History of British Blues
Articles and Essays
'British Blues' - from Wikipedia
(with additional photographs and links to interviews)
British blues is a form of music derived from American blues that
originated in the late 1950s and which reached its height of
mainstream popularity in the 1960s, when it developed a distinctive
and influential style dominated by electric guitar and made
international stars of several proponents of the genre including The
Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Fleetwood Mac and Led Zeppelin.
Origins
American blues became known in Britain from the 1930s onwards
through a number of routes, including records brought to Britain,
particularly by African-American GIs stationed there in the Second
World War and Cold War, merchant seamen visiting ports such as
London, Liverpool, Newcastle upon Tyne and Belfast, and through a
trickle of (illegal) imports. Blues music was relatively well known
to British jazz musicians and fans, particularly in the works of
figures like female singers Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith and the
blues-influenced boogie-woogie of Jelly Roll Morton and Fats Waller.
From 1955 major British record labels HMV and EMI, the latter,
particularly through their subsidiary Decca Records, began to
distribute American jazz and increasingly blues records to what was
an emerging market. Many encountered blues for the first time
through the skiffle craze of the second half of the 1950s,
particularly the songs of Lead Belly covered by acts like Lonnie
Donegan. As skiffle began to decline in the late 1950s, and British
rock and roll began to dominate the charts, a number of skiffle
musicians moved towards playing purely blues music.
Among these were guitarist and blues harpist Cyril Davies, who ran
the London Skiffle Club at the Roundhouse public house in London's
Soho, and guitarist Alexis Korner, both of whom worked for jazz band
leader Chris Barber, playing in the R&B segment he introduced to his
show. The club served as a focal point for British skiffle acts and
Barber was responsible for bringing over American folk and blues
performers, who found they were much better known and paid in Europe
than America. The first major artist was Big Bill Broonzy, who
visited England in the mid-1950s, but who, rather than his electric
Chicago blues, played a folk blues set to fit in with British
expectations of American blues as a form of folk music. In 1957
Davies and Korner decided that their central interest was the blues
and closed the skiffle club, reopening a month later as The London
Blues and Barrelhouse Club. To this point British blues was
acoustically played emulating Delta blues and country blues styles
and often part of the emerging second British folk revival. Critical
in changing this was the visit of Muddy Waters in 1958, who
initially shocked British audiences by playing amplified electric
blues, but who was soon playing to ecstatic crowds and rave reviews.
Davies and Korner, having already split with Barber, now plugged in
and began to play high powered electric blues that became the model
for the subgenre, forming the band Blues Incorporated.
Blues
Incorporated became something of a clearing house for British blues
musicians in the later 1950s and early 1960s, with many joining, or
sitting in on sessions. These included future Rolling Stones, Keith
Richards, Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts and Brian Jones; as well as
Cream founders Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker; beside Graham Bond and
Long John Baldry. Blues Incorporated were given a residency at the
Marquee Club and it was from there that in 1962 they took the name
of the first British Blues album, R&B from the Marquee for
Decca, but split before its release. The culmination of this first
movement of blues came with John Mayall, who moved to London in the
early 1960s, eventually forming the Bluesbreakers, whose members at
various times included, Jack Bruce, Aynsley Dunbar, Eric Clapton,
Peter Green and
Mick Taylor.
British Rhythm and Blues
While some bands focused on blues artists, particularly those of
Chicago electric blues, others adopted a wider interest in rhythm
and blues, including the work of Chess Records' blues artists like
Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, but also rock and roll pioneers Chuck
Berry and Bo Diddley. Most successful were the Rolling Stones, who
abandoned blues purism before their line-up solidified and they
produced their first eponymously titled album in 1964, which largely
consisted of rhythm and blues standards. Following in the wake of
the Beatles' national and then international success, the Rolling
Stones soon established themselves as the second most popular UK
band and joined the British Invasion of the American record charts
as leaders of a second wave of R&B orientated bands. In addition to
Chicago blues numbers, the Rolling Stones also covered songs by
Chuck Berry and Bobby and Shirley Womack, with the latter's "It's
All Over Now", giving them their first UK number one in 1964. Blues
songs and influences continued to surface in the Rolling Stones'
music, as in their version of Willie Dixon’s "Little Red Rooster"
went to number 1 on the UK singles chart in December 1964.
Other London-based bands included the Yardbirds (who would number
their ranks three key guitarists Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy
Page), the Kinks (with the pioneer songwriter Ray Davies and
rock-guitarist Dave Davies), and Manfred Mann (considered to have
one of the most authentic sounding vocalists in the scene in Paul
Jones) and the Pretty Things, beside the more jazz-influenced acts
like the Graham Bond Organisation, Georgie Fame and Zoot Money.
