and repeats relentlessly into the fadeout at song's end.

The Lyrics

The first line, "Oh, a storm is threatening my very life today, if I don't get some shelter, oh yeah, I'm gonna fade away" sets the tone and the chorus to the first two verses reinforces it, "War, children, it's just a shot away, it's just a shot away".

Then comes the chorus after the guitar solo which ratchets the danger and sense of unleashed evil to another level, "Rape, murder, it's just a shot away, it's just a shot away".  Hearing those lyrics as an 18 year old in 1969 was shocking.

While the final chorus, "Love, sister, it's just a kiss away, it's just a kiss away" attempts to inject hope and redemption into the mix, the oppressive lyrics and music of the prior three minutes overwhelms that note of optimism.  Nonetheless, it is a needed relief from the grim tone of the rest of the song.

The Vocals

Jagger is fine on vocals but we need to talk about what astonished all of us hearing it for the first time, when our immediate question was "who is that woman doing that incredible singing??".   It was Merry Clayton, a 20 year old singer living in Los Angeles, where the Stones were recording.  It was the middle of the night, Jagger wanted a female vocalist and producer Jack Nitzsche, who knew Merry, called her after midnight to come into the studio right then and there.  Merry, in bed, pregnant and in curlers, who was not familiar with the Stones, came into the studio and did a couple of takes.

Prior to the break you can hear her singing along with Jagger but when it came to "rape, murder" it is all Merry.  It's an electrifying moment when her voice breaks the third time she sings "murder".  Jagger felt the same, exclaiming "Woo!" right after, an exclamation left in the final recording.  This is Merry's song.

Forty five years later you can watch Merry (and Jagger) talking about that night, along with hearing her isolated vocal, which still sends chills down my spine all these years later.

Baroque Rock

Perhaps "Classical" classic rock might be a better term but, in any event, the origins and brief heyday of this pop mode are in the mid-60s, when musicians began incorporating melodies, instrumentation, and arrangements from Baroque and the Romantic periods into popular music.  I still enjoy the sound of these recordings.

It starts in the fall of 1965 with the near simultaneous release of Yesterday by The Beatles and Lovers Concerto by the Motown group, The Toys.  Both became immediate smash hits - on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart for October 30, 1965, Yesterday is #1 and Lovers Concerto #2.  Yesterday, featuring just Paul on vocals backed by a string quartet, was a startling departure for The Beatles and rock music in general.  As for Lovers Concerto, while the instrumentation was pure Motown, the melody came directly from Minuet in G Major by Christian Penzold (1677-1733) a contemporary of Johann Sebastian Bach.

In December, The Beatles released Rubber Soul containing In My Life with its unusual harpsichord solo, a baroque instrument which began to see more use in pop songs.  That same month, the Rolling Stones, at the beginning of their imitative Beatles phase and after, no doubt prodding by their panicked manager and producer, Andrew Loog Oldham, decided to mimic Yesterday by releasing a string sweetened version of As Tears Go By, originally written for, and released by, Marianne Faithful, the year before but with a more pop/folk arrangement.

July 1966 saw the release of what many regard as the quintessential baroque rock song, the melancholy Walk Away Renee by the Left Banke:

Just walk away Renee
You won't see me follow you back home
Now as the rain beats down upon my weary eyes
For me it cries

The Left Banke followed this up with one more baroque single in late 1966 before breaking up, Pretty Ballerina with its gorgeous oboe solo.

The month after Walk Away Renee was issued Revolver by The Beatles hit the airwaves with two entries in this category, the best known being Eleanor Rigby, recognized as a remarkable accomplishment at the time, along with For No One.  The version below of Eleanor Rigby is a reimagining, using the original recorded tracks, created by Giles Martin (son of George) with the approval of Paul & Ringo for the Cirquedu Soleil show Love which is based upon the music of The Beatles.

1967 and early 1968 saw the last burst of the initial wave of baroque rock.  May saw the release of Procol Harum's first single A White Shade of Pale, a monster worldwide hit with a majestic vocal from Gary Brooker and would reprise elements of the sound in 1969's A Salty Dog.

The end of the year saw the release of Harry Nilsson's album, Pandemonium Shadow Show (named in homage to the strange and disturbing traveling circus at the center of Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes) featuring, among other tunes, Without Her, with a wonderful arrangement of strings and woodwinds.

