Brits Beyond The Beatles & Stones 4

Captain Fantastic’s Brown Dirt Cowboy

Post author:Dana Spiardi
Post category:Brits Beyond The Beatles & Stones Writers on the Storm: Books, Authors, Poets
Post comments:2 Comments
Post published:May 22, 2015

Images of the old American West and scenes of Southern country life have inspired countless British rock recordings through the years, none more so than the early albums of Elton John. And no wonder. His lyricist Bernie Taupin was in love with romantic visions of Americana…scenes of cornfields and cattle towns, frisky colts and fringed-front buggies, field bosses and chain gangs, Geronimo and gunslingers. All of Elton's songs began in the mind of Bernie, who turns 64 today. He wrote the lyrics that the pianist-showman set to music - creating vivid sound portraits of days gone by.

Tony Sheridan and His Pre-Fab Beat Brothers

Post author:Dana Spiardi
Post category:Beatles Brits Beyond The Beatles & Stones
Post comments:1 Comment
Post published:May 21, 2015

In the early 1970s I was rounding out my collection of Beatles LPs, when I stumbled upon one called "The Beatles Featuring Tony Sheridan - In the Beginning, Circa 1960." I considered this a real find! I hadn't been aware of any pre-1963 Beatles recordings, and I had never known the boys to collaborate on vinyl with anyone. Who the heck was Tony Sheridan? Well, if you're a follower of Fab Four history, don't miss this chapter on one of The Beatles' early, influential mentors, who was born on this date in 1940.

Hey, Pete: So Glad You Didn’t F-F-Fade Away

Post author:Dana Spiardi
Post category:Brits Beyond The Beatles & Stones
Post comments:1 Comment
Post published:May 19, 2015

"Pete Townshend's suicide note" is how music critic Roy Carr once described The Who's October 1975 release "The Who By Numbers." The band's founder, songwriter and lead guitarist bared his tortured soul on this LP like no other. Yer blogger bought the record at the height of her teenage existential crisis...and needless to say, she loved it.

Remembering Alexis Korner, Founding Father of British Blues

Post author:Dana Spiardi
Post category:Brits Beyond The Beatles & Stones Guitarists: The Axemen Cometh Rhythm & Blues & Soul & Funk
Post comments:3 Comments
Post published:April 19, 2015

In the early 1960s, in a foggy land far from the steamy Mississippi Delta, there lived a small band of missionaries who spread the gospel of American blues music to British artists seeking spiritual enlightenment beyond the pulpit of mindless pop and traditional jazz. Alexis Korner, born on this date in 1928, was among those prophets. He formed England's first amplified R&B/blues band, Blues Incorporated, with fellow musician Cyril Davies in 1961. Band members included now legendary performers such as drummer Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones, keyboardist Graham Bond, singer Long John Baldry, and singer/guitarist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker of Cream.

And Your Liverbirds Can Sing: The Electric Girls Known as The Female Beatles

Post author:Dana Spiardi
Post category:Brits Beyond The Beatles & Stones Eclectic Ladyland
Post comments:3 Comments
Post published:March 13, 2015

"Girls with guitars? That'll never work," John Lennon was rumored to have once said. Little did he know that four fab femmes had been wielding electric guitars in his very own hometown of Liverpool, several years before he and his fellow Beatles took over the world. They named themselves The Liverbirds, for the fictitious Liver Bird that has long symbolized the seaport city, and went on to help define the emerging "Mersey Beat" that would make Liverpool an early rock-n-roll mecca.