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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | "Jaimie Vernon" <bullseyecanada@hotmail.com> |
| Subject | Re: Fabs vs Floyd |
| Date | Tue, 27 Feb 2007 16:52:14 -0500 |
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I gotta side with the parallel bands theory....but rather than just band A
and band B setting the tone for generations, I believe there are a number of
acts (post-Elvis) who served up musical branches that were NOT Beatle
spawned. The obvious would be the Who and The Stones who, though competitive
at times were wholly exclusive animals forging their own sounds....just
listen to the catalogues of both....you know a record by The Who is
different than a record by The Stones and neither sound like records by The
Beatles except in atmosphere or fad of the day. And each of the three of
those acts had their steadfast supporters (many times to the exclusion of
the other two).
Similarly, I can't imagine that Black Sabbath or Zeppelin were keeping track
of where "The Ballad of John & Yoko" was on the charts. And both acts have
serious post-1970 recordings that launched garage bands for ANOTHER
generation of kids.
I'm not saying these acts are more influential than the Beatles, but who
would have thought that the Velvet Underground would have been name-checked
by half the alternative rock scene in the 1980s and NOT the Fabs?
To that end, I believe Pink Floyd and The Grateful Dead spawned more acid
soaked basement and experimental musical exploration than anything offered
up by the Fab Four (except for some moments on "Sgt. Pepper" and the song
"Strawberry Fields" itself).
"The Wall" owes nothing to The Beatles. It was produced by Bob Ezrin. It
SOUNDS like Bob Ezrin. Ezrin was a student of Jack Richardson...the man who
single-handedly created The Guess Who's sound. The Guess Who stopped being a
British Invasion sound-alike the minute Cummings walked into Richardson's
Nimbus 9 facility in 1969. He ended the imitation and instead brought out
the Cummings/Bachman prairie inflicted R & B, soul, country and jazz vibe
amalgam dating back to the dustbowl in the '20s. And not a Beatle among
those sounds. Cummings' biggest influence was '50s rock and roll. Bachman's
was jazz guitarist Lenny Breau. Ezrin, a quick study of Richardson's, was
given a dose of Richardson's BIG BAND experience (having been a bass player
in the Billy O'Connor Big Band in the 1950's and 1960's). Ezrin learned well
and used his orchestration and arrangement skills to mold albums like Alice
Cooper's "Welcome To My Nightmare", Lou Reed's "Berlin", KISS's "Destroyer"
and "The Wall" into operatic conceptual pieces. You'd be hard pressed to
find a "yeah, yeah, yeah" or mellotron on any of them.
Oh, and Dylan owes part of his career to Conway Twitty. Gary Gold is better
at connecting the dots, but suffice it to say that Alabama-born Ronnie
Hawkins, and NOT Dylan, played the biggest role in the Americana music
movement (thanks to a push from Twitty).
Jaimie Vernon,
Bullseye
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