Child Is Father To The Man, the debut album of Blood, Sweat & Tears released in February 1968, produced by John Simon (who also produced the first two albums by The Band) and arranged by the band's founder Al Kooper, remains one of the best sounding albums of the 60s.  Kooper put together a talented group of musicians to create a unique blend of rock, pop, blues, and jazz and had a great ear for new songwriters finding tunes by little known, at the time, composers Randy Newman, Harry Nilsson, and Tim Buckley, and he was also a good songwriter in his own right.  Unfortunately, Al couldn't sing a lick and his stubborn insistence of being lead vocalist led, after the album's release, to a revolt by the other band members and eviction from his own group, after which they recruited David Clayton-Thomas as vocalist and went on to great commercial success, though in my estimate the first album with Kooper remains their finest despite his vocal limitations.

The result was an eclectic collection of songs with the oddest being a Kooper composition, The Modern Adventures of Plato, Diogenes, and Freud, with the string arrangement making an appropriate capstone to this era.

Dead Flowers

Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, this version of Dead Flowers by Townes Van Zandt appears in The Big Lebowski (a THC #10 all-time movie favorite).  I prefer the Van Zandt cover to the Rolling Stones original on Sticky Fingers (1971) because of its compelling lassitude.  And the video is brilliant.

Van Zandt died in 1997, prior to release of the film.  According to Wikipedia, "much of Van Zandt’s life was spent touring various dive bars, often living in cheap motel rooms and backwoods cabins. For much of the 1970s, he lived in a simple shack without electricity or a phone".

Rockin' The 70s

1970s that is.  A continuation of my post on concerts I attended during the 1970s.  I'm certain I'm forgetting some from this decade.

May 23, 1970
Jefferson Airplane
U of Wisconsin Field House
Madison WI

From the date, this is probably the last thing I did in Madison before leaving.  I spent my freshman year of college (1969-70) at the University of Wisconsin and then decided to drop out.

We sat in the bleachers in the field house for an afternoon show.  The school year had been disrupted by demonstrations, strikes, and violence, and then collapsed in the wake of the Cambodia invasion and Kent State, so it was appropriate that it ended with the Jefferson Airplane in its peak craziness phase playing songs from the overwrought Volunteers album.  

October 13, 1970

Chicago

Capitol Theatre

Port Chester, NY 

Back when the band was hard rocking.  Good show.

1970 or 71
The Kinks
Wesleyan University
Middletown CT

As readers know I am a yuuge Kinks fan.  My dim recollection is this was a typically shambolic Kinks show - they were probably drunk - in a gym where we sat in the floor. That's all I got for you.

June 26, 1971
Allman Brother Band
J Geils Band
Albert King
Fillmore East
East Village
Manhattan NY

Last night of the Fillmore East.  Amazing show.  Went to hear J Geils and Albert King (who were wonderful) but came out a fan of the Allman Brothers who were astonishing - they hit the trifecta with Hot 'Lanta, Whipping Post, and most of all, In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed.  Here's my full recollection. As I left the first show that night I walked past the future Mrs THC who was in line for the second show.

July 1971

Jethro Tull

Capitol Theatre

Port Chester, NY 

The Aqualung tour.  Great show.  Ian Anderson whirling and hopping around.  Will always remember Martin Barre's sizzling guitar on Aqualung.

1971 or 72
Chick Correa
Clark University
Worcester MA

Held in a lounge area on campus.  Was not familiar with the pianist at the time but really enjoyed it.  

1971 or 72
Jesse Colin Young
Clark University
Worcester MA

One of the most underrated bands of the 60s was The Youngbloods, founded by Jesse Colin Young, who did one of the best, and least known, songs of the 60s - Darkness, Darkness. By the early 70s, Jesse embarked on a solo career.  The man had a gorgeous voice.

1972 or 73
John Lee Hooker
Sir Morgan's Cove
Worcester MA

The legendary king of the one chord boogie (for more read this THC post).  Great show.  The man was an intimidating presence.

The venue was a small club in Worcester, where acts usually played for 4 or 5 nights in a row.  In another incarnation, after Sir Morgan's moved down the street and changed its name, it was where The Rolling Stones launched their 1981 US tour with a surprise tune up.

