tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post4665993423285066548..comments2024-02-06T16:17:25.826+00:00Comments on THE GRØNMARK BLOG: The definitive Top 20 early British rock'n'roll tracksScott Gronmarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15118026157459333174noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-24256605769707746452018-03-08T19:10:18.077+00:002018-03-08T19:10:18.077+00:00Good points, Ex-KCS. I think it was Cliff Richard ...Good points, Ex-KCS. I think it was Cliff Richard who bought Hank Marvin's Strat for him - and Marvin was a bit disappointed because he thought he was getting a Tele (like James Burton's). The story makes one realise just how disadvantaged British musicians were when it came to the instruments and innovations the Americans had at their disposal - I suspect a British guitarist would have passed out if anyone had stuck a Gibson E-295 plugged into a Ray Butts EchoSonic amplifier into their hands any time before 1960 - that was Scotty Moor'e set-up from mid-1955 onwards. (Mind you, a lot of American musicians were in the same boat - I was amused by James Burton's tale of painstakingly mastering Scotty Moore's style by playing every note twice, because he had no idea that the second notes were created by an echo device!)<br /><br />Having said all that, I wonder if, had the Brits had all those advantages earlier, there would have been the explosion of bands in the early '60s, and whether the British would have turned out to be quite so brilliant at producing rootsy pop. <br /><br />Scott Gronmarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15118026157459333174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-17635159444862996402018-03-08T18:44:34.121+00:002018-03-08T18:44:34.121+00:00I tried to find something suitable by Joe Brown, b...I tried to find something suitable by Joe Brown, because he seems to have been the earliest exponent of genuine rock'n'roll guitar (he learned a lot from Eddie Cochran when they were on tour together) - but I thought his hit singles, while perfectly decent, were just too far removed from rock'n'roll.<br /><br />As for Adam Faith, just...NO! There are Hollyish elements in his records, but they're just so gutless. Scott Gronmarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15118026157459333174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-74433622478803152002018-03-07T08:16:44.607+00:002018-03-07T08:16:44.607+00:00You've highlighted one of the reasons for the ...You've highlighted one of the reasons for the dire state of British rock and roll during that period. While the US was producing some of the greatest electric guitars and amplifiers ever made - an original 1959 Les Paul Sunburst will probably cost you about £600,000 now - and was developing the studio equipment to make them sound good on record, nothing like the same quality was being produced here. The better the instrument, the easier it was for US musicians to develop techniques beyond the capabilities of most British musicians, as anyone who has ever played a British guitar from that period will know. Hank Marvin had one of the first Stratocasters in this country in 1959 which you can probably hear on FBI. The rest were struggling with lumps of wood and strings which tore your fingers to shreds.<br /><br />With high taxes on imported records, as well as a policy by the Musicians Union that made it very difficult for US acts to come to the UK, it is no wonder that our own music failed to match US standards. As you say, skiffle was an inventive way for young British rockers to make music on the cheap - that's how the Beatles started - and led indirectly to the great flowering of British beat music in the 60s.Ex-KCSnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-9182343168013634552018-03-06T10:31:34.211+00:002018-03-06T10:31:34.211+00:00Barren soil with the exception of most of the abov...Barren soil with the exception of most of the above. southern mannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-57414693586695117762018-03-06T01:26:55.467+00:002018-03-06T01:26:55.467+00:00Jo Brown and the Bruvvers might squeeze in with &q...Jo Brown and the Bruvvers might squeeze in with "Picture of You" in May 1962,and at a stretch Adam Faith's "Poor Me" because of the debt it owes to Buddy Holly (anything even remotely connected to the shy young man from Lubbock Texas is good enough for me.)<br />Both are more pop than rock so what an earth happened. I know countless books and articles have been written on the subject of the British Invasion but it still astonishes me how at least half a dozen and counting, world class groups could arise so quickly out of such barren soil. southern mannoreply@blogger.com