Oh Be Cruel!

“I bumped into George Harrison in Abbey Road studios and he told me how much he loved the single. ‘Take my advice,’ he said, ‘forget about being an instrumental group and follow up on the vocals.’  We didn’t. We were idiots. Nice boys, but idiots.”
-Hank Marvin, The Shadows

Click the grey box above to listen to The Shadows perform “Apache” in their seminal early 1960s music video. While the song was actually written songwriter Jerry Lordan, it was the Apache’s who brought a distinctive sound and guitar playing that turned the song into a masterpiece. George Harrison, Neil Young, Tony Iommi (Black Sabbarth), Randy Bachman (The Guess Who), Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits), David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) and Eric Clapton have all cited The Shadows as a key step in rock ‘n roll guitar history.

“People have learned how to strum a guitar, but they don’t have the soul. They don’t feel it from the heart. It hurts me. I’m killin’ myself to tell them how it is.”

-Lightnin’ Hopkins

Click the grey boxes above to watch the original Texas country blues man Lightnin’ Hopkins lay down a full session of down home dusty blues in the mid-1960s. While you wouldn’t be able to tell from a quick watch of the videos above, most of Lightnin’s lyrical work was improvised from life experience. His guitar work was another matter - his quick fingers made the toughest riffs look like a piece of cake and his style made his solo work sound like he had a full backing band. Lightnin’s life was as colourful as his music - he went from serving time in a country prison farm and playing back alley gin shops in the ’30s to touring Europe and being the subject of films in the ’60s and ’70s. However, to the end of his life in ‘81, Lightnin’ was still a ‘look you in the eye’ type of fella’ - he demanded his money up front and square. Beyond his music, why should we thank Lightnin’? The man influenced Jimmy Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, the Grateful Dead, Erykah Badu and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

“A fellow named Jody Rich, an ex-marine and taskmaster was originally the leader of the group. We recruited a young Hispanic fellow, stage name Benny King, on drums, plus Tony Valentino and myself. Our first gig was in Hawaii for three months. Jody, who was married at the time, was jealous of the younger band members scoring on all the babes. He became an absolute tyrant, setting a curfew, demanding spit-shined shoes, and freshly ironed clothes. Benny was the first to drop out. He went back home to his mother. Tony and I openly rebelled and Jody fired us…wait a minute…he didn’t have a band left. We re-formed and fired him.”
-Larry Tamblyn on the Standells’ early days

Click the box above to watch the Standells’ play “Dirty Water” and “There’s a Storm Comin’ ” on the Mike Douglas Show in 1966 - a rare performance of theirs without then-mandatory lip-synching. The Standells were a band of misfits from various backgrounds, but they managed to put together an early garage punk sound that would later be covered by hardcore legends Minor Threat (“Good Guys Don’t Wear White”). While “Dirty Water” brought the band a ton of success, members admit that they have always thought the song was a dud.

“The Kinks were … quintessentially English. I always think that Ray Davies should one day be poet laureate. He invented a new kind of poetry and a new kind of language for pop writing that influenced me from the very, very, very beginning.”
-Pete Townshend of The Who

“I started to get really frustrated [with the amp’s sound], and I said, ‘I know! I’ll fix you!’ I got a single-sided Gillette razorblade and cut the cone … so it was all shredded but still on there, still intact. I played and I thought it was amazing”
-Dave Davies on how he created The Kink’s signature sound

Click on the box above to listen to the Kink’s play their 1964 hit “You Really Got Me”. The Kinks were innovators and were without a doubt proto-punk pioneers who wrote songs that inspired the likes of the Beatles, the Clash, the Ramones, Oasis and Blur. Their three-chord style, working class lyrics and dirty guitar amps led a musical revolution within rock n’ roll that stripped away at boring conventions that had begun to limit innovation. Even their stage shows were out of control - one featured their drummer purposely slicing another member’s head with a hi-hat out of spite leading to 16 stitches. The result? A four year ban from America and infamy that turned the Kinks into legends.