(Yep, this is the place)

July 1972
The Rolling Stones
Stevie Wonder
Madison Square Garden
Manhattan NY

The Exile On Main St tour.  In the balcony for this sold-out show.  At the time I liked Stevie Wonder but was not a true fan.  Today, I am and have a lot of his music in my iTunes library.  The Stones were good, not great.  Towards the end of the show they turned the lights on in the Garden and the crowd went nuts for the rest of the concert.

August 1972
The Kinks
Dr Hook & The Medicine Show
Berkeley Community Theater
Berkeley CA

Another Kinks show I don't remember well except they did a lot of material from their fine Muswell Hillbillies record.  Dr Hook & The Medicine Show were best known for On The Cover Of Rolling Stone and the execrable Sylvia's Mother.

1972 or 1973
James Cotton Blues Band
Sir Morgan's Cove
Worcester MA

I also saw at least one other, perhaps two shows at the Cove; pretty certain one was Les McCann, and the other may have been Muddy Waters.

Cotton, who passed in 2017, was one of the finest harmonica players, and a talented singer and songwriter.  Here he is.

UPDATE:  It wasn't exactly a rock concert but I recently vaguely remembered attending a Marlene Dietrich concert with my mother, who loved Dietrich, in the early 1970s that was held in the Danbury, CT area.  A little research revealed Dietrich played a week of shows at the Candlewood Playhouse in New Fairfield, CT in July 1974.  I was left with the impression of watching a fading diva (Marlene was 73 at the time) do her thing for an adoring audience.  Dietrich retired from performing the following year.

Fall 1974
Al Stewart
Orpheum Theater
Boston MA

Stewart performed the historical songs from his Past, Present, and Future album.  The emotional highlight was Road To Moscow, his epic song of the Eastern Front in World War Two (and the subject of one of THC longest posts, The Annotated Roads To Moscow), backed by a three part screen spanning most of the stage showing scenes from that conflict, capped by projecting a photo across all the screens of Alexander Solzhenitysn as former soldier, imprisoned in the Gulag; a climax given added poignancy with the publishing of The Gulag Archipelago in December 1973 and Solzhenitsyn's expulsion from the Soviet Union the following February.

The Orpheum was the big rock concert hall in Boston, where established acts came to perform.

December 9, 1974
Genesis
Orpheum Theater
Boston MA

The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway tour, the last before Peter Gabriel left, leading eventually to the band's superb prog rock drummer, Phil Collins, becoming its front man for the recharged and more pop oriented Genesis of the 1980s.  I was a fan of early Genesis except did not care for the Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.  Bizarre show with Gabriel wearing his odd costumes; the highlight came at the end - The Musical Box from the 1971 Nursery Cryme album - watch and behold the glory and absurdity of peak prog rock!  Here ya go, and don't miss the last three minutes.

1975-78
Jonathan Edwards
Multiple venues in Boston area

From 1975 to 1978 I lived in Maynard, MA and two of my roommates were full time musicians.  One had just started as pianist and arranger for Jonathan Edwards.  Edwards had one big hit, Sunshine, in 1971, but remained a popular live act, particularly in New England.  I saw Jonathan and the band play several times and they put on a great show.  Unfortunately, I can't find any video from this time period.  Kenny White was, and is, an incredibly talented pianist.  He went on to a two decade career arranging and producing commercials, many of which you will remember, and for the last 15 years has pursued a solo career and is currently opening for Stephen Stills and Judy Collins on their tour. Jonathan is also the link connecting me with Elvis Costello (for more see below).

Sometime between 1975 and 1978
BB King
Worcester MA

What a pleasure listening to that man play and sing.  There were better guitarists but no one ever had a sweeter tone.

February 20, 1975
Roxy Music
Orpheum Theater
Boston MA

One of my favorite 70s band.  Wild and loopy stuff.  By the end of the decade their shtick became boring.  To sample the work of Bryan Ferry and the gang try Do The Strand, A Song For Europe, and In Every Dream Home A Heartache. 

1976 or 1977
NRBQ
Cambridge MA

The New Rhythm and Blues Quartet.  A regional Northeast favorite for many years, featuring Al Anderson on lead guitar.   Raucous and fun.  This was the best I could find on YouTube but doesn't really capture their full power.

