The British Invasion – Part 01
This book chronicles The Beatles’ rise to fame, as well as the general pop-cultures of both American and British musical groups.
“Rock ‘n’ roll had died in 1958, was resurrected in 1963 in Britain, and returned to the States in a different form. It had the same youthful energy and teen spirit, only this time it had a British accent. More than a revolution, this was an outright British invasion on America- headed by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.” The impact of both cultures on each other was fascinating to watch, and the veritable explosion of influence The Beatles had on American culture seemed to come out of nowhere. There were specific ingredients to their meteoric rise, however. This one event was the ‘rising tide’ that lifted many other artists and various aspects of culture.
“To survey the scene of The Beatles landing in America is to see a truly astounding spectacle. Looking back at these four barely intelligible, shaggy-haired musicians from Liverpool had on mighty popular culture of America compounds that astonishment. For five years from 1964 to 1969 the American pop, fashion, and film scenes were inundated and almost overpowered by British acts, designers, and actors. Pop acts who barely registered in the British charts in that time were scoring top 10 hits State-side. Time magazine, that international clarion of all things American, put Swinging London on its cover; Oscars went to a string of British actors, directors, and films.
Many theories have risen as to exactly what is was that triggered this phenomenon, which ultimately eclipsed the era of Elvis.
“This was astounding. But why and how did it happen? There have been several theories put forward, including the idea that the Beatles were cheering up a nation still in mourning for John F. Kennedy. Of course, it wasn’t as simple as that, even if there was a hint of truth in it. It is just as likely that, since American pop music and teen culture hadn’t progressed much since Elvis was drafted, a generation born too late to jive to Elvis eight years earlier wanted something that they could call their own. Frankie Avalon, Fabian, and Ricky Nelson were too clean-cut, too similar and bland to provoke the kind of hysterical reaction in teen girls (and some boys) created by the Fab Four. The Everly Brothers and Roy Orbison were fine enough, but they were fifties artists. The Beatles sounded newer, fresher, and more immediate. Their songs had a pace and passion that was missing in mainstream American pop music. Plus, there hadn’t been a band of four musicians who played their own instruments, wrote their own songs, and appeared to be democratic in their lineup so far in the history of rock-n-roll. Rock-n- roll had always been about the lead singer, even if there was a band behind him. The Crickets had to put Buddy Holly in front; the Blue Caps had to push Gene Vincent; and doo-wop was only ever about interchangeable vocal groups. The Beatles were Elvis to the power of four.” We endeavor to show students in our music school in Odessa, Texas the importance of passion in their music making.
The Beatles came from humble beginnings, and one could almost say that the difficulties facing Britain prior to their release upon the world was what gave them the structure, discipline and focus in their musical craft in preparation.
“To discover how the Beatles got to JFK airport on February 9, 1964, you have to go back in time to the end of WWII. In 1945 Britain was in a perilous condition. Schools and hospitals operated from Nissen huts and emergency prefabricated buildings designed for temporary accommodation (many of which were still in use 15 years later). Roads were potholed, bridges were closed. Almost four million houses had been destroyed by bombing and those that remained were often damaged and hastily patched up; cracks ran across ceilings, floors sloped alarmingly, wooden buttresses held up walls and there were weed-covered bomb sites everywhere. It was a time of shortages, with food and fuel rationed. The generation born in Britain during the war- which produced the Beatles, the Stones, Pink Floyd, and The Who among others- grew up in a drab, gray environment.”
The impact of America’s affluence had on Britain ended up becoming one of the motivating forces in their musical culture’s creativity.
“In the United States, things could not have been more different. The economy was booming and, by 1947, America had the world’s highest standard of living. The American influence in Britain during this time was significant- there were over 100 American military bases in the UK and servicemen were everywhere handing out chewing gum and comics. British comics were thin, black-and-white affairs, often reprints of American material but lacking the color; American comics had 52 pages of full color. There were Adventure Comics, Detective Comics, Superman, Batman, Little Lulu, Archie, Tales From the Crypt, bloodthirsty war comics, and horror comics. They carried ads for almost mythic products, not sold in Britain: Tootsie Rolls, Popsicles, Wrigley’s “Double Bubble” chewing gum, children’s bicycles with extra fat wheels and frames, hula hoops, and “BB” guns! (Brits didn’t know the latter were the same as the air rifles available in the UK.)
The musical styles of America were envied and sought after by British artists and provided them with the inspiration to branch out into new styles, predominantly emanating from the African-American influences. We teach students in our music school in Odessa, Texas the importance of the origins of Jazz, Blues, and R&B in the history of music, worldwide.
“For John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and all their British pals, May 1956 was a turning point in their lives. See You Later Alligator was still in the British pop charts (and the B.B.C. was actually playing it), when suddenly Elvis Presley burst on the scene with Heartbreak Hotel and changed everything. A week later he was joined by Carl Perkins singing his own composition Blue Suede Shoes: the week after that Elvis’ version also debuted on the charts. Elvis went to number 9 with Carl Perkins’ song, but Perkins’ original version was only one place lower in the charts (and it was his version that Lennon and McCartney went for).”