“His music was incredibly dynamic, louder and more sophisticated….the energy between The Del-Tones and all of those surfers stomping on the hardwood floor in their sandals was extremely intense. The tone of Dale’s guitar was bigger than any I had ever heard, and his blazing technique was something to behold.”
-Paul Johnson of the Bel-Airs on Dick Dale.

Click the box above to watch the King of Surf Rock Dick Dale play an adapted version of his breakout hit “Misirlou” with the introductory vocals of “Beach Party” in 1963 on the Ed Sullivan show. Dick Dale birthed surf rock in the early ’60s when his solo guitar playing attracted thousands to ‘ballroom stomps’ that nearly led to riots. While his distinct guitar playing style and use of reverb create a “wet” sound which evoked the surfing spirit, Dale took much of his musical inspiration from his Middle Eastern heritage. The King of Surf Rock has in turn inspired a generation of artists, including Jimi Hendrix, The Beach Boys and the Trashmen.

“I don’t play a lot of fancy guitar. I don’t want to play it. The kind of guitar I want to play is mean, mean licks.”

- John Lee Hooker

The Boogie Man, the Hook, the King of the Boogie, and the Crawlin’ Kingsnake John Lee Hooker delivering his original hit “Boom Boom” in 1964, one of the most covered early rock n’ roll songs. While Hooker was a legend that inspired artists from Led Zeppelin to Tom Jones, he almost never picked up a guitar. His father was a preacher and banned Hooker from playing the blues which he considered “the devil’s music”. Bob Dylan should be thankful that the John Lee turned to Lucifer’s ways, because the blues man gave a young Dylan his first big break at a jazz fest in New York in 1961. 

“It’s where the pyramid meets the eye, man.”
-Roky Erickson, of the 13th Floor Elevators, describing his music. 

“When the real book on American music gets written, he’s [Roky] going to be one of those Mount Rushmore Faces. Guys like Roky make music that amazing place to go. Coltrane and Miles and Hendrix were able to do this. It becomes more than the music and more than the lyrics, a total environment.”
-Henry Rollins 

Enjoy a restored, edited, and mastered live performance of the 13th Floor Elevators singing their hit “You’re Gonna Miss Me”. One of the first psychedelic bands and definitive fore bearers of punk rock, 13th Floor Elevators were ultimate musical converts to LSD. In fact, the band nearly always played high. While LSD undoubtedly inspired band leader Roky Erickson’s trailblazing vocal and guitar style, it also tore the band apart and got Roky committed to a gruesome mental institution. Listen closely and you’ll hear why R.E.M., ZZ Top, Primal Scream, Johnny Depp, and Henry Rollins worship this forgotten band. 

“With Roy, you didn’t know if you were listening to mariachi or opera. He kept you on your toes. With him, it was all about fat and blood. He sounded like he was singing from an Olympian mountaintop. [After “Ooby Dooby”] (h)e was now singing his compositions in three or four octaves that made you want to drive your car over a cliff. He sang like a professional criminal … [H]is voice could jar a corpse, always leave you muttering to yourself something like, ‘Man, I don’t believe it’.”
-Bob Dylan on Roy Orbison

“Everybody knows that nobody sings like Roy Orbison.”
-Bruce Springsteen

“….the greatest singer in the world”
-Elvis on Roy Orbison

The Big O, The Voice, Roy Orbison performing ‘Crying’ on his television special in 1965. This performance was shot during Roy’s first taste of fame in the early 60s and then again in the 1980s. While many early male rock and roll performers preferred an alpha male swagger, Roy opted for a quiet, vulnerable and passionate intensity.

I taught them everything they know, but not everything I know.
-James Brown

James Brown singing “Please, Please, Please” and “Night Train” at one of his most legendary performances on the TAMI Show on October 28, 1964.