December 9 or 10, 1977
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
ParadiseClub
Boston MA

You can read how I learned about Elvis, and that first show here.  He was electrifying.

Just came across this audio of the December 9 show.  This is not exactly the playlist we heard so I think we were there on the 10th.  He played every song listed but at least one other, (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea.  To understand what it was like, listen to the last two songs, Lipstick Vogue and Watching The Detectives, starting at 31:40, though the audio understates how loud The Attractions were that night.

The Paradise Club opened on September 22, 1977 and was up Commonwealth Avenue, just beyond Boston U.  Seating a few hundred (my recollection is less than 500) it was where bands on their first US tours often played.

May 4, 1978

Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Mink DeVille

Nick Lowe & Rockpile

Orpheum Theater

Boston MA

On the heels of This Year's Model, Elvis and the band were quickly back in Boston playing a much bigger venue.  Another show filled with tension and excitement.  Elvis was beginning to master how to control large audiences.  Nick Lowe was good.  Mink DeVille was not.

June 18, 1978
The Jam
Lyceum Ballroom
London UK

There were two other forgettable bands on the bill for this show headlined by The Jam, who I already knew from In The City.  Concert was sold out.  We stood at back for entire show.

I had arrived in Europe in late May, not returning until the end of September, and spending time in France, UK, Italy, and Greece.  The future Mrs THC was in Paris.  Had a friend living in London and went to see him and another U.S. friend who came over and the three of us went to the Lyceum.

Summer 1978
Doc Watson
Paris France

I fell in love with Doc's voice and guitar playing a few years before by listening to Will The Circle Be Unbroken.  His warm speaking and singing voice enveloped the listener.  Seeing him live was a similar experience.   His son, Merle, played with him.  Can't find information on the location.  We ended up seated next to some French guys my age who were learning to play baseball under the tutelage of an American coach.  A few days later I met up with them at the Bois de Boulogne to play some ball.

February 23, 1979
Dire Straits
Paradise Club
Boston MA

In the fall of 1978 I heard songs by two new bands that immediately captured me.  The first, Roxanne by The Police, the second, Sultans of Swing by Dire Straits.  When Mark Knopfler's band came to Boston for the first show on its first US tour I had to see them.

March 29, 1979
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Squeeze
Orpheum Theater
Boston MA

The acoustics were lousy for this concert,  so it's the only of the eight times seeing Elvis I left disappointed.  Too bad, because Squeeze were on the bill and did not impress me since could not hear them well, though I later became a fan.  Elvis would totally redeem himself with a masterful performance upon returning to the Orpheum in 1981. 

[ADDED: I mixed this up.  Squeeze opened the 1981 show.  Elvis was good but did not meet the high expectations set by his first two shows.]

Summer/Fall 1979 (?)
Boomtown Rats
Paradise Club
Boston MA

Uncertain about the time here, could have been in '80.  An Irish Band, fronted by Bob Geldorf.  Their only hit in the US was I Don't Like Mondays, but I preferred Rat Trap, their attempt at a Bruce Springsteen anthem.

1973-79
The Boston Bands

During this period I saw a lot of fine local acts in Cambridge and Boston bars, like the Pousette Dart Band and Zamcheck, but remember most The Estes Boys, a popular country rock band, because my other roommate musician, Eli Nelson, played pedal steel in the group.  Went to many of their gigs, many of them at Jonathan Swift's, a bar in Harvard Square, at one of which I sat with Red Sox pitcher, Bill "Spaceman" Lee, who was very funny, and very hammered.  This is what the Estes Boys sounded like.  Eli went on to play pedal steel on tour with Mickey Gilley's Urban Cowboy Band.

Trouble

From Keith Richards' new album, Crosseyed Heart which contains some rockin' tunes.  Just as Keith Moon used to describe himself as "the best Keith Moon style drummer in the world", Keith Richards remains the best Keith Richards style guitarist in the world even as we are amazed he is still around to play Keith Richards style guitar.

Finding Varus

(Tony Clunn with Roman coin from thetimes.co.uk)

In a world where credentialed experts dominate many fields let's take the opportunity to salute an amateur who solved a mystery that had puzzled many for centuries.  Tony Clunn, who died on August 3, 2014 at the age of 68, was a retired British Army major and Member of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).  Tony's hobby while stationed at various posts across Europe was searching for Roman coins using a metal detector.  While posted in Germany in 1987 he decided to see if he could find remnants of the Battle of Teutoburg Forest or The Varus Battle (9AD) which no one had ever definitively located.

