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Stage Presence is Everything
- Thread starter whatever4
- Start date
Well, the Beatles inspired these guys, or at least created the chance for their shot at 15 minutes of fame, and let’s face it, there’s a few very early Fabs songs that were on this level. Freddie and company appealed to 10/11 year old girls, while The Beatles had a more worldly 13 on up following. For every Freddie, Gerry, and Billy J., you still had a Yardbirds, Who, and Pretty Things to move music along. Not to mention Mick and the boys; can you imagine a father hearing “I’m a king bee, baby, let me come inside your hive” blasting from a daughter’s record player?
You know, after I posted this, I thought I should have revised it to "Thank godless the Beatles started smoking pot in 1965." I meant it more about the substance - I agree, early Beatles, conceptually, wasn't all that different from this stuff.
Yeah, the Yardbirds and the Stones weren't twee bubble gum, but conceptually, they were more or less R&B/blues bands at that point, which lyrically, good as it often is, still isn't exactly hefty in the substance part of the lyrics, and it's not going to have a certain level of melodic/harmonic complexity, due to the somewhat limiting expectations of those genres. I think the Beatles just took that into a realm, lyrically, that wouldn't have fit too well in the blues/RB paradigm, and the changes harmonically and melodically in their music at that time, reflected that as well.
I was wondering when someone was gonna call me out on this!
What, you’ve never heard Cliff Gallup with Gene Vincent...
Even Cliff’s replacement was no slouch...
Then there’s Eddie, influence on everybody from Zeppelin to the Sex Pistols...
You want moves, and chops?
The Yardbirds, once Beck was in the band, started inventing the future, and even though it was a number of months later in ‘66, bookended that year with a sound that hadn’t been heard before, and certainly wasn’t same old I-IV-V....You know, after I posted this, I thought I should have revised it to "Thank godless the Beatles started smoking pot in 1965." I meant it more about the substance - I agree, early Beatles, conceptually, wasn't all that different from this stuff.
Yeah, the Yardbirds and the Stones weren't twee bubble gum, but conceptually, they were more or less R&B/blues bands at that point, which lyrically, good as it often is, still isn't exactly hefty in the substance part of the lyrics, and it's not going to have a certain level of melodic/harmonic complexity, due to the somewhat limiting expectations of those genres. I think the Beatles just took that into a realm, lyrically, that wouldn't have fit too well in the blues/RB paradigm, and the changes harmonically and melodically in their music at that time, reflected that as well.
I was wondering when someone was gonna call me out on this!
Def. know Cochran, I cut my teeth on that as a kid when I went through my rockabilly phase, didn't know about most of the others, though. Did know Vincent. Thanks!
I think I just generally don't associate this era of mainstream rock as being more than rudimentary in the chops department. That drummer in the original video is clearly a jazzer, and the other guys ain't slouches, either.
Last edited:
- Apr 11, 2019
- 340
- 381
- Disclosures
- Lincoln Learning Solutions - Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center
Eddie could shake the strings quite well, but for some reason chose not to show it too often...
While Brian Setzer adopted Eddie’s guitar, look, and vocals, his guitar playing is all Gallup; with all due respect to Scotty Moore(and it can be traced back to Merle Travis, and to a lesser extent, Chet Atkins), Cliff invented the classic Gretsch Rockabilly style...
...and while not technically Rock’n’Roll, Mr. Polsfuss was more than just a name on a guitar, and could, indeed, rock...
More 50’s chops, courtesy James Burton(with Joe Osborn on bass)...
Now, with this criminally overlooked outfit, the instrumentalists are not the primary dancers, but the singers, what moves!