Bands to emerge from other major British cities included The Animals
from Newcastle (with the keyboards of Alan Price and vocals of Eric
Burdon), The Moody Blues and Spencer Davis Group from Birmingham
(the latter largely a vehicle for the young Steve Winwood), and Them
from Belfast (with their vocalist Van Morrison). None of these bands
played exclusively rhythm and blues, often relying on a variety of
sources, including Brill Building and girl group songs for their hit
singles, but it remained at the core of their early albums.
The British Mod subculture was musically centred on rhythm and blues
and later soul music, performed by artists that were not available
in small London clubs around which the scene was based. As a result,
a number of mod bands emerged to fill this gap. These included The
Small Faces, The Creation, The Action and most successfully The Who.
The Who's early promotional material tagged them as producing
"maximum rhythm and blues", but by about 1966 they moved from
attempting to emulate American R&B to producing songs that reflected
the Mod lifestyle. Many of these bands were able to enjoy cult and
then national success in the UK, but found it difficult to break
into the American market. Only the Who managed, after some
difficulty, to produce a significant US following, particularly
after their appearances at the Monterey Pop Festival (1967) and
Woodstock (1969).
Because of the very different circumstances from which they came,
and in which they played, the rhythm and blues these bands produced
was very different in tone from that of African American artists,
often with more emphasis on guitars and sometimes with greater
energy. They have been criticised for exploiting the massive
catalogue of African American music, but it has also been noted that
they both popularised that music, bringing it to British, world and
in some cases American audiences, and helping to build the
reputation of existing and past rhythm and blues artists. Most of
these bands rapidly moved on from recording and performing American
standards to writing and recording their own music, often leaving
their R&B roots behind, but enabling several to enjoy sustained
careers that were not open to most of the more pop-oriented beat
groups of the first wave of the invasion, who (with the major
exception of the Beatles) were unable to write their own material or
adapt to changes in the musical climate.
The British Blues Boom
The blues boom overlapped, both chronologically and in terms of
personnel, with the earlier, wider rhythm and blues phase, which had
begun to peter out in the mid-1960s leaving a nucleus of
instrumentalists with a wide knowledge of blues forms and
techniques, which they would carry into the pursuit of more purist
blues interests. Blues Incorporated and Mayall's Bluesbreakers were
well known in the London Jazz and emerging R&B circuits, but the
Bluesbreakers began to gain some national and international
attention, particularly after the release of Blues Breakers with
Eric Clapton album (1966), considered one of the seminal British
blues recordings. Produced by Mike Vernon, who later set up the Blue
Horizon record label, it was notable for its driving rhythms and
Clapton's rapid blues licks with a full distorted sound derived from
a Gibson Les Paul and a Marshall amp. This sound became something of
a classic combination for British blues (and later rock) guitarists,
and also made clear the primacy of the guitar, seen as a distinctive
characteristic of the subgenre. Clapton stated, "I spent most of my
teens and early twenties studying the blues - the geography of it
and the chronology of it, as well as how to play it". Peter Green
started what is called "second great epoch of British blues", as he
replaced Clapton in the Bluesbreakers after his departure to form
Cream. In 1967, after one record with the Bluesbreakers, Green, with
the Bluesbreaker's rhythm section Mick Fleetwood and John McVie,
formed Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, produced by Mike Vernon on the
Blue Horizon label. One key factor in developing the popularity of
the music in the UK and across Europe in the early 1960s was the
success of the American Folk Blues Festival tours, organised by
German promoters Horst Lippmann and Fritz Rau.
The rise of electric blues, and its eventual mainstream success,
meant that British acoustic blues was completely overshadowed. In
the early 1960s, folk guitar pioneers Bert Jansch, John Renbourn and
particularly Davy Graham (who played and recorded with Korner),
played blues, folk and jazz, developing a distinctive guitar style
known as folk baroque. British acoustic blues continued to develop
as part of the folk scene, with figures like Ian A. Anderson and his
Country Blues Band, and Al Jones. Most British acoustic blues
players could achieve little commercial success and, with a few
exceptions, found it difficult to gain any recognition for their
"imitations" of the blues in the US.