The difficulty in finding the battlefield lay in its history.  After completing the conquest of Gaul in the first century BC the boundary of the Roman Empire was along the Rhine River.  Starting in 12BC, Roman legions at the order of the Emperor Augustus crossed the river to begin the conquest of Germania.  Through a series of campaigns lasting two decades Germany as far as the Elbe River was nominally pacified.

In 6AD, Augustus appointed a friend, Publius Quinctilius Varus, to be governor of the new province of Germania.  Varus was an experienced administrator having previously served as governor of Africa and Syria but did not have much military experience.  In his new role Varus also commanded three legions (about 15,000 soldiers) and each year during the summer and early autumn he would lead them on a campaign within his province to ensure its quietude.  Many of the German tribes had supposedly become Roman allies and Varus' chief allied auxiliary was Arminius whom he trusted greatly.  On the return march from the Elbe to the Rhine in the rainy fall of 9AD, Arminius' advice to take a new and different route was accepted by Varus.  It was a trap.  Arminius had been working to create an alliance of Germanic tribes in order to revolt against the Romans.  When the trap was sprung the Roman legions were strung out in a long marching formation and trapped on a narrow path between wooded hills and a swamp. The battle last three days and resulted in the annihilation of the legions.  Varus committed suicide on the field and only about 400 Romans ever made it back to the Rhine.
(This map, from The Lost Fort, shows the lands between the Rhine and the Elbe; Kalkriese towards the top center is the location of the Varus Battle)

The battle spelled the end of Roman plans to conquer Germania and the border once again became the Rhine where it stayed for more than four centuries.  The destruction of three legions created a brief panic in Rome, awakening fears that the German barbarians might descend on the city but instead they reverted to their fractious infighting among themselves.  It was said that for months thereafter Augustus would wander his palace at night proclaiming:

Quinctilius Varus, give me back my legions!

The defeat prompted Augustus (who died 2,000 years ago on August 19, 14AD) to declare that Rome had reached its natural borders and had no need for further expansion.
(Roman slingstones found at site)
At the time and, for that matter, until very recently, the Battle of Teutoborg Forest was considered a turning point in the history of Rome and of Europe because it spelled the end of Rome's attempt to conquer the entire continent.  More recently several historians have pointed out that Germania and the unconquered portions of Europe were too poor and unsettled to have made any economic sense for the Romans to occupy in the long run.  Even Gaul at the time of its conquest with its towns, small manufacturing and coinage was more advanced than Germania which lacked all three attributes. 
(Map of the battle site from livius.org; you can see how the Romans were trapped between hill and bog)

Although a punitive Roman expedition reached the battle site a few years later there was no definitive description of the location and later writers gave conflicting accounts.  For over 200 years historians had argued over its exact location.  Clunn's discoveries of coins (none dated later than the year of the battle) and other artifacts led to a consensus that he had found the site.  Tony continued his work over the years (after retiring from the army in 1996 he moved to Germany) and eventually was able to trace the entire route of Varus' legions.
(Roman cavalry mask found on battlefield from livius.org) 

The site of the battle, near the town of Osnabruck, has been turned into an Archaelogical Park & Museum. 

Bill Wyman, the former bass guitarist of The Rolling Stones, and a fellow archaeology and metal detection enthusiast paid tribute to his friend Tony Clunn at his website.

The British Invasion: Breakout

Part two of the series:
 
The second half of 1964 saw the breakout from the bridgehead established by The Beatles and the first wave of British artists.  The music also gets more interesting as it quickly evolves.

Once again, it starts with The Beatles.  On July 6, the movie and the song, A Hard Day's Night, premiered and by August 1 it was #1 in the U.S.  With its unusual opening chord and sharper guitar sound it was a step forward for the band.  Here's the song over the opening credits of the movie.

The next big British song was really different, The House Of The Rising Sun by The Animals which hit #1 in early September in the United States and was a global smash becoming one of the top five selling records worldwide for the entire year.  A reworking of an old American folk song (click here to hear the first recorded version from 1933), there were several unusual aspects of the record:

• The length of over four minutes at a time when a three minute song was considered long.  Many AM stations played an edited version that was less than three minutes.

