What made all the white kids in England in the 60s get into Blues all of a sudden?

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We have discussed this elsewhere but I kind of want to talk about blues appreciation history as a whole. I don't really understand how popular it was in America to begin with? Did blues songs get played on the radio? In both the north and south? Was it a regional thing?

And then there's my original question, what made all those kids in England want to start blues influenced groups? And did actual black guys with guitars have any sort of resurrgance after the Yardbirds and the Who and every other group started talking them up?

― Period period period (Period period period), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 12:57 (nineteen years ago)

Lonnie Donegan

― Samuel KB Amphong (Dada), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 13:01 (nineteen years ago)

In other words, it was hardly "all of a sudden"

― Samuel KB Amphong (Dada), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 13:01 (nineteen years ago)

And did actual black guys with guitars have any sort of resurrgance after the Yardbirds and the Who and every other group started talking them up?

-- Period period period (my.name.is.david.alle...), May 23rd, 2006

yeah. plus: hendrix.

― Enrique IX: The Mediator (Enrique), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 13:13 (nineteen years ago)

Someone imported the records to sell in the shops?

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy (Kerr), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 13:14 (nineteen years ago)

At least here in prediminantly white Minneapolis, we didn't hear any BB King or T-Bone Walker on the radio. Chicago may have been somewhat different, but yeah, it was a regional thing. There are many stories of guys like Bob Dylan listening to Memphis radio late at night when the signals would travel much further. The early 60s was a time when many music heads were looking for something other than Fabian-type pop, and turned to folk and blues as being more "authentic." And yes, it did resuscitate the careers of many of the survivors, as they began to play concerts on college campuses.

― Daniel Peterson (polkaholic), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 13:14 (nineteen years ago)

How about before, in the 30s and 40s? Were those guys just playing club gigs?

― Period period period (Period period period), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 13:17 (nineteen years ago)

in the '40s yeah, in chicago.

― Enrique IX: The Mediator (Enrique), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 13:18 (nineteen years ago)

Did the blues have the same sort of folky, "this is REAL" appreciation by middle class white people in the 40s or did it take a few years for that to develop?

― Period period period (Period period period), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 13:22 (nineteen years ago)

I think most middle class whites in the 40s would have found it TOO raw, plus the records were mostly confined to "race music" labels, and live performances would have been in barrooms which were segregated, either officially or de facto. It took until the 60s, and the burgeoning civil rights movement, to bring it to a wider audience.

― Daniel Peterson (polkaholic), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 13:42 (nineteen years ago)

yeah i doubt it was on most whites' radar.

― Enrique IX: The Mediator (Enrique), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 13:52 (nineteen years ago)

The first US blues recording featuring all black musicians was "Crazy Blues" by Mamie Smith & Her Jazz Hounds. It sold nearly a million copies in 1920-21, kicking off the Jazz Age and alertering the nascent record industry to two intertwined phenomenons: the white audience's enthusiasm for black music and the existence of a market for black music among Afrian-Americans themselves.

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 14:01 (nineteen years ago)

The British Blues boom -- which started w/Alexis Kerner (sic)? -- can probably be sourced back to the English enthusiasm for Dixieland bands and swing as much as the folksier sound of skiffle?

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 14:06 (nineteen years ago)

Has anyone here seen those "American Folk Blues" DVDs that Hip-O put out? I would imagine that those European tours by Muddy Waters, Skip James etc. in the early 60s might have had something to do with the British blues boom too.

― Daniel Peterson (polkaholic), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 14:17 (nineteen years ago)

UK e.p. chart:

16 Howlin' Wolf Tell Me Oct 1964

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 14:18 (nineteen years ago)

hormones

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 14:20 (nineteen years ago)

yardbirds were sonny williamson's backing guys when he toured.

― Enrique IX: The Mediator (Enrique), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 14:21 (nineteen years ago)

The British Blues boom -- which started w/Alexis Kerner (sic)? -- can probably be sourced back to the English enthusiasm for Dixieland bands and swing as much as the folksier sound of skiffle?

I'll say it again folks - Lonnie Donegan. He was a member of Chris Barber's (trad jazz) band and, I think I'm right in saying, that his folk/blues (i.e. skiffle) bits were just a minor part of the Barber's stage show to begin with.

― Samuel KB Amphong (Dada), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 14:30 (nineteen years ago)

I think at least some of this might have to do with kids getting cheap electric guitars after seeing the likes of Hank Marvin, and then searching for something decent and wild sounding to play on them after that. These kids had grown up with skiffle and with rockabilly and both had roots in the blues.

And then there's another strand of folk blues enthusiasm that grew out of the folk club scene.

And yeah, Alexis Korner and guys like that out there plugging the music and nurturing young musicians.

(x-post, um, wot he said)

― NickB (NickB), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 14:37 (nineteen years ago)

King of the Delta Blues Singers came out in 1961. Wonder how well that sold that year?

― NickB (NickB), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 14:37 (nineteen years ago)

And then there's another strand of folk blues enthusiasm that grew out of the folk club scene.

e.g. Bukka White and Blind Lemon Jefferson songs on the first Bob Dylan album.

― NickB (NickB), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 14:49 (nineteen years ago)

I think it had to do with the fact that American rock was hardly very rock any more, and instead of seeking out old Elvis Presley records they would rather search the roots of Elvis' music.

Of course this was not "all the white kids in England". Most of them were rather very much aware that English music was about to become exiting on its own, based on a combination of R&B and traditional English/European songwriting style.
Thus, The Beatles outsold Rolling Stones and The Animals.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 17:04 (nineteen years ago)

europeans be having american penis envy

― FLOWING STRAIGHT FROM THE SURVIVAL SCROLL (vahid), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 17:07 (nineteen years ago)

It also had a lot to do with American Armed Forces Radio playing American music across a relatively small country. The Blues probably slotted into a whole continuum of American music like Doo Wop, R&B and Rockabilly.

NickB seems pretty otm re cheap guitars.

― Disco Nihilist (mjt), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 17:13 (nineteen years ago)

I dunno if I see much connection between the UK's trad-jazz enthusiasm and, say, Howlin' Wolf.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 21:21 (nineteen years ago)

Cool. Kids like Brian Jones lived for cool. Guys like Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley had hits and toured England and were cooler than Elvis (c'mon, a G.I.?). And there were probably record store guys who turned Brian and his pals on to Chicago blues. Plus, there were several blues acts who were popular with the folkies, although they had to play acoustic. All that being said, the Stones were the first popular band to hit it big with R&B, and they themselves had a huge influence.

― Frank Price, Wednesday, 24 May 2006 16:55 (nineteen years ago)

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