In contrast, the next wave of bands, formed from about 1967, like
Cream, Fleetwood Mac, Ten Years After and Free, pursued a different
route, retaining blues standards in their repertoire and producing
original material that often shied away from obvious pop influences,
placing an emphasis on individual virtuosity. The result has been
characterised as blues rock and arguably marked the beginnings of a
separation of pop and rock music that was to be a feature of the
record industry for several decades. Cream, is often seen as the
first supergroup, combining the talents of Clapton, Bruce and Baker,
they have also been seen as the first groups to exploit the power
trio. Although only together for a little over two years, from
1966–69, they were highly influential and it was in this period that
Clapton became an international superstar. Fleetwood Mac are often
considered to have produced some of the finest work in the subgenre,
with inventive interpretations of Chicago Blues. They were also the
most commercially successful group, with their eponymous début album
reaching the UK top five in early 1968 and as the instrumental
"Albatross" reached number one in the single charts in early 1969.
This was, as Scott Schinder and Andy Schwartz put it, "The
commercial apex of the British blues Boom". Free, with the guitar
talents of Paul Kossoff, particularly from their self-titled second
album (1969), produced a stripped down form of blues that would be
highly influential on hard rock and later heavy metal. Ten Years
After, with guitarist Alvin Lee, formed in 1967, but achieved their
breakthrough in 1968 with their live album Undead and in the US with
their appearance at Woodstock the next year. Among the last British
blues bands to gain mainstream success were Jethro Tull, formed from
the amalgamation of two blues bands, the John Evan Band and the
Mcgregor's Engine in 1967, their second album Stand UP, reached
number one in the UK in 1969.
Decline
British blues entered a rapid decline at the end of 1960s. Surviving
bands and musicians tended to move into other expanding areas of
rock music. Some, like Jethro Tull, followed bands like the Moody
Blues away from 12-bar structures and harmonicas into complex,
classical-influenced progressive rock. Some played a loud version of
blues rock that became the foundation for hard rock and heavy metal.
Led Zeppelin, formed by Yardbirds guitarist Jimmy Page, on their
first two albums, both released in 1969, fused heavy blues and
amplified rock to create what has been seen as a watershed in the
development of hard rock and nascent heavy metal. Later recordings
would mix in elements of folk and mysticism, which would also be a
major influence on heavy metal music. Deep Purple developed a sound
based on "squeezing and stretching" the blues, and achieved their
commercial breakthrough with their fourth and distinctively heavier
album, In Rock (1970), which has been seen as one of heavy metal's
defining albums. Black Sabbath was the third incarnation of a group
that started as the Polka Truck Blues Band in 1968. Their early work
included blues standards, but by the time of their second album
Paranoid (1970), they had added elements of modality and the occult
that would largely define modern heavy metal. Some, like Korner and
Mayall, continued to play a "pure" form of the blues, but largely
outside of mainstream notice. The structure of clubs, venues and
festivals that had grown up in the early 1950s in Britain virtually
disappeared in the 1970s.
Survival and resurgence
Although overshadowed by the growth of rock music the blues did not
disappear in Britain, with American bluesmen like John Lee Hooker,
Eddie Taylor, and Freddie King continuing to be well received in the
UK and an active home scene led by figures including
Dave Kelly
and
his sister Jo Ann Kelly, who helped keep the acoustic blues alive on
the British folk circuit. Dave Kelly was also a founder of The Blues
Band with former Manfred Mann members Paul Jones and Tom McGuinness,
Hughie Flint and
Gary Fletcher. The Blues Band was credited with
kicking off a second blues boom in Britain, which by the 90s led to
festivals all around the country, including The Swanage Blues
Festival, The Burnley National Blues Festival, The Gloucester Blues
and Heritage Festival and The Great British Rhythm and Blues
Festival at Colne. The twenty-first century has seen an upsurge in
interest in the blues in Britain that can be seen in the success of
previously unknown acts like Seasick Steve, in the return to the
blues by major figures who began in the first boom, including Peter
Green, Mick Fleetwood, Chris Rea and Eric Clapton, as well as the
arrival of younger artists like
Matt Schofield and
Aynsley Lister.
Significance
Besides giving a start to many important blues, pop and rock
musicians, in spawning blues rock, British blues also ultimately
gave rise to a host of subgenres of rock, including particularly
psychedelic rock, progressive rock, hard rock and ultimately heavy
metal. Perhaps the most important contribution of British blues was
the surprising re-exportation of American blues back to America,
where, in the wake of the success of bands like the Rolling Stones
and Fleetwood Mac, white audiences began to look again at black
blues musicians like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and John Lee Hooker,
who suddenly began to appeal to middle class white Americans. The
result was a re-evaluation of the blues in America which enabled
white Americans much more easily to become blues musicians, opening
the door to Southern rock and the development of Texas blues
musicians like Stevie Ray Vaughan.
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Notes
1. Wikipedia article reproduced here for educational use only,
augmented with photographs and links to 'Earlyblues' interviews by Alan White
2. Source: www.wikipedia.org -
used under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution
Share-Alike license (CC-BY-SA);
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