• The subject matter, considered very racy for the time.

• The raw vocal by Eric Burden.  There may have been singing like this on some of the Chicago blues records of the 50s but those were not being played on mainstream AM radio and no white singer had sounded this way.

• The swirling, relentless organ arrangement by Alan Price which added to the feverish atmosphere of the recording. 

A great record then and now.  A couple of years later, the bass player, Chas Chandler, discovered a guy named Jimi Hendrix playing in a London club and went on to produce his first three albums.

Replacing The Animals on top of the American charts was a native-born son, Roy Orbison, with Oh, Pretty Woman.  In an interesting twist from August 1963 to December 1964 Roy Orbison was the only American artist to top the British charts and he did it twice.

Meanwhile The Stones were still trying to break through with It's All Over Now.  They didn't.

Next up was one of the great novelty songs of the year, Do Wah Diddy by the band Manfred Mann.  The man, Manfred Mann, was a South African jazz pianist who played keyboards with the band Manfred Mann while the over the top vocal on the song is by Paul Jones who, two years earlier, turned down Keith Richards and Brian Jones when they asked him to be the lead singer in the band they were forming (Paul is currently President of the National Harmonica League of Britain - seriously).  The tune was written by Americans Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich who also composed Da Doo Ron Ron, Be My Baby, River Deep, Mountain High and Leader of the Pack.

The next two big singles were groundbreaking and still sound great decades later.

You Really Got Me by The Kinks (for more than you will ever want to know about the band see Kinkdom) was an out of control rocker built around power chords and considered by some to be the first punk or heavy metal song.  Despite persistent rumors that Jimmy Page played the guitar solo it was Dave Davies, brother of composer and lead singer Ray Davies, who performed the spasmodic, fractured and frantic solo.

Then there was She's Not There by The Zombies.  All of a sudden we have a jazzy electric piano and syncopation.  Where did that come from?  And the breathy vocal.  Very cool song.

Late in the year, The Rolling Stones finally scored their first top 10 in America with Time Is On My Side but their real breakthrough would not be until the release of Satisfaction in May 1965.

The year closed with three notable events.  First was The Kinks followup hit, All Day And All Of The Night, essentially a reworking of You Really Got Me.

Second, the emergence of the third British wave with I'm Into Something Good by Herman's Hermits.  Unfortunately, this third wave was not as innovative and pop definitely triumphed over rock as Herman's Hermits had a string of hits in 1965 and were joined by bands like Freddie & The Dreamers and Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders.

The third was the release of the first Beatles single since A Hard Day's Night, an innovative recording called  I Feel Fine, which starts with guitar feedback (the first hit single to feature it) and then slides into a snappy guitar riff, great harmonies and some good drum work by Ringo in the break.  It reached #1 during the last week of 1964 while the B side, She's A Women also became a top 10 hit.  During 1964 The Beatles had 30 different singles on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. 

The British Invasion: The Initial Assault

First of a two part series:

At the beginning of January 1964 the top five singles on the Billboard charts were:

1. There, I've Said It Again by Bobby Vinton
2. Louie, Louie by The Kingsmen (for more see Louie Louie Turns 50)
3. Dominique by The Singing Nun
4. Since I Fell For You by Lenny Welch
5. Forget Him by Bobby Rydell  

Then, on December 26, 1963, Capitol Records released I Want To Hold Your Hand by The Beatles and   everything changed.  In this post we'll cover the first half of 1964 and in the next, the second half of the year which saw some big, and interesting, changes in the music coming from across the Atlantic.  To the extent we listen to the first British invasion records from early in that year it is mostly because of nostalgia while some of the music from the second half still stands on its own fifty years later.

I Want To Hold Your Hand topped the Billboard charts on February 1 and stayed there for seven weeks to be replaced by She Loves You on March 21 and Can't Buy Me Love on April 4 which held the top spot until Louis Armstrong knocked it off on May 9 with Hello, Dolly!

In March 1964, 60% of all singles sold in the United States were by The Beatles.  On April 4 when Can't Buy Me Love became #1, The Beatles had the five of the top selling singles (the others were the first two #1s along with Twist And Shout and Please Please Me) and 13 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, a record that still stands.  Over the course of the year, The Beatles topped the charts for twenty weeks with six different singles.  It wasn't just the singles with The Beatles; their albums actually had good songs on them, a rarity for that time (see Beatlemania).