“In July, Frankie Lymon’s high falsetto trilling of Why Do Fools Fall in Love was also in the UK charts, and Gene Vincent’s Be Bop a Lula entered in August. The top 20 in Britain was at last beginning to look and sound good. All over Britain those teenagers at school who would make up the first wave of British bands to reach the States in the mid-sixties were absorbing this new music: the rock ‘n’ roll triplets, the chord changes, the harmonies and techniques. They examined photographs of their heroes, noting the makes and models of their guitars and amps, studying which chords they were playing, wondering how
they achieved those special effects, their echoes, and bent notes. They quickly sorted out the quality from the dross and rejected the cover versions to seek out the originals.”
The Brittish artists, however, rejected the ‘white’ watered-down integration of the African-American elements. They wanted the raw (and mostly overlooked in American culture) styles from America’s Black heritage.
“It was a matter of honor among the hip teens in Britain to never buy any recording by Pat Boone, who made white bread, emasculated covers of Little Richard, Fats Domino, and Chuck Berry. At the time, it seemed most of the music that really counted to those hip teens like Lennon, McCartney, Jagger, and Richards was by African-American artists: the ecstatic shrieks of Little Richard, the rolling piano of Fats Domino, the guitar virtuosity of Bo Diddley, the high falsetto of Frankie Lymon, and the celebratory
teen lyrics of Chuck Berry appealed most to them. In 1956 Elvis was the only white performer to carry equal weight among Brit hipsters since there was no denying the authenticity of his delivery or his vocal range. That year, as mentioned, he dominated the British charts, releasing seven singles in eight months, all with brilliant B-sides and all showing that real, hip-swinging, finger-clicking, down and dirty rock-n-roll could appeal to everyone.”
“It is impossible to overstate the influence of Chuck Berry on British rock-n-roll. The Beatles recorded Berry’s Rock and Roll Music on Beatles for Sale and Roll Over Beethoven on With the Beatles, and played many more of his songs during their numerous B.B.C. radio appearances at the time. The Stones debut single was their version of Berry’s Come On (with a B-side by Willie Dixon) and his songs also featured in the acts of most of the Liverpool bands as well as those of groups like the Animals over in Newcastle.”
This was a two-sided coin, however, as Chuck Berry was aiming his musical art toward the white audiences of the United States, bridging the cultural gap in the opposite direction. We hope to inspire students in our music school in Odessa, Texas to see the value of merging cultural expressions to create new unexplored creativity.
“Chuck Berry attributed much of his success to his clear diction, which was deliberately designed to appeal to the white market as well as American R&B fans. The car, girl, and high-school dramas of his songs were also more likely to ring true to a white high-school audience, and his songs were the first R&B numbers to cross over into the white charts- his first record, Maybellene, reached number 5 in the American charts in August 1955.”
The Rolling Stones were interested in the Black styles, leaning towards R&B, while The Beatles leaned more towards Rockabilly. These are styles we expose our students to, in our music school in Odessa, Texas.
“While the Stones showed a greater preference for R&B music of the late fifties, the Beatles mixed their R&B with rockabilly. When John Lennon first met Paul McCartney he was impressed by the fact that McCartney knew all the chords to Eddie Cochran’s Twenty Flight Rock (which he still performs in concert to this day). The group took its name-in part-from Buddy Holly’s Crickets, admired the slap bass sound of Gene Vincent, and imitated the high vocal harmonies of the Everly Brothers. Carl Perkins was a role model for George Harrison, and of all the Beatles Harrison was the one most drawn to rockabilly. He preferred that guitar sound over all others and in the late sixties actively disliked feedback and the psychedelic histrionics of Jimi Hendrix, provoking a number of arguments within the group at the time when it was felt that George was stuck in a rockabilly rut. Both George and Paul played Les Paul Gold Top guitars (among others), the model Perkins had used to record Blue Suede Shoes.
“In May 1964, R&B and rockabilly made a combined assault on Britain when Carl Perkins and Chuck Berry toured together, backed by the newly formed Newcastle band the Animals, whose lead singer was Eric Burdon. At a party thrown for Perkins on the last day of the tour the American ended up sitting on the floor, strumming his guitar, and telling stories about the old days to the assembled guests, which included the Beatles. Ringo Starr, sitting next to him, asked if he could record Honey Don’t for a new Beatles album. “Man,” replied Perkins, “Go ahead, have at it.” The Beatles also covered Perkins’ Matchbox, which was one of McCartney’s favorite songs, and Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby, which Perkins had adapted from a 1956 original by Rex Griffin.” Listening widely and performing works of others is an important lesson we try to instill in the students of our music school in Odessa, Texas.
Even though many British artists and groups were emerging, the question still stands as to what distinguished The Beatles from the rest. The answer probably lies in the depth of their preparation as young men in their mid-teens who were practicing and playing together for hours every day.
“Years of playing in Hamburg in tough late-night clubs in the red-light district meant that the Beatles knew how to please an audience. Their hundreds of performances in Liverpool, most of them at the Cavern, had given them a fan base and a distinct identity. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of groups in Liverpool and in order to stand out and shine you had to have original material. The Beatles were unique in that even in the early days they wrote some of their own material. However, most of their act came from obscure American R&B and show songs, often B-sides of records that no other groups in Liverpool had ever heard and therefore that no other group could copy. Add to this their musical ability, their obvious charm, and an almost perfect mix of personalities and you have the essential ingredients for an entertainment success of almost Disneyesque proportions.” It is undeniable that a high level of performance activity leads to greater skill, which is a concept we hope to instill in the students of our music school in Odessa, Texas.