The Beatles blew off the doors and a platoon of British artists followed them.  The first one after The Beatles to reach the charts was Dusty Springfield with I Only Want To Be With You (a U.K. hit in 1963), followed later in the spring by Wishin' And Hopin' written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David (for more on Burt and Hal see Is Christopher Walken The Burt Bacharach of Acting?).

The first British band, other than The Beatles, to have a hit were The Searchers with Needles And Pins which mixed a rock and folk style (a year later The Byrds would adopt a similar style).  The song was written by two interesting American characters; Jack Nitzsche, who worked with Phil Spector, played keyboards on some of the early Rolling Stones records and did the choral arrangement for You Can't Always Get Want You Want and Sonny Bono, yes, the Sonny & Cher guy.

The first British band to challenge The Beatles for supremacy and the first to knock them off the top of the charts back in the U.K. were The Dave Clark Five.  They made loud, simple music and Dave Clark on drums made Ringo Starr look like Buddy Rich.  THC remembers watching them on Ed Sullivan.  Their first two hits were Glad All Over and Bits And Pieces.  They had six million selling singles in the U.S. during the year though none topped the charts.
Also in that first wave were The Beatles buddies from Liverpool, Gerry And The Pacemakers who had a smash hit with their ballad Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying.

There were also some oddities like Little Children by Billy J Kramer And The Dakotas which is kind of a creepy song.

Where, you may ask, were the Rolling Stones?  They weren't much of anywhere in 1964 as they kept releasing singles and not cracking the top 20 in America.  Their first release early in the year was Tell Me.  The period when The Beatles and The Stones went head to head only lasted from late 1964 to the beginning of 1967 (for the full story see Beatles/Stones Face Off Parts One and Two).

Beatles/Stones Face Off Part 2

Reviewing the rules:


Dates of single release in the U.S. are shown in (parens).

Singles reaching #1 on the Billboard Charts are shown in boldface.

Singles not reaching #1 but charting in the Top 5 are underlined.

Singles peaking between #6 and #10 are in italics.
 

As Tears Go By (12/18/65):   The Stones show their “sensitive” side as they try to imitate Yesterday. Strings on a Stones song??

19^th Nervous Breakdown (2/4/66):   Stones quickly decide to “man up”. Another surprising choice of topic and lyric.  "You better stop, and look around".   And you have the bass thing at the end.

Nowhere Man (2/15/66):  Not released as single in the UK. One of my least favorite Beatles singles but great sounding guitar and soaring harmonies.

Paint It Black (5/7/66):  Awesome, unusual, brooding, dark.  One of my favorite Stones singles.

Paperback Writer/Rain (5/30/66):  Definitely the first song ever about paperback writers! First Beatles single where you could hear the bass on the AM radio. Rain was the first single about whatever it was about as the Beatles began their drift away from reality. The backwards ending was a first.  This is the promo video for Rain:

Mothers’ Little Helper (7/2/66):   First single about housewives pill popping, for whatever it’s worth. About as “snappy” as the Stones got.

Yellow Submarine/Eleanor Rigby (8/8/66): Although I don’t like it, Yellow Submarine had a unique sound but is way too silly for me. Eleanor Rigby: poignant, succinct and perfect pop.

Have You Seen Your Mother Baby, Standing in the Shadows? (9/24/66):  Is this just bad production or did the Stones do it on purpose? It sounds like every once in a while there are some horns and a drum on the track but all I can really hear is that THUNDERING bass.  I really liked this when it came out; loved the chaos.  Here's what the mess sounded like:

  
Ruby Tuesday/Let’s Spend the Night Together (1/14/67): After a long (for the 60s) hiatus the Stones hit the top again. This single is much better produced than earlier Stones singles – although on Ruby Tuesday it sounds like Charlie is playing the drums down the street. Let’s Spend the Night was a #3 hit in the UK.

Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever (2/13/67): After a six month hiatus (and four months before Sgt Pepper is released) the new era starts. This was the most avidly awaited Beatles single ever because of the lengthy silence from the band.  Everyone knows both songs.  They are embedded in our brains.  I still prefer Strawberry Fields ("no one I think is in my tree").

With that both bands were on to new territory but the great hit singles competition was over.  The Stones got diverted into trying to imitate the Beatles with His Satanic Majesty's Request and then jumping on the "Summer of Love" fad with Flowers but it just wasn't them. They didn’t have another major U.S. hit till the summer of 1968 (Jumpin’ Jack Flash) when they came to their senses and realized they needed to stop dabbling in that psychedelic peace stuff and get back to the basics; rebelliousness, dissolute behavior and girls.  They only had one other hit single, though it was a huge smash, Honky Tonk Women (summer 1969) before The Beatles dissolved in 1970.

As for The Beatles during this same period (spring 67 to spring 70) they released nine more singles of which seven hit #1, including their best selling single ever, Hey Jude, and the other two made it to the Top 5.

Final scorecard (Nov 64 - Feb 67)

Beatles:  10 Singles, 9 #1, 1 Top 5, 2 B sides Top 5, 2 B sides Top 10

Stones:  10 Singles, 4 #1, 1 Top 5, 4 Top 10

Beatles/Stones Face Off Part 1

Let's take a look back at that surprisingly brief period (certainly shorter than I remembered) when The Beatles and The Rolling Stones went head to head releasing singles in the U.S.  It only lasted from November 1964 to February 1967, twenty eight months in which the two groups released 20 singles, some of which were double-sided hits (all but one by The Beatles).  Part 1 covers the first 14 months, to the end of 1965 while Part 2 covers the remainder of this period.

Until late 1964 there was simply no competition.  The Beatles played The Ed Sullivan Show in February, in March 60% of all singles sold in the States were by John, Paul, George and Ringo and in early April they had 13 of the top 100 Billboard singles. There was a deluge of Beatles singles as various labels put out tracks to capitalize on the band's insane popularity and order was not restored till late summer.  Meanwhile, the first Stones singles barely charted in the US with only Time Is On My Side barely making the Top 10. 

Some notes before we start the review:

Dates of single release in the U.S. are shown in (parens).

Singles reaching #1 on the Billboard Charts are shown in boldface.

Singles not reaching #1 but charting in the Top 5 are underlined.

Singles peaking between #6 and #10 are in italics.

Okay, now we're ready:

I Feel Fine/ She’s A Woman (11/23/64):  The Beatles kick things off with the first single to use guitar feedback. Great riff and nice break with Ringo on the drums.

Heart of Stone (12/19/64):  The Stones were, along with The Animals, the leading “black” sounding British invasion band and this song reflects it although it also has an odd country overlay in parts. Second Stones song to hit the Top 20.

Eight Days a Week (2/15/65):  Not released as single in the UK. The last early period Beatlesque single. They could have gone writing stuff like this forever but they would have lost their relevancy.

The Last Time (3/13/65):  Neat, and simple, riff. Second Stones song to reach the Top 10.  Murky production.

Ticket to Ride (4/19/65):  Listen to the off kilter drumming! First use of British slang in Beatles single.

Satisfaction (5/27/65):  The Rolling Stones become THE STONES. One of the best known riffs in rock history, great lyric and beat along with “hey, hey, hey, that’s what I say”. First single to ever combine mocking consumerism with sexual suggestiveness (actually, it’s more than suggested). The bad boys become badder.

Help (7/19/65):  Unusual opening and ending. The first introspective lyric in a Beatles hit.

Yesterday (9/13/65):  Whaa? Jaw dropping when it came out. Another first for The Beatles -  kids and the DJs agreed, never heard anything like it before - some liked it, some hated it. Hey, where’d John, George and Ringo go?

Get Off of My Cloud (9/25/65):  What’s Mick saying? What's it about? Doesn’t sound like a love (or even lust) song. It's all jumbled up but it's very cool and the Stones keep the momentum going from Satisfaction.

We Can Work It Out/Day Tripper (12/6/65):  The Beatles use unusual instrumentation (including a harmonium) and song structure and the lyrics sound like they start in the middle of a conversation. A beautifully constructed pop single. Day Tripper has another memorable riff and big use of British slang.

The count so far:

Beatles:  6 Singles all of which were #1 and 2 B side Top 5s.

Stones:   4 Singles, 2 #1 and 1 